Facebook's "Beacon" Privacy Fiasco Lives Again in latest Update/Time for FTC to Act, Chairman Leibowitz

Back in November 2007, when Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg announced how its new Beacon and Social Ads services were a "completely new way of advertising online," we knew it would be be accompanied by both privacy and consumer protection concerns.  Mr. Zuckerberg's business model was designed to harvest greater amounts of personal details from individuals--making them available for the digitally-based viral and peer-to-peer marketing scheme which Facebook embodies.  It also revealed a side of Mr. Zuckerberg's hubris--that he didn't see the difference from what he was doing with advertising than those who might have tried to sell the Brooklyn Bridge or anyone else from the time people prayed to Hermes for good fortune in their commercial dealings.
The latest redesign by Facebook provides too much personal and collective information to be accessed by marketers and advertisers.  Social plug-ins, the growth of location data via the social network and other recent changes reflect a culture that places boosting its IPO share price before privacy.  Facebook needs to bring in an independent privacy Ombudsperson to oversee its data collection practices.   Funneling money to political leaders through its new PAC isn't the answer.   As one commentator explained in Marketing Week [UK], "This is not just Facebook’s attempt to bring social sharing to the internet; it is Facebook’s attempt to be the internet, full stop. App developers are wandering less into a walled garden than into an entire fortified kingdom, where every website is an app." 
In another words, the Internet becomes a walled-in data collection garden run by Facebook.
 
The FTC is supposed to protect consumer privacy.  It's failure to address these issues in a timely and significant manner raises concerns about its ability to protect the public.