The advertising system, called ‘Beacon’, was introduced less than two weeks ago and sought to share what online purchases its users had made with their friend network.
While Beacon displayed an “opt out” button when a user was making a purchase, large numbers of Facebook users were incensed. Others complained the ‘Opt Out’ feature was itself offensive, but were more bitter that the ‘Opt Out’ button was so well hidden.
Within nine days more than 50,000 users joined a “Facebook, Stop Invading My Privacy” group on Facebook itself, and signed a petition complaining about the intrusion.
Facebook has now announced adjustments under which users will have to the give explicit consent in the form of an ‘Opt In’ regime before any of their information is shared.
More than 40 web sites had embedded Beacon into their pages in order to track the transactions of Facebook users.
The privacy advocacy group MoveOn.org, which organised the petition campaign, welcomed the changes.
“If Facebook changes their policy so that no private purchases made on other websites are displayed publicly on Facebook without a user's explicit permission, that would be a huge step in the right direction – and would say a lot about the ability of everyday Internet users to band together to make a difference,” MoveOn.org Civic Action organiser Adam Green said.
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