• by Wendy Davis , Staff Writer @wendyndavis, November 27, 2007

Confronted with mounting complaints and negative press coverage, Facebook reached out to the media yesterday to say that the company had changed its controversial Beacon program, which notifies people's friends about their purchases. Which would be a step in the right direction -- if only it were true.

"Facebook is listening to feedback from its users and committed to evolving Beacon," a spokesman said in an e-mailed statement. "Facebook already has made changes to ensure that no information is shared unless a user receives notifications both on a participating website and on Facebook."

In fact, however, it's hard to determine what -- if anything -- is different now.

When the program launched, it allowed members to opt out of having information shared about specific buys at the point-of-purchase and again on Facebook. The problem was that users didn't see and/or understand the opt-out notices. And, really, they didn't have much opportunity to do so, given that some point-of-purchase notices were served via vanishing pop-ups that were available for only 20 seconds.

When pressed about how the statement distributed to the media yesterday reflected any changes, the spokesman said, "We fixed a technical issue to be sure the first notification fully displayed since some users were missing it."

Well, if that's the case -- if Facebook's "fixed" something so that the notifications it intended to launch with actually work -- it's hardly worth bragging about.

If Facebook wants to implement a real fix here, it will listen to the 25,000-plus users who have joined the MoveOn protest group, "Petition: Facebook, stop invading my privacy!" and stop telling members' friends about their purchases when there's any doubt about whether the members want to share that information.