Lets see how many are born every minute.....

Another Day, another Facebook duck 'n weave.

Sez Mr Zuckerberg:

Last week we changed Beacon to be an opt-in system, and today we're releasing a privacy control to turn off Beacon completely. You can find it here. If you select that you don't want to share some Beacon actions or if you turn off Beacon, then Facebook won't store those actions even when partners send them to Facebook.

Sez one of the the first analytical readers on the NYT blog:

Well, just tried to use the new opt-out feature and guess what, I can’t find it on my privacy settings page. Apparently it doesn’t show up as an option for me to select until an external website has sent me stories. This is absolutely ridiculous! Come on Mark, stop lying to us every step of the way.

sez GigaOm:

So essentially he’s saying the information transmitted won’t be stored but will perhaps be interpreted. Will this happen in real time? If that is the case, then the advertising “optimization” that results from “transmissions” is going to continue. Right!

If they were making massive changes, one would have seen options like “Don’t allow any web sites to send stories to Facebook” or “Don’t track my actions outside of Facebook” in this image below.

Sez us:

The real issue is that the Beacon script on those partner sites sends data back to Facebook, whether you opt in, opt out or opted never to touch Facebook with a bargepole. That hasn't changed one iota. All you have is Facebook's word that they won't do much anything with it.

Judging by the reactions of the Fanboi blogs they either don't get this (ie they're thick) or do and are glossing it over (ie they are rabid FanSumers and lower than snake oil salesmen).

But sad to say, it seems the P T Barnum was right, I suspect that the vast majority of users don't care - for now. Tipping points are strange things though.......we're still offering 3-2 on a total recant by Christmas.

Update - FSJ makes this comment..v succinct. Compared to Apple:

Facebook's business model is the opposite. It pits Facebook against its customers. The amount of money that Facebook can make is defined (and constrained) by the degree to which its users will allow themselves to be exploited.

I give them 6 months before the wheels come off.....