Facebook Beacon Woes Mounting

If you are Facebook user and are getting that creepy feelin that somebody's watching you and you can't get no privacy, then you're probably right. As Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook get outed more and more everyday for being the biggest peeping Toms on the internet, advertisers are jumping ship faster than the Titanic. Coca-Cola has dropped out as a Facebook advertiser, and Overstock and Travelocity are reportedly doing the same.

An investigation by a Computer Associates research team has found that although Facebook modified its Beacon program last week following the out-cry from users and MoveOn.org, to prevent private information from being splashed across advertiser sites, Facebook is still gleaning personal information about users from Beacon partners without their consent. Stefan Berteau, a Research Engineer with CA's PestPatrol Spyware Research team, has found that Facebook is collecting information about user actions on affiliate sites even if the user has opted out and even if the user is logged out of Facebook. There still seems to be some gaping holes in Facebook's privacy policy with regards to their invasive Beacon program that is causing a lot of concern and engendering distrust amongst users. No word yet on if Facebook will modify this program even further to protect the privacy of its users.
(Photo credit: Craig Ruttle/AP Photo)

Somebody's Watching Me by Rockwell.