Facebook Beacon Drama Ceases to End
Posted by Nick O'Neill on December 4th, 2007 12:33 AMI would have thought that the Facebook drama would have ceased by now but it has instead continued to drag on. Will this drama kill Facebook Beacon? I’m not quite sure but what I do know is that bloggers have suddenly become obsessed with the topic. Erick Schonfeld has called Facebook’s policy of sending data from Beacon partners to their site whether you are signed in or not unacceptable. I couldn’t agree more. I have a funny feeling that Beacon is going to get shelved until they can redesign the service.
Passing personal data between sites is an extremely risky procedure. Additionally, any site that embeds Facebook Beacon is forced to provide personal data anytime a Beacon enabled page is loaded. There is no way around this currently unless Facebook were to develop a Beacon development library to the participating site. Perhaps that is what will have to happen in the end: a Facebook Beacon API. If a user isn’t logged into Facebook, the participating company doesn’t send data to Facebook and vice versa.
I honestly can’t think up any other solution. This whole Beacon experience has brought to light the larger issue of individual privacy rights on the web. I have to wonder if the same critics of Facebook Beacon have held other services such as Google Adsense and Google Analytics to the same type of scrutiny. I know that I haven’t and I don’t have the technical capacity to do so either. This is not to suggest that Beacon has not crossed into new territory but I don’t recall other services being held under the microscope.
The practice of thoroughly analyzing each of these products is a great one and I only hope that the same level of scrutiny is held for all other services. Additionally, I am beginning to wonder if Beacon is the primary service that Mark Zuckerberg believes will justify Facebook’s ridiculous valuation. If so, they may want to reconsider their business model. There are a number of other services that Facebook could begin to offer that would truly begin to provide value for the users rather than simply serving their commercial interests.
Do you think Beacon was supposed to be Facebook’s future source for revenue or simply an experiment with horrible results?
(4.64 out of 5)
(4.22 out of 5)
December 4th, 2007 at 12:24 am
/RANT-ON
The bloggers have bludgeoned this issue to death. The damned thing is opt in and they still won’t shut up. I think Privacy is the new religion, and we’re all being proseletyzed to death with it. It astounds me that people are so uptight. You would think that beacon was ratting out all of the porn bondage sites you’re visiting….no, it’s telling your friends that you’re playing DESKTOP TOWER DEFENSE or — heaven forbid — browsing the Coca Cola site.
The mass media has followed suit because they don’t know their asses from their heads and get most of their leads on “tech” stories from the bloggers. The public knows even less than the media, and most people believe what the media spoon feeds them. So it’s all a self-fulfilling prophecy that’s driven by a huge PR cycle driven by the most vocal 0.1% who claim to represent us all in their infinite quest for privacy. I have one message for them: want a global opt out on beacon? LOG THE HELL OUT OF THE SITE.
/RANT-OFF
December 4th, 2007 at 1:24 am
/RANT-ON
The bloggers have bludgeoned this issue to death. The damned thing is opt in and they still won’t shut up. I think Privacy is the new religion, and we’re all being proseletyzed to death with it. It astounds me that people are so uptight. You would think that beacon was ratting out all of the porn bondage sites you’re visiting….no, it’s telling your friends that you’re playing DESKTOP TOWER DEFENSE or — heaven forbid — browsing the Coca Cola site.
The mass media has followed suit because they don’t know their asses from their heads and get most of their leads on “tech” stories from the bloggers. The public knows even less than the media, and most people believe what the media spoon feeds them. So it’s all a self-fulfilling prophecy that’s driven by a huge PR cycle driven by the most vocal 0.1% who claim to represent us all in their infinite quest for privacy. I have one message for them: want a global opt out on beacon? LOG THE HELL OUT OF THE SITE.
/RANT-OFF
December 4th, 2007 at 5:21 am
Hey Nick, whats up its nick!
I think this ceases to end because the fact is that Facebook is changing and people are reacting. Before it used to be OK to have all your information hanging out because the only people that would read it were in SOME SORT Of a University community.
