Entries Tagged 'Facebook' ↓
October 14th, 2011 | Facebook, Legal Issues, Online Reputation Management, Privacy | Rob Frappier
In today’s Quick Hits, we talk about the infamous Hollywood hacker, why Facebook doesn’t have to give you all of your data, Verizon’s big privacy policy changes, and how a New Jersey teacher’s Facebook comments have started a mini-controversy in her school district.
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The Florida man arrested for hacking into the e-mail accounts of Scarlet Johansson, Mila Kunis, and other celebrities has apologized for his actions, claiming that he knew what he was doing was wrong but that he couldn’t stop himself. According to the hacker, he “became addicted to seeing the behind-the-scenes of what’s going on with these people you see on the big screen every day.” If convicted of all charges, the hacker faces up to 121 years in prison.
In news that clearly demonstrates Facebook’s priorities when it comes to user data, the company recently revealed that international law protects it from having to give up all data about users, even if they request the data themselves. The news came out when users of the social sharing website Reddit flooded Facebook with data requests and the company was forced to reject the requests.
The Los Angeles Times reports that “Verizon Wireless has made a change in its privacy policy that clears the nation’s largest wireless carrier to track its subscribers’ Web browsing, location and app usage habits. The change in Verizon’s privacy policy covers all customers of the company by default, automatically opting-in subscribers, though they can opt out of this if they want.”
A New Jersey teacher sparked a controversy after school administrators discovered anti-gay speech on her Facebook wall. The woman, who was expressing her religious beliefs regarding homosexuality, may face investigation over whether she violated the state’s Law Against Discrimination.
October 13th, 2011 | CyberBullying, Facebook, Legal Issues, Online Reputation Management, Parenting, Privacy | Rob Frappier
In today’s Quick Hits, some school teachers get in trouble for making fun of students online, the USPS is criticized over privacy issues, a mom wonders when bullying is really bullying, and the FBI makes an arrest in the case of the Hollywood hacker.
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A school in the U.K. was forced to offer an embarrassing apology to parents when several of its teachers were discovered referring to students as inbred during an online chat on Facebook. This isn’t the first time a school has faced criticism for its teachers remarks. Earlier this year, a first-grade teacher in New Jersey was suspended for calling students “future criminals.”
For years, the cash-strapped United States Postal Service has earned money by sending ads to individuals as part of its change of address welcome kit, but privacy advocates argue that the arrangement may be in violation of federal privacy laws. According to the Washington Times, “While these welcome kits may provide a targeted marketing opportunity for advertisers and much-needed revenue for the USPS, federal agencies aren’t allowed to sell or rent personal information such as names and addresses under the federal Privacy Act.” The USPS has defended the partnership and claims that it’s doing nothing illegal.
In this article for TIME, Bonnie Rochman talks about bullying and why it can be hard for parents to identify if their child is being bullied or is a bully themselves due to changing definitions of the act. Rochman also discusses research into anti-bullying techniques and how children naturally form antipathetic relationships with some of their peers.
A Florida man has been arrested for hacking into the e-mail, cell phones, and social media accounts of Scarlett Johansson and other notable celebrities. According to the AP report, “the FBI announced that it had made an out-of-state arrest Wednesday morning in a year-long investigation of celebrity hacking that was dubbed Operation Hackerazzi.”
October 12th, 2011 | Facebook, Legal Issues, Online Reputation Management, Privacy, Quick Hits | Rob Frappier
In today’s Quick Hits, we talk about data collection online, Facebook’s desire for younger users, an annoying Spotify bug, and concerns over frictionless sharing online.
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A new report from the Stanford Center for Internet and Society reveals just how rampant data collection is online and how difficult it is for individuals to protect their information while browsing the Web. According to PCMag, “researchers created an account and interacted with 185 Web sites that offered a sign up, did not require a purchase, and had limited features so as to be practical for the study. They were able to identify a username or user ID leaked to a third party on 113 of those Web sites. The top five sites that received the data were: comScore, Google Analytics, Quantcast, Google’s DoubleClick, and Facebook.” The way that this leaked information can be used to create a detailed profile of individuals is worrying to government regulators who are considering enacting a “Do Not Track” law to protect personal privacy online.
In an op-ed for the New York Times, Emily Bazelon explains why Facebook wants to amend the federal Child Online Privacy Protection Act to make it easier for kids under the age of 13 to join the site, writing that “Facebook has tripled its spending on lobbying, formed a political action committee and hired former Bush and Obama officials to push for its agenda.” Despite the company’s efforts, however, it appears that new child privacy legislation may be on the horizon with Congress considering a proposal that “would bar Web sites outright from using kids’ data to target ads to them until they are 17.”
Spotify angered fans recently when it forced users to sign-in through Facebook with the social sharing option enabled by default. Spotify quickly backtracked and added a private listening option, but the company missed an important bug, which caused users to continue to sharing music even after opting out. According to ZDNet, “Apparently, the Spotify app disregarded users having disconnected their Facebook accounts, and logged them back in the next time they loaded the app. As a result, users who explicitly said they no longer wanted to share their music listening activity with their Facebook friends may have continued to share songs on the social network.”
