In today’s Quick Hits, Facebook Places expands to Europe, how criminals tried to impersonate the head of Interpol, and why photos of a heinous crime are going viral online.

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Facebook Places Launches in the UK

Facebook Places, the company’s much-hyped geo-location mobile check-in service, has officially launched in the United Kingdom. Facebook Places will roll out throughout the rest of Europe in the coming weeks. When Facebook Places launched several weeks ago, many tech analysts predicted the beginning of mainstream acceptance for location-based social networking.

Keep Internet Security Simple Survey: Americans Want to Keep Some Information Private

According to the Keep Internet Security Simple survey from Harris Interactive and PC Tools, four in five Americans indicated that they want to keep files on their computers private from others. This desire for information privacy challenges the assumption among certain technology executives that sharing has become a “social norm.” In this article from PCWorld, Dan Tynan explains why privacy does matter to Internet users and why the heads of tech companies would be better off if they recognized this fact.

Criminals Steal Interpol Chief’s Identity

According to an AP report, “Criminals stole the Facebook identity of Interpol head Ronald K. Noble and used it to obtain information on an operation by the international police agency.” Interpol’s Information Security Incident Response Team found two Facebook profiles attempting to impersonate Noble. Noble said that “one of the impersonators was using this profile to obtain information on fugitives targeted during our recent Operation Infra Red.” Last year, the head of Britain’s MI6 agency accidentally had his private information revealed on Facebook, demonstrating the threat that unsecure social networking has on national security.

AVG Finds 20,000 Compromised Web Pages on the World’s Most Popular Social Networking Sites

The cybersecurity firm AVG is making a push to educate and provide safety tools to college students so that they don’t become the victims of “status jacking” attacks on Facebook. According to AVG’s research, 11,701 compromised web pages appeared on Facebook and 7,163 appeared on YouTube.

Police Have Trouble Removing Photos of Gang Rape From Internet

While investigating the rape of a 16-year-old girl in the Vancouver area, Canada’s RCMP uncovered several photos of the attack on Facebook. Mounties have contacted Facebook users who are sharing the photos online, asking them to remove them and, in some cases, considering charging the individuals with child pornography possession. Unfortunately, when one image is taken down, another one goes up. According to Inspector Derren Lench, “every time it’s shut down on one Facebook [account], it seems to reappear and its been shared in several communities in the Lower Mainland, so the victim has to relive it on a daily basis.”