Greetings from Geneva!

I’m working out of our European office this week after attending CeBIT in Hannover last week. The tradeshow was huge, with over 500,000 people attending. And although it was a lot of work, we got some great leads, maintained our existing business relationships, and had a lot of fun in the process.

Now I’m sitting in our Geneva office, with a beautiful view of the Jura mountains and the top of the Jet d’Eau visible above the Geneva skyline.  I’m looking forward to a week of working with my European colleagues. Will post more as the week progresses.

I’ll be at CES in Las Vegas next week, representing Joby and promoting our new product offerings. Come visit us at booth #71037 in the Sands!

If anyone will be in Vegas, drop me a line at peter [at] pberg.com.

I’ll try to post some updates from the field, so watch this space for more info!

UPDATE [2006-12-03 16:05]: Here’s another article, also from PC World, which talks about how nefarious Facebook’s tracking really is. Not even deleting cookies will prevent it from happening.

[my original post]

I just came across an alarming article about Facebook’s Beacon which states that apparently Facebook is receiving data on users activities outside of Facebook.

As if Beacon hasn’t generated enough controversy already, Facebook now admits that it tracks logged-off users through partner sites which send data about users back to Facebook. Their most recent admission contradicts earlier statements which said that Facebook does not track users.

Initially I was of the opinion that Beacon was just the next logical (albeit frightening) step in the whole social network advertising model. It stands to reason that as new adopters (read:young people) sign up for social networks, they will simply be accustomed to fewer and fewer privacy protections. As we slide down the slippery slope of eroding online privacy, things like Beacon will eventually cease to outrage people and will simply become an accepted norm.

I wonder if Beacon would have met with such strong opposition from users if Facebook had cut people in on the revenue. It’s rather alarming to have your picture appear next to your most recent purchase from Fandango or Blockbuster. But what if you got a cut of each purchase that was made thanks to a clickthrough on that ad? Would people still have such a big problem with it then?

And when you really look at who’s protesting, it’s still only a tiny fraction of users. The last time I checked, MoveOn.org’s online petition against Facebook’s privacy violations only had about 50,000 users, which is less than 0.1% of all Facebook users (as of November 2007).

Nevertheless, this latest revelation about the reach of Beacon outside of Facebook’s website and its tracking of logged-out users is very disturbing. Facebook’s contradiction of itself is even more so. I’m waiting eagerly to hear what they have to say for themselves.

In about 18 hours from the time of this post I will be on a bicycle, attempting to ride 150 miles, or until I die, whichever comes first.

I’ll be leaving AT&T Park in San Francisco, headed to wine country for the MS 150 - Waves to Wine charity bike ride to fight multiple sclerosis. It will be my second time doing this ride. I rode last year with a bunch of my friends, and I had so much fun that I thought, “why not do it again?”. Well, that plan would have been great except for the fact that for the past three months I’ve lead an almost entirely sedentary lifestyle. This argely because of my work schedule, but in part also due to my inherent laziness (inertia is a powerful thing).

So now I’m staring a 150-mile bike ride in the face with practically no training. I suspect things will probably turn out ok, but not without a little bit of pain first. Then again, it’s nothing compared to actually having multiple sclerosis.

If you’d like to sponsor my crazy little endeavor, I would be honored if you clicked through to my donor page.

All the money goes to a very good cause (no, not my wine collection) – the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. Donations can be made through October 30, 2007. Thanks in advance!

So I’ve done the blogging thing off and on since 2000, but most of the time I’m too busy living life to blog.

Nevertheless, I’m giving it another shot now. I’ve somehow managed to post a Daily Peter almost every day for three weeks, so perhaps this blogging thing might end up being a semi-regular occurrence as well!