It seems that the facebook Beacon advertising product privacy issues just won’t go away. This is in no small part to the left of center folks at Moveon.org that have made this their latest rallying cry. They are obviously well connected to the media based on their connections in the political arena. The articles in the newspapers and on TV keep driving home the point of the invasion of privacy. Their group on facebook has hit over 27,000 members.

I reluctantly became a member just to enter the conversation. Wow it is a firestorm of people buzzing like mad hornets. I think that I have been one of the few dissenters in this group and they were not fond of my opinions; which is just fine. The point of social media and blogs and groups and sites like facebook is that there is a discussion of issues. From these discussions comes change occasionally.

I think people are knee jerking really hard and fast on this whole facebook beacon product/technology. I expected that the privacy zealots would latch onto this like a lion and not let go of the zebra (facebook) until they get what they want.

Envelope pushing and disruptive technologies like Facebook’s Beacon Advertising Product sometimes causes people to flip out.

I was quoted in a fair and balanced article by Jackie Burrell in the Contra Costa Times this morning about the facebook Beacon product: Facebook Users Poke Back

A short excerpt from the news article: People are “passionate” about privacy, said Rumford, but Facebook users need to keep the latest disclosure in perspective.

“Google knows probably more about me than Facebook,” he said. “But Facebook has chosen to expose what they know in a way that is maybe a little disconcerting to people. My whole take is people were really overreacting. They have the ability to turn on privacy controls. They just have to do that.”

Rumford, whose company helps businesses market themselves on Facebook and MySpace, says he “lives online,” spending as many as 16 hours a day on the Internet, working, networking, socializing and shopping. But even Rumford wonders why Facebook didn’t post a list of participating sites and offer its users a chance to opt out of the service.

“People could come to like it,” he said. “But like any disruptive technology, people knee-jerk back initially.”

He compared it to the first time iTunes gave him album recommendations, and he already owned six of the eight.

“It freaked me out,” he said.

Then, he decided it was cool…

Technorati Tags: facebook, facebook beacon, advertising

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