The site said that it has changed the default settings so that
users must specifically request that their details can be published
by the Beacon system, which was made live on the site last
week.
The Beacon system took information about Facebook users'
activity at partner businesses such as online retailers and
published the details on Facebook for a person's Facebook friends
to see.
Users complained that they had not chosen to publish their
shopping activity, and one man said that he found out what his
girlfriend had bought him for Christmas because of the unwanted
service.
Facebook has now said that it will seek explicit permission
before publishing details of activity on third party sites, and
that if no response is given it will keep the details private.
Facebook will continue to request permission to publish stories,
however.
"Users must click on 'OK' in a new initial notification on their
Facebook home page before the first Beacon story is published to
their friends from each participating site," said a Facebook
statement announcing the changes. "We recognize that users need to
clearly understand Beacon before they first have a story published,
and we will continue to refine this approach to give users
choice."
"If a user does nothing with the initial notification on
Facebook, it will hide after some duration without a story being
published. When a user takes a future action on a Beacon site, it
will reappear and display all the potential stories along with the
opportunity to click 'OK' to publish or click “remove” to not
publish," it said.
Facebook users were shocked to find their online shopping habits
published to friends, and some reportedly began deleting their
Facebook profiles, prompting the company to take action.
A petition by civic action group MoveOn.org received 50,000
signatures in support of its stance against Beacon in 10 days, and
a group was set up within Facebook called 'Facebook, stop invading
my privacy'.
Users of online social networking sites are increasingly being
warned about the dangers of publishing large amounts of personal
information on the site. It has been used by employers to vet
potential workers and security experts have warned that profiles
could yield valuable information to identity thieves.
Facebook has been under pressure before in relation to its
privacy policies. A petition gathered 700,000 signatures in 2006
over requested improvements to the site's privacy.
The UK's Information Commissioner recently said that his office
would investigate the company over its refusal to delete a user's
profile. It received a complaint from a user who said that he could
de-activate his profile and that it still remained on Facebook's
servers, albeit not accessible to the public.
