• by Wendy Davis , Staff Writer @wendyndavis, November 26, 2007

The more details that emerge about Facebook's Beacon platform, the worse an idea it seems.

It's glaringly obvious that the new program -- which alerts people's friends of their online purchases -- violates users' privacy. And, while Facebook argues that the program poses no threat because users can always opt out of it, it's now come to light that the opt-out mechanism itself is seriously flawed.

The Associated Press reported last week that Facebooks users who make purchases at sites participating in the program have just 20 seconds in which to opt out of having that information published. That's because the opt-out mechanism consisted of a small pop-up that vanishes 20 seconds after it appeared. After the window disappears, so does the user's chance to opt out.

At launch, 44 companies are participating in the Beacon program, including movie ticketer Fandango, travel company Travelocity and online shoe retailer Zappos.

Consider, this roster of participants means that people's Facebook friends can now know details of their lives ranging from what movies they watch to how much they spent on a new pair of boots -- unless people can act quickly enough to keep that information from publishing.

But one reason people like online shopping at places like Zappos is because they offer speed and convenience -- including the convenience of not needing to scrutinize the terms and conditions with vigilance. At many of these sites, people enter their credit card information and billing address once and don't worry about it again. Unless they've been following the business pages, they certainly have no reason to think that their purchases are about to become common knowledge.

Given that, it's clear that the Beacon program has the potential to blindside users; it's not even slightly surprising that a protest group started by MoveOn has drawn 20,000 members in less than a week.

Companies don't choose default settings by accident. Facebook executives had to have known requiring opt-outs would result in far more participation than requiring users to affirmatively opt in to the program. Still, if the company cares about protecting users' privacy, it should immediately revamp this poorly thought out program.