Facebook Targeted By Activist Group For Privacy Violations

Writing by Brick Marketing on Thursday, 22 of November , 2007 at 3:24 am

Remember how we said a while back that Facebook would now show your interactions with companies in your news feed? Yeah… that may not have been the best idea.

MoveOn.org, who is mainly known for its controversial political ads, has released an open letter to its members over how Facebook is violating people’s privacy with their new “Beacon” service. Since the service is an “opt out” situation as opposed to “opt in”, users have to make an effort to not show private information such as what movie they bought tickets for. An example they give in the letter:

“It’s easy to picture serious consequences: A college student buying a ticket to Brokeback Mountain and his homophobic football teammates finding out on Facebook. Or a battered woman buying a ticket to see Violence Behind Closed Doors when she told her husband she’s working an extra shift. Or a not-so-friendly employer learning a staffer has bought a ticket to a screening of Living With AIDS.” - Mike R.

While extreme examples, they raise a valid point. Why should this matter to you? Until the dust settles, and there is a negative light being cast on the service, I would recommend NOT being one of the partner sites. I would imagine if Facebook doesn’t make a move on this in the very near future, groups such as MoveOn may start trying to apply pressure to the participating companies.

While you may get some short-term promotional play from having your name show up in the feeds, is it worth it in the long run for the negative connotations people are going to have in their minds?

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Category: Facebook

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