
Growing out of ever-mounting concerns about privacy and user tracking on social media sites in the wake of Facebook Beacon, an initiative called 'My Data Is My Data' (MDIMD) has released an IE plug-in (read "cookie crusher") to help users control the information shared with third parties and Beacon retailers.
MyDataIsMyData.org launches cookie management plug-in for Facebook
On the MDIMD website, you can download the toolbar-based plug-in which gives Facebook users the ability to manage how information gets communicated to Facebook Beacon partner companies.
The toolbar also offers a host of useful Facebook cookie management options. Using MDIMD toolset, users can view updated lists of Beacon partners and can block specific retailers.
Our colleague Chris Abraham of Abraham Harrison -- who along with Flugpo collaborated on this project -- had this to say about the genesis of MDIMD:
"The genesis of the project is that when we heard about Facebook Beacon's bold initiative, we reached out to our client David Metz, the founder of Flugpo.com, and appealed to him as a bird-of-a-feather and someone who really cares about privacy. So, our CEO, Mark took the reins to develop the plug-in with the help of Flugpo's sponsorship, and after months and months of stomping on bugs, we just decided to release it "as-is" for now.
I built the site on Drupal over a long weekend and a lot of coffee and before you knew it, we got all sorts of coverage on Computer World, TechCrunch, and Mashable.
And it isn't over. We plan to improve the plug-in and also expand it to Mac, Linux, and especially Firefox."
As social media participation grows, so too does the need to carefully monitor the privacy of personal data. Unauthorized sharing of information whether intentional or more obliquely, hidden behind complicated sets of user options requires a response. MyDataIsMyData seems like a right move in that direction.
posted by D.J. on 04/16/08 | Permalink »
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