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Apple Bans Facebook in Retail Stores

Friday February 6, 2009 12:52 am PST by Arnold Kim
Tinycomb reports `that Apple Retail stores no longer offer access to FaceBook.com, a popular social networking site:

In an effort to thwart off time-theft and loiterers, Apple has decided to add Facebook to the list of banned websites at retail locations nationwide. When I asked some of the genius today whether or not anyone noticed the change, they all said that Facebook stopped working sometime in the past week.

The reason for the banning, of course, is to prevent loitering at Apple stores. MySpace was similarly banned in 2007 according to the site.

Update: According to the Wall Street Journal, Apple has denied having an official policy of blocking Facebook from computers in their retail stores, although it appears that some individual stores may have blocked Facebook of their accord.
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Luke1robb
39 months ago
http://tinycomb.com/2009/02/05/apple-store-bans-facebook-for-life/

Thoughts?

Personally, I'm glad they've made this decision. Less people just wasting time in there, more time for people to experience the computers.
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Sky Blue
39 months ago



Personally, I'm glad they've made this decision. Less people just wasting time in there, more time for people to experience the computers.


Yup, sounds good to me.
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SteveMobs
39 months ago
Hopefully it's the first nail in Facebook's coffin. I'm really start to get tired of it and I could see how it would annoy Apple if people come into their stores just to check facebook. Good looks apple.
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liquidtrend
39 months ago
sounds good. now if they could only put an age restriction on the built in cameras. i hate standing in line as grade school children take pictures of themselves, then with julie and stacy, then just stacy, the just julie and stacy...and repeat with every effect possible.
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miniConvert
39 months ago
Personally I think Apple should, within reason, let folk do what they want on the in-store demo units. The point is that people are in the stores and using Macs. Even if they just ran in to check the train times, they got to experience a Mac first hand and the idea is that the experience will be positive and stay with them.
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dukebound85
39 months ago
i approve of this move
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Abstract
39 months ago

sounds good. now if they could only put an age restriction on the built in cameras. i hate standing in line as grade school children take pictures of themselves, then with julie and stacy, then just stacy, the just julie and stacy...and repeat with every effect possible.


I approve of this move as well, but what you said about testing PhotoBooth is completely different, IMO. PhotoBooth is one of those fun features that Apple wants kids to be hooked on.
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NT1440
39 months ago
I think its a great move for several reasons (besides my loathing of what it has done to my generation). The most important being that I have personally walked into the apple store, opened safari and instantly had access to at least 6 peoples facebooks (with revealing information such as location). For some reason people just cant seem to figure out they need to log out, ESPECIALLY on a public computer.
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Abstract
39 months ago
The stores usually set Safari so that no cookies or any form information is kept.

I guess people change those settings, but if done correctly, it shouldn't be a problem.
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redwarrior
39 months ago

Hopefully it's the first nail in Facebook's coffin. I'm really start to get tired of it and I could see how it would annoy Apple if people come into their stores just to check facebook. Good looks apple.

Killing Facebook is like getting rid of grocery stores cause people try to give away kittens at the front door. This has nothing to do with Facebook specifically, only in keeping people from abusing the ability to use the demo computers with no intention of buying.:)

The stores usually set Safari so that no cookies or any form information is kept.

I guess people change those settings, but if done correctly, it shouldn't be a problem.

I would think they could use some form of deep freeze.
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