Facebook apologises for ad-tracking system

6th December 2007

Chief executive officer of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg has issued a public apology for the website's advertising system.

On the company blog, Mr Zuckerberg claimed Facebook had made a "bad job" of releasing online tracking tool Beacon.

Beacon tracks Facebook users' habits and online transactions, and then informs the users friends of their purchases. It was criticised for being a tool users had to opt-out of, rather than choose to use.

"Facebook has succeeded so far in part because it gives people control over what and how they share information," said Mr Zuckerberg. "In order to be a good feature, Beacon also needs to do the same."

He explained the company thought that if they could find the "right balance", the system would enable friends to share more information.

However, the opt-out approach was unsuccessful, he continued, adding that not only has it now been made opt-in but users of the site can also turn Beacon off altogether.

According to Social Medial Portal, social networking sites are an extremely useful advertising medium for businesses that are already aware of their target audience.