BEIJING, Dec. 3 (Xinhuanet) -- Facebook announced in a statement posted on its website that it had made some changes to its Beacon online ad-system, media reported Monday.

The changes came after more than 50,000 users signed a petition, complaining that the Beacon was too intrusive and too confusing to opt out of.

Beacon is an advertising platform that tracks Facebook's member transactions on third-party partner sites and transforms them into product/service endorsements.

Facebook introduced the system just several weeks ago. Users' data on their activities at those participant websites is flowing back to Facebook automatically without the option to block that information from being transmitted.

Users are able to opt out but only on case-by-case basis, which means that they must opt-out for each of the more than 44 participant websites. As a consequence, the program has been blasted by groups such as MoveOn.org and by individual users.

Facebook had to adjust Beacon to make it work more explicitly and to make it easier to nix a broadcast message and opt out of having activities tracked on specific Web sites.

"Users must click on 'OK' in a new initial notification on their Facebook home page before the first Beacon story is published to their friends from each participating site," the statement reads.

Also, Facebook's Beacon offers now to the users clear options in ongoing notifications to either delete or publish. If they delay in making this decision, the notification will hide and they can make a decision at a later time.

But Facebook didn't go all the way to providing a general opt-out option for the entire Beacon program, as some had hoped.

(Agencies)