Is Facebook ruining Christmas?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/connected/main.jhtml?xml=/connected/2007/11/26/dlface26.xml

While recent headlines have been dominated by leaks of personal information by the Government, it turns out social networking websites might also be spilling personal details-- like what users have bought their loved ones for Christmas-- sparking cries that Facebook might ruin the festive season.

The social networking site's use of Beacon, an advertising system that exploits "word-of-mouth" marketing, has angered Facebook users by publicising details of their online shopping habits.

Moveon.org, the liberal US-based political pressure group, is waging a campaign against Facebook, saying the site violates privacy by sharing details of books, films and other holiday gifts purchased online.

Matthew Helfgott, 20, one of the 20,000 signatories of MoveOn's petition, wrote: "I saw my gf bought an item I had been saying I wanted... so now part of my christmas gift has been ruined. Facebook is ruining christmas!"

If people are going to spill the beans and ruin somebody's surprise plans, why does it matter if they use facebook, the telephone, or just talk too loudly and are overheard? Or snoop email, snail mail, whatever?

:shrug:

Nothing wrong with hiding stuff on your profile occasionally.

On the positive side though, here is the DU Facebook group for those of you with Facebook accounts.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2426871461

That's retarded.

Someone's gonna try to sue them.
"My wife bought me an xbox360 and some anal beads and she posted it on her wall. Christmas was ruined."
5,000,000

I just spend half an hour agonizing over whether or not we could afford to buy our kid (4) a pair of training skates for $15 for Christmas. He won't be getting much, we thought skates would be something nice for him to use outside.

If he found those skates hiding in our closet TOMORROW, how does that change them? How does that ruin Christmas? The element of surprise is great, who doesn't like getting something shiny and pretty to unwrap? But this is so frivolous, so completely lacking in understanding... and to put the icing on the irony cake, Facebook is fully user-customizable (although that is not at all the point).

ugh, this makes me slightly depressed.

in the meanwhile, I'm joining the DU Facebook group.

:hi:

It's not even a screed against MoveOn really. It's just another story about privacy concerns on social networking sites, which is something that the UK press loves to report on when it's a slow news day.

I'll post such stories, partly as an excuse to plug the DU Facebook group, but also because Facebook is increasingly popular with many political activists and the subject of how people are using Facebook groups is worthy of discussion on here IMHO.