How to opt out of Facebook's new social advertising

There's been a lot of news lately about Facebook implementing a new system for advertisers. What's interesting/scary about this is how your non-Facebook purchases (for instance, at Amazon.com, Blockbuster.com) will be pulled in and shared with your Facebook friends. This is NOT cool with me, so you'd think that this was an opt-in program. No, it's an opt-out, so if you ignore or miss the chance to opt out, all your Facebook friends could potentially be notified of your latest hemorrhoid cream purchase or sappy chick flick rental.

I mentioned that there is an opt-out mechanism. Unfortunately, Facebook has decided not to give us a global opt-out. Instead, when you are making a purchase at a third party website like blockbuster.com (or any other site that is part of this program), you'll get a quick popup that asks if you want to opt out. If, like me, you use a popup blocker, you may never see this. Or, you may just ignore it and close the box. (Even shadier, if you do nothing, the window closes by itself in 15 seconds. Well, unless you explicitly click the opt out button, you've just given Facebook your consent to broadcast your purchase information to your Facebook friends.

Here's the instructions on how to opt-out of this stuff from within Facebook:

1. Click on the 'privacy' link on the upper right hand corner of any Facebook page.
2. Edit your settings for 'External Websites'.
3. Opt-out.

Thus far, I don't have any companies listed here. But if you happen to see something about me and Preparation-H, would you please warn me? And as for the sappy romantic comedies, in my defense, I was introduced to John Cusack by one S. Hahn during my formative years (college). What can I say?