Facebook bows to mass criticism but doesn't abolish snooping Beacon service
Though, on the surface, the idea of being able to let your Facebook friends know when you’ve bought a movie ticket or are going to travel to some far-flung destination seems good, when it comes to how the social networking site chose to implement its Beacon service, it got it seriously wrong.
It’s not the first time the creators Facebook have introduced something unpopular, and it’s not the first time the outcry from a significant number of their users has caused them to rethink their strategy.
In theory, users had the option of choosing whether third-party web sites linked to Facebook via Beacon actually shared their information and modified their profile, but in practice, it all got a bit messy.
The system is now, apparently, better, with the requirement that users clearly “opt in” to allow a site to share information with Facebook. Apparently, there’s no way to opt out from the service completely, which means you either have to keep very well informed about which companies are using Beacon — and avoid them — or leave Facebook altogether.
But hey, at least we’ve got Wispa bars back, eh? Who cares about privacy…
(Via Paid Content)
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