Debate about a new Facebook.com social advertising feature has made national headlines.
A new advertising feature on Facebook reveals information about users’ online purchases made outside of the social Web site. Some have expressed they do not want that information automatically accessible to the rest of the Facebook users.
Since Facebook added Beacon on Nov. 6, more than 40 Web sites have activated the feature and eBay.com intends to begin using it beginning in 2008. Beacon allows customers to share their online actions with Facebook friends. Actions include adding an item to an online wish list, signing up for a service, purchasing a product and making a donation.
When a customer makes a purchase from an external participating Web site that activated Beacon, Facebook alerts the person that an update is being sent to their Facebook profile and the public News Feed detailing the purchase. Published information includes the item, price and the Web site it is bought on. While this may scare online shoppers, the feature acts as a word-of-mouth promotion for business brands and products.
But one grassroots organization said this business promotion strategy is a violation of privacy because of its failure to let users opt in to the advertising feature.
MoveOn.org Civic Action is a progressive online activist group that fights to give people an increased voice in their democracy. The group launched a campaign Nov. 20 titled “Protecting Online Privacy” targeting Facebook’s Beacon advertisements.
In less than one week, the campaign has been reported on CNN, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times and the Wall Street Journal.
Adam Green, spokesman for the organization, said people who make purchases on unrelated Web sites are having those private purchases displayed on their profiles without permission.
“It’s naive if Facebook doesn’t recognize that as a monumental invasion of their users’ privacy,” Green said. “It is a fundamental privacy problem we are asking Facebook to correct.”
The latest Facebook-Beacon statement attempts to calm user fears.
The statement informs users that Facebook “already has made changes to ensure that no information is shared unless a user receives notifications both on a participating Web site and on Facebook.
Currently, the user has a few seconds to choose to opt out of having the update sent to their profile, but the user does not need to take any action for it to be published. Green said MoveOn has asked Facebook to switch from an opt-out policy to an opt-in. He said the organization firmly stands by their belief that no private purchases on other Web sites should ever be published unless explicit permission has been given.
“The pop-up alerts giving a customer the option to opt out are not seen by most people,” he said. “Let’s say you have a disease, and you purchase a book about the disease, you might not want to advertise that to everyone on Facebook.”
Like many social networkers, MoveOn created a Facebook group of more than 50,000 supporting members. The group titled ‘”Petition: Facebook, stop invading my privacy” has started a petition asking members to join their campaign against Beacon’s opt out design set-up.
Elizabeth Crowther, psychology senior at the University of Virginia, said Beacon almost spoiled the surprise she bought her boyfriend for their one-year anniversary. Crowther bought her boyfriend a watch on Overstock.com. She said when she confirmed her order, a small message popped up on her screen that shocked her. She said the message read “this story is being sent to your Facebook News Feed.” “It was one of those pop-ups that show up on top of your window, but they aren’t their own window,” she said. “So the bottom part was hidden, and I didn’t know to scroll down, so I think that is why I didn’t see the part to opt out of the story, but I’m not really sure what happened.”
Crowther said she panicked and hit the close button on the screen, thinking that would avoid the Web site from publishing the story on her Facebook profile.
“Afterward, I went to my Facebook and at the top of my homepage it said the story would be published,” she said. “I didn’t know what to do; there was no button to click that said ‘don’t publish’ and the wording was all pretty confusing.”
Crowther said this has made her paranoid to buy things online. She said her biggest concern is that Facebook did this without informing users before the holiday season.
“Luckily, my boyfriend doesn’t get on Facebook a lot and said he didn’t see it,” she said. “Facebook has gone too far with Beacon. It’s like now they are connected to everything you do online. It scares me to think of the future.”
John Mayes, who works in video production for Brightcast.com in Charlotte, N.C., said he supports MoveOn in its desire to protect people’s privacy. Although he said the Beacon feature has its quirks, he thinks MoveOn overreacted without having all the facts. Mayes thinks MoveOn’s attacks were too reactionary, and misinformed Facebook users are letting their purchases show up on their profile.
“It seems the Beacon advertisements are an attempt to give Facebook users the opportunity to have more interactive activity on their profile,” Mayes said. “This isn’t a bad thing.”
Mayes explained each user has the opportunity to decline this before it is posted. But he said if the user does not have a clear way to opt out of having their information posted on their profile, Facebook has gone too far and invaded the privacy of its users.
—-Contact Natalie Messina at [email protected]