[grievingarchangel]

I don't know exactly where to put this on the forum but this
looked as good a place as any. I discovered (probably has been figured
out before but it was new to me) that when a person has a account where it operates similar to Netflix with the mail out program, Blockbuster online
scans through your cookies looking for Facebook information. If
discovered, the site will connect to Facebook and post the movie you
have ordered onto your Facebook Wall. Blockbuster does not give an
option to disable this, but rather sends the user to Facebook to
disable it from Facebook's side, which I guess Facebook changed their site as
I have found no easy way to disable this from their end, of course that
is a mute point as it does not disable Blockbuster from scanning
through your cookies. Granted I know that sites typically do that in
order to save user settings but this just has me rather peeved. I have
been fighting back and forth with customer service for the past few
days and the emails have been rather humorous with the cut and paste
answers that rarely pertain to the actual problem, and thusly getting
no where. Anyways, thought you all might find it interesting if not funny. Tell me what you think.

[Adama]

Hi Grieving, and welcome to PCWorld Community.

Since your comment concerns the Blockbuster website, I think you'd be better served by posting this comment in the Websites and Email forum. That way, more people would be able to see it and leave their comments there as well.

And I agree with you, the Blockbuster/Facebook shenanigans are despicable, to say the least.

[coastie65]

Hi Grievingangel, I moved this to a different thread that seemed better suit to the question. I'm glad you posted that, as I am sure that a lot of folks are unaware of that. In my opinion that is an invasion of privacy, I was I would not want my viewing list out there unless I posted it. coastie65

[Adama]

Good call, Coastie.

[grievingarchangel]

Thanks for the assistance. I really just want to get the word out there.

[Adama]

There was a big thing going on about Facebook sometime last year, when the public was made aware of their tracking and posting of people's preferences.

I thought the issue had been resolved, or put in the backburner. But sadly, it looks like it's still very much alive, huh?

[SpiritWind]

:D Hi :



IF you manage your cookies, I do not see HOW BlockBuster could be "scanning" them,

specifically looking for a "facebook" One !? I assume you have a "Facebook" account !?

IF true, do you sign into "it" each time you go to their website ?

IF what you are saying is true, Blockbuster is acting like an Adware program !? What

antispyware/antitrojan program(s) do you have on your computer, and what does a

"Full Scan" of "them" say, regarding what "they" detect !?

[Adama]

[Here's|m-75892] one of the discussions I was talking about.

And here's the [other one.|m-74526]

[SpiritWind]

:D Hi all :


Adama : thanks for the History . It reminded me that a couple of yrs ago there was a Info

about Yahoo employing a "Beacon" and gave specific steps necessary to "opt out" or

"turn off" this "beacon . I had to go to yahoo.com, click their "Privacy Policy" and look for

Info about the "Beacon" and say I did not want that "beacon" used ( I was signed in to

make this Choice ) . It appears "grieving" and Others are having trouble with the Facebook

"Beacon" and should be going through their "Privacy Policy" to see IF there is a way to

"opt out" !? Facebook is the problem, not Blockbuster Online .

[grievingarchangel]

Yeah, I know how to work with Cookies and so forth, the point is that I should not have to worry about doing this in order to keep my information from being posted to Facebook. Also if it was something similar to adware that was being installed, odds are it will not show up unless using Spybot, or Adaware as many of the other major companies have "white lists" for adaware that is allowed to run due to agreements with the adaware providers. The mechanics behind it, is that when you log on to Blockbuster online, (as per Blockbuster.com) the site scans through your cookies looking for one pertaining to Facebook. At that time, if it determines you have an account, it will pull the information from said cookie and use that to post said information to your wall. Now according to the email corrospondence, this should only happen if you have Movie Clique, which is an addon that links Blockbuster to Facebook, however if you read the information that Blockbuster provides on it's site, whether you have this application or not is of mute point, as the site still will post information to a person's Facebook as long as the information is still there. Yes a person could delete their cookies prior to accessing the site, however, a person should not have to do that to prevent a direct invasion of privacy.

Actually some how I completely missed the entire "beacon" mess. I remember hearing about application information sharing issues, however never using that portion of Facebook, it really just went under my radar. Maintaining privacy online is becoming increasingly more difficult, not just with Facebook, but also there recently an article concerning Google/Gmail/Chrome, also how employeers are using online networking sites to gather information about employee's and applicants, it is just rapidly becoming a mess. Unfortunately it appears that corporate mentatlity has infected the net as well.