Facebook Privacy

I found an interesting article on the privacy issues of facebooks new Beacon Program. Thought it might be of interest to people.

'The more details that emerge about Facebook's Beacon platform, theworse an idea it seems.It's glaringly obvious that the new program -- which alerts people'sfriends of their online purchases -- violates users' privacy. And,while Facebook argues that the program poses no threat because userscan always opt out of it, it's now come to light that the opt-outmechanism itself is seriously flawed.The Associated Press reported last week that Facebooks users who makepurchases at sites participating in the program have just 20 secondsin which to opt out of having that information published. That'sbecause the opt-out mechanism consisted of a small pop-up thatvanishes 20 seconds after it appeared. After the window disappears, sodoes the user's chance to opt out.At launch, 44 companies are participating in the Beacon program,including movie ticketer Fandango, travel company Travelocity andonline shoe retailer Zappos.Consider, this roster of participants means that people's Facebookfriends can now know details of their lives ranging from what moviesthey watch to how much they spent on a new pair of boots -- unlesspeople can act quickly enough to keep that information frompublishing.But one reason people like online shopping at places like Zappos isbecause they offer speed and convenience -- including the convenienceof not needing to scrutinize the terms and conditions with vigilance.At many of these sites, people enter their credit card information andbilling address once and don't worry about it again. Unless they'vebeen following the business pages, they certainly have no reason tothink that their purchases are about to become common knowledge.Given that, it's clear that the Beacon program has the potential toblindside users; it's not even slightly surprising that a protestgroup started by MoveOn has drawn 20,000 members in less than a week.Companies don't choose default settings by accident. Facebookexecutives had to have known requiring opt-outs would result in farmore participation than requiring users to affirmatively opt in to theprogram. Still, if the company cares about protecting users' privacy,it should immediately revamp this poorly thought out program.'