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SAN FRANCISCO — Saying it went too far in its pursuit of profit, the popular Internet hangout Facebook Inc. is allowing its 55 million users to permanently turn off a new marketing tool that tracks their activities at other websites.
The privacy control, announced in a Wednesday apology by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, will likely limit the reach of an application called “Beacon.”
The tool is part of a month-old program that Face book hailed as an advertising breakthrough.
Facebook users attacked Beacon as a flagrant violation of privacy.
The tool enables Facebook to track its users’ purchases and actions at dozens of websites and then broadcast the data on the pages of their listed friends within its social network.
