Entries from July 2011 ↓
July 11th, 2011 | Facebook, Google, Online Reputation Management, Parenting, Privacy, Quick Hits, Student Online Reputation, Twitter | Rob Frappier
In today’s Quick Hits, Groupon has made a big change to its privacy policy, early Google+ users are optimistic about the service, and some thoughts from NPR on kids and social networking.
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Groupon Changes Privacy Policy to Collect More User Information
In advance of its upcoming IPO, the group discount company Groupon is increasing the amount of data it shares with third party companies. Groupon announced its privacy policy changes in an e-mail to customers on Sunday. According to Cecilia Kang at the Washington Post, Groupon said it would “expand the categories of “personal information” it collects and shares with partners, such as Expedia. Now, Groupon will share data on interests and habits with third-parties. Other information it shares includes contact information, relationship information, transaction information and mobile location information.”
Oakland A’s Suspend Pitching Prospect Over Twitter Updates
The Oakland A’s have suspended top pitching prospect Ian Krol for an offensive tweet involving a “gay slur along with some other offensive language.” This is not the first time that an athlete has been suspended for his social networking presence, but Krol’s low follower numbers make this an interesting story. At the time of the update, Krol only had approximately 90 followers. While 90 people is not a significant audience, the A’s organization determined that anything Krol said, no matter how many people he said it to, reflected on the A’s organization as a whole and that a suspension was necessary.
10 Safe Social Networking Websites for Kids
NPR writes about social networking websites for children and how there is a growing demand for such services. Quoting the article, “The need is undeniable; the market potentially huge and lucrative. Companies are gearing up for this gold rush by creating websites strictly for children and websites that allow parents to create profiles for their kids.” The article then lists 10 of the better known social networking websites for kids, including YourSphere from fellow ABC 20/20 Web Avenger Mary Kay Hoal.
When Should Children Join Social Networks?
In another NPR article on social networking for children, Linton Weeks discusses the appropriate age for kids to join social networking websites and how some parents are approaching the issue. Weeks’ article does a good job of discussing the various dangers involved with social networking for young users as well as the possible benefits, citing a number of academic sources.
Understanding Google+ Privacy Settings
As Google’s new social network, Google+, continues to roll out to a larger audience, many tech journalists are on high alert for privacy slip-ups. So far, Google has done a good job with privacy on Google+, earning mostly positive reviews. As the product becomes more popular however, there is potential for even one confusing privacy setting to turn off users. This article in the Wall Street Journal discusses Google+ privacy settings and where the company may run into some problems.
July 8th, 2011 | Facebook, Internet Safety, Online Reputation Management, Parenting, Privacy, Quick Hits, Research | Rob Frappier
In today’s Quick Hits, we offer some Facebook advice for parents, ponder the power of Web vigilantes, dig into a new study on Facebook privacy, and share Twitter security tips.
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What Your Kids Need to Know Before Joining Facebook
As soon as kids are legally allowed, and often before, they are joining Facebook. As a parent, what steps can you take to ensure your child is safe online? In this article for the Calgary Herald, mom and social networking pro Hessie Jones offers seven guidelines for parents. Jones’ article includes such sound tips as “friend only people you know” and other common sense, but often neglected, pieces of advice.
Has Web Vigilantism Gone Too Far?
In a world where uncovering someone’s identity is as easy as a quick Google search, has Web vigilantism gone too far? In the Washington Post, Melissa Bell argues that the kind of mob mentality that led to the recent Vancouver riots may have also manifested itself online in efforts to catch the rioters — and it’s only going to get easier. Quoting the article, “Tracking down identities — either to help or to punish someone — will get even more straightforward in the near future…Facebook already uses facial recognition to tag photographs. Identifying Vancouver rioters will be a lot easier when the technology does it all on its own. Whether that will strengthen or weaken the online community remains to be seen.”
Study Demonstrates Adults and Kids Equally Bad at Online Privacy
According to new research by the University of Guelph, older Facebook users are nearly as likely as their younger peers to disclose personal information online. Quoting a report on the study, “Thirty-five per cent of the young people and 29 per cent of the adults were at least somewhat likely to disclose personal information on Facebook.” Interestingly, the report also revealed that while they share slightly more personal information, young people are also more aware of the way that the information can be potentially harmful to their privacy and reputation.
Protecting Your Twitter Account with HTTPS
Following several high-profile Twitter hijackings, including one in which a Fox News account was hacked and used to tweet bogus news for several hours, TIME’s Techland blog offers this article on how to enable HTTPS during Twitter log-ins. While not a guarantee against intrusion, using an HTTPS secure log-in will give users an additional layer of security.
July 7th, 2011 | Facebook, Google, Internet Safety, Legal Issues, Online Reputation Management, Privacy, Quick Hits, Twitter | Rob Frappier
In today’s diverse edition of our daily Quick Hits, we talk about “revenge porn,” smartphone safety, Twitter hijacking, and more.
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In the first part of a three-article series on “defamation and involuntary nudity,” Forbes privacy blogger Kashmir Hill writes about IsAnyoneUp.com, a website that posts naked pictures of individuals along with their full name and a screenshot of their Facebook profiles. In the article, Hill speaks with the site’s founder who says that many individuals upload the photos themselves as a form of virtual exhibitionism. However, many other photos on the site are submitted by ex-boyfriends and girlfriends as “revenge porn.” While IsAnyoneUp.com will remove photos at a user’s request, it’s impossible to know just how much reputation damage could be caused by having one’s photo posted on the site, even for a short period of time.
