Facebook Beacon
Encyclopedia
Beacon was a part of Facebook
's advertisement system that sent data from external website
s to Facebook, for the purpose of allowing targeted advertisements and allowing users to share their activities with their friends. Certain activities on partner sites were published to a user's News Feed. Beacon was launched on November 6, 2007 with 44 partner websites. The controversial service, which became the target of a class action lawsuit, was shut down in September 2009. Mark Zuckerberg
, CEO of Facebook, said on the Facebook Blog in November 2011 that Beacon was a "mistake".
concerns. On November 20, 2007, civic action group MoveOn.org created a Facebook group and online petition demanding that Facebook not publish their activity from other websites without explicit permission from the user. In fewer than ten days, this group gained 50,000 members. After the class action Lawsuit, Lane v. Facebook, Inc.
, Beacon was changed to require that any actions transmitted to the website would have to be approved by the Facebook user before being published. On November 29, 2007, Stefan Berteau, a security researcher for Computer Associates, published a note on his tests of the Beacon system, and found that data was still being collected and sent to Facebook despite users' opt-outs and not being logged into Facebook at the time. This revelation was in direct contradiction to the statements made by Chamath Palihapitiya, Facebook's vice president of marketing and operations, in an interview with The New York Times
published the same day:
On November 30, 2007, Louise Story of The New York Times blogged that not only had she received the impression that Beacon would be an explicit opt-in program, but that Coca-Cola had also had a similar impression, and as a result, had chosen to withdraw their participation in Beacon.
On December 5, 2007, Facebook announced that it would allow people to opt out of Beacon. Founder Mark Zuckerberg
apologized for the controversy.
On August 12, 2008, a class action lawsuit was filed against Facebook
, Blockbuster Inc., Overstock.com
, Fandango
, Hotwire.com
, GameFly
, Zappos.com
, and any additional "John Doe" corporations that activated Facebook Beacon when they released their common member's personal information to their Facebook user friends without their consent through the Facebook Beacon program. The lawsuit alleges the release of the information was a violation of the Video Privacy Protection Act
, Electronic Communication Privacy Act, Computer Fraud and Abuse Act
, California Consumer Legal Remedies Act
, and the California Computer Crime Law.
On September 21, 2009, Facebook announced that it would shut down the service.
On October 23, 2009, a class action notice was sent to Facebook users who may have used Beacon. The proposed settlement would require Facebook to pay $9.5 million into a settlement fund. The named plaintiffs (approximately 20) would be awarded a total of $41,000, and the plaintiff's lawyers would receive millions from the settlement fund.
on the third-party site and Facebook cookies
. Clearing Facebook cookies from the browser after explicitly logging off from Facebook prevented the third-party site from knowing a user's Facebook identity.
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
's advertisement system that sent data from external website
Website
A website, also written as Web site, web site, or simply site, is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet...
s to Facebook, for the purpose of allowing targeted advertisements and allowing users to share their activities with their friends. Certain activities on partner sites were published to a user's News Feed. Beacon was launched on November 6, 2007 with 44 partner websites. The controversial service, which became the target of a class action lawsuit, was shut down in September 2009. Mark Zuckerberg
Mark Zuckerberg
Mark Elliot Zuckerberg is an American computer programmer and Internet entrepreneur. He is best known for co-creating the social networking site Facebook, of which he is chief executive and president...
, CEO of Facebook, said on the Facebook Blog in November 2011 that Beacon was a "mistake".
Privacy concerns
Beacon created considerable controversy soon after it was launched, due to privacyPrivacy
Privacy is the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves and thereby reveal themselves selectively...
concerns. On November 20, 2007, civic action group MoveOn.org created a Facebook group and online petition demanding that Facebook not publish their activity from other websites without explicit permission from the user. In fewer than ten days, this group gained 50,000 members. After the class action Lawsuit, Lane v. Facebook, Inc.
Lane v. Facebook, Inc.
Lane v. Facebook was a class-action lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California regarding internet privacy and social media. In December 2007, Facebook launched Beacon, which resulted in user's private information being posted on Facebook without consent. A...
