Being a Facebook User is Starting to Get Spooky

Being a Facebook user these days is starting to get spooky as vendors start to implement Beacon, one of Facebook's new advertising vehicles. Charlene Li of Forrester just posted a blog entry on a "close encounter" she had...

Earlier this week, I bought a coffee table on Overstock.com. When I next logged into Facebook and saw this at the top of my newsfeed:

I was pretty surprised to see this, because I received no notification while I was on Overstock.com that they had the Facebook Beacon installed on the site. If they had, I would have turned it off.

I had my own personal experience with Beacon this past weekend. After I purchased some tickets on Fandango, I was asked if I would like this transaction sent to my Facebook profile. I was pretty spooked when I saw this but fortunately, unlike Charlene's experience, I had the opportunity to say "no".

Needless to say, users and privacy advocates, including MoveOn.org, are not happy about Beacon.