p2pnet news | P2P:- Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg says his privacy invading Beacon advertising magnet “needs work”.

And that means it’s not going away.

One way or another, Facebook WILL use private and personal data you, and only you, own to enrich itself and its investors.

It’ll eventually be a “good tool,” Zuckerberg says in an interview Lesley Stahl to be broadcast on 60 Minutes this Sunday, January 13, at 7 p.m. ET/PT.

Facebook, “simply did a bad job with this release, and I apologize for it,” he said a little while back.

But, “he hasn’t given up,” noted p2pnet, going on:

“In an attempt to get out from under, ‘We were excited about Beacon because we believe a lot of information people want to share isn’t on Facebook, and if we found the right balance, Beacon would give people an easy and controlled way to share more of that information with their friends’,” he said..

“Bollocks,” we said.

CBS describes Beacon this way: it, “alerts users of Facebook … when their friends buy online merchandise from companies Facebook has a marketing relationship with, acting as a word-of-mouth ad tool. The device drew a lot of criticism at launch due to privacy concerns and users’ inability to easily deactivate it”.

Put another way, it follows users everywhere they go online, reporting back and providing priceless data which would ultimately be used to try to flog them stuff being peddled by Facebook clients.

Zuckerberg took a huge amount of flak and a group vigorously protesting the use of Beacon and which pulled thousands of members was actually started on Facebook.

But taking the normal corporate approach to use complaints —- ie, screw you —- Facebook didn’t cancel Beacon and Zuckerber says in his 60 Minutes interview, “It might take some work for us to get this exactly right. This is something we think is going to be a really good thing.”

Right. But a really good thing for you or Facebook?

Don’t bother to answer.

Meanwhile, “Some worry that the ads Zuckerberg is experimenting with will make his site overly commercial,” says CBS, going on to quote Zuckerberg as saying:

“I actually think [our ads] make it less commercial. What would you rather see? A banner ad from Bloomingdale’s or that one of your friends bought a scarf?” asks Zuckerberg. “I mean, there have to be ads either way because we have to make money ….We have 400 employees. We have to support all that and make a profit.”

Riiiight’

Stay tuned, all you Facebook folks, but don’t hold your breath. It isn’t for you —- you are for it.

And Oh Yeh. Zuckerber says Facebook is going public this year.

=Slashdot it!

Also see:

60 Minutes - Facebook Founder Says “Beacon” Needs Work, January 10, 2008
did a bad job - ‘Facebook’s Zuckerberg says Sorry, December 5, 2007

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This entry was posted on Friday, January 11th, 2008 at 9:42 am and is filed under P2P. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

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