No one ever posts "is shopping for sex toys on the internet" as their Facebook status

You have to wonder how business proposals like this make it through dozens of people without raising any red flags.

Sean Lane's purchase was supposed to be a surprise for his wife. Then it appeared as a news headline -- "Sean Lane bought 14k White Gold 1/5 ct Diamond Eternity Flower Ring from overstock.com" -- last week on the social networking Web site Facebook.

Without Lane's knowledge, the headline was visible to everyone in his online network, including [h]is wife.

The wraps came off his Christmas gift thanks to a new advertising feature called Beacon, which shares news of Facebook members' online purchases with their friends. The idea, according to the company, is to allow merchants to effectively turn millions of Facebook users into a "word-of-mouth promotion" service. (WP)

Let it be clear that there was no opt-in involved in this situation, and users were in no way informed about this ahead of time. After Facebook users organized in opposition to the policy, Facebook quickly dropped the original Beacon plan.

I imagine this was a case in which "millennial" staff saw no problem with a level of online exhibitionism that would appall most people born before 1980. (And probably quite a few born after). Bizarre.

Sean Lane should take comfort in the fact that it could have been a lot worse. At least he got caught doing something sweet for a loved one and not something else. Imagine the possibilities.