Deceptively known as “social plug-ins,” Facebook’s new system for giving commercial websites access to your personal information is to scatter “I like” buttons around the web. These buttons are ostensibly to allow users to identify what they like on the Internet. But the real benefit for the fat-cats at Facebook is the lucrative deals with corporate websites they stand to make because these buttons will give Facebook the ability to grant certain, undisclosed sites access to your Facebook information without your prior consent. If the “like button” is on a site, and you are a Facebook user, then your information will be transmitted automatically to these chosen sites. Your profile, the names of your friends, your favorite books and more will be used to sell you junk. All that data you entered into Facebook has become a goldmine for hungry advertisers looking to “personalize” their ads and Zuckerman stands to make a mint.
MySpacing Facebook via Adbusters
