The story of Facebook Beacon [FreeWrite]
As some of you may know, the online supremacy of Facebook is something that did not happen overnight. Ever since the company started over 15 years ago, the goal has been simple, becoming the biggest company online. Of course this is somewhat sugar coated in the mission statement, but throughout the years, Facebook's strategy has been simple. Buy companies that provide a service they need or don't have, and if the company doesn't want to be bought... built it themselves.
This is the story of Facebook Beacon. Facebook beacon was launched in 2007 with the premise to improve advertisement based on data outside of Facebook. This would mean that even when not on Facebook, the beacon would track your online activity and report back to the Facebook advertising system. As you can imagine, this provided a lot of legal issues and in 2009 the plug was pulled. Of course Facebook has since found other ways to legally track your data. But as for Facebook beacon, the story came to an end.
This story has been published as an entry to @mariannewest's daily prompt freewrite contest. Learn more here:
https://steemit.com/freewrite/@mariannewest/day-479-5-minute-freewrite-monday-prompt-beacon
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Scraping personal information has become more refined, beacon may have been set aside, while another system has quietly been implemented.
AI tracking implemented, similar not quite the same. This turns data into insight, IMHO this is "six of one and half a dozen of the next", we have to be aware all the times that big brother is watching you!
Completely agree. Both Facebook and Google know more about us than we do ourselves.
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I'd never heard of Facebook Beacon. Thanks for the info!
And here is today's prompt: https://steemit.com/freewrite/@mariannewest/day-480-5-minute-freewrite-tuesday-prompt-pineapple
You're welcome!
And thanks for sharing today's prompt. Is a fun one 😊
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Woah that’s a crazy start to where they have ended!
Great share 👌
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Indeed. With the purchase of Instagram and Whatsapp it actually has only gotten worse 😯
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