Keep Your Christmas Gifts Secret

If you’re a Facebook user who likes to do your Christmas shopping online, you could discover on the big day that your friends and relatives already know what surprise gift you bought them, thanks to Facebook Beacon, which captures details of your shopping on other sites (including eBay, Fandango, Zappos and Overstock.com) and adds brief details of your purchases to your Facebook page. Even if you opt out there is still a chance that Facebook will still capture that information, so here’s what to do to keep your surprises secret.

Download the Firefox extension Block Site(yes, I know I’ve written about removing Firefox addons for security in the past). Block Site does exactly what it says on the tin, it blocks sites. Of course, you have to be using Firefox for it to work. For other browsers, including Internet Explorer, you might be able to hack your “hosts” file, but I’m not going there today (email me or leave a comment if you want details on the hosts hack).

Once installed, go to the Options and add “http://*facebook.com/beacon/” without the quotes but with the wildcard asterisk. That’s it, no more Facebook spying and plenty of smiling faces on Christmas Day, assuming you didn’t choose the multipack of black nylon socks or the Bart Simpson tie again for Dad.