A progressive voice of the digital age, we are fighting for our digital freedoms in software, hardware and on the Internet. We watch for corporate abuse as well as promote knowledge and educate people about the dangers our rights currently face such as DRM and software patents. We do this with a focus on the Free Software movement and the ideals presented by the EFF, FSF, ACLU, and the hacker ethic.
Please support our social mission.

*Subscribe to our discussion list (med traffic) here
*Stay updated and get action alerts delivered to your inbox here
*Come to our meetings here .
*Subscribe to our local Boston list here
All of our decisions are made through direct democracy and collective decision making. For more information about us, please go here.
Solidarity

 

REVEALED: Facebook Originally Planned To Let Users Permanently Opt-Out of Having Private Info Made Public – Then Took It Away

rkamens's picture
Submitted by rkamens on Mon, 2007-11-26 23:23.

Copied from MoveOn.org -- see http://civ.moveon.org/releases/071126facebookoptout.html
MoveOn and Over 20,000 Facebook Users Say Facebook Should Do More To Protect Privacy

** Interviews available with Facebook users concerned about privacy **

Leaked screenshots of Facebook’s original Beacon feature for corporate advertisers – made public at TechCrunch.com earlier this month – reveal that Facebook originally planned to give its users the ability to permanently opt out of having their private purchases made public on Facebook.

Facebook evidently removed that option just before launching the new privacy-invading feature. Facebook users who are aware that their private purchases on other websites are being made public on Facebook must now opt out site by site, week by week, month by month. There is no permanent opt-out option – let alone an opt-in policy.

“Facebook should explain why they chose at the last minute to put the wish lists of corporate advertisers ahead of the privacy interests of their users,” said Adam Green, a spokesperson for MoveOn.org Civic Action. “Facebook has the potential to revolutionize how we communicate with each other and organize around issues together in a 21st century democracy. But to succeed, they need the trust of their users. The fact that Facebook pro-actively chose to make it harder for their users to keep private information from being made public will rub a lot of Facebook users the wrong way. The ultimate act of good faith would be to switch to an opt-in policy.”

More than 22,000 Facebook users have joined MoveOn’s Facebook group, “Facebook, stop invading my policy!” News outlets around the world have reported on this effort.

Some Facebook advertisers have agreed that Facebook should have an opt-in policy, not opt-out::

* Josh Mohrer, director of retail for BustedTees.com, which uses the Facebook Beacon program: “You should have an option to turn it on,” Mohrer added, “not the other way around, especially around this time of year.” (Link)
* New York Times, a Facebook advertiser, created its own opt-in feature because Facebook’s opt-out policy violated user privacy: “NYTimes.com is a client of Facebook's new marketing effort, with a Facebook page created for the company itself. However, some travel features, which do use the Beacon feature, require active opt-in, according to a Times spokeswoman, and The Times is not using the social advertising feature because of concerns about user privacy.” (Link)

Here are some of the comments people wrote on the Facebook group page (interviews available upon request):

* “I saw my gf [girlfriend] bought an item I had been saying I wanted...so now part of my Christmas gift has been ruined. Facebook is ruining Christmas!” - Matthew from New York
* “Oh my gosh, my cousin’s entire Christmas shopping list this week was displayed on the [Facebook News] feed. That’s so messed up. This has gotta stop!” - Tasha from Michigan.
* “I don't want to belong to a site that does this. I'll delete my account very soon if this isn't fixed,” - Joshua from New York.
* “This is a very sneaky attempt to make a buck at the expense of users' privacy - not cool at all.” - Kevin W.

In 2006, when Facebook users protested policies that violated privacy, Facebook's founder admitted, "We really messed this one up...we didn't build in the proper privacy controls right away." The problem got fixed.

###

»