Do you or your teenager have an account on Facebook? If you do, you might be aware of the tracking and displaying of personal information that occurs with Facebook Beacon.

Facebook Beacon creates cookies that collect information and in turn, informs that user’s friends about his or her purchases. This is done by tracking information of Facebook Beacon users on third-party partner sites. Shortly after the release of Facebook Beacon, quite an uproar occurred once people realized the serious violations of privacy this system imposes.

For example, you buy a book entitled "How To Save Your Marriage". If that book was purchased through a Facebook Beacon partner site, then all of your Facebook friends will know you purchased that book which could lead to an uncomfortable situation. What if your teenager has a Facebook account? You might purchase acne medicine for your teen and through cookie tracking, the acne purchase could be broadcast to all of your teen’s Facebook friends.

Computerworld.com explains it further "New plug-in gives Facebook users another way to dodge Beacon":

"The groundswell of criticism began when a security researcher said that the ad system tracks user activities on third-party partner sites — including the activities of people who never signed up with Facebook, who deactivated their accounts or who were not signed on to the site."

A new Facebook plug-in has been developed that will allow users to monitor and delete cookies created by the Facebook Beacon advertising system. The toolbar provides an updated list of Beacon retailers which allows you to decide which sites you would like to block. This free plug-in was developed by Flugpo (a social classifieds network) who has always been an advocate on Internet safety and privacy.

The free plug-in can be found at MyDataIsMyData.org along with detailed information.