lirren's and yuvi's LJsThere's some information here for those who don't know what this is about.
An explanation (of sorts) of BEACON, snagged from
craftykim:"For people who don't understand, beacon tracks ALL of your computer activity on the internet so long as you are logged in with that browser. It then reports back to the mothership:
*where you go
*how long you are there
*exactly what links you look at.
"So somewhere in the ether a record then exists of everything you've done (or your IP)--bit torrent files or software. Well, there's a record of it. Music sharing? The RiAA would like a share. Looking at porn at home? Your employer might want to purchase those results.
"The reality is right now, the company keeps those files and nothing happens. But tracking illegal activities is a compelling reason to allow seizure of the information. And the information itself is valuable beyond the primary use for ads.
"And we have a graphic example in front of us of how companies hand possible profit."
If you want to minimize the impact you can follow these steps:
- Go to the admin console.
- Type set synlevel title and hit "execute". That means only your entry title will be shown. (The other options are "summary" and "full", which are obviously worse.)
- For communities, type set for communityname synlevel title, e.g. "set for comics_meta synlevel title".
Unfortunately, there is no way to completely opt out. *sigh*
Those of you on FaceBook might also be interested in this.