Facebook could face €100,000 fine for holding data that users have deleted | Technology Facebook could face a fine of up to €100,000 (£87,000) after an Austrian law student discovered the social networking site held 1,200 pages of personal data about him, much of which he had deleted. Max Schrems, 24, decided to ask Facebook for a copy of his data in June after attending a lecture by a Facebook executive while on an exchange programme at Santa Clara University in California. Schrems was shocked when he eventually received a CD from California containing messages and information he says he had deleted from his profile in the three years since he joined the site. After receiving the data, Schrems decided to log a list of 22 separate complaints with the Irish data protection commissioner, which next week is to carry out its first audit of Facebook. He wrote to Ireland after discovering that European users are administered by the Irish Facebook subsidiary.
Is Facebook Your Achilles Heel? « Company K Media April 29, 2011 by Kerri Karvetski What would you do if you woke up one morning and were suddenly locked out of your Facebook page? It happened Thursday to technology news site Ars Technica. What did they do to offend the Facebook gods? Prior to the account lockout, we had received no notices of infringement or warnings. Ouch. Further investigation has revealed just how flawed Facebook’s infringement reporting system is. Facebook Seeking Friends In Beltway President Barack Obama will travel to Facebook Inc.'s Silicon Valley headquarters Wednesday to hold a "town hall" meeting on the economy with users of the social-networking site. But Facebook is still trying to find a path to Washington, where the company has only a fledgling lobbying operation, even though it finds its privacy policies under increasing scrutiny and is trying to navigate a politically sensitive expansion into China. In seven years, Facebook has risen from a tiny start-up to an Internet power with a potential market value estimated at more than $50 billion. At the same time, the company is confronting questions about how it will handle its role as a global public square for dissidents if it enters China and other countries with little tolerance for dissent. Until lately, Facebook has spent very little money in Washington, even by Silicon Valley's frugal standards.
Telecomix Pentagon Wants a Social Media Propaganda Machine | Danger Room You don’t need to have 5,000 friends of Facebook to know that social media can have a notorious mix of rumor, gossip and just plain disinformation. The Pentagon is looking to build a tool to sniff out social media propaganda campaigns and spit some counter-spin right back at it. On Thursday, Defense Department extreme technology arm Darpa unveiled its Social Media in Strategic Communication (SMISC) program. It’s an attempt to get better at both detecting and conducting propaganda campaigns on social media. This is more than just checking the trending topics on Twitter. Not all memes, of course. More specifically, SMISC needs to be able to seek out “persuasion campaign structures and influence operations” developing across the social sphere. Of course, SMISC won’t be content to just to hang back and monitor social media trends in strategic locations. Darpa’s announcement talks about using SMISC “the environment in which [the military] operates” and where it “conducts operations.”
No, Facebook Doesn’t ‘Own’ Your Private Photos | SW14 Group LLC Another panicky status meme is making the Facebook rounds. And while there’s a grain of truth buried in it – as there is with many memes – it’s surrounded by some scare-mongering misinformation. The current status meme reads something like this: ATTENTION: This Friday, Facebook will become owner of the publishing rights of ALL your private photos. That right there is two completely separate issues rolled into one. First: Facebook doesn’t “own” your private photos. According to those same terms, when you upload your photos or other intellectual property, y ou give Facebook a “non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any IP content that you post… this license ends when you delete your IP content or your account unless your content has been shared with others, and they have not deleted it.” Why the non-exclusive license? That brings us to part 2.
WikiLeaks | Facebook | Google | Julian Assange WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange says Facebook, Google, and Yahoo are being used by the U.S. intelligence community to spy on users. In an interview, Assange was especially critical of Facebook , the world's top social network. The information Facebook houses is a potential boon for the U.S. government if it tries to build up a dossier on users, he told the Russian news site RT. Assange also told RT that Google and Yahoo "have built-in interfaces for U.S. intelligence." "Facebook in particular is the most appalling spying machine that has ever been invented," Assange said. "It's not a matter of serving a subpoena," he said.
From Facebook to Twitter: Save Your Community From Redundancy Caroline Chen | March 10, 2011 | 8 Comments inShare107 By understanding the nuances of each platform's digital culture, you can create unique and relevant content, speak the right language, and effectively grow both communities. Of all the social platforms, it's hard to avoid your favorite brand on Twitter or Facebook. I can't be alone in thinking there's not only a glut of information, but also brand redundancy that still exists across Twitter and Facebook. If Twitter remains your bite-sized Facebook RSS feed, you've only built a crutch for readership rather than a community. Consider these three areas of differentiation when managing your brand's presence in both environments: Customer interactions. Content. Capacity. Playing to each platform's cultural norms and technical strengths will not only help you stay relevant, but also help you stay sane.
Look who's watching: it's not the FBI, it's Facebook Even the most sophisticated security agencies could not have dreamed up something like Facebook ... "Your friends have a lot in common with you, it’s your friends who betray you." Photo: Bloomberg The CV you'd rather the boss didn't see Stored inside a series of ordinary brick buildings beside a sprawling wasteland on the edge of San Francisco Bay are intimate details of your life, relationships and opinions. This information repository is not the headquarters of the FBI or CIA, but Facebook Inc, Mark Zuckerberg's multibillion-dollar social networking behemoth with access to more than 840 million people, and their data. While full-body scanners and CCTV cameras often evoke Big Brother fears, the growing trