Update: I got the walkaway on the LA Times article on the topic. Bottom line — this is the EFF’s job, not MoveOn’s.
“If they wish to go after consumer privacy rights legislation, then fine,” [Rafer] said. “When they are trying to get a bunch of people together to stage a sit-in at a for-profit start-up in Palo Alto, then give me a break, get me off your e-mail list. Even if this does turn out to be the right cause, it’s the wrong organization.”
It’s heartbreaking, but somehow successful liberal activism always jumps the shark and goes in loco parentis. Hubris sucks. Today’s tragedy is MoveOn. They’re great at interfering in traditional social issues, but they’ve now started dabbling in an area they clearly know nothing about — commerce. I’m not a big fan of the Facebook Beacon program, but the Democratic Party mucking around in areas that it doesn’t understand is bad enough.
Here is the mail I received this morning, hopefully my last ever from MoveOn.
Dear MoveOn member,
Join our Facebook group:
Facebook, stop invading my privacy!Join the Facebook group
When you buy a book or movie online—or make a political contribution—do you want that information automatically shared with the world on Facebook?
Most people would call that a huge invasion of privacy. But this week, Facebook began doing just that. People across the country saw private purchases they made on other sites displayed on their Facebook News Feeds.
And it’s no accident. Facebook encourages companies to get “word-of-mouth promotion for your business” to “millions” by using the new feature that makes this happen.1 But the rights of Facebook users get left behind.
Can you join our Facebook group “Petition: Facebook, stop invading my privacy!” and invite your friends to join? Click here:
[link removed to avoid giving linklove. nofollow was not enough]
A lot of us love Facebook—it’s helping to revolutionize the way we connect with each other. But they need to take privacy seriously. On the above group page, we ask people to sign this petition, which we’ll deliver to Facebook:
“Facebook must respect my privacy. They should not tell my friends what I buy on other sites—or let companies use my name to endorse their products—without my explicit permission.”
Facebook says its users can “opt out” of having their private purchases reported to the world. But the link is easy to miss. And even if you do “opt out” for purchases on one site, it doesn’t apply to purchases on another site—you have to keep opting out over and over again. The obvious solution is to switch to an “opt in” policy, like most other applications on Facebook.Here’s what a couple MoveOn members who use Facebook have to say about this new policy:
“Last night, I bought a movie ticket on Fandango. Today, I was surprised to see that purchase in my Facebook News Feed. Taking my purchase info from one site and using it without permission on Facebook is an invasion of privacy.”—Ari R.
“It’s easy to picture serious consequences: A college student buying a ticket to Brokeback Mountain and his homophobic football teammates finding out on Facebook. Or a battered woman buying a ticket to see Violence Behind Closed Doors when she told her husband she’s working an extra shift. Or a not-so-friendly employer learning a staffer has bought a ticket to a screening of Living With AIDS.”—Mike R.
If we don’t fight back now, other web sites will follow Facebook’s misguided policy as they attempt to appeal to corporate advertisers. By inviting lots of our friends to join this important group, we can send a strong signal that Internet privacy must be protected.Thanks for all you do,
–Adam G., Daniel, Marika, Eli, Wes, Karin, and the MoveOn.org Civic Action Team
Tuesday, November 20th, 2007
[...] Scott Rafer at Winksite Site Discovery, Social Media Optimization (SMO), and Disrupting Mobile Carriers « I’m Quitting MoveOn.Org, Please Do the Same//Updated [...]
[...] To quote my friend and co-worker Scott Rafer’s reaction to moveon.org’s silly campaign against facebook’s recently launched beacon program: “It’s heartbreaking, but somehow successful liberal activism always jumps the shark and goes in loco parentis. Hubris sucks. Today’s tragedy is MoveOn.” [...]
[...] PS: Scott Rafer has two excellent posts on this topic. [...]
[...] For example, Facebook has the weakest protections for user privacy and security of their peer group (Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, MySpace). MoveOn’s petition focuses on consumerism, i.e. people shouldn’t know what they bought for each other for Christmas. They should be talking about what Facebook’s privacy and security policy permits them to do with user data. Remember this? That was only the tip of the iceberg. I’m glad that I’m not the only person who feels this way. More on this (this blogger thinks that MoveOn is tryin to move into EFF’s territory and that they should stay out of it). The fact that Facebook shares data about what our friends are buying and that this is actually a major reason why many people use Facebook - to keep up with their friends, not to hide from them. They shouldn’t just be accosting Facebook for doing something that Facebook WARNED us about (i.e. the social graph). Instead, they should focus on the Facebook privacy and security policies that literally risk the confidentiality of user communications and data. [...]