The Final Farewell of Facebook Beacon

As announced last month, Read Write Web.MediaPost, and their lawyers (who could expect $2.7M or more). Hm. reformed the program to apologized. Technically, it still exists today, but once this settlement is finalized, the program will end once and for all—and Facebook will be absolved of liability in any other Beacon-based lawsuits.

Hm. Once again, cui bono? Facebook could get out of the Digital Media Lawyer Blog says, “Facebook is already required by law to promote the online privacy, safety and security of its users’ information,” and they get to funnel most of the settlement money back into those efforts, through a non-profit.

What do you think? Should the plaintiffs have held out for a better deal for them or is this what lawyers call “cy pres“—as near as possible to an equitable solution, since they can’t place a dollar value on the plaintiffs’ losses?