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Entries from October 2010 ↓
Reputation.com Down for Scheduled Maintenance
October 16th, 2010 | Reputation.com News | Rob Frappier
Reputation Management, Internet Privacy, and Social Media Quick Hits
October 15th, 2010 | Facebook, Legal Issues, Online Reputation Management, Parenting, Privacy, Quick Hits, Student Online Reputation | Rob Frappier
In today’s Quick Hits, we talk about automatic geo-tagging of photos, how would-be yogurt thieves outed themselves on Facebook, and whether there should be a law protecting children from being tracked online.
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Avoiding False Friend Request Scams
A leading security researcher is warning Facebook users to not do something that should be rather obvious: accept a friend request from someone you don’t know. Scammers and spammers are using fake Facebook profiles to become friends with real Facebook users. Once the fake profile has been accepted, the phony Facebook member scrapes the real contact info and personal data from the unsuspecting user and uses it for spam or marketing purposes.
Yogurt Store Thieves Out Themselves on Facebook
This interesting local story details how a yogurt store owner was able to catch one of his former employees and several other individuals breaking into his store because of a Facebook update. After discovering Facebook messages talking about “yogurt heists” and finding his store in disarray, owner Konrad Thiel decided to stake out his store one night. Sure enough, he saw several individuals break in, at which point he called the police. The multiple 20-something yogurt thieves were booked on felony burglary charges.
British Teacher Investigated Over “Semi-Naked” Photos
Kirsty Cook-Bell, a 33-year-old teacher working for the Christian-sponsored Grace Academy, has been put on leave since school administrators began an investigation into revealing photos of her on Facebook. The images, which showed the teacher wearing a bikini on vacation, were accompanied by messages about how she disliked her job and liked to go out partying. Cases like this are becoming a dime a dozen, particularly for teachers and other school officials.
GPS Tagging in Photos Raises Questions About Privacy
Many modern cameras and smart phones have GPS functionality that “tags” a picture with the precise global location of where it was taken. Some privacy advocates are wondering whether users fully understand the scope of this technology and how to prevent an Exchangeable Image File Format (EXIF) from showing up in an image. Several popular photo-sharing websites keep EXIF information in images, and even those that don’t still allow access if someone runs the photo through basic photo editing technology.
Common Sense Media CEO Jim Steyer: Do Not Track Kids Online
In a column for the Huffington Post, Common Sense Media CEO Jim Steyer argues that, in addition to receiving education about safe Internet use from their school and their parents, kids should be protected from online tracking by government regulations. Steyer’s argument is solid; we haven’t had major Internet regulation related to kids since 1998. “The last time we enacted online protections for children was in 1998 when Congress passed the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act. That literally feels like centuries ago. There was no YouTube. No Facebook or MySpace or Twitter. No geolocation applications that let kids announce to their friends (and marketers) where they are.” As the technology has evolved, so has the threat to children’s privacy, safety, and reputations online.
Reputation Management, Internet Privacy, and Social Media Quick Hits
October 14th, 2010 | Facebook, Google, Legal Issues, Online Reputation Management, Privacy, Quick Hits, Search Engines | Rob Frappier
In today’s Quick Hits, we talk about Faceook and Microsoft’s intriguing partnership, why you shouldn’t post videos of yourself speeding on Facebook, and how the DHS uses social media to uncover fraud.
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Microsoft and Facebook Team Up to Target Google
Microsoft and Facebook deepened their partnership yesterday with the announcement of a Facebook-powered search option for Bing. The feature, which would incorporate Facebook’s social functionality into Bing search results for a personalized user experience, is widely seen as an attempt by both companies to compete with Google for search traffic.
Homeland Security Document Reveals How Government Uses Social Media for Spying
The Electronic Frontier Foundation recently uncovered a Department of Homeland Security briefing on how government agents use social networking websites, and the narcissism of social media users, to monitor individuals online. According to the DHS document, “Narcissistic tendencies in many people fuels a need to have a large group of ‘friends’ link to their pages and many of these people accept cyber-friends that they don’t even know. This provides an excellent vantage point for FDNS to observe the daily life of beneficiaries and petitioners who are suspected of fraudulent activities.”
Police Charge Driver After Finding Reckless Driving Video on Facebook
An Israeli man was charged for excessive speeding and reckless endangerment after police discovered a video on Facebook showing him driving 162 mph on the freeway. The video, which was passed on to the media by one of the man’s friends, also showed the driver momentarily taking his hands off the wheel while he was speeding.
Facebook Offers One-Time Use Password
To help protect users from malicious software like keystroke loggers and other identity theft programs, Facebook recently announced the ability to request a one-time use password if they are using public computers. To get the one-time password, a user must text “otp” to “32665″ from a Facebook-verified phone.
New Study Shows 64% of CEOs Avoid Social Media
A new study from PR firm Weber Shandwick revealed an interesting statistic about CEO social media use. According to the report, 64% of CEOs do not actively use social media websites on behalf of their companies. In part, CEOs avoid social media because of the reputation risk associated with being online, but interestingly, there is also a reputation risk to not being proactive online. In the study, the CEOs who used social media were rated as more admired than those who didn’t.
DigitalDecision 2010: Christine O’Donnell vs. Chris Coons
October 13th, 2010 | Fun Stuff, Reputation.com News | Rob Frappier
This article originally appeared in the Huffington Post.
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Thinking about publicly divulging your earlier dabblings in satanic rituals? Or considering an ironic, fringe title for an article in your college newspaper? Take a lesson from the Delaware Senate race. Everything you say or do in the public sphere can and will find its way to the Web’s megaphone. And it can bite you.
