Poll Results

Targeted Marketing Closed

Start date: December 31, 2007

End date: January 17, 2008

Following an outcry over Facebook’s ‘Beacon’ ad program, which shares users’ online activities with their Facebook friends via “newsfeeds,” the social networking site has revised the program. Now, users must “opt-in” to the program by giving their explicit permission before their activities are shared, as opposed to the previous version which automatically sent newsfeeds unless users opted out.

However, Facebook did not go as far as some would have liked in revamping its program. The company did not provide a global opt-out option—the company will not allow users to tell Facebook they don’t want to participate in Beacon at all. Is this a fair tradeoff for being able to use Facebook, which is free?

Poll Answers	Vote Results
Yes, as long as users are informed as to Facebook’s advertising policies.	44%
No, having to field repeated messages asking if you want to share your activities with your friends is tiresome and will lead to decreased utility of the site.	56%
Don’t know.	0%
	Total Votes: 9