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Now a days is not only is your personal information not private its public. With just a few clicks of the mouse almost anyone can find out just about anything they want about another person. From finding their age or where they went to high school to what their address is and pin pointing its exact location through Google Earth, nothing is a secret anymore. And trying to keep what little we have left is going to get even harder. Facebook's new internal marketing program Beacon, tracks member's purchases at over 40 participating sites that it's 55% of users age 18 - 49 years old tend to shop at. Then to make matters worse it shares that information with your social network buddies through profile news feeds. Some of the popular web sites using Beacon include Blockbuster.com, Overstock.com and Fandango.com, in a nice twist for me personally, I can say that I have purchased things online through all three of those sites...wonderful.
Facebook provided two opportunities to block the details from being shared, but many users said they never saw the "opt-out" notices. After a petition that was passed around and signed by 50,000 Facebook users blasting Beacon, Facebook decided to change its ways and promised its users that they will now have to give their explicit consent, or "opt-in" before any information is passed along. Another loop hole for Facebook is that the user has to click on the "opt-out" button each and every time he or she makes an online purchase from one of the users affiliated with Beacon, they just can't make anything easy for us, can they?
What this means for the holidays is that if someone buys something for a friend online that friend will be able to see exactly what was purchased, in turn ruining the surprise and Christmas for everyone. OK maybe I was exaggerating a tad at the end there, but it really does ruin the surprise. So where is our Cindy Lou Who? Who will save Christmas for all the online buying, Facebook user out there? MoveOn.org that's who!
MoveOn.org is organizing a petition for Facebook users unhappy with the practices of Beacon. The petition launched on November 21, 2007 by a spokesman for MoveOn.org Adam Green stated that "It also says a lot about the ability of Internet users to band together to make a difference." In a note that foreshadowed the changes to come a customer support representative stated that "We're sorry if we spoiled some of your holiday gift-giving plans," Facebook's Paul Janzer wrote in a posting addressed to Beacon's critics. "We are really trying to provide you with new meaningful ways, like Beacon, to help you connect and share information with your friends." Janzer also acknowledged Beacon "can be kind of confusing."
All in all it is just another thing that takes our information and just lets it float around out there in cyberspace for anyone to see, just another thing to make us a little less safe when shopping online, just another way for the big corporations to make money off us. Great.
