Fair Trade shouldn’t be this difficult

Tomorrow is World Fair Trade Day. Well, every day is for me (at least in terms of the coffee I drink at work and at home), but I was still happy to see Ben & Jerry’s ice cream doing something to promote the cause.

Ben & Jerry’s Fair Tweets is a browser add-on that filled unused characters in your Twitter updates with messages about the benefits of buying fair trade products. Great idea! However…

(More after the break)

First of all, you have to add a plug-in to your browser (Firefox or Chrome only). Obviously, this is flagged as a security concern. But who wouldn’t trust kindly old men who offer kids ice cream? I boldly lowered my browser’s defences.

But then, when I actually installed the damn thing in my toolbar (which was an extra step again) I got this permission notice:

Ummmm… no. There’s only so much online privacy I’m willing to give up just to show you dear Osocio readers how it works.

Perhaps some of you more technically apt out there could explain to me why such a seemingly simple and innocent looking app would have to be so laborious and invasive. But I guess I’ll just have to write my own Fair Trade Tweets….