More trouble for Facebook's Beacon, but this time it is Blockbuster that is being Sued. Mashable reports that A woman from Taxes is suing Blockbuster for participating in Facebook's Beacon program and violating a 1988 statute. What I really wonder is weather someone can actually sue for such a thing. Yes, Facebook's Beacon was very controversial when in launched, since people did not have a lot of control over their privacy. But since then Facebook apologized for this and changed their privacy option so that people are well aware of when they are posting to Beacon and also giving them an option to opt out of the program altogether. This might be the reason why this woman is going up against blockbuster as apposed to Facebook since they know Facebook is covered on this matter. The questions is whether by agreeing to the terms of the post to ones news feed one is giving up their right under the videotape privacy Protection act. I think so, and I see no different between this woman physically signing on to Facebook and changing her status to "I just rented X film on Blockbuster" or her having the Beacon service do this for her after she clicks "yes." The main fault I see in this law suit is not the affect it will have on Blockbuster, but rather the network affect it will have on the Beacon platform in general. The platform is only as good as the amount of companies and websites that support it, and if companies are getting intimidated from having Beacon code on their sites because they fear they might get sued (as apposed to Facebook) then the whole platform might fail.
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