Facebook’s Mea Culpa

Posted: December 10th, 2007 | Filed under: Have you seen this?, Thinking | Tags: , , , | Comments Off

facebook logoLast month, Facebook introduced a new ad program, Beacon, that tracks users’ activity on external web sites in order to serve up targeted advertising on Facebook. The program also broadcasts to the users’ friends what they’re buying.

Sounds great – especially for advertisers – except that Facebook made everybody opted in by default, requiring them to opt out if they didn’t want to participate. Hunh? Needless to say, it was a privacy hot mess. Naturally, users revolted, speaking up all over the blogosphere and even involving online lefty heavyweight MoveOn.org.

Facebook wisely reversed its op-out policy yesterday and apologized to users. Users must now opt in to the program, and no response is considered opting out. The reversal is a smart move by Facebook – after all, what is a social network without a satisfied community? Unlike ad-riddled MySpace, Facebook has now established itself as not only the fastest riser in the social networking game, but also the one that respects its community.

Read more over at the New York Times.

Note: this post originally appeared in Active Minds, Hanson Dodge Creative’s corporate blog.