When thinking about the concept of Facebook and the overall ability it gives a user to put whatever details about the going-ons in their life right out there for everyone else on Facebook to see, one could convince that it might not be a big deal if recent online purchases began showing up in user profiles. After all, if Janie Teenager bought two tickets to see Fantastic Four with her main squeeze and wanted people to know about it, what harm could be done in Facebook displaying that Janie actually bought the tickets to said movie on Fandango, one of the participating companies in Facebook's Beacon program? In many cases users may see it as confirmation that another likes or uses certain products, however, after last weeks national news story about the intern-bust http://valleywag.com/tech/your-privacy-is-an-illusion/bank-intern-busted-by-facebook-321802.php users of Facebook and MySpace should think twice about what they put in their profiles as well as their privacy settings. Moreover, users need to be aware of what Facebook may slyly be placing on your profile.

Now this was not a case related to online purchases, but say that our friend Kevin here had purchased a plane ticket and 2 seats for a game at Madison Square Garden through Beacon participating companies on Facebook? While the fairy outfit scenario was likely far more amusing to his boss than the above would have been, there is something to be said for privacy and that goes for online purchases as well. Should this information be shared with other users of Facebook unless you were given a reasonable notice? Probably not. While Facebook's sneeky 20 second opt-out feature http://news.yahoo.com/s/nf/20071121/tc_nf/56860 is rather bogus, users should be aware of it and for goodness sake, if you're going to tell your employer or anyone else a white lie, don't post the truth for everyone to see!

Labels: facebook, online purchase, privacy