In today’s Quick Hits, a woman’s Facebook photos earn her a ticket for illegal deer hunting, a professional skip-tracer explains how to disappear online, and Google gives us hints about new search features.
A man and woman in Inverness, Florida, were given a “citation for possession of wildlife taken illegally” after an Internet crimes unit found pictures of the woman skinning a deer on Facebook. This is not the first time that Facebook has helped law enforcement officials investigate a crime, but it is certainly one of the more unusual cases and clearly demonstrates how important Facebook and other social networking websites have become in our everyday lives.
Facebook is reportedly testing a new feature that would allow users to “subscribe to” other user’s updates. Some in the media have speculated that this feature would make Facebook stalking easy, but it’s unclear yet whether you will be able to subscribe to anyone’s profile, or if the feature will be limited to your friends. Given Facebook’s previous problems with safety, it would be a surprise if the company rolled out this product as an “opt-in” feature.
In their latest netiquette column for CNN, Brenna Ehrlich and Andrea Bartz discuss the fine art of Facebook commenting and offer advice on how to avoid leaving “boneheaded” comments on your friend’s wall. Ehrlich and Bartz offer three amusing, but all too true, scenarios.
Throughout his career, professional skip-tracer Frank Ahearn has helped track people and put them into hiding. Now, he’s taken his years of experience and put out a book to help regular people “vanish without a trace.” This USA Today interview features a short interview with Ahearn where he discusses the subject of social media and digital privacy.
Yesterday, Google’s interactive logo set the Internet on fire, even becoming a trending topic on Twitter. Today, Google has put out another interactive logo that many feel may be a hint that the company will announce the rollout of streaming search results during a press conference today. Some users are already seeing streaming search on Google.
In today’s Quick Hits, we offer cyberbullying advice, talk about California’s anti-impersonation bill, and how LSU football coach Les Miles embarrassed himself on Twitter.
According to the web security company F-Secure, “A clever spammer has discovered a Facebook vulnerability that allows for auto-replicating links” without having to use “social engineering,” i.e. manipulating users into performing a specific action or divulging confidential information. Facebook has closed the loophole, and the exploit is no longer effective, but it still shows just how much of a target Facebook is for spammer and scammers.
This article from Businessweek discusses California Senate Bill 1411, which would make maliciously impersonating someone on the Internet a misdemeanor crime punishable with up to a year in prison or a fine of $1,000. The article discusses some of the more controversial aspects of the bill, including the issue of how it would affect satirists and other individuals who use social media in a humorous way to call attention to an issue.
TechCrunch came up with a list of 10 hypothetical “rights” that every Facebook user should have. The Facebook Bill of Rights is similar in many ways to the “The Social Network Users’ Bill of Rights” proposed at the 20th annual Computers, Freedom, and Privacy conference this past June in San Jose. We at Reputation.com actively contributed to the development of the CFP list, and even came up with a list of our own.
After pulling out a tougher than expected win over the depleted University of North Carolina Tarheels, Louisiana State University football coach Les Miles sent out the following message on Twitter: “Woeojuwejhdjwe.” Presumably, the message was unintentional, but that didn’t stop Miles’ more than 20,000 followers from wagering their own guess at its meaning. According to BleacherReport, “Within minutes the twitter world was laughing at the LSU coach.” To his credit, Miles deleted the tweet within minutes.
In a guest post for the popular parenting blog momlogic, Gina Kaysen Fernandes offers tips for parents on what to do if their children become the victims of a cyberbullying attack. Reputation.com’s advice on how to recognize and prevent cyberbullying can be found in our Resource Center.
BusinessWeek and Huffington Post give a hat tip to this year’s group of Technology Pioneer Award winners. For a visual representation of these leaders in global innovation, check out the slideshows below.
We couldn’t be more proud or honored here at Reputation.com.
Reputation.comRedwood City, Calif.
Online reputation management Founder and CEO: Michael Fertik
Reputation.com specializes in helping consumers and businesses shape how they are seen online. It sells different security products on a monthly subscription basis that let consumers and businesses monitor information about themselves across the Web, bury undesirable information, and promote vetted content to the top of research results. The company’s technology is based on innovations in the fields of recursive search, semantic and sentiment analysis, language-agnostic processing, and data schemata for global flows of personally identifiable information.
Reputation.com allows businesses to track how their company is perceived on the Web. In an examination of the state of Internet privacy, the New York Times described the company’s services:
For a fee, the company will monitor your online reputation, contacting Web sites individually and asking them to take down offending items. In addition, with the help of the kind of search-optimization technology that businesses use to raise their Google profiles, Reputation.com can bombard the Web with positive or neutral information about its customers, either creating new Web pages or by multiplying links to existing ones to ensure they show up at the top of any Google search.
In today’s Quick Hits, we look into two new Facebook features, the new Times Square ad attacking Google privacy policies, and the latest stats on Twitter users and their mobile apps.
Facebook is testing a new “subscribe” feature that allows users to follow a user or page and receive notifications when a new update or piece of content (such as picture or video upload) occurs. This would allow users to choose the top friends they want to follow, and see their updates in the notification stream. So far, it is being only being tested with a small percent of users.
A new Times Square ad attacks Google CEO Eric Schmidt and the company’s privacy policies. The ad is sponsored by California-based consumer group Consumer Watchdog, as a part of their “Don’t Track Me” campaign. The organization is pushing Congress to pass legislation that would create a list of consumers who don’t want online companies tracking their Internet activities, much like the “Do Not Call” list. Consumer Watchdog president Jamie Court said, ”We’re satirizing Schmidt in the most highly-trafficked public square in the nation to make the public aware of how out of touch Schmidt and Google are when it comes to our privacy rights.”
Facebook users will soon be able to remotely log themselves out if they accidentally forgot to log-out of sessions in other locations. They will also be able to see where else they might be logged on. This new feature will be available under Account > Account Settings > Account Security. There, Facebook will provide the list of active sessions, along with the device and location data.
Twitter users are increasingly using mobile apps to access the site. According to a blog post by CEO Evan Williams, the number of mobile Twitter users has grown 62% since mid-April. Twitter’s stats show that their iPhone app is used by 8% of all users, and their Blackberry app by 7%. Third-party apps continue to be popular, with 3% of users using TweetDesk. In addition, 14% access the mobile version of the site.
Love it or hate it, MTV’s hit reality TV show Jersey Shore is a true pop culture phenomenon. A major part of the show’s success no doubt comes from the cast’s natural knack for self-promotion. Perhaps the best example of personal branding on the show comes from Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino.
Anyone who has seen “The Situation” on TV knows that the young man’s greatest assets are his six-pack abs. He’s proud of them, as well he should be, and he has used them repeatedly to garner endorsement deals and a variety of other lucrative moneymaking ventures.
In his latest video blog, Reputation.com CEO Michael Fertik explains how doctors, lawyers, and other professionals can learn from “The Situation” and show off their number one asset online as part of a powerful personal brand.
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