Privacy Maven

Facebook’s Beacon ads have drawn objections and concerns from many circles, including privacy and consumer rights groups, legal experts and Facebook members. Now the grassroots political group, MoveOn.org is protesting.

MoveOn.org is turning its organizing prowess on one of the very tools it uses for its mobilizing efforts. The liberal group’s Civic Action division mounted an effort today against Facebook’s Beacon advertising feature, claiming it infringes user privacy and “sullies” social networking communities.

MoveOn is objecting to a new advertising technique that Facebook announced a few weeks ago that posts members’ purchases and activities on other websites in their Facebook profiles. Users can choose not to have the information posted from individual sites, or “opt out,” whereas with most Facebook applications associated with external sites, users must proactively choose to participate, or “opt in.” With the Beacon feature, if a user does not specifically decline participation, his or her Facebook friends will get a “news feed” notice about the purchase.

In an approach not that unusual on the social networking site, MoveOn has created a Facebook group to protest against Facebook, complete with link to MoveOn’s petition encouraging Facebook to “respect privacy.”

MoveOn is not anti-Facebook. Adam Green, a spokesman for MoveOn Civic Action, said his group is trying to “preserve the integrity” of the site.

“Facebook and similar sites have the potential to really revolutionize how we speak to each other in our society,” Mr. Green said. “When people see their privacy violated, it sullies the entire thing.”

He said MoveOn is worried people will abandon Facebook out of privacy concerns.

However, Chris Kelly, Facebook’s chief privacy officer, said MoveOn is “misstating the way this process works.”
He said the purchase appears only in the news feeds of confirmed friends and on the individual’s profile (users have control over who can see their profiles), not to the “world.” Mr. Kelly also pointed out that two ways to opt out, at the point of purchase on the external Web site, via a box that pops up, but fades away in under a minute and the next time they sign into their accounts. If users ignore the notification, the purchase information will be displayed, but nothing happens until the user signs in.

These issues are discussed in this brief CNN report.



As CNET News.com’s Caroline McCarthy points out, companies who use the new Facebook Beacon ads are not unaware of privacy concerns.

Some retailers participating in Beacon say they’re familiar with its potential pratfalls, but insist that it will ultimately be a positive development. “I think it’s a new technology, and until people get used to it, it might surprise some,” said Josh Mohrer, director of retail for BustedTees.com. “We have had a few instances where people were surprised, not necessarily angry, but surprised that their purchase showed up on their Facebook feed…I think when it becomes ubiquitous, which it most certainly will as Facebook things tend to be, that people will get used to it and see it as a good thing.”

Mohrer said that he saw where the complaints were coming from. “I think Facebook probably needs to do a better job of warning people about it,” he said. “What’s bad is that people are probably going to blame the merchant and not Facebook.”

Additionally, Mohrer admitted that he doesn’t entirely disagree with the concerns of activists who have pointed out potential privacy issues with Beacon. “You should have an option to turn it on,” Mohrer added, “not the other way around, especially around this time of year.”

Despite privacy concerns, some companies anticipate ultimate success with Facebook Beacon Ads. As Prabhala Ranga Sai of TMCnet points out, eBay and Travelocity have major plans.

It seems eBay is planning to use Beacon so that eBay.com sellers will be able to choose to include their eBay listings in their Facebook News Feeds. This opens up a huge market sans geographical boundaries for the businesses. When it happens, eBay.com sellers would be able to drive potential bidders and buyers to their listings. eBay expects to make the feature available to sellers on eBay.com in early 2008.

“Beacon offers an interesting new way for us to deliver on our goal of bringing more bidders and buyers to our sellers’ listings,” said Gary Briggs, senior vice president and chief marketing officer, eBay North America. “In a marketplace where trust and reputation are crucial to success, giving sellers the ability to easily alert their network of friends – the people who already know and trust them – to an item for sale has the potential to be a powerful tool.”

Travelocity implementing Facebook Beacon on its website is an example of one the many success stories of Beacon. When Facebook users book travel on Travelocity, they can choose to share that information with their friends on Facebook.

“Travel is naturally a social activity that travelers enjoy discussing with the people they know,” said Jeff Glueck, chief marketing officer at Travelocity. “Using Beacon, Travelocity users can now easily choose to spread the news of their latest vacation plans on Facebook as a complement to their activities on the Travelocity website.”

It remains to be seen if Facebook members will “cooperate” and “comply.”