CA: Facebook's Beacon more intrusive than previously thought

CA: FACEBOOK'S BEACON MORE INTRUSIVE THAN PREVIOUSLY THOUGHT
[SOURCE: InfoWorld, AUTHOR: Juan Carlos Perez]
A CA security researcher is sounding the alarm that Facebook's controversial Beacon online ad system goes much further than anyone has imagined in tracking people's Web activities outside the popular social networking site. Beacon will report back to Facebook on members' activities on third-party sites that participate in Beacon even if the users are logged off from Facebook and have declined having their activities broadcast to their Facebook friends. That's the finding published on Friday by Stefan Berteau, senior research engineer at CA's Threat Research Group in a note summarizing tests he conducted. Of particular concern is that users aren't informed that data on their activities at these sites is flowing back to Facebook, nor given the option to block that information from being transmitted, Berteau said.
http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/11/30/CA-says-facebooks-Beacon-more-...

* Facebook’s decision doesn't address key privacy concerns
[SOURCE: Digital Destiny, AUTHOR: Jeff Chester]
[Commentary] Facebook still doesn't really want to face-up to its many privacy problems. While it modified one aspect of the Beacon system as a result of organized pressure and regulatory concerns, serious safeguards will be necessary to address the range of practices in Facebook’s new targeted marketing system
http://www.democraticmedia.org/jcblog/?p=413