Every day, millions of smartphone users download and install apps on their mobile devices without questioning whether they might be giving up too much sensitive personal data. This comprehensive article from ComputerWorld discusses the many threats to personal privacy posed by smartphone apps and the steps individuals can take to protect their privacy.
Activists in the UK, where privacy is a more pertinent issue to regular consumers, are upset with Internet company Yahoo over its plans to scan incoming e-mails for advertising purposes. While this is nothing new for many e-mail users, Which? magazine calls Yahoo’s actions a ” “blatant intrusion of privacy.” Likewise, Daniel Hamilton, the director of Big Brother Watch, said “Yahoo should abandon these changes before the crucial bond of trust between it and its users is damaged beyond repair.”
Recently, a Twitter account for Fox News was hijacked and used to send out messages including a claim that President Obama had been shot and killed. While Fox representatives were quick to report the abuse to Twitter, the company didn’t resolve the issue for over five hours, allowing the hijackers to continue to tweet false information and damage the news organization’s credibility. Twitter’s slow response to the issue raises some questions about the company’s ability to fight abusive behavior from scammers and hackers.
MP Peter Bone is pushing for a debate over Internet impersonation after discovering a bogus Twitter account in his wife’s name. Quoting the BBC, “While the MrsJennieBone page has all been good, clean, British fun until now, Mr Bone raised concerns in the Commons that the faker behind the scheme ‘could put something racist or pornographic on at any time.’” As the wife of a politician, Mrs. Bone is more susceptible to satire than others, but MP Bone’s point is relevant. Online impersonation can be a serious issue, which is why some states in the U.S. have begun outlawing the practice.
July 6th, 2011 | Facebook, Google, Legal Issues, Online Reputation Management, Privacy, Quick Hits, Social Networking | Rob Frappier
In today’s Quick Hits, a former prison guard may end up in prison himself after impersonating his boss, Google+ runs into some privacy issues, and a link to live coverage of Facebook’s highly anticipated afternoon press conference.
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A former prison guard may be spending time behind the very bars he used to protect if prosecutors successfully convict him of impersonating a public officer. The guard, who pretended to be his boss in a mocking Facebook profile, was arrested in December and originally charged with “use of fraudulent information.” This new charge carries a possible one-year prison term, demonstrating the serious stand that prosecutors around the country are taking against Internet impersonation.
The MIT Technology Review has an article (subscription required) on the rise of social networking companies and how they are now challenging the dominance of search engines in cataloguing and disseminating information. However, before social media websites can fully take over the Web, they must figure out a way to deal with the privacy problems that plague their services without damaging their bread and butter – personalized advertising.
Last week, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg promised to unveil “something awesome” at an upcoming press conference. The announcement, widely acknowledged as a response to Google’s recent rollout of Google+, will happen today at 1:00pm ET. PCMag.com is going to be at Facebook headquarters today for the company’s press conference and will host a live chat during the announcement.
Google has come out of the gate strong with its new social network, Google+, but the company has run into several privacy issues that could keep Google+ from catching on with a wider audience. This article from PCWorld discusses some of the problems with Google+, including issues with blocking users.
In a move designed to help push its new social network, Google+, Google is forcing all Google users to make their Google accounts public by July 31st. Using very Facebook-like language, a Google spokesperson said in a statement, “We believe that using Google Profiles to help people find and connect with you online is how the product is best used. Private profiles don’t allow this, so we have decided to require all profiles to be public.” Any profiles that remain private after July 31st will be deleted. At the minimum, users will be required to share their full name and gender.
July 5th, 2011 | Facebook, Google, Internet Safety, Online Reputation Management, Parenting, Privacy, Quick Hits | Rob Frappier
In today’s Quick Hits, users of the fitness application Fitbit get a bit too personal online, Google makes some tweaks to accommodate its new social network, and UK parents share their fears over social networking.
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Fitbit.com, a company that produces small accelerometer devices to sync physical activity with online social networking, recently was forced to make all of its users’ profiles private by default after many users saw their sexual activity (which they tracked as part of their fitness monitoring) popping up in Google search results. As Forbes’ Kashmir Hill writes, “To limit the exposure, the company has currently hidden all activity records on Fitbit.com, no matter what the user’s current privacy settings are. (I can’t see any of my old records, even privately.) Fitbit also contacted Google, Yahoo, and Bing to get the sex stats removed from search engines.”
This embarrassing incident comes in part because of Fitbit’s efforts to encourage social sharing at the expense of privacy. By making user profiles public by default, the company positioned some of its users to unknowingly overshare intimate details of their lives.
According to PCMag.com, “Hulu has temporarily suspended its Facebook Connect option after some users saw the profile photo and email address of other users when connecting their accounts.” Hulu said that while the issue only affected 50 users, the company had decided to suspend Facebook Connect “out of an abundance of caution.” Hulu will relaunch Facebook Connect following an investigation.
Google has temporarily suspended its realtime search feature as it figures out a way to integrate updates from its new social network, Google+. Realtime search, which was rolled out in 2009, pulls data from social networking websites like Twitter to supplement search results with breaking news and trending topics.
The Chicago Tribune has an interesting article on the minority percentage of 20-somethings that don’t use Facebook and why they chose to avoid the world’s most popular social networking website. Some of the reasons cited in the article for quitting Facebook include lack of privacy and the belief that Facebook is a time waster. As one 27-year-old says in the article, “It seems like, for all the benefits, there are just as many drawbacks, and it’s kind of a nuisance.”
According to a new survey of UK parents, “A third of all UK parents believe that their children are in danger from the internet and 80 per cent think it is possible to become addicted to social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook.” The study, written up by the Telegraph, highlights concern among parents who are raising one of the first generations in history to be exposed to the Internet from birth.