Facebook to kill Beacon: Info-sharing programme crumbles under privacy concerns

It's finally over for Beacon, the ill-fated advertising programme that Facebook launched two years ago.

The social network has settled a year-old class action lawsuit that targeted its alleged failure to provide adequate information and privacy controls to users with regard to Beacon, which shared information about users' information on third-party partner sites in Facebook news feeds.

In the settlement, any last vestiges of Beacon, which failed to gain traction amid a barrage of negative press stemming largely from advocacy groups like MoveOn.org, will be shut down completely.

Also as part of the settlement, which is still pending approval from a judge, a $9.5m "settlement fund" has been established to set up an independent foundation to "fund projects and initiatives that promote the cause of online privacy, safety and security", according to a release. Up to a third of that fund, however, can potentially be recovered by the plaintiffs' lawyers.

In a statement, Facebook representative Barry Schnitt said: "We look forward to the creation of the foundation and its work to educate internet users on how best to control their privacy; engage in safe social-networking practices; and, generally, enjoy themselves more online by having knowledge that gives them a greater sense of control.

"We fully expect the foundation to team with other leading online-safety and privacy experts and organisations that have been working diligently in these fields."

The suit was filed in August 2008 on behalf of 20 plaintiffs, most of whom were Texas residents. Named as defendants were Facebook, along with current and former Beacon participants Blockbuster, Fandango (owned by Comcast), Overstock.com, STA Travel, Zappos, Hotwire (owned by InterActiveCorp), and GameFly.

Another Beacon-related lawsuit had been filed against Blockbuster several months earlier, claiming that its participation in the advertising program violated the Video Privacy Protection Act of 1987. Facebook was not named as a defendant in that suit.

Shortly after the negative buzz about Beacon started, Facebook began tweaking and modifying the program to allow more user control over the feature. But advocacy groups claimed it still wasn't enough and some existing partners pulled out. Surprisingly, a "small number of customers" were still using it; Facebook will work to transition them out of it.

Facebook's experiments in social-media advertising turned instead to "engagement ads", which have come under some scrutiny themselves, and the "fan pages" that it encourages brands, organisations, and celebrities to create.

The thinking behind Beacon ultimately evolved into the phenomenally successful Facebook Connect, the universal log-in standard that, among other things, shares third-party activity on members' Facebook profiles.

The privacy controls on Connect are clearer and more extensive, but perhaps more crucial to Facebook Connect's success has been the fact that it's been marketed as a utility for ordinary members rather than an advertising tool for paying clients. It's free for third-party sites to implement, and with only a few exceptions, sites working with Facebook Connect code it in through the social network's application programming interface, or API, rather than ink a formal partnership.

And offering Facebook users the chance to register and log in to external sites without separate usernames and passwords gives Facebook Connect's marketing a slant of user convenience - and security, as some web users may be more comfortable hitting a "Connect with Facebook" button than registering for an account with a new web service.

The Facebook statement said: "We learned a great deal from the Beacon experience. For one, it underscored how critical it is to provide extensive user control over how information is shared. We also learned how to effectively communicate changes that we make to the user experience.

"The introduction of Facebook Connect - a product that gives users significant control over how they extend their Facebook identity on the web and share experiences back to friends on Facebook - is an example of this."

Original article: Facebook Beacon has poked its last from silicon.com