Leadership

Facebook Loses Face (and Customers) with 'Beacon'

By Sean Silverthorne

Updated on: December 7, 2007 / 9:52 AM EST / MoneyWatch

Sometimes social networking gets a little too social.

Just ask Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who this week penned a very public mea culpa for introducing a new "feature" called Beacon that divulged Facebook users' shopping habits to people in their networks.

Facebook and other innovators in the social networking business need to learn a simple 2-question litmus test before deploying such services, argues Harvard Business School assistant professor Misiek Piskorski.

Does the feature disclose information that people would never disclose offline?
Does the feature broadcast information that friends or other recipients will find helpful?

When Facebook changed direction this week and made it easy for users to opt out of Beacon, Piskorski believes the feature passed Test No. 1. But ultimately Beacon won't shine, he says -- read his post to find out why.

Are social networking sites bending the rules of privacy? Or are the rules of privacy themselves changing in this new share-everything environment?

Privacy has never been more at risk, but I also see friends happily broadcasting things about their personal lives that would make a sailor blush. Looking for the next big market opportunity? How about digital tools that allow us to calibrate our online privacy comfort levels.

(Facebook image by b d solis , CC 2,0)