November 7, 2007 12:19 PM

Facebook has become evil

I think there's a difference between storing information about myself that I have expressly permitted Facebook to receive (i.e. photos, wall posts) versus receiving information about me through actions I take on other unrelated parts of the internet. It's a little bit creepy to know that if I visit the Internet Porn Emporium, this store might attempt to tell Facebook that I'm a patron.

Even if you don't normally care about your privacy, the new Facebook ad platform may still inconvenience you. Assume I was buying an awesome surprise present for a friend on some web site, but then the online store goes ahead and shares this information with my friends on Facebook so that it's no longer a secret. That would suck. How about announcing to my network that I just performed a financial transaction at Chase? What a boon this will be for phishers.

The following exchange I had with Facebook today explains why you should block Facebook's data-hungry JavaScript or at least log out of Facebook and clear your cookies before you interact with another site if you would like to guard your privacy. (Emphasis mine.)

Hello Facebook,

I am trying to opt out of allowing External Websites to send information to my profile but the option in the Privacy section is not allowing me to do this.

I would like this resolved as soon as possible.

Thanks.

Winona

Subject: [rt.facebook.com #7270101] Privacy Help: Privacy for External Websites not functional Date: Wed, 7 Nov 2007 11:22:36 -0800

Hi Winona,

Just as News Feed has always enabled you to share the actions you take on Facebook with your friends, now you can share many of the actions you take on rest of the web as well.

Facebook is now affiliated with a variety of websites to have the actions you take on their sites pulled back into Facebook and communicated to your friends through News Feed. To take advantage of this feature, you must be logged into Facebook while you interact with one of these affiliated sites. When you perform an action on an affiliated site, you have the option to have this action generate a story in your friends’ News Feed. You will always be notified and given the opportunity to opt out of having that particular story published.

As a Facebook user, you have complete control to determine your privacy settings for the actions you take on other websites. The next time you navigate to the Facebook Home page after interacting with an affiliated site, you’ll receive a second reminder that that website is about to publish a story on your behalf. Again, you can choose not to publish that particular story. You also have the option to specify whether you want that website to always publish stories, notify you before publishing stories, or never publish stories for you. As always, Facebook gives you full control of your information. You can edit your privacy at any time from the Privacy Settings for Third-Party Websites page.

Please let us know if you have any further questions or concerns regarding this new feature.

Thanks for contacting Facebook,

Clive
Customer Support Representative
Facebook

RE: [rt.facebook.com #7270101] Privacy Help: Privacy for External Websites not functional Sent: Wed 11/07/07 12:11 PM

Hi Clive,

My concern is that I am not given the opportunity to opt out of this program before my privacy has already been breached. It is simply not acceptable that my information is shared between two parties without my consent, whether or not this information is being published in my news feed for all of my friends to see. I understand that the affiliated sites are the ones who are violating my privacy by sharing this information with Facebook without my consent, but Facebook is the facilitator of this breach of privacy by creating this advertising solution.

Regards,
Winona