October 24th, 2011 | Facebook, Legal Issues, Privacy, Quick Hits | Rob Frappier
In today’s Quick Hits, we talk about the ECPA, Facebook privacy, and using Facebook for recruiting.
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Twenty-five years ago Friday, President Reagan signed the Electronic Communications Privacy Act into law. Since then, the bill has remained relatively unchanged despite tremendous advances in digital technology. This article from Wired.com discusses the ECPA and how the language in the law allows police to access e-mail data without a warrant if its at least six months old. Moreover, because of the wording of the law, the ECPA allows access to any content in “the cloud” if it’s six months old via a government subpoena.
A portion of Facebook users are becoming concerned about their privacy online and are turning to third-party apps to protect their information. According to the Daily Mail, “Facebook Disconnect – a browser extension which prevents Facebook ‘seeing’ which other sites you visit online – has been downloaded 152,000 times. The software works in Google’s Chrome browser and automatically blocks web traffic between other sites and Facebook, so the social network can no longer ‘look at’ your browsing history.”
Some Facebook users are complaining that a glitch in the site is sending out unwanted friend requests, but the more likely scenario is that they downloaded a rogue Facebook app that is using their account to try and spread spam messages. This safety issue underlies why it’s important to only download trustworthy third-party apps.
This article from the Wall Street Journal discusses how independent developers are tapping into Facebook to build networking and recruiting tools. While Facebook hasn’t been a direct competitor with professional networking website LinkedIn, independent apps like BranchOut demonstrate how the site could become a powerful tool for recruiters looking to connect with the ideal job candidate. Conversely, there are privacy concerns among users who believe that their profiles shouldn’t be accessible to recruiters.
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 20th, 2011 | Facebook, Google, Privacy, Quick Hits | Rob Frappier
In today’s Quick Hits, we talk about Facebook and Google privacy, and why debt collectors aren’t allowed to contact debtors online.
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Facebook is in the midst of rolling out a major redesign, and users aren’t happy about it. According to the New York Times, “a poll run by the social media news blog Mashable found that 75 percent of Facebook fans ‘hate’ the redesign. The new Facebook fared even worse on the poll site Sodahead, where 86 percent gave the changes a thumbs down.”
The Daily Mail writes that “debt collectors are to be banned from hounding people through social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, a consumer watchdog said today. The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has updated its Debt Collection Guidance to reflect new methods of communication, to prevent people suffering the ‘stress and embarrassment’ of having their money troubles made public.”
At the San Francisco Web 2.0 Summit, Facebook’s Chief Technology Officer Bret Taylor said that Facebook’s privacy settings are easy to use. According to The Los Angeles Times, Taylor bases his statement on the fact that “the majority of people on Facebook have modified their privacy settings.”
The Telegraph writes that Google’s new policy for Google Analytics is a means of making more profit, not protecting user privacy. Quoting the article, ”[Google] has enraged digital marketers by announcing it will no longer be passing search-query data to websites when users are logged into Google accounts such as Gmail, unless you pay them via their Adwords marketing platform. From now on, when logged in, users who perform a search on Google.com do securely, using a protocol that encrypts their data, so that the owners of the websites they visit can no longer see what search terms led them there.” This change is being billed as a privacy protection for consumers but the fact that the info is still available if an advertiser pays for it demonstrates how Google really feels about personal data.
October 19th, 2011 | Facebook, Legal Issues, Privacy, Quick Hits | Rob Frappier
In today’s Quick Hits, Sean Parker defends Facebook, Ira Winkler explains why Facebook isn’t free, Jason Zada uses Facebook to scare users, and one man’s bizarre Facebook post earns him a drug arrest.
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Sean Parker, the outspoken former president of Facebook made famous by Justin Timberlake in the film The Social Network, recently took to the stage of the Web 2.0 Summit to defend his old company’s lax attitude toward privacy. According to the Huffington Post, Parker said “there is good creepy and there’s bad creepy” and that “today’s creepy is tomorrow’s necessity.” The only problem Parker had with Facebook was that the company didn’t make it easy for “power users” to filter the massive amount of information on the site.
There’s a misconception that the because you don’t have to pay for it, Facebook is free. It isn’t. As Ira Winkler explains in a well-written Computerworld editorial, “Facebook is not free. While you don’t have to pay to join the site, you nonetheless give Facebook two things that are much more valuable: your time and your intellectual property. Facebook gives you access to its system for free because it is in Facebook’s interest that you spend time on the system and click links. So, what is your time worth?” As Facebook prepares for another large-scale profile redesign, that last question will certainly ring with users who have shown frustration with the site in the past.
A Chicago-area man was arrested on drug possession after police were called to his home to investigate kidnapping claims on Facebook. The man, who posted updates on Facebook talking about kidnapping his ex-girlfriend, claimed that it was a creative writing exercise, but one Facebook friend was concerned and alerted police. When they arrived, he granted them permission to search his house, where they found heroin, marijuana, and drug paraphernalia.
TV and music director Jason Zada recently launched a viral app on Facebook that challenges our perception of personal privacy. According to the New New York Times, “the mysterious site is called Take This Lollipop. After you give the site permission to connect to your Facebook account, it begins playing a video featuring a sweaty, twitchy man, sitting in a darkened room, using a computer to nose around Facebook. But he’s not browsing through just any random page — he’s looking at your account and getting increasingly agitated by what he’s seeing.“
Zada explains that the horror-themed project is intended to make people feel uncomfortable about sharing their personal data: “When you see your personal information in an environment where you normally wouldn’t, it creates a strong emotional response. It’s tied into the fears about privacy and personal info that we have now that we live online.”
October 18th, 2011 | Facebook, Privacy | Rob Frappier
In today’s Quick Hits, we talk about Facebook, Facebook, and some more Facebook.
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While Facebook’s meteoric rise to success is nothing short of amazing, over the company’s eight year history, Facebook has made a number of high-profile missteps. This infographic charts some of the biggest mistakes Facebook has made, including its many problems with protecting user privacy.
The more often you use Facebook, the less likely you are to care about privacy according to a new survey. Quoting PCMag, “Despite Facebook’s reputation for raising privacy concerns as it adds new ways to share information online, most users aren’t very worried, according to a new poll by USA Today and Gallup. The survey of more than 2,000 adults found that 26 percent of respondents who use Facebook daily are ‘very concerned’ about privacy, compared with 35 percent for weekly Facebook users and 39 percent for people who use Facebook less often.”
4Chan founder Chris Poole, known as “moot” on the controversial hacker website, recently spoke out about the importance of online anonymity at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco. Poole criticized Google and Facebook for their real name identity policies, saying “Google and Facebook would have you believe identity is like a mirror” when in reality it’s more like a diamond “where you see a different image depending on your angle, all parts in a whole.” The forced real name policy has been criticized by many Internet activists who believe that, while limiting anonymous bullying and harassment, it is harmful personal privacy.
Talking about Facebook’s new Timeline profile design, CNET’s Nathan Bransford writes that “The world, or at least its 800 million Facebook users, is about to have its ‘This is Your Life’ moment.” The comparison to the popular old TV show is apt. When Timeline rolls out, user profiles will suddenly reveal information about users that is up to seven years old. There’s a big difference between how a person acts as an 18-year-old and as a 25-year-old, but suddenly those two lives will be mushed into one. As Bransford writes, “What if you want the past to stay in the past?” With Timeline, it might not be an option.
