Facebook has announced that they have listened to their users and have made massive changes to the controversial Beacon advertising system, as it will no longer automatically publish information about users.
The Beacon advertising program received a lot of attention as it was a brand new program which would allow other websites to tell your friends and family on Facebook about your activities on the internet. These activities include things such as purchases, subscriptions, etc. If you bought a DVD or something of that nature, it would automatically notify everyone.
The websites would get free advertisement for sending the information to Facebook.
Many protests erupted over this, one called Facebook: Stop Invading My Privacy. There are now over 50,000 members in the group, as well as other sites such as MoveOn.org who have made protests against the controversial ad system.
Facebook stated “We appreciate feedback from all Facebook users and made some changes to Beacon in the past day. Users now have more control over the stories that get published.”
Facebook will no longer automatically have information of users’ activities shared. It is still impossible for Facebook users to opt out of Beacon completely though.