Facebook Users Complain of New Tracking

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I know a lot of you are Facebook users, what do you think of this story? We’ve posted news items pertaining to Facebook’s new marketing program but how do you guys really feel about it? Is it as bad as it is being made out to be or no big deal?

Some users of the online hangout Facebook are complaining that its two-week-old marketing program is publicizing their purchases for friends to see. Those users say they never noticed a small box that appears on a corner of their Web browsers following transactions at Fandango, Overstock and other online retailers. The box alerts users that information is about to be shared with Facebook unless they click on "No Thanks." It disappears after about 20 seconds, after which consent is assumed.
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I am a Facebook user too and the problem I have with this approach is this:

The box alerts users that information is about to be shared with Facebook unless they click on "No Thanks." It disappears after about 20 seconds, after which consent is assumed.
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If everything is on the up and up, why not wait until the user confirms or denies…assume that the answer is NO unless otherwise stated?
 
ah yes, the age old "Click here if you would like us to not share [sell] your information to every spammer on the internet" tick box

internet companies think because they are online they can get away with this shit even to this day, and Facebook? that crap and MySpace are about to implode into net oblivion when people start realizing how theoretically fucked up online "social networking" really is
 
i also hate in-text advertising, especially within my own forum posts

but i will let that slide [H], because we've always been cool like that
 
Steve said:
I am a Facebook user too and the problem I have with this approach is this:



If everything is on the up and up, why not wait until the user confirms or denies…assume that the answer is NO unless otherwise stated?
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wow, pretty scary :) so facebook is stalking us?! :p hey, can you be my face book friend hehe.
 
Sorry, but...

Users are given a second notice the next time they log on to Facebook, but they can easily miss it if they quickly click away to visit a friend's page or check e-mail.

I can agree that more notice should be given. But there is that. Pay more attention. :p
 
after which consent is assumed.
Why is it that anytime someone wants something that does not belong to them, it's assumed ok if said consumer/user doesn't take some action?

Let's see...
You are invited into a room and asked to sit down on a chair...
You have a loaded shotgun pointed at your head and it's hidden behind the curtain...
A small dimly lit sign comes on which reads, please turn me off or else, and right at that instant, someone offers you a cup of coffee...
20 seconds goes by and it's assumed you wanted to shoot yourself because you didn't turn the light off...
I'm sure you could come up with even more clever events that point out the same flaw in that logic.
Don't use the service until they grow up and learn to play nice.
 
What if you bought a book on Amazon called 'Coping with AIDS' and that got published to every single one of your friends?" he said.
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:D

i didn't even know about this. i don't use facebook to shop ;)
 
This is why I don't purchase anything on Facebook. I just go to the site to purchase it instead (oh, and I removed that damn "store" section).
 
I don't use Facebook for shopping, so I don't mind. After I do anything on facebook I check out my headline section (the stories that others can see) and often delete most of them. Like if I upload an album, comment on a few pictures, I don't need my friends to be spammed with all that. A simple, I've uploaded an album and your in it suffices.

If you do anything on facebook, other people know unless you tell them not to. That is the nature of the site. So I have no problem with them telling everyone what you are doing. You have the option not to have it happen. You can delete the stories after the fact. And if you don't want people to know, don't use facebook when you shop!

I'm all for this form of advertisement. It is avoidable, but serves its purpose. Facebook is all about networking, and letting everyone know what is going on in your life.

That sex doll, hopefully my friends get the hint and hook me up on a date. . .
That game from Best Buy. . . I deleted that, I don't want my friends to know I shop from there!
 
Let's see...
You are invited into a room and asked to sit down on a chair...
You have a loaded shotgun pointed at your head and it's hidden behind the curtain...
A small dimly lit sign comes on which reads, please turn me off or else, and right at that instant, someone offers you a cup of coffee...
20 seconds goes by and it's assumed you wanted to shoot yourself because you didn't turn the light off...
I'm sure you could come up with even more clever events that point out the same flaw in that logic.
Don't use the service until they grow up and learn to play nice.
Click to expand...


Priceless.:D
 
I didn't use it until recently and the account i now have has all the privacy settings chanegd so that only my friends can see anything and even then it doesn't tell them much.
I don't use any of the shopping or application add-ons.
 
I never used facebook to buy shit but I did buy some shit at hotwire.com and it even showed up on my facebook. WTF? Does facebook read your cookies also? I'm boycotting until they remove that bullshit.
 
Take what I say with a grain of salt, since I don't use Facebook and am only repeating what I've heard from people who have personally run into this...but the point of this whole thing is that they don't just post stuff you buy from Facebook, it's stuff you buy elsewhere. Something about Facebook reading the cookies, or something, something...

Bah, look it up. I don't use Facebook, so I don't care too much :p
 
Are these purchase that are made "through" facebook somehow, or are these purchases made on sites belonging to some network? When Microsoft bought facebook, did they add "passport", "e-wallet", etc to Facebook to associate all user transactions on MS' network?

Would they have contemplated adding a box saying,
This user recently searched on MSN for: "Hot asian teens" "does enzyte really work?" and "herpes cure".

After all, I'm sure they are aggregating all this info about users, not unlike google and others.
 
venm11 said:
Are these purchase that are made "through" facebook somehow, or are these purchases made on sites belonging to some network? When Microsoft bought facebook, did they add "passport", "e-wallet", etc to Facebook to associate all user transactions on MS' network?

Would they have contemplated adding a box saying,
This user recently searched on MSN for: "Hot asian teens" "does enzyte really work?" and "herpes cure".

After all, I'm sure they are aggregating all this info about users, not unlike google and others.
Click to expand...


MS does not own facebook, they only bought a 1.6% stake in it. Thus it is not one of their live sites (previously called passport).

Frankly I barely ever use facebook, but at least it is way better than MySpace. MySpace is such a piece of crap these days with all the ads and the pages look like crap cause of all the make shift templates people put onto their pages.

At least facebook is readable and well laid out, I give it props for that. Still I only go on once and awhile to catch up with friends or something, NEVER to go shopping :confused:
 
I really dont think its only when you purchase stuff through facebook. I was nowhere near facebook when i made a car rental on hotwire and yet... Facebook knew about it. Commies!
 
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