U.S. Marine Raises Questions With Facebook Group

A United States Marine is facing criticism and support for setting up a Facebook group that is critical of President Obama. After establishing the Facebook group Armed Forces Tea Party Patriots, Sgt. Gary Stein was directed by his superior officers to remove the group. After it was taken down, a local civilian organization brought the group back.

Stein says he has no intention of pushing the issue, but it does bring up an important question over the rights that employers have (in this case the United States Marine Corps) in deciding how their employees can use social networking websites.

Young People DO Care About Internet Privacy

Young people, who are often criticized for exposing their entire lives online, are actually aware of and concerned about privacy on the web. According to a study released by researchers at UC Berkeley and the University of Pennsylvania shows that teens and young adults online share similar concerns as their elders, particularly about social networking websites like Facebook.

Italian Judge in Google Case Receives Hate Mail

Judge Oscar Magi, who convicted three Google executives on charges of criminal harassment a few months ago in an Italian court, has been receiving hate mail over his decision. According to this article from ComputerWorld, Magi claims the messages have come from all over the world from people critical over his decision. In an odd way, however, the hate mail helps to serve his point that people don’t take proper considerations of their actions online.

Should Users Be Mad Over Behavioral Targeting?

Behavioral targeting is one of the least-understood yet widely accepted forms of invasive marketing online. In general, people accept having ads tailored specifically for them, even though they don’t like the idea of using their surfing habits or Google searches to supply the information. In this article from Clickz.com, Amy Manus discusses behavioral targeting and why she believes that individuals who share their own information online need to reconsider why they think it’s wrong for companies to use that same information for targeted marketing.