Facebook offers businesses free Place Tips beacon devices

Facebook is giving away the beacon device
needed to detect nearby smartphones
Facebook has begun a roll-out of Place Tips -
a system allowing businesses to send updates
to a person's smartphone when they are
nearby.
Keen to get retailers on board, Facebook is
sending out free Bluetooth beacon devices to
firms that request them.
Other tech companies, including Apple, have
experimented with similar systems.
One marketing expert told the BBC it is
important the systems do not become
"intrusive".
Facebook has been conducting a trial of Place
Tips in New York City since the start of the
year, where more than 100 businesses have
taken part.
Currently it only works with Apple devices, but
a version that supports smartphones powered
by Google's Android operating system is being
developed.
The social network has now announced it is
rolling out Place Tips across the US, but has
not said when it plans to bring the system to
other parts of the world.
'Fun, useful and relevant'
Once a business - such as a coffee shop or
restaurant - sets up a beacon, it can detect
when a Facebook user is within a set
distance.
The beacon can then send "fun, useful and
relevant" information into the user's News
Feed.
According to Facebook's explanation page ,
this information could include content posted
by friends in the same place, as well as
popular menu items and upcoming events.
Place Tips will appear in users' News Feeds
when they are nearby
The page notes that the feature can be turned
off.
Aaron Wachsstock, a digital content strategist
at the Virginia-based Borenstein Group, told
the BBC that Facebook would need to be
careful in how it allowed information to be
sent out.
"I can definitely see the potential, but I can
also see how people could feel it is intrusive.
"If people get all these messages when they
enter a store, they could view it as spam."
Beacon boom
Facebook told the btcollection

that companies would
not yet be able to use the service to advertise,
but that this position may change in the
future.
The social network was also keen to stress
that information sharing is "one way".
"The beacons don't collect any information
from people or their phones or change the
kind of location information Facebook
receives," the company explained.
Apple's own beacon technology - iBeacon - is
also currently being tested by businesses
around the world, including a select number of
McDonald's restaurants and shops on
London's Regent Street.
At McDonald's, special deals for chicken
nuggets were pushed to customer's phones as
they entered the premises - resulting, the
restaurant chain said, in a 7.5% increase in
nugget sales in the 26 locations involved.
Mr Wachsstock said companies must be
completely open about how the systems work.
otherwise people would simply disable the
feature.
"There is a lot of paranoia - people might
wonder 'who's watching me?'
"As long as people are aware of how it's
supposed to act it should be accepted."