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Facebook was under heavy revenue pressure in 2007, and the executive overseeing monetization at the time helped invent a product called social ads. It effectively enabled cookies and cross-site JavaScript, which let a shopper's actions on other websites reach Facebook.
A man bought an engagement ring for his soon-to-be fiancée. Facebook received that social action from Zales and put it into the News Feed, and all hell broke loose.
Then a congressional staffer bought a ticket on Fandango to see Brokeback Mountain. That went into the feed as well, and he began getting accusations and questions. He had only gone to see a movie.
How do other websites report purchases to Facebook?
When a shopper is logged in to Facebook, the browser stores a cookie that identifies the account. A page on another site can include a small piece of JavaScript loaded from Facebook's servers. When that script runs, the browser sends the cookie along, so Facebook learns which account just viewed or bought something. The retailer decides what to report, and the connection happens entirely in the shopper's browser.
Why does a shared purchase feel like a violation?
Philosopher Helen Nissenbaum of Cornell Tech developed the idea of contextual integrity, which holds that information carries the norms of the setting where it was shared. A purchase made at a store belongs to the context of shopping, and moving it into a social feed breaks that norm even if no secret is revealed. A ring is a sharp case because a buyer usually controls when and how a proposal becomes known. Nissenbaum laid out the framework in her 2010 book Privacy in Context.
What became of this ad product?
Facebook's purchase-sharing system was called Beacon, and it launched in November 2007. Within weeks of the complaints, Facebook let users switch it off. In 2009 Facebook shut Beacon down as part of a class-action settlement. The settlement set aside 9.5 million dollars to create a privacy foundation.
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