DISQUS

Danny Sullivan · 2 years ago

Well, Google hasn't actually been given approval to buy DoubleClick yet. And right, anyone can get data with cookies and beyond what Facebook is collecting, without any opt-out being offered at all. That remains an issue. Facebook simply magnifies it by publishing this tracking with a self-identified profile of someone. Suddenly, what we do on the web and how we are tracked becomes visible to ourselves and those we know. Kill cookies, and that helps. Have an universal opt-out from Facebook, with that being the default, would help more. Not publishing ourselves period with profiles would help even more beyond that. But it's good fun :)

Alexander van Elsas · 2 years ago

I see a lot of referrals to the "MoveOn.org only has x thousand supporters. Usually in the same context you use it, only a small percentage of the total user base complains, so what is the fuss about. In my opinion it isn't really relevant how many people join the movement. And the user? He doesn’t care. He gets all spoiled with “free” stuff, that isn’t free at all. But the bill isn’t payed by him, so why would he care. It is the most worthless driver for a business model. The Facebook user doesn’t mind SocialAds, is the tech blogging community fighting a lost cause? I don’t think so! If ignorance and indifference were the main driver for a web 2.0 company I’d fire the CEO and proclaim the main investors to be idiots!What is more important is the underlying issue. The Facebook business model is flawed. In my opinion the current web 2.0 business model has got to be replaced by something better. No more free ad-based services leading to walled gardens, user and data lock -ups or -ins, indifference, waisted advertisement spend, the illusion of providing value to a user.

Instead we need business models that are user centric and monetize user value. And the great thing about such a business model that it solves the current issues with data portability, privacy, Socialads or beacon automatically.

dave mcclure · 2 years ago

this is SUCH a non-issue.

sure, a universal opt-out would be nice... and given how FEW people would give a FF, Facebook should probably go ahead and do it anyway.

but as you note, such a small % of people understand and/or care about this, that's it pretty much a complete non-issue. a slightly larger issue is the overall treatment of user cookies across multiple sites, as you note re: Doubleclick.

but what's the bigger issue for Facebook?

none of this is all that compelling, and it's only a slight upgrade from the previous Sponsored Stories experience.

until there is 1) a lot more inventory of Beacon / paid News Feed stories, and 2) the CTR goes up on those items, this is not going to be a happy story for Facebook monetization.

personally, i think there has to be more incentive in the system for users to publish & click on this data. it's not a bad idea, but as currently implemented it doesn't appear to be getting a lot of traction. if that doesn't change soon, it's not a very good story for FB.

Gavin · 2 years ago

I don't understand why people are so uptight about FaceBook. If you don't like their privacy protection, then leave. It's a free country. As for their new ad program, technically they can do it, because you agreed to it somewhere in the legal documents.

HateTheFeed · 2 years ago

I did precisely what Gavin recommends. I left Facebook just before this moveon.org fiasco began. Having seen Facebook basically from its beta days (when it was only for the US News Top 20 colleges essentially), it got a little worrisome to see privacy issues continually eroded. I'm more upset that I can't actually delete my information from their servers (they keep profiles in case people have a change of heart). That's even more worrisome than any of this other stuff.

Greg · 2 years ago

The majority of Facebook users are to young to give a dam about privacy issues as they have not seen how privacy abuse on the internet effects them over the past decade & a half. Why does it matter that people know I bought bla-bla-bla... or they would only sell my email address to reputable entities anyway... right? (but who are those buyers selling it to?) I've read numerous articles about why the "Y" generation would fit the profile for excepting this issue under the light that it is just how we do business.

As for not being able to delete profiles... I'd suggest just changing it to bogus xxxx information before leaving the account.

James · 1 year ago

privacy is imporant with anything but facebook really does not understand this..

Weis · 1 year ago

Really informative article, it helped me a lot, had to come back a few times and readi it again. keep up the good work, thanks