How To Split An Atom

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So lets say that you just realized that Facebook is tracking you across the web through it’s newest vie at financial solvency, Beacon. Now, lets say that knowing that everyone’s favorite psychographics broker now can watch you as you tip-toe through the webosphere has you feeling a bit like a character out of a Heinlein novel.

What is a web surfer to do? Well thanks to a little sleuthing by the folks over at Idea Shower you can block the javascript calls that applications are using to phone home to Facebook.

To be fair, you can also opt-out of Beacon on Facebook’s page, but some of us feel more comfortable knowing that they won’t get to see our data at all. In order for this trick to work, you’re going to need Firefox or some other way to block particular domains.

Download and Install the BlockSite plugin for Firefox.
After restarting Firefox select ‘Add-ons’ from the Tools menu.
Click the ‘Options’ button on the BlockSite extension
Click the ‘Add’ button
Enter http://www.facebook.com/beacon/* into the input box
Click ‘OK’
Click ‘OK’ again and you are good to go.

Honestly, Facebook doesn’t necessarily have any bad intentions for your surfing habits and I would put even money that the entire transaction is anonymous, but until they decide to make it opt-in by default, at least you now have a way to take care of the problem your own way.

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