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Facebook Beacon Goes Bye Bye. . . It Won't Be Missed
Just uttering the words Facebook Beacon gives me the heebie jeebies. Who can forget when FB rolled out its little mini-feed, which automatically shared your purchasing info, right on your profile for everyone to see? But it didn't stop there, we soon learned that there were a number of third-party sites tracking your buying habits even after Facebook launched its opt out of Beacon option.
Daily Tech: The HTC Touch HD vs. the iPhone 3G
- The new HTC Touch HD gets sized up and compared to the iPhone 3G and the Samsung Omnia in this French video (don't worry, you get the gist without needing to know what they are saying). — Gizmodo
- Yesterday, Microsoft unveiled the new Windows Live Messenger Beta that offers more fresh and fun features than the previous version. — CNET
- Griffin showed off some hot new iPhone accessories at the opening of Apple Expo Paris yesterday.
Is Facebook Creeping You Out?
I've discussed before how much Beacon, Facebook's targeted-ad initiative, drives me nuts, but I assumed that after Mark Zuckerberg's speech that things were going to change for the better. Maybe not: When the associate editor of Valleywag.com recently changed his profile to "engaged," he had no idea that Facebook would start spamming him with ads. He quickly did the math and realized that his fiancée had registered them on The Knot.com, which just so happens to be a Beacon partner.
Geek Tip: How to Block Facebook Beacon
If you love Facebook, but hate their new Beacon feature that collects your online purchasing info, wikiHow has just posted step-by-step instructions that show you how to block Beacon and prevent it from collecting your browsing and buying activities. By installing a Firefox extension called Blocksite and following a few simple steps, your data will remain private, so you don't have to worry about Facebook spying on your every online move.Source
The Corporations Behind Facebook's Beacon
Now that we know all about Beacon, Facebook's online marketing initiative, we can feel better knowing that Facebook is striving to respect their users' privacy.
Yeah right! The only difference now is that you can opt-in or out of having your purchasing info listed on your profile, although your buying habits are still being tracked by third-party sites.
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Facebook Makes Changes to Beacon!
After a week of Facebook tracking our online purchases with an advertising program called Beacon, a petition was sparked by MoveOn.org which stated: "Sites like Facebook must respect my privacy. They should not tell my friends what I buy on other sites--or let companies use my name to endorse their products--without my explicit permission."
Over 50,000 Facebook users signed the petition and on Thursday, Facebook released a statement outlining changes to Beacon, although it still manages to lack an easy way to avoid participating.
Is the New Facebook Layout Cramping Your Style?
So I know I already asked you last week if you were concerned with Facebook's new layout and many of you had mixed emotions about the whole thing. Well I was on the fence until I signed into my Facebook account yesterday (for the first time this week) and discovered why people are so up in arms about it. The new layout takes a bit of getting used to and isn't the most intuitive interface; is it just me or did the other one seem a lot cleaner?
Facebook: The Online Big Brother?
I can't deny the fact that social networks are a great way to keep in touch with friends and family, but when I hear about stories like this, I get worried about online privacy and security. Facebook has recently introduced a marketing program that publicizes users purchases in their "Mini-Feed" for all their friends to see—movies, clothes, household goods, you name it. Silicon Valley News reports that this new marking initiative allows companies to tap ongoing Facebook conversations by alerting users about friends' activities through the feeds.
Facebook Improves Privacy Settings For Friend Lists
Other than Beacon (which has thankfully improved over the months), the biggest thing that irks me about Facebook is its confusing and hard-to-manage privacy settings. Say you only want a certain someone to see your photo albums, and only want to share your mini-feed with family members, it can be a painstaking task to try and tweak the privacy settings for each person on your friends list.
Mark Zuckerberg hasn't been ignoring the requests to improve Facebook's privacy settings, because starting today, you'll be able to give different groups of friends access to various pieces of info on your Facebook page.
Facebook to Turn Into a Dating Site?
On Thursday, Facebook will be announcing the launch of Little Black Book, a new way for Facebook users to connect with Match.com daters.
According to The New York Times, once people are signed up to this new service, the users of Little Black Book will receive potential matches from Facebook users and non-Facebook users who are signed up with Match.com—try saying that ten times!
Considering the fact that I'm still peeved about Beacon, I'm going to keep my distance from Facebook for awhile.
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