, Beacon was changed to require that any actions transmitted to the website would have to be approved by the Facebook user before being published. On November 29, 2007, Stefan Berteau, a security researcher for Computer Associates, published a note on his tests of the Beacon system, and found that data was still being collected and sent to Facebook despite users' opt-outs and not being logged into Facebook at the time. This revelation was in direct contradiction to the statements made by Chamath Palihapitiya, Facebook's vice president of marketing and operations, in an interview with The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
published the same day:
Q. If I buy tickets on Fandango, and decline to publish the purchase to my friends on Facebook, does Facebook still receive the information about my purchase?
A. "Absolutely not. One of the things we are still trying to do is dispel a lot of misinformation that is being propagated unnecessarily."
On November 30, 2007, Louise Story of The New York Times blogged that not only had she received the impression that Beacon would be an explicit opt-in program, but that Coca-Cola had also had a similar impression, and as a result, had chosen to withdraw their participation in Beacon.
On December 5, 2007, Facebook announced that it would allow people to opt out of Beacon. Founder Mark Zuckerberg
Mark Zuckerberg
Mark Elliot Zuckerberg is an American computer programmer and Internet entrepreneur. He is best known for co-creating the social networking site Facebook, of which he is chief executive and president...
apologized for the controversy.
This has been the philosophy behind our recent changes. Last week we changed Beacon to be an opt-in system, and today we're releasing a privacy control to turn off Beacon completely. You can find it here. If you select that you don't want to share some Beacon actions or if you turn off Beacon, then Facebook won't store those actions even when partners send them to Facebook.
On August 12, 2008, a class action lawsuit was filed against Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
, Blockbuster Inc., Overstock.com
Overstock.com
Overstock.com , also known by its shortcut, O.co, is an online retailer headquartered in Cottonwood Heights, Utah, near Salt Lake City. Founded in 1997 by Robert Brazell, under the name D2: Discounts Direct, it was a pioneering online seller of surplus merchandise which, upon its failure in 1999,...
, Fandango
Fandango (ticket service)
Fandango is a corporation in the United States that sells movie tickets over the telephone and Internet, enabling customers to ensure ticket availability and avoid lines at the movie theater.-Services:...
, Hotwire.com
Hotwire.com
Hotwire is a discount travel website that offers low prices on airfare, hotel, rental cars, and vacation packages by selling off unsold travel inventory at discounted prices....
, GameFly
GameFly
GameFly is an American online video game rental subscription service that specializes in providing games for game consoles and handheld game consoles....
, Zappos.com
Zappos.com
Zappos.com is an online shoe and apparel shop currently based in Henderson, Nevada.In July 2009, the company announced it would be acquired by Amazon.com in an all-stock deal worth about $1.2 billion. Since its founding in 1999, Zappos has grown to be the largest online shoe store.-Inception:Zappos...
, and any additional "John Doe" corporations that activated Facebook Beacon when they released their common member's personal information to their Facebook user friends without their consent through the Facebook Beacon program. The lawsuit alleges the release of the information was a violation of the Video Privacy Protection Act
Video Privacy Protection Act
The Video Privacy Protection Act was a bill passed by the United States Congress in 1988 as and signed into law by President Ronald Reagan...
, Electronic Communication Privacy Act, Computer Fraud and Abuse Act
Computer Fraud and Abuse Act
The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act is a law passed by the United States Congress in 1986, intended to reduce cracking of computer systems and to address federal computer-related offenses...
, California Consumer Legal Remedies Act
California Consumer Legal Remedies Act
The California Consumers Legal Remedies Act prohibits vagueness, unfair business practices, and deception by declaring unlawful "methods of competition and unfair or deceptive acts or practices undertaken by any person in a transaction intended to result or which results in the sale or lease of...
, and the California Computer Crime Law.
On September 21, 2009, Facebook announced that it would shut down the service.
On October 23, 2009, a class action notice was sent to Facebook users who may have used Beacon. The proposed settlement would require Facebook to pay $9.5 million into a settlement fund. The named plaintiffs (approximately 20) would be awarded a total of $41,000, and the plaintiff's lawyers would receive millions from the settlement fund.
