An online purchase used to be the business of the buyer, the seller and maybe the postman. Now, though, it may also be the business of all the buyer's friends if they're members of facebook.com — and some of the site's users aren't happy about it.
The social networking site introduced Beacon, an online ad system that reports online purchases to Facebook users' accounts, last month as another way for companies to penetrate the news feeds and profiles of Facebook users.
More than 40 sites, including eBay, Blockbuster and Overstock.com, have adopted Beacon, which causes users' Facebook profiles to display a notice when they have bought an item, signed up for a service or added an item to a wish list. Friends can then see what their friends bought or signed up for and check it out, too.
This "Social Ad," as Facebook describes it, pops up on the news feeds of the user's friends and can also appear along the side of the Facebook display, where advertisements traditionally appear.
When Beacon was first implemented early last month, users were given a chance to opt out of the program. That option was initially unclear to users, however, sparking privacy concerns among Facebook users and spurring the creation of several groups calling for Beacon to be removed.
In response to those concerns, Facebook made the opt-out choice more visible and accessible to users. But no general opt-out option has been created, meaning that users will have to decline to have their information posted each time they make an online purchase.
One prominent Facebook group formed to protest Beacon was started by the liberal political website MoveOn.org and is titled "Petition: Facebook, stop invading my privacy!" The group has attracted more than 60,000 members.
The petition asked users: "When you buy a book or movie online — or make a political contribution — do you want that information automatically shared with the world on Facebook? Most people would call that a huge invasion of privacy. But recently, Facebook began doing just that."
Nevertheless, Beacon's reach may only be growing, as companies become increasingly eager to exploit the popularity of social networking sites to market their products.
Beginning in early 2008, for example, the online auction website eBay plans to use the Beacon software to notify users of items their friends are selling online. "In a marketplace where trust and reputation are crucial to success, giving sellers the ability to easily alert their network of friends — the people who already know and trust them — to an item for sale has the potential to be a powerful tool," Gary Briggs, an eBay executive, said in a statement.
At Princeton, however, students reacted with skepticism to the introduction of Beacon and voiced concern that it constitutes a violation of privacy. "People already use Facebook, and especially the news feed, for 'stalking,' " Leah Haynesworth '11 said, "and I think that they're just making it weirder with this new program."
Caitlin Caldwell '11 said she is concerned that the feature would make her online purchases no longer private. "Everyone would know everything about me," she said. "It's like Big Brother is watching me, and then telling everyone else what I do."
Benjamin Court GS said he'd rather Beacon be an application that users could voluntarily add rather than a feature that automatically appears without Facebook members' permission. "It has to be something that you choose," he said.
But Chamath Palihapitiya, a Facebook vice president, told The New York Times last week that he is confident the flurry of objections to Beacon will soon die down. He noted that such has been the case with controversial features Facebook has introduced in the past, such as the news feed.
"After a while," he said, "[users] fall in love with them."
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