Am I missing something? How can this be a non-issue of I don’t have the opportunity to opt-out?

But I think FB went too far on this one. I can’t rationaize my feelings by comparing it to a technology change–like the News Feed of a year or so back–or to a resistance to innovation.

I think it’s ’cause I went from feeling like “part of a community” on Facebook to being a unit in some big data stream. I feel like all that my info matters for is aggregation into some model where I’m going to be assessed for my purchase power and served information that’s likely to get my hand gliding toward my credit card. And that the core value of my relationships on Facebook now are measured by Facebook in their ability to shape my purchase patterns rather than the sense of connection, learning, friendship that they deliver.

I do plan to opt out of Beacon things when I can, and as such I will be a “disappointment” to Facebook; I will not deliver the value that they might expect from a person of my demographic. Facebook would have made more money from me had they charged for their service–yes, I would pay–and I would have likely derived more value from my relationship with Facebook in a paid relationship than in one supported by ads they think I want to see.

Because I’m a dev, I’ve saved screenshots taken in the summer (a few months back) that showed–whoo hoo!–my product’s first notifications streaming across the News Feed. Comparing those shots to my News Feed today, I’m really taken aback. In July, my stream contained rich, short bursts from my friends, streaming actively and uninterrupted, filling me in on the events, groups, connections they were discovering on Facebook. Today, my News Feed is bulkier, heavier, and somehow slower-moving. I think the ads stay up there for longer and slow the stream. Maybe I’m just imagining it. But I am sure that flashing down the feed to see who is up to what isn’t nearly as juicy, personal-feeling, and connecting as it was a few months ago. I miss that, and the feeling that, then, I was part of a real community on Facebook. Now I feel more like a commodity.

That said. I love Facebook. I’m still there.

Thanks for listening.

Ellen

They will get it right eventually I believe. All they have to do is make through the Christmas shopping season and they will have statistically significant data to decide how to best proceed. I would suspect easier controls are in the future.

I like a lot of the thoughtful stuff you write here, and I’ve spent a lot of time in a past life looking at the privacy issues, and what companies do to analyze clickstream data and use data mining to get better insight into consumer preferences for marketing. In general, I don’t get too worked up about certain ways consumer data are used if they indeed result in better personalization, like what Amazon does, or even the lamer (but still useful) attempts by iTunes.

But I have to side with others here that Facebook really needs to make the opportunity to opt out much more transparent — I know of a few friends that I would consider “exhibitionists” in terms of revealing details (selectively of course) about what they’re doing, where they’re partying etc who find the tracking and subsequent announcement of purchases extremely creepy. Heck, I just met someone through a mutual friend at a networking function, and we added each other as friends, then within a few days, I find out what she’s doing at Epicurious and Blockbuster.

When I subtly let a mutual friend know that I had found this out, she freaked, because she didn’t have any idea. Not earth-shattering, but Facebook has done such a good job pre-Beacon of allowing people to selective determine privacy settings. Now they want to throw open the shower curtain on purchase behavior with limited opt-out options?

I agree, though, that most people may not care enough to really spark a revolt, but I find myself surprisingly disturbed by this. Beacon type targeted marketing is likely to end up being extremely useful (I think the reasoning behind more targeted marketing based on friend recommendations and purchase behavior is very sound), but it needs to be implemented with much more care than it has to date.

I do concur that the mechanism for opting out could be clearer.

Nick: “They don’t even offer that yet.” YET is the operative word here.

I suspect that facebook will wait for 3-5 months and see how the model works with statistically significant adoption. At that point they might offer different controls or they might tweak the program so that it is less disturbing to members. Something like a pre alert system that tells you before your purchase info is pushed live.

Bottom line is that the vocal few are pushing for change. This is the power of the internet, self expression, convergence of opinion and facebook itself. Stay tuned. I think facebook will not change this unless there is a dramatic change in number in the rate of attrition in their major country markets.

Change is exciting for sure. And scary or invasive to others. With any new disruptive technology I would expect this. Otherwise it is just tiny incremental change; which is not true innovation.

Rodney Rumford

If you take a look at the techcrunch poll on this one the majority of users feel this is a violation of their privacy. The main difference between the previous newsfeed change and Beacon is that all the users didn’t immediately experience a difference this time around.

I agree with “Yep”. It’s a bit seedy. It’s all a bit seedy, from the manner of their anouncement, the hype of their ‘revolutionary’ claims, and the poor execution of features and controls available in the member profiles show that the member experience is the least of Mark’s concerns.

And frankly, their advertising is not very effective. On my profile page were ads for Ambien (I don’t use, nor need.), parenting tips (step-kids are all grown, married and with kids) and….hair loss. Ok, maybe that got that one right from my photo.

But it’s free. You get what you pay for. And the ads don’t popup. So…I’m here now. But unlikely to invest more in building this resource.