But now Facebook hits 50 million subscribers and opens up to the entire world. I think people just need to adjust and realize that privacy needs to be taken seriously now. I don’t believe that Facebook is going down or any doomsday thing like this, I think it has evolved and expanded while most of us are sitting around with our thumbs up our asses because we’ve been part of facebook for years.
The example of Beacon is a clear reminder to everone on facebook, old or new, that your information is very easily accessible on the platform. Most people are part of a large city network with open profiles and full information which makes their profile completely accessible to anyone.
Remove unnecessary contact or location information, and clean up any information on your profile that you don’t want someone to see. Let the advertising bots scan you, because it will be information that you want them to see.
Facebook is experiencing explosive growth and it will be interesting to see how Zuckerberg handles his user base. I don’t know if he stole the facebook idea or whatever but the bottom line is that he made it what it is today. Where we go from here he has zero experience with due to his age and is doing everything off the cuff. So far he’s choosing money isn’t he?
December 4th, 2007 at 6:21 am
Hey Nick, whats up its nick!
I think this ceases to end because the fact is that Facebook is changing and people are reacting. Before it used to be OK to have all your information hanging out because the only people that would read it were in SOME SORT Of a University community.
But now Facebook hits 50 million subscribers and opens up to the entire world. I think people just need to adjust and realize that privacy needs to be taken seriously now. I don’t believe that Facebook is going down or any doomsday thing like this, I think it has evolved and expanded while most of us are sitting around with our thumbs up our asses because we’ve been part of facebook for years.
The example of Beacon is a clear reminder to everone on facebook, old or new, that your information is very easily accessible on the platform. Most people are part of a large city network with open profiles and full information which makes their profile completely accessible to anyone.
Remove unnecessary contact or location information, and clean up any information on your profile that you don’t want someone to see. Let the advertising bots scan you, because it will be information that you want them to see.
Facebook is experiencing explosive growth and it will be interesting to see how Zuckerberg handles his user base. I don’t know if he stole the facebook idea or whatever but the bottom line is that he made it what it is today. Where we go from here he has zero experience with due to his age and is doing everything off the cuff. So far he’s choosing money isn’t he?
December 4th, 2007 at 6:42 am
Nick,
It boils down to trust. Facebook has asked users to suspend their privacy concerns and trust them, but that Facebook has violated their trust. To get it back they are going to have to take measures to protect user privacy. They still have the weakest user privacy and security controls of ANY of the major players - MySpace, Google, Yahoo and Microsoft.
Bob
Jobmatchbox.com
December 4th, 2007 at 7:42 am
Nick,
It boils down to trust. Facebook has asked users to suspend their privacy concerns and trust them, but that Facebook has violated their trust. To get it back they are going to have to take measures to protect user privacy. They still have the weakest user privacy and security controls of ANY of the major players - MySpace, Google, Yahoo and Microsoft.
Bob
Jobmatchbox.com
December 4th, 2007 at 8:05 am
Nick
Beacon will not die. It will serve at the core business of Facebook’s business model for years to come.
I’d go beyond what Bob just wrote in that what blew people away was their user experience. Most people understand that much of what they do online - what sites they visit and what they buy - are being monitored in some way for later marketing purposes. But what people were taken aback and then livid about was that Facebook was now part of customer-retailer relationship without their approval, that their private purchases were then being made public, and that the burden was on them to stop all of this on a case-by-case basis.
If Facebook had meant Beacon to be an experiment, it would have used carefully coordinated focus groups. They decided to go full force on it anyway. That’s because they see it as their future. And they got too cocky.
Ironically, they should have used focus groups anyway. A controlled setting in which they can observe user interaction. Perhaps out of arrogance and believing in their own hype, they forged ahead anyway, offending their users and irritating their partners.
From now on, advocacy groups and business partners will play a greater role in Facebook’s future decision making process. It didn’t have to that way.
December 4th, 2007 at 9:05 am
Nick
Beacon will not die. It will serve at the core business of Facebook’s business model for years to come.
