Facebook users rise up

Facebook users in their thousands have signed a petition to protest against Facebook’s new ad network Beacon. The system automatically tracks what users are buying on affiliated sites and displays the information on Facebook home pages. However, users are worried that Beacon is an opt-out not opt-in service.

Forrester analyst Charlene Li has even deeper worries, as she points out in this post. The cookie-based approach means activity on one PC can be ascribed to an individual wrongly – and that could be quite damaging, she argues.

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Top blogs

Bloglines has produced its list of the 1,000 top blogs in the blogosphere. Top of the list is Slashdot, followed by Dilbert and Engadget. The criteria are a bit hazy but they say at the heart of the ranking is how many active subscribers a blog has. And, by the way, if you look down the list, the definition of blog looks a bit loose, too.

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Do-not-track the next big thing?

Interesting news from AOL (via Lifehacker) that it is introducing a do-not-track list for those people who do not want to be targeted by advertising.

AOL says it will direct consumer directly to the opt-out lists of the largest advertising networks, according to the New York Times.

Such lists will not reduce the number of ads that people see online, but they will prevent advertisers from using their online meanderings to deliver specific ad pitches to them.

AOL will try to persuade consumers that by parting with some personal data they will find more relevant, appealing ads than by remaining anonymous.

 

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