It’s just totally amazing to me how badly Facebook is handling the PR around its new Beacon system.

Security researchers at CA found the Facebook Beacon keeps Facebook abreast of one’s activities on an advertiser’s site, whether the Facebook user opted out of that instance or not.

Things just keep looking worse for Facebook’s Beacon: Coca-Cola and other advertisers are opting out of the program; there may be legal troubles ahead; and some investigative security work shows that Beacon sends information about user activity even when logged out of Facebook.

Mark Zuckerberg’s foray into being the top executive at a company with a $15 billion valuation has been dismaying to Facebook users and advertisers.

So Facebook has revamped the workings of their Beacon. To all you bloggerati and digital doomsayers (like me) who raised a stink about this, looks like your sense of smell wasn’t wrong.

Some things need to be opt-in, not opt-out. Looks like "Charlene Li just bought a table" showing up in a newsfeed is in the former category.

The ringing outcry against Facebook Beacon, which posted people’s online purchases to their friends’ News Feeds, led to Facebook altering the program.

Sources say Facebook is near to announcing changes to its Beacon marketing platform after pressure from privacy advocates over the last week.

As the holiday season approaches and all the hustle and bustle with it, it always seems as though someone or something tries to ruin all the fun and festivities. At least according to some people, Facebook is the culprit this year.

Facebook recently launched an advertising network called Facebook Beacon that is not sitting well with some people.

Will Facebook have to face the Federal Trade Commission over their three-week-old Project Beacon and Social Ads platforms? If the Electronic Privacy Information Center and the Center for Digital Democracy have their way, you bet.

MySpace is working on a News Feed feature of its own, reminiscent of Facebook’s own feature, Reuters reports.