After widespread outrage from users, including a 50,000-member MoveOn.org petition, Facebook announced changes Friday to a new advertising program that many said violated users' privacy rights.
Facebook Beacon, introduced Nov. 6, informs users' friends through a news feed of purchases made on third-party websites such as eBay, AllPosters.com and Overstock.com.
Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's founder, initially called it a way for people to learn about new businesses, brands and products through the trusted referrals of their friends."" However, many users demanded Zuckerberg make it easier to opt out of the program.
MoveOn, which led the protest, claimed partial victory Friday when Facebook announced users will now have to approve each news feed story on their home pages before it is published to their friends.
""Facebook's policy change was a huge step in the right direction and we hope it sets an important precedent in favor of Internet users' rights that the entire industry follows,"" Adam Green, spokesperson for MoveOn.org Civic Action, said in a statement.
The modification, however, does not change the fact that Facebook and third-party websites are exchanging information, nor does it change the increasing amount of personal information cataloguing occurring online.
According to Dhavan Shah, a UW-Madison professor of political and strategic communication, students would be appalled at the amount of information being collected and used for strategic marketing.
""Facebook is the tip of the iceberg,"" Shah said. ""There's a lot more [of which people are unaware] in terms of the collection of information, the cataloguing of information, the merging of different data sets and using that for data mining and micromarketing.""
Terms like data mining and micromarketing may not resonate with students as much as relationship status updates, but according to Shah, students might want to take notice.
""When I share this with my students in an introductory communication class, they're shocked,"" he said.
Facebook and online data mining
With over 50 million users and 65 billion page views per month, Facebook has grown to be more than a social networking site. It is also a business, and while users interact, it can constantly catalogue information and offer marketers extremely strategic ad placement.
""Facebook is actually moving toward '¦ going in and actively doing data-mining of the profile information - the kinds of messages being sent, who you're gifting what to, the kinds of things that are tagged on your wall - to get a better sense of what kinds of messages would be best directed toward you,"" Shah said.
Facebook conducts additional research through newspapers, blogs and instant messaging services, painting an unfathomably detailed picture of every user, often without his or her knowing.
""When you sign up for anything [online], there's a user agreement, and we typically just see it and say 'I agree' and go to the next page,"" Shah said, adding the agreements often make it clear that the site can share personal information with third parties.
In its privacy policy, Facebook reserves the right to use such information but says it will not identify individual users to third parties.
""We do this for purposes such as aggregating how many people in a network like a band or movie and personalizing advertisements and promotions so that we can provide you Facebook,"" the policy states. ""We believe this benefits you.""
It also benefits Facebook. According to eMarketer, a site that researches online marketing trends, spending on behaviorally targeted online advertising is projected to reach $1 billion next year and almost $4 billion by 2011. Google, AOL and Microsoft are also known for having a large stake in this model.
The model
According to Dietram Scheufele, a UW-Madison professor in communication research methods, the business model employed by sites like Facebook has revolutionized the advertising industry. Advertisers can now cater ads specifically to users with agreeable profile information and usage history, instead of targeting general demographics.
""So I can target people very, very directly,"" Scheufele said.
""Another thing I can do is go beyond Facebook and say, 'I know what your e-mail is, I know what your address is and so on, and I can match that up with a bunch of other different databases that I have from your Amazon profile '¦ and then match that up with your credit card records, credit reports, all of which are things that I can purchase.""
""All of a sudden I'm not getting you as a type of consumer, I'm getting you as a consumer,"" he added. ""I know exactly who you are [and] what you do.""
According to Shah, these practices are far from illegal.
""In fact, under [President Bush's] administration, they've made it easier for archived, data-mined, quasi-private information about people to be shared more readily,"" Shah said.
Scheufele said laws prohibit the government from viewing such databases or even commissioning them, but added he would fear his information more in the hands of corporations, anyways.
""You've seen this a thousand times in articles, where some website says, 'Hey, our bad, we lost 50,000 credit card records and somebody downloaded them,'"" Scheufele said. ""This information is out there, and it's only a matter of time before something goes out by accident.""
So why are protests such as MoveOn's petition relatively uncommon when so much is at stake? Both Scheufele and Shah said ignorance plays a large role, but a changing notion of privacy among today's Facebook generation may also offer an explanation.
""I think there's an understanding of privacy - it's not deteriorated because that's really the wrong way of putting it - it's a different understanding of what public and private is,"" Scheufele said.