This article from The Hill discusses how privacy groups and some congressional leaders are concerned over Facebook’s recently announced “frictionless sharing” feature. Quoting the article, Facebook “points out that users still have complete control over which applications share their data and who has access to different types of profile information…but privacy advocates respond that the controls are either too complex or wrongly make public sharing the default option.”
October 11th, 2011 | Facebook, Legal Issues, Online Reputation Management, Privacy, Quick Hits | Rob Frappier
In today’s Quick Hits, we follow up on a three-year old Facebook firing, consider social media and politics, discuss Facebook profiles and college admissions, and ponder the privacy implications of the growing “cyberarms” race.
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A former Georgia schoolteacher who was fired three years ago after an anonymous parent complained about a photo on her Facebook profile recently faced a setback in her lawsuit against the school district. The teacher had filed a lawsuit asking for her job to be reinstated, but that claim was rejected because of technical issues related to when her teaching contract expired. Her attorney still is working on winning monetary damages in the case, arguing that the teacher was not informed of her rights at the time of the incident.
Big social media companies like Twitter and Facebook are becoming more and more involved in hosting political events and debates, demonstrating a “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch your back” savvy that may help them when the issue of privacy legislation. As the AP explains, “social media giants like Facebook and Google are hosting debates and sponsoring presidential town halls. They remain indispensable tools for candidates looking to connect with voters. The companies get great public exposure for their attachment to the presidential campaign. It also helps their business interests by nurturing relationships with political leaders.”
This article from Huffington Post’s new High School section talks about how college admissions officers are using Facebook to screen applicants and shares advice on how high school students can clean up their profiles to make a good impression. As one teen in the article explains, “I treat my profile as a way for college admissions officers to get to know me outside of my academic accomplishments.”
This article from the Financial Times discusses how the “cyberarms race” between world powers may end up forcing personal privacy protections to disappear. Quoting the article, “an internet increasingly policed by intelligence agencies will be reshaped to fit country borders, says Peter Dombrowski, of the Naval War College in the US. Nations fearing attack will find ways to inspect electronic traffic just as they do people.”
October 10th, 2011 | Facebook, Internet Safety, Legal Issues, Online Reputation Management, Parenting, Privacy | Rob Frappier
In today’s Quick Hits, thoughts on Facebook’s power, teen online privacy, and why taking steps to protect yourself from junk e-mail can end up causing you to miss out on important privacy notices.
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A thief may have unwittingly outed himself when he snapped a picture using a stolen mobile phone. According to ABC News, “police in Henry County, Ga., said they now believe the thief grabbed [the victim's] cellphone, took a picture of himself and unwittingly uploaded it to her Facebook page, which automatically synced with her phone.” In this case, the woman’s predilection for sharing all of her cell phone photos online (something that we might usually recommend against) may have actually helped her.
In an op-ed for the National Times, Julian Lee writes that Facebook’s power is “unsettling,” saying “if Facebook was a government agency, its power would be as undisputed as it would be frightening.” Lee’s incisive commentary points out that legal protections lag far behind technology and that Web companies like Facebook have a practically unchecked ability to enact new privacy-invasive features with little fear of punishment. At the end of his piece, Lee touches on the idea that “free” Internet service aren’t really free saying, “it’s the price we pay for such free services, the Faustian pact into which we have entered in order to survive in an age of constant connectivity where the tentacles of Facebook — with its ambition to be the “identity platform” — are extending to every corner of the internet.”
With its new “Frictionless Sharing” feature, Facebook has teamed up with third-party websites to stream a user’s Web habits directly to his or her profile. This feature, which is unnerving to many privacy advocates, is already in place with many news websites. But not all news organizations give users the same level of privacy protection. This article from Inside Facebook discusses all of the third-party news organizations using frictionless sharing and rates them according to how much control they offer users over sharing.
In its bid to buy a massive list of e-mail addresses from bankrupt book chain Borders, Barnes & Noble was forced to send an e-mail to Borders’ customers giving them 15 days to opt out of sharing information with the new company. Ironically, as Forbes’ Kashmir Hill explains, this disclosure e-mail might not make it to all customers if they’ve taken certain steps to protect their privacy. Hill writes that “most folks who signed up for Borders accounts, or any company account, usually hand over their ‘junk e-mail address.’”
Because these aren’t the accounts people usually check (in order to keep them from massive amounts of spam), they might miss the notice. Similarly, Hill notes that because she had unsubscribed from Borders e-mail list long ago: “I was unsubscribed from a future email that would tell me that my data would be sold to another company.” In both of these cases, the company isn’t legally in the wrong, but the user still doesn’t get the disclosure, demonstrating the complexity of online privacy protections.
In this video interview with CBS News, Yahoo! Web Life Editor Heather Cabot talks about a new survey that shows kids are much savvier about online privacy than parents give them credit for, while also offering advice about “how parents can drive home the message home about the importance of online privacy.”
