MoveOn Slams Facebook For Privacy Violations

Facebook has a new enemy. MoveOn, the political action group, has launched an online petition, aiming to pressure the social networking site in allowing Facebook users to opt out of the ad system.

MoveOn's gripe is that Facebook's ad system, Beacon, violates users' privacy by requiring them to opt out rather than voluntarily opt in, according to the Los Angeles Times. Beacon provides companies with information about a user’s purchases and announces it to his or her universe of friends on Facebook.

This all seems pretty rich coming from MoveOn, which is using a campaign on Facebook to stop Facebook from violating its users’ privacy. Now, that’s logical. And, clearly, the publicist at MoveOn didn’t vet through the press release, which was filled with whiney complaints such as these.

- I saw my girlfriend bought an item I had been saying I wanted… so now part of my Christmas gift has been ruined. Facebook is ruining Christmas! – Matthew from New York
- Oh my gosh, my cousin’s entire Christmas shopping list this week was displayed on the [Facebook News] feed. That’s so messed up. This has gotta stop! — Tasha Valdez, from Michigan

Facebook’s defense is that it has an opt-out option, which lets users shield their purchases from the news feed. It’s a weak defense, but at least it has one.

Naturally, people would say these warnings have not always been given, or that they are easy to miss. A more lucid complaint came from Charlene Li, an analyst with Forrester Research.

Li said that her husband's purchase of a coffee table on Overstock.com had been reported to her own network of Facebook friends, since the computer they shared could not tell which of them had made the purchase. In addition, no warning had been given by Overstock, she said.

"The biggest problem is the lack of transparency," Ms Li wrote on her blog. "There's a fine line that gets crossed when behaviour data slips from being a convenience to being Big Brother. This is one of those times."

The idea behind Facebook’s social advertising is that if users see a friend buy or do something, they'd take that action as an endorsement for a movie, a band or a bag. But that purchase could also be seen as an extension of yourself. I guess anyone would be embarrassed if he or she was caught buying a book called “The Dummies Guide to Sex,” for example. What's even worse is that a corporation is using you as a conduit to inadvertently promote your purchases to your friends.