Facebook Users Complain of New Ad Based Tracking

A post on Slashdot yesterday references a story published by the Associated Press on Facebook's practice of sharing their users' shopping habits with their friends as if it were product endorsement. Of course, users can opt out - if they click on a "No thanks" box that disappears in 20 seconds.

While Facebook may have long claimed a practice of guarding its users' privacy, the claim is gradually diminishing. For example, Facebook's "news feeds" feature backfired when it was denounced by many users in 2006 as stalking. The feature allowed users to track changes friends made to profiles. Facebook quickly reacted by apologizing and permitted users to turn off this feature.

This news feeds program allows companies to access ongoing conversations among users by alerting them to activities through the feeds. The concept is that if users see friends either purchase or take an action (e.g., see a band or movie) they will interpret them as endorsements.

But it also raises issues about privacy. Liberal advocacy group MoveOn.org formed a protest group on Tuesday and had over 6,000 members within one day.

"We want Facebook to realize that their users are rightly concerned that private information is being made public," MoveOn spokesman Adam Green said.

See the full story published by the Associated Press.