Today at 1:30 PM EST, Reputation.com CEO Michael Fertik appeared as a guest on Small Business Trends Radio to discuss online reputation management and Internet privacy issues. Small Business Trends Radio is a part of the BlogTalkRadio network. Here is a description of the program.
Small Business Trends Radio is a half hour-long program featuring interviews and open discussions with today’s small business experts on a variety of topics. Guests include a mix of influential individuals who speak on issues of the day important to the small business market; and business owners who speak from a “been there, done that” point of view, offering insider tips and advice.
To listen to Michael’s interview, click on the player below.
In today’s Quick Hits, we discuss Facebook (as usual), the semantics of the “Open Web,” and have some more information about the Russian Facebook hacker from last week. Enjoy!
This morning, Senators Charles Schumer (D-NY), Michael F. Bennet (D-Colo.), Al Franken (D-Minn.), and Mark Begich (D-Alaska) sent a letter to Facebook asking the company to change how it delivers user information to advertisers. In their letter, the senators say Facebook’s recent privacy changes, “fundamentally alter the relationship between the user and social networking site.” In response, Elliot Schrage, Facebook’s vice president of communications and public policy, said that Facebook’s new features “are designed to enhance personalization and promote social activity across the Internet” and that they only work with a user’s consent.
Last week, while most of the attention was on Facebook’s Russian hacker, social networking start-up Blippy faced its own under-the-radar crisis. The company, which allows users to share a record of their credit and debit card purchases, accidentally exposed the full credit card information of four customers. The credit card numbers could be found out in the open through a specialized Google search. Blippy quickly worked with Google on removing the indexed information, but the company wants to do more to show it is serious about security.
According to CNET, Blippy CEO Ashvin Kumar said he will “hire a chief security officer and other staff to focus solely on the issue and will conduct regular security audits through third-party companies. He also pledged to invest in technology to filter out sensitive data.”
Speaking of the Russian Facebook hacker, ZDNet has a very thorough and very informative FAQ on the incident, including information on why the profile data is valuable to scammers and the overall black market economy of cybercriminals.
Google recently began adding business information to Google Street View. According to the L.A. Times Technology Blog, “Users viewing a specific location in Street View will now see an icon overlaid on an image of a company building. Upon clicking that icon, a dialog box will open, displaying the establishment’s name, address, phone number and website. If the company has a Google Place page, users will be able to find other content, like hours, any deals it’s currently offering, and whatever else the business owner added to the company’s profile.”
In other words, getting found on Google in all of its incarnations is more important than ever for small business owners.
Facebook’s numerous announcements at the f8 conference have gotten tech experts wondering about the true nature of “open” on the Internet. Is Facebook’s Open Graph technology really open when technically its bringing third-party websites into its own domain? In a well-written article for GigaOm Matthew Ingram explores the definition of “open” and how Facebook’s definition differs from standard technical interpretations.
Wild West 2.0: How to Protect and Restore Your Reputation on the Untamed Social Frontier, by Reputation.com CEO Michael Fertik and Reputation.com General Counsel David Thompson, goes on sale June 2nd. In anticipation of the book’s release, getAbstract, the web’s premiere destination for reviews and information on the latest business books, has reviewed Wild West 2.0 and featured it as a “Pick of the Week.”
The getAbstract review of Wild West 2.0 gives the book an 8/10 rating, recommending the book to “anyone who has to fight back against online slurs, and to anyone who has a good reputation and wants to keep it.” Check out the whole review below.
Although the Internet is the greatest information resource and connectivity medium the world has ever seen, it is still remarkably wild and woolly. Millions of shady characters inhabit it, lurking to steal your shirt and sell it back to you at twice the original price. Some online con artists set up phony rating sites where they publish scathing reviews of companies’ products and then extort heavy fees from those firms to remove the negative reviews. Malevolent liars use the Internet anonymously to ruin people’s reputations or corporations’ standings with blog attacks and negative postings. Reputation management consultants Michael Fertik and David Thompson examine these fraudulent activities and more in this disturbing but timely book, and they outline steps you can take to protect your online reputation or the good name of your business. Though the book is somewhat repetitive, Fertik and Thompson have created a solid, useful manual on safeguarding your good name online. getAbstract recommends it to anyone who has to fight back against online slurs, and to anyone who has a good reputation and wants to keep it.
