Is Facebook to back down on advertising?

Online social network Facebook raised some controversy earlier this year when it announced a new advertising program – called Beacon – that allowed advertisers to target users based on their personal profile information.

According to TechCrunch, a backlash to the program from users has caused Facebook to start have a rethink. According to TechCrunch, Facebook is “listening to feedback from its users and committed to evolving Beacon so users have even more control over the actions shared from participating sites with their friends on Facebook,” with senior executives reportedly currently in secret talks about shape the changes will take.

What form these changes will take remains to be seen, but apparently early testing forms of the program allowed users to opt-out of the advertising program if they chose – a change which if introduced now would go a long way to soothing user anger.