Mental anguish lawsuit, masturbation, witchcraft — these aren’t terms often aligned with trust, esteem or politics. We all know that the little red flags that appear in search results can go a long way in forming our judgments, regardless of whether those flags are grounded in reality. Search for your local doctor and “quack” or “addict” comes up; alarm ensues. Check out a potential employee online and you find a rant-filled blog or juvenile pictures, you’ll do more than just raise an eyebrow. Likely, you’ll place them in the reject pile.
This week’s side-by-side comparison of the online reputations of two contending candidates, Christine O’Donnell and Chris Coons, offers its fair share of flag-raising results. Let’s dig in to a few of the more interesting scores.
Tone: O’Donnell 1, Coons 4
For O’Donnell, Google Suggest (a new feature by Google that turns up predictive search results) sets the tone when it serves up “Christine O’Donnell witch,” “Christine O’Donnell witchcraft” before “Christine O’Donnell for senate.” In her earlier career O’Donnell made a public statement about her interest in witchcraft. O’Donnell reinforced this association with advertisements, videos and interviews discussing the claim. Google recognized a pattern Christine O’Donnell = witchcraft. And now the campaign is more identified with witchcraft than it is tea party, republican or Delaware senator.
Similarly, an artifact from Coons’ youth is impacting his current persona, on and offline. “Chris Coons: The Making of a Bearded Marxist,” an article written by the politician in his college years, has been digitized, discovered and disseminated. Regardless of whether or not Coons has Marxist leanings, this association creates a tone for his search results that can handicap his campaign.
O’Donnell’s tone: 3:1:1 (negative, neutral, positive)–is driven by headlines of “craziness, masturbation and witchcraft.” Coons’ tone: 1:2:2 (negative, neutral, positive) reflects his political objectives.
Control: O’Donnell 1, Coons 4
Ever heard of cyber-squatting? Where someone takes your website or your name’s URL and sets up shop? The first page of O’Donnell’s search results reveal such an instance. An anti-O’Donnell campaigner has gone online and captured O’Donnell’s ’08 campaign page, using the site to reveal alleged hypocrisies and blemishes in O’Donnell’s political and personal life.
Beyond these guerilla tactics, O’Donnell is also up against the brute force of online humor. Funny videos mocking people of power have a way of going viral. Especially when they’re as mainstream as Saturday Night Live.
Campaign Coons on the other hand isn’t up against the same hurdles as O’Donnell. His web search checklist is in proper order: Chris Coons campaign page, Wikipedia entry, image results, recent and relevant political news, Facebook. He’s got a high level of control to prevent the unflattering “Bearded Marxist” talk from taking over and taking rank.
Message Match: O’Donnell 1, Coons 3
Just as Coons doesn’t want to be known as a bearded Marxist, O’Donnell would rather not be known for witchcraft. But a look at O’Donnell’s predictive search terms and a measure of her search results makes clear–she is not known for her tax plan or teacher reform, she’s known for her witching ways.
We’ll see tonight how the interplay of campaign slogans, fiery debate, television and social media play out in influencing voters’ Digital Decision 2010.
Stay tuned later this week for O’Donnell vs Coons updates and our Top 5 Worst online errs…O’Donnell, in no way are you alone out there!
Follow Michael Fertik on Twitter: www.twitter.com/http://twitter.
Reputation Management, Internet Privacy, and Social Media Quick Hits
October 13th, 2010 | Facebook, Google, Online Reputation Management, Privacy, Quick Hits | Rob Frappier
In today’s Quick Hits, we talk about Gap’s failed attempt to introduce a new logo, how a Virginia politician’s online photos have thrust her into the national spotlight, and how Germany is preparing for Google Street View.
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Showing how quickly consumers can mobilize on the Internet, The Gap was recently forced to roll back plans for a new logo after being mocked by customers on websites like Facebook and Twitter. Reaction to the new logo was so negative that it even inspired several spoof websites and satirical social media accounts.
Krystal Ball, a 28-year-old Virginia Democrat running for Congress, is in the headlines over several racy photos that have appeared online. The images, from a Christmas party when Ball was in her early 20s, show the candidate dressed as a “Sexy Mrs. Claus.” Ball believes the photos were leaked to a conservative blogger, but she refuses to apologize for the images.
Speaking on behalf of other young politicians who mahy have similar online indiscretions, Ball said, ”I may be one of the first who has had photos like this brought out in this way. But given that more and more people from my generation will be stepping up and running for office and we’ve lived much of our lives online … I realized it was important for me to stand up to these tactics, to call them out.”
Google is set to roll out its Street View services across Germany in the coming weeks, causing considerable unease among privacy-conscious citizens. In an attempt to address privacy concerns, Google gave German citizens until October 15th to request to opt out of having their homes mapped by the service. Google has also gone on record to defend Street View saying that many fears over the service are based on “misinformation.”
In the wake of Rutgers student Tyler Clementi’s sucide and the viral explosion of Duke grad Karen Owen’s “sex thesis,” many people are discussing how the concept of privacy has changed in the age of Facebook and social sharing. This article from CNN goes in depth into the so-called “Death of Online Privacy” and touches on social media, mobile, and video streaming technologies.
Right now, there are hundreds of companies scraping the social web for any and all information and they are analyzing it, chopping it up, packaging it, and selling it to the highest bidder. According to this excellent article from the Wall Street Journal, spending on data from online sources is going to increase from $410 million to $840 million from 2009 to 2012. The Wall Street Journal article goes into great detail on how scrapers operate and why people who have had their data scraped feel that their privacy has been violated.
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