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It's Final, Facebook Caved

Our customer is our master, executives say

By Vlad Constandes, SEO News Editor

30th of November 2007, 10:19 GMT

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The campaign conducted by MoveOn.org and its 12000 members of the Facebook group made all the difference when it came to the great social networking site's privacy policy. As of last night, users are able to opt-in to share purchases via Beacon. Facebook turned tail and ran for the hills when faced with the huge amount of bad reviews thrown at them. OK, the comparison might be a little far-fetched, but the result is the one expected. Here's what Facebook had to say:

"Stories about actions users take on external

websites will continue to be presented to users at the top of their News Feed the next time they return to Facebook. These stories will now always be expanded on their home page so they can see and read them clearly. 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. 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. Users will have clear options in ongoing notifications to either delete or publish. No stories will be published if users navigate away from their home page. If they delay in making this decision, the notification will hide and they can make a decision at a later time. Clicking the 'Help' link next to the story will take users to a full tutorial that explains exactly how Beacon works, with screenshots showing each step in the process."

Yes, it is true. It just takes a little conviction to overthrow an Internet super-power (although I wouldn't support anyone trying this against Google, The Great Search Engine although hindered will not be touched in the long run). Users 1, Facebook 0. OK, some of the problems still exist; for example, the site will still collect the data, but it will not automatically share it and all the ramifications of the above statement will be discussed throughout the entire following week, but for now, users can rest peacefully: their work here is mostly done.

TAGS:

facebook | beacon | privacy | issues

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