Entries Tagged 'Parenting' ↓
October 28th, 2011 | Facebook, Online Reputation Management, Parenting, Privacy, Quick Hits | Rob Frappier
In today’s Quick Hits, we talk about toddlers on Facebook, Facebook’s new “trusted friends” security feature, and how some healthcare workers are violating patient privacy by posting information on social networking sites.
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Psychologist Andrea Bonior has an interesting article on the Huffington Post about the downside of creating a Facebook profile for your toddler. Bonior argues that there are privacy concerns, issues about the child’s lack of consent, and the potential for future resentment. The article is a great read for any new parents who want to create social media accounts for their kids.
Facebook just introduced an interesting new security feature. TIME’s Techland blog explains: “Facebook just announced a new feature called Trusted Friends, which uses—surprise, surprise—your social network to log you back in if you forget your password. This is how it works: First, you pick five Facebook friends you trust. If you get locked out, you can arrange it so those friends get a code. Afterwards, call them, collect three of the codes, enter them, and voila—you’re back in business. Facebook likens it “to giving a house key to your friends when you go on vacation.”
A new UK report reveals that “private records belonging to ill and vulnerable patients were breached more than 800 times over the last five years by nurses, doctors and administrative staff at 152 NHS trusts and hospitals.” In many cases, these breaches came via social media, where workers posted information about patients and sometimes photos.
October 21st, 2011 | CyberBullying, Facebook, Online Reputation Management, Parenting, Privacy, Quick Hits | Rob Frappier
In today’s Quick Hits, we talk about allegations that Facebook is creating “shadow profiles,” a New Jersey politician’s ill-advised tweets, a new survey on cyberbullying, and a look at TrueRep from Intelius.
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According to Ireland’s Data Protection Commissioner, Facebook “is now building profiles of non-users who haven’t even signed up.” The claim, which Facebook categorically denied, is the latest problem for Facebook in Europe, where privacy laws are much stronger. According to Fox News, the Data Protection Commissioner “will be commencing a comprehensive audit of Facebook Ireland before the end of the month.”
A New Jersey Senate Candidate has apologized for a sexist Twitter update directed at women saying, “Women, you increase your odds of keeping your men by being faithful, a lady in the living room and a whore in the bedroom.” The adage, which was paraphrased from a famous quote by Mick Jagger’s ex-wife, was labeled offensive by both political parties.
According to a new report from the Ontario Student Trustees’ Association, more than three-quarters of students want schools to be involved in bullying prevention. The report also reveals that 84% of parents think schools should step in in the case of cyberbullying. This report reflects a growing awareness of bullying issues among students and parents.
In an article for IT World, Dan Tynan writes about TrueRep, the new reputation management service from people-search and online background check company Intelius. Tynan’s review isn’t flattering: “Say you have a fresh water well on your land. The water is all the data available about you in the public record. Though the water is technically yours, other people can also drink from the well, and you still have to pump it out yourself when you get thirsty. Companies like Intelius take the water, bottle it, and sell it back to you at a profit. And that’s what TrueRep is: your own water in a fancy plastic bottle.”
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 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.”
October 6th, 2011 | Facebook, Internet Safety, Parenting, Privacy | Rob Frappier
In today’s Quick Hits, teens and young adults talk about having their online accounts hacked, Facebook readies its new design rollout, and an artist uses trash to teach about personal privacy violations.
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A new study from the AP and MTV reveals that a large percentage of teens (30%) have had their online accounts hacked, more than double the number from 2009. More distressing is the apparent attitude regarding hacking. The Wall Street Journal quotes a handful of teens and young adults who treat hacking as no big deal. Some say it’s only for fun and that they know who is doing it, so it’s okay. Others, however, are distressed by the hacking. The survey showed that 46% of respondents were upset by a hacking attack and concerned about how it might affect their image.
The Los Angeles Times has an article on Facebook’s new-look profiles and how users can protect their privacy once the new design rolls out. The article goes into detail on how some of the new tweaks may compromise privacy, including the little-known fact that current privacy settings aren’t automatically applied to old posts that will appear on user’s timelines.
A street artist named XVALA has taken to Silicon Valley to make a statement about information sharing and personal privacy violations. According to the Los Angeles Times, “the first of the series, ‘Mark Zuckerberg’s Not Very Well Hung Hanger,’ features a wire coat hanger taken from Zuckerberg’s trash can. XVALA bent the hanger by hand to show Zuckerberg’s ‘manhood’ and painted it blue, the color of Facebook’s logo.” In a statement, the artist said, “I wanted to ‘expose’ Zuckerberg like he exposes Facebook users, daily.”
In an article for PCWorld, Paul Venezia explains why it’s so difficult to keep social networking sites from tracking your browsing information across the web and some of the ways you can try to keep your personal data private. As Venezia explains, ”for normal people, this situation is extremely difficult to control,” which is why social media companies are so attractive to advertisers. The data on the profile itself, paired with browsing information, is more than enough to learn an individual’s entire life story.
Inside Facebook has an insightful article with Facebook product manager Carl Sjogreen about the company’s new-look profiles and some of the safety measures in place to prevent application developers from using the “Frictionless Sharing” Open Graph platform to send out spam messages. Facebook’s balancing act between consumers and app developers is tricky, but could be very valuable for the company.
As Inside Facebook writes, “Facebook is preparing to make a major change to how users express themselves with the rollout of Timeline. It will need to clearly communicate the privacy implications of ready access to old content in order to avoid backlash. It will also need to strike a proper balance between a clean user experience and an attractive Open Graph application development Platform. If Facebook can navigate these two pitfalls, Timeline could become the richest way to represent one’s identity online.”