I’d go beyond what Bob just wrote in that what blew people away was their user experience. Most people understand that much of what they do online - what sites they visit and what they buy - are being monitored in some way for later marketing purposes. But what people were taken aback and then livid about was that Facebook was now part of customer-retailer relationship without their approval, that their private purchases were then being made public, and that the burden was on them to stop all of this on a case-by-case basis.
If Facebook had meant Beacon to be an experiment, it would have used carefully coordinated focus groups. They decided to go full force on it anyway. That’s because they see it as their future. And they got too cocky.
Ironically, they should have used focus groups anyway. A controlled setting in which they can observe user interaction. Perhaps out of arrogance and believing in their own hype, they forged ahead anyway, offending their users and irritating their partners.
From now on, advocacy groups and business partners will play a greater role in Facebook’s future decision making process. It didn’t have to that way.
December 4th, 2007 at 10:23 am
It’s not going away because Facebook has treated so many people so arrogantly that they lost their trust of the service. The fact that Zuckerberg hasn’t talked to any journalist about this issue demonstrates that Facebook’s PR really sucks. They need to get Zuckerberg out in front of people like you and answer all questions in face-to-face interviews. It’s totally amazing to me that they haven’t yet done that. Makes Facebook seem totally aloof and/or sends gestures to all of us that Zuckerberg isn’t the wonderkind we all thought he was.
December 4th, 2007 at 10:35 am
Facebook is a Beacon for Bad PR…
The social network is experiencing a mini meltdown and has many fans, users, and advertisers pulling an ?about face.?…
December 4th, 2007 at 11:23 am
It’s not going away because Facebook has treated so many people so arrogantly that they lost their trust of the service. The fact that Zuckerberg hasn’t talked to any journalist about this issue demonstrates that Facebook’s PR really sucks. They need to get Zuckerberg out in front of people like you and answer all questions in face-to-face interviews. It’s totally amazing to me that they haven’t yet done that. Makes Facebook seem totally aloof and/or sends gestures to all of us that Zuckerberg isn’t the wonderkind we all thought he was.
December 4th, 2007 at 11:35 am
Facebook is a Beacon for Bad PR…
The social network is experiencing a mini meltdown and has many fans, users, and advertisers pulling an ?about face.?…
December 4th, 2007 at 6:18 pm
I think the difference between Beacon and Google Adsense is that Google doesn’t have access to all of the data. I might be wrong, but I think Adsense tracks with cookies and keywords; that’s a lot different than sending data from one site to another.
Scoble also makes an outstanding point: Facebook has not responded, apologized or explained themselves, which seems to tell the userbase that FB just doesn’t care what they think.
December 4th, 2007 at 6:40 pm
[...] Read the rest of this great post here [...]
December 4th, 2007 at 7:18 pm
I think the difference between Beacon and Google Adsense is that Google doesn’t have access to all of the data. I might be wrong, but I think Adsense tracks with cookies and keywords; that’s a lot different than sending data from one site to another.
Scoble also makes an outstanding point: Facebook has not responded, apologized or explained themselves, which seems to tell the userbase that FB just doesn’t care what they think.
December 6th, 2007 at 12:40 pm
Nick, it’s really simple. Companies CANNOT send data without user consent. It’s that simple. Read my post the other day on privacy policies of these partner companies.
The only way to get user consent is to have the PARTNERS request information (e.g. email address used on FB, account username/password on FB, etc) of users. This is also defacto opt-in on the Partner side.
Apps request permission to access the profiles. The same should be the case of Beacon partners.
There really is no gray area here. It’s very clearly defined what is acceptable and what is not and the precedent that is acceptable for this kind of program.
December 6th, 2007 at 1:40 pm
Nick, it’s really simple. Companies CANNOT send data without user consent. It’s that simple. Read my post the other day on privacy policies of these partner companies.
The only way to get user consent is to have the PARTNERS request information (e.g. email address used on FB, account username/password on FB, etc) of users. This is also defacto opt-in on the Partner side.
Apps request permission to access the profiles. The same should be the case of Beacon partners.
There really is no gray area here. It’s very clearly defined what is acceptable and what is not and the precedent that is acceptable for this kind of program.