In today’s Quick Hits, we follow up on fallout from Facebook’s f8 conference, discuss some interesting research on how people use Facebook, and talk about Google’s lobbying efforts in Washington, D.C.
Facebook’s Open Graph technology is facing criticism over privacy issues in the United States and abroad. According to Bloomberg News, Canadian Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart has criticized Facebook for moving in the “opposite direction” from the last time she called out the company on privacy issues. In the U.S., Senator Chuck Schumer is also criticizing Facebook, insisting in a letter to the FTC that the company allow users to opt-in by default rather than having to opt-out.
A new study suggests Facebook users are aware of how important it is to keep some portions of their profiles hidden from employers. In a recent survey by computer security company F Secure, 73% of the Facebook users polled said that they were not ‘friends’ with their bosses on the site. 77% of those polled said that they did employ some of Facebook’s privacy tools to keep their personal information private. In spite of these extra security measures, however, 35% of users polled indicated that they had, at some point, posted something on Facebook that they later regretted.
In his Technically Incorrect column for CNET, Chris Matyszczyk argues that Facebook could learn a lot about transparency from the popular gossip website Gawker. Matyszczyk humorously compares and contrasts the two companies, describing how Facebook’s method of communication is to tell you one thing and then do another while Gawker simply tells you the truth whether you like it or not.
Twitter can be extremely difficult to manage when you start getting hundreds or thousands of followers. In a recent article for Mashable, Amy-Mae Elliott offers some advice on cleaning out your Twitter account and highlights some third-party apps that can help you in your cause.
According to the Washington Post, Google has “increased its first-quarter spending on lobbying by more than 50 percent to argue its position on privacy, online advertising competition and net neutrality to members of Congress, federal regulators and the White House.” Given the current climate surrounding privacy issues and general uneasiness over behavioral advertising, it’s no surprise to see Google increasing its presence in Washington, D.C. In the first quarter of 2010, Google spent $1.38 million on lobbying efforts.
Researchers at the University of Maryland asked 200 students to give up all media for one full day. After 24 hours away from computers, cell phones, or television, the students began to exhibit withdrawal-like symptoms and demonstrated an “inability to function well without their media and social links.” In the United States, Internet addiction is not recognized as a psychological disorder, but in other parts of the world, particularly in Asian countries, it is regularly diagnosed.
According to Mashable, a Russian hacker named Kirllos is claiming to have obtained 1.5 million Facebook IDs and is planning to sell them for as low as $25 per 1000 IDs. If the hacker’s claims are true, the 1.5 million accounts represent approximately 1 in every 300 Facebook users.
In an article for eWeek, Rick Howard, director of cyber-intelligence at iDefense, explains how the exposed Facebook accounts could just be the beginning of a more orchestrated cyberattack.
“Once you have the name and address and other profile-type information from a social networking site, you can use it to corroborate your way into debit card accounts and bank accounts through social engineering, ” Howard added. “You could also use these accounts as a platform to distribute malware through the friend system. Even as a security guy, I have to double and triple clutch when it comes to accepting friend invites from people that I do not know.”
Facebook has yet to respond to the accuracy of the claim, but just to be safe you should change your Facebook log-in information immediately. To change your password, click the Account tab in the upper right hand corner of your profile and select Account Settings. From there, select the Change option next to Password and you will be prompted to input your old password and select a new one.
If you need help figuring out a solid new password, we encourage you to check out these password tips from Reputation.com CEO Michael Fertik. We will update the Reputation.com Blog with the latest details on this story as more information becomes available.
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