A woman in Texas is sueing Blockbuster for using Facebook's controversial "Beacon" advertising system to reveal to her friends which movies she rented. Cathryn Elaine Harris' suit, filed 9 April, claims the video rental outfit breached the federal Video Privacy Protection Act when it participated in Beacon. She is seeking …

COMMENTS

House rules Send corrections

This topic is closed for new posts.

Friday 18th April 2008 14:41 GMT Mark Broadhurst

Beacon Tech

Its just not easy enough to opt-out or turn off.

Its not Blockbusters fault its facebook.

and yet they aren't getting sued.

0 0
Friday 18th April 2008 15:08 GMT leslie

ssssssshhhhhhhh, i'm watching video...

They should not have to go through this, what you watch is and should be private, if you want to tell a friend you rented debbie does dallas 4 times, thats up to you......

0 0
Friday 18th April 2008 15:37 GMT Matt

Point and laugh..

...at your friends who still trudge out to the shops rather than download the film via Bittorrent...

0 0
Friday 18th April 2008 17:56 GMT Dazed and Confused

@Matt

Or point and laugh at your friends who are still waiting for the download to finish when you've already finish watching the film and have enjoyed too many beers already to go out on any sort of highway.

0 0
Friday 18th April 2008 19:49 GMT James Butler

@Matt

Or point and lauch at your ex-friends as they get carted off to prison and fined lots of dollars after being apprehended while watching their precious "free" download.

0 0
Friday 18th April 2008 20:03 GMT Ian Michael Gumby

@Mark

You sue Blockbuster for releasing your information without your consent.

You can't sue Facebook because you opt-ed in to their system.

Imagine if you didn't have a Facebook account and Blockbuster sent them your personal information... You can tell Facebook to delete the information but you sue Blockbuster for violating your privacy.

0 0
Saturday 19th April 2008 10:12 GMT David Neil

@ James - schoolboy error

"Or point and lauch at your ex-friends as they get carted off to prison and fined lots of dollars after being apprehended while watching their precious "free" download."

It's not the download that gets you, it's the making available, and it isn't a prison sentence, it's a civil law matter.

0 0
Monday 21st April 2008 13:22 GMT Mitch Kent

@Ian Michael Gumby

I completely agree and think that this is thoroughly overlooked in all the facebook bashing.

There is plenty wrong with the facebook provacy setup, but I am less bothered about that than the fact that blockbusters et al can send this information out so carelessly? Just because it's facebook rather than a guy in the street does *not* make it ok for them to tell people what relationship we have without my permission. Who gets to decide this? Where am I supposed to have looked and read to say that I agree with this?

0 0