Technology
Facebook Beacon worked through the use of a 1x1 GIF web bugWeb bug
A web bug is an object that is embedded in a web page or e-mail and is usually invisible to the user but allows checking that a user has viewed the page or e-mail. One common use is in e-mail tracking. Alternative names are web beacon, tracking bug, and tag or page tag...
on the third-party site and Facebook cookies
HTTP cookie
A cookie, also known as an HTTP cookie, web cookie, or browser cookie, is used for an origin website to send state information to a user's browser and for the browser to return the state information to the origin site...
. Clearing Facebook cookies from the browser after explicitly logging off from Facebook prevented the third-party site from knowing a user's Facebook identity.
Partner websites
Beacon partner websites included:- AllPosters.com
- Campusfood.com
- eBayEBayeBay Inc. is an American internet consumer-to-consumer corporation that manages eBay.com, an online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell a broad variety of goods and services worldwide...
- FandangoFandango (ticket service)Fandango is a corporation in the United States that sells movie tickets over the telephone and Internet, enabling customers to ensure ticket availability and avoid lines at the movie theater.-Services:...
- Blockbuster
- BlueflyBlueflyBluefly, Inc. is an American electronic commerce company. Headquartered in New York, New York, it was one of the first online retailers to sell fashion in a sophisticated manner. Ken Seiff and a team of six founded Bluefly.com, Inc. in 1998 and built it in less than four months from the time it...
.com - CBS Interactive (CBSSports.com & Dotspotter)
- EpicuriousEpicuriousEpicurious is a website dedicated to recipes, cooking, drinking, entertaining and restaurants, and its existence hearkens back to one of the World Wide Web's earliest presences. It is owned by Condé Nast. The site also includes recipes from Bon Appétit magazine and now defunct Gourmet magazine. The...
- ExpoTVExpoTVEXPO or ExpoTV is a consumer-oriented video platform run by EXPO Communications, Inc., a New York based company. The company's main website at www.expotv.com features video product reviews submitted by community members called “Videopinions” as well as 'how-to' video content and market research...
- GameflyGameFlyGameFly is an American online video game rental subscription service that specializes in providing games for game consoles and handheld game consoles....
- HotwireHotwire.comHotwire is a discount travel website that offers low prices on airfare, hotel, rental cars, and vacation packages by selling off unsold travel inventory at discounted prices....
- a number of IAC brandsIAC/InterActiveCorpInterActiveCorp is an American internet company with over 50 brands across 40 countries headquartered in New York City...
, including: CollegeHumorCollegeHumorCollegeHumor is a comedy website owned by InterActiveCorp and based in New York City. The site features daily original comedy videos and articles created by its in-house writing and production team, in addition to user-submitted videos, pictures, articles and links. In early 2009, CollegeHumor's...
, Busted Tees, IWonIWonIWon.com is a free casual game site and web portal that offers the chance to win cash and prizes through activities such as clicking through links or playing online games...
, CitysearchCitysearchCitysearch is an online city guide that provides information about businesses in the categories of dining, entertainment, retail, travel, and professional services in cities throughout the United States. Visitors to each of Citysearch's local city guides will find contact information, maps, driving...
, Pronto.com and echomusic
- JoostJoostJoost is an Internet TV service, created by Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis . During 2007-8 Joost used peer-to-peer TV technology to distribute content to their Mozilla-based desktop player; in late 2008 this was migrated to use a Flash-based Web player instead.Joost began development in 2006...
- KivaKiva (organization)Kiva Microfunds is an organization that allows people to lend money via the Internet to microfinance institutions in developing countries around the world and in the United States, which in turn lend the money to small businesses and students...
- KongregateKongregateKongregate is an online games hosting website owned by Gamestop Corporation, which allows users to upload user-created Adobe Flash or Unity3D games. It features an API that Flash and Unity developers can integrate into their games which allows users to submit high scores and in some games, earn...
- LiveJournalLiveJournalLiveJournal is a virtual community where Internet users can keep a blog, journal or diary. LiveJournal is also the name of the free and open source server software that was designed to run the LiveJournal virtual community....
