Adotas

Where media buyers start online







News

Beacon Blunder Gives Users A Rude Awakening

Written on
December 7th 2007
Author
by Editor  |
Feed
   XML Feed

privacy1.jpgSince the big Facebook-Beacon apology blog was posted, many experts are raising concerns on privacy issues. Beacon tracked the purchases of users on third-party sites and made that information easily available to the users’ friend and family. While Moveon.org criticized the site’s inadequacy in an opt-out function, many users are wondering where the opt-in function is in the first place.

Larry Ponemon, founder of privacy and business ethics think tank the Ponemon Institute said to PC World that users only want information shared on their own terms saying “They view social networks as a private organization. It’s groups or people you know who you choose to share information with.”

The report continues with Paul Stephens, director of policy and advocacy with Privacy Rights Clearinghouse saying that this incident should make users realize that their information will be used by these social network companies for business purposes. “There is a lot that goes on behind the scenes, so in a way, perverse as it sounds, this is a good thing because people might examine their actions online and be aware of the abuses that can occur,” he said in PCW.

With transparency, both experts agreed that there would be greater trust from users which will create a higher acceptance rate of marketing and advertising by a company.



Tags: , , and
Article Sponsor

More News

Reader Comments.

No comments yet

Leave a Comment

Add a comment