Entries Tagged 'Twitter' ↓
September 12th, 2011 | Facebook, Google, Online Reputation Management, Privacy, Quick Hits, Twitter | Rob Frappier
In today’s Quick Hits, Google’s Street View cameras turn up something naughty, Facebook wins the Internet’s popularity contest, a student council president risks his office over a few dumb tweets, and Leslie Gaines-Ross offers smart reputation management advice.
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When Google’s Street View cars are in your neighborhood, you should probably shut your blinds. Better yet, don’t stand fully nude in your backyard. Otherwise, you’ll end up like the Florida woman who was snapped standing naked outside of her home by Google cameras. According to The Huffington Post, “Typically, Google Street View pixelates faces, license plates and other potentially identifying information. However, this nude photo somehow slipped by Google’s censors.”
The Huffington Post reports that “according to new research from Nielsen’s ‘The Social Media Report,’ American Internet users now devote more time to Facebook than any other website, spending a total of 53.5 billion minutes a month on the world’s largest social networking site.” Coming in at a distant second was Yahoo (17.2 billion minutes), followed by Google (12.5 billion minutes).
The student body president of a South Carolina college faces impeachment from his position following complaints over a handful of inappropriate and offensive tweets. The tweets, which have been called sexist and homophobic, include disparaging remarks about fellow elected officers on the student government council.
In a Wall Street Journal blog post, Leslie Gaines-Ross, chief reputation strategist at global communications firm Weber Shandwick and board member of the Online Reputation Management Association, offers five tips on how big brands can weather a digital crisis and protect their online reputations. As Gaines-Ross explains, quick action is important because, “a company that handles itself online says much about its ability to execute in this modern age and helps define how a company is perceived.”
September 9th, 2011 | Facebook, Legal Issues, Online Reputation Management, Privacy, Quick Hits, Twitter | Rob Frappier
In today’s Quick Hits, we talk about a new bill that would punish companies for privacy breaches, changes to Missouri’s ban on social networking for teachers, and why Twitter CEO Dick Costolo likes having anonymous users on his site.
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A new bill in the U.S. Senate would penalize companies for security breaches that compromise consumer privacy. The bill comes in response to a number of high-profile breaches in the past year. According to VentureBeat, “Democratic Connecticut senator Richard Blumenthal, who sponsored the bill, said many of the more recent security breaches (like Sony’s Playstation Online fiasco) were very preventable.”
According to the Wall Street Journal, Facebook has agreed to work with the German government on developing a voluntary privacy code of conduct that will “cover issues such as strengthening media literacy and transmitting data in accordance with German law.” Facebook and numerous other Internet companies have faced stiff resistance from privacy regulators in Germany, which is one of the most privacy-conscious European countries.
Boston Globe career columnist Scott Kirsner wants to help the unemployed get back to work, so he turned to a host of Internet experts and hiring managers to offer advice on how to use social media to find a new job. The article has lots of great tips and insights on how an individual’s online reputation can help them stand out from other job applicants.
Following a federal judge’s decision to halt the implementation of a Missouri social networking ban between teachers and students, the sponsor of the bill has made some changes to the legislation that will likely circumvent the injunction. According to the Columbia Daily Tribune, “In her new version, [Sen. Jane Cunningham] gives local school districts complete control over the subject but does impose a requirement that each district have a policy on social media contacts between staff and students.”
While Google and Facebook are on the defensive over their “real name only” policies, Twitter CEO Dick Costolo has gone out of his way to champion Twitter’s pseudonym-friendly service. According to Wired, Costolo recently argued that real name policies are increase the value of advertising on the site at the expense of the user. Instead, Costolo says, “[Twitter is] are more interested in serving our users first, and we think by serving that by serving our users first, we will have a better platform for marketers and advertisers.”
September 7th, 2011 | Facebook, Legal Issues, Online Reputation Management, Privacy, Quick Hits, Research, Twitter | Rob Frappier
In today’s Quick Hits, we talk about Twitter’s spam problem, why Americans aren’t using location check-in services, and the budding world of photo hacking.
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Security company BitDefender thinks Twitter has a spam problem. According to statistics compiled by the firm, and reported in The Daily Mail, one percent of the 350 billion message impressions on Twitter each day, “are malicious, containing spam, or links to sites containing viruses or other malicious software. That means that 3.5 billion nasty Tweets are sent every day. For an average user that can mean up to 17 dangerous Tweets per day.” The article notes that the use of URL shorteners has greatly increased the number of malicious messages on the site.
USA Today tech reporter Byron Acohido explains how mobile apps and social networking sites pose risks to children under the age of 13 and often risk violation of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). The article also highlights the disconnect between children and parents online. Quoting the story, “A recent survey by anti-virus firm AVG found roughly half of children ages 6 through 9 regularly interact with friends online, yet 58% of their parents admitted to not being knowledgeable about social networks.”
An Ohio women has settled an invasion of privacy lawsuit with a software manufacturer and police department after she claimed that “her privacy was violated when [the company] grabbed sexually explicit images of her and her boyfriend from a computer she didn’t know was stolen.” The terms of the settlement were not disclosed. As technology advances, questions of privacy are becoming more and more complicated. This story, with its multiple twists and turns, would have been very interesting.
