because I like the occasionaly Dr. Phil looniness. The segment was on children who are "sneaking snacks and treats" from their kitchens. Parents asked, desparately, "what do we do?" Phil's response was an important one: they can sneak or steal foods that aren't there.

I'm not on Facebook ... maybe it is an essential tool ... for ... social networking??? I think the the comments about privacy and such and legit ... but ultimately, one can effectively opt out by either never signing up, or by deleting one's profile.

If you don't like that, don't use the phone. OK? works for me. Then I'm going to sell your library lending records to Amazon. If that's a problem for you, stop reading.

I'm glad we're on the same page.

Shouldn't we be complaining to the "partner sites"? After all, they're the ones sharing personal data with Facebook.

so ... ah ... where are those things happening? i don't think your comparison is valid. it's true, civil liberties are at risk ... but Facebook is being overt and upfront (seemingly) about how their system works and how they intend to make money off of you (the membership). plus, it's never been clear to me what a social networking site actually provides ... other than an elaborate e-mail and/or calendaring system. so, if you don't want yourself marketed to, don't join or quit. that will send a strong message to companies invading privacy that there isn't any money to be made in it. right now people think it's worth billions.

I just posted this over at the last thread on this topic, where nobody will ever read it, so I'm C&Ping it here:

I would argue that both sides of this argument are right. On the one hand, the Internet might be in your bedroom or living room, but it's NOT in the private sphere. When you're on the Internet, you're in the public sphere. If you were concerned about people seeing you walk out of a porno shop, you wouldn't shop at porno shops. Likewise, if you don't want evidence of your surfing floating around in cyberspace, don't surf. We have an expectation that our personal information (the exploitable kind, like addresses, phone numbers and credit cards) will remain private, but our habits in the cybersphere simply are not. And for what nefarious purpose are these sites collecting information on your habits? Why, to market products to you more effectively. Imagine a world where you don't have to look at ads you're not interested it. It's hard to reasonably extrapolate their intentions to anything more sinister than that.

That said, facebook.com is predicated on opting in, not opting out. Yes, I have my sexuality and religion and favourite movies and even my drunken self-portraits posted, but I put them there after consciously weighing the consequences. Nothing has gone up that I haven't pre-selected. The irony of this whole fiasco is that facebook.com is an orgy of exhibitionism, and the objections that people are raising are based almost purely on principle.

The simple solution to this is for facebook.com to do exactly what they're doing now, but to make it opt-in instead of opt-out. If a little window popped up when you made a purchase or recommendation saying "Is it OK if we tell your friends about this?" 99% of people would say yes. The whole reason they're on facebook.com in the first place is to broadcast their taste, and if it was as simple as saying "Yes," who wouldn't want to tell their friends they're going to see a certain movie or are checking out a certain recipe? 99% of the time, who cares?

But the 1% of the time where you do care is the reason this has to be opt-in. Facebook: as long as it's easy for us to publish, we'll do it. We promise!

The Firefox block will work fine to block all traffic to/from beacon. Logging out of Facebook after each session is another way of assuring your actions on partner sites won't turn up in Facebook.

Someone offers you a service, they change it to harm you and the response is do without. So why bother at all? Why drive on roads that have tolls? Why use email if they're going to read it? Why fly if they're going to read your personal info.

Ok I get it, there is no such thing as the difference between me and the corporation me and the state. Not only shouldn't I expect that, I should expect to happily live a diminished life w/o all those services because in the end, tearing down that wall between me and the rest of the world is something I can't avoid by tagging along.

I WANT lojack tracking me. I want Amazon catloging every search. I want that stuff because w/o it I won't have roads or books. I want to be turned into a product used to sell products to other products. That is good for me because w/o it I won't have the same life as all the other people.

Allright then. I'm with ya. Put my RFID chip in and shock me when you want me to buy a smoothie.

ok ... i think i am begining to understand how fearful you are. i mean this without sarcasm ... it must feel difficult to have the life you want/deserve (i deserve, we deserve) with such fears. it's true, facebook is doing something uncool ... and if i cared about it as a service ... or perhaps considered it as indispensable as a road ... i might feel some level of alarm. luckily i don't. fighting the good fight against corporate invasions of privacy ... or worse yet ... government invasions of privacy is a valiant & honorable pursuit. i do humbly submit, though, that fear can distort one's perspective of reality. these things you listed in your comment that you fear will occur are not occuring. and facebook telling it's membership they want to make money through them should be no suprise: there's no free lunch, or free social networking site. this isn't world-war three ... and there are no weapons of mass destruction in iraq. i submit that we live in a culture of fear, and i respectfully suggest that your tones /might/ be adding to this. i agree with your premise ... privacy needs to be protected. but i also agree that america should be kept safe from terrorists ... however, the fear-induced hysteria that leads us down a path of a possible war with iran, for killing or maiming thousands of american soldiers or iraqis ... this is the problem: fears have us over-reacting and therefore make the "problems" worse. i think all of us could benefit from taking a deep breath and trying to see what is really happening around us. so, in this case ... facebook is announcing something that you don't like as a consumer of their product. don't buy it.