- Live NationLive NationLive Nation is a live-events company based in Beverly Hills, California, focused on concert promotions. Live Nation formed in 2005 as a spin-off from Clear Channel Communications, which then merged with Ticketmaster in 2010 to become Live Nation Entertainment....
- Mercantila
- National Basketball AssociationNational Basketball AssociationThe National Basketball Association is the pre-eminent men's professional basketball league in North America. It consists of thirty franchised member clubs, of which twenty-nine are located in the United States and one in Canada...
- NYTimesThe New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
.com - Overstock.comOverstock.comOverstock.com , also known by its shortcut, O.co, is an online retailer headquartered in Cottonwood Heights, Utah, near Salt Lake City. Founded in 1997 by Robert Brazell, under the name D2: Discounts Direct, it was a pioneering online seller of surplus merchandise which, upon its failure in 1999,...
- (RED)Product RedProduct Red, styled as RED, is a brand licensed to partner companies such as Nike, American Express , Apple Inc., Starbucks, Converse, Bugaboo, Penguin Classics , Gap, Emporio Armani, Hallmark and Dell...
- Redlight
- SeamlessWebSeamlessWebSeamless is an online food ordering web site and suite of mobile apps that allows users to order food for delivery and takeout from restaurants....
- Sony Online Entertainment LLCSony Online EntertainmentSony Online Entertainment is a game development and game publishing division of Sony that is best known for creating massively multiplayer online games, including EverQuest, EverQuest II, The Matrix Online, PlanetSide, Star Wars Galaxies, Free Realms, and Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, DC Universe...
- Sony Pictures
- STA TravelSTA TravelSTA Travel is one of the two largest travel organizations for students and young people. It was founded in 1979 by acquiring assets from the bankruptcy of AUS Student Travel in Australia including their successful UK company ....
- The Knot
- TravelocityTravelocityTravelocity is an online travel agency and wholly owned subsidiary of Sabre Holdings Corporation, which was a publicly traded company until taken private by Silver Lake Partners and Texas Pacific Group in March 2007...
- Travel Ticker
- TripAdvisorTripAdvisorTripAdvisor.com is a travel website that assists customers in gathering travel information, posting reviews and opinions of travel-related content and engaging in interactive travel forums. It is part of the TripAdvisor Media Group, operated by Expedia, Inc. TripAdvisor is a pioneer of...
- TypePadTypePadTypePad is a blogging service from company Say Media . Originally launched in October 2003, TypePad is based on Six Apart's Movable Type platform, and shares technology with Movable Type such as templates and APIs, but is marketed to non-technical users and includes additional features like...
- viagogoViagogoviagogo is an online ticket exchange that that allows people to buy and sell live event tickets in a safe, secure and transparent environment free from fraud and illegitimate street touts....
- Vox
- WeddingChannel.com
- Yelp
- Zappos.comZappos.comZappos.com is an online shoe and apparel shop currently based in Henderson, Nevada.In July 2009, the company announced it would be acquired by Amazon.com in an all-stock deal worth about $1.2 billion. Since its founding in 1999, Zappos has grown to be the largest online shoe store.-Inception:Zappos...
Lawsuit and settlement
As part of a class action settlement, Facebook terminated Beacon. Facebook was also required by a court order to notify its users of the settlement. Facebook set up a $6 million fund to establish an independent non-profit foundation that will identify and fund projects and initiatives that promote the cause of online privacy, safety, and security. Facebook also set up a website about the lawsuit, http://www.beaconclasssettlement.com/. Under the contingency fee arrangement with the plaintiffs, the law firms that filed the case would get a fee, likely to be $3–$4 million, but the average Facebook user would receive no monetary award. Facebook notified its users about the court order.External links
- It's Our Web video about the commercialization of the web
- Steve Anderson "It's Our Web Not Theirs"
- Hodgkinson, Tom With friends like these... The GuardianThe GuardianThe Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
, accessed January 14, 2008 - New York Times blog post showing changes in Beacon over time
- Beacon Class Action Settlement