With photo sharing being one of the biggest and most time-consuming hobbies on the Internet, it’s no wonder that CNN has highlighted photo hacking as a hotbed of new innovation in the start-up economy. This article from CNN Money discusses how several popular start-up companies are breaking down the idea of photo sharing and rebuilding it in new and interesting ways. Sometimes, these photo hacking exercises push the boundaries of personal privacy, especially when they involve facial recognition. Despite privacy concerns, companies continue to invest in this “gray area” of software development.
Location check-in services aren’t catching on in the United States according to new research from the Pew Internet & American Life Project. The Pew data shows that 23% of Americans are using location data for things like maps and shopping, but only 4% are using check-in services to share their locations with friends online. The issue of personal privacy appears to be a big factor in Americans’ decision to not share their locations online.
September 6th, 2011 | Facebook, Legal Issues, Online Reputation Management, Parenting, Quick Hits, Student Online Reputation, Twitter | Rob Frappier
In today’s Quick Hits, we talk about an unusual criminal case in Mexico, a recently discovered Facebook flaw, one dad’s beef with Facebook, and some advice for college students on online reputation management.
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Two people in Mexico are facing up to 30 years in prison for allegedly causing a panic with their Twitter updates. The Huffington Post reports that the individuals tweeted updates about an alleged attack at a local school where gunmen were kidnapping children. The reports turned out to be untrue, but the panic caused by the messages supposedly led to 28 car accidents and the collapse of the emergency response telephone system. The defendants in the case say that they weren’t tweeting maliciously, but were merely passing on information that they had heard. Numerous civil rights groups have petitioned for the pair to face lesser charges.
A flaw in Facebook allows page administrators to remove the original creator of the page. ZDNet explains that, while it is the original creator who assigns the administrators, new admins shouldn’t be able to remove the original creator according to Facebook’s written policy. This flaw poses a security risk, because “if [an admin] account gets hijacked by someone else, in addition to their account, your Facebook Page could be taken over as well.”
A dad in Northern Ireland is suing Facebook after discovering sexually provocative pictures of his 12-year-old daughter on the site. The dad argues that Facebook isn’t doing enough to enforce its own policy of restricting children 13 and under from accessing the site. Of course, it’s nothing new for under-13 kids to join Facebook, either with or without permission. In May, a Facebook spokesperson said that the site bans 20,000 underage Faceook accounts everyday.
This article in the Toronto Sun explains why students need to be extra careful about protecting their online reputations. Quoting the article, “It used to be that a university student could go out to a wild party, drink their face off, pull some embarrassing stunts before stumbling home and the only record would be a conversation among friends later. Not that we’re condoning the behaviour, but at least it only existed over a 24-hour period. These days, it’s all archived. And the people paying attention could be the ones writing your future paycheque.”
August 31st, 2011 | Facebook, Google, Internet Safety, Legal Issues, Online Reputation Management, Privacy, Quick Hits, Student Online Reputation, Twitter | Rob Frappier
In today’s Quick Hits, we talk about a poorly planned social media promotion by Qantas, why you should secure your Google account, the social media savvy of Canadian teens, and an interesting case involving sexy photos on a stolen laptop.
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Qantas sheepishly apologized to the public after the Australian airline chose a picture of two men wearing blackface as the winner of a promotional contest. According to the Daily Mail, “The airline had offered two tickets to the deciding game of the Bledisloe Cup between Australia and New Zealand national rugby teams in Brisbane on Saturday night… The tickets were awarded to two Wallabies fans who dressed up in ‘afro’ wigs, daubed black paint on their faces and wore the Australian rugby green-and-gold uniform. The pair said they were copying their ‘favourite player’, Fijian-born flanker Wallabies flanker Radike Samo, by blacking up their faces, arms and legs.” While Samo himself was not offended by the fans, even posing for a picture with them, members of the public expressed outrage at the “racist” photos, leading Qantas to remove the offending tweet and issue an apology.
From Gmail to Google Reader, avid Google users may have a lot of information tied up in their Google accounts. As Angela West at PCWorld explains, “For many of us, a Gmail password is not just a Gmail password. It’s a passport to our Google Docs account, our AdWords campaigns, our personal Google calendars, Google Docs, and more. That’s not to mention access to Gmail itself, through which someone can find tax returns, private email conversations, and other data to pull off identity or credit card theft. If you are using Google business apps, you risk damage to your company if staff members’ accounts are insecure.”
In the rest of her article, West offers four tips on how to secure your Google account from hackers and keep your personal information protected.
Younger Canadian social media users are more likely to share content online, but they are also more likely to use privacy filters to protect their content. Quoting a CBC report, “a study released on Aug. 25 by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner found those aged 18 to 34 are more likely to use social media sites, but are also more likely to be aware of and to use restrictive privacy controls compared to older Canadians.” Just because teens are digital natives, however, doesn’t mean they are always using social media safely. As one researcher explains, “although teens may be more familiar with the technology, they are also less mature and more likely to take risks in terms of what they post.”
Forbes privacy blogger Kashmir Hill writes about an interesting new court case that delves into some complex privacy issues. The case involves a school teacher who unknowingly purchased a stolen laptop from a student. The teacher then used the laptop to share sexually explicit material with her long-distance boyfriend. When the school tracked the laptop using remote access software, they were able to gain access to the explicit content and shared it with police. The police then contacted the teacher over the laptop and bullied her about the pictures. Now, the teacher is suing the school and police department for an invasion of privacy in sharing the photos. Traditionally, content on a stolen piece of property would not be protected, but because the teacher was unaware that the laptop was stolen, a judge has decided to let the case proceed.
