On November 6th, 2007 Facebook launched a new feature called Beacon which collects data on the behavior of Facebook users on several commercial websites such as eBay, Fandango, Zappos and Overstock.com. [1] When a Facebook user purchases an item at one of these websites, Facebook provides a way for the user to advertise their purchase on their Facebook News Feed.[2] While users can decline sending out the advertising, Facebook does not allow users to opt out of the data collection and behavior monitoring.[3][4] Even if you opt out, click "no thanks", and log out of Facebook, Beacon will still be surreptitiously collecting your web browsing behavior data and sending it to Facebook. [5][6]
For some users of Facebook, this sort of information sharing causes privacy concerns. To make matters worse, there's no way to block Beacon in Internet Explorer (see Tips).[7] Fortunately, an easy-to-install add-on for the Firefox browser can block Beacon from collecting any data about you. Follow these simple steps to ensure your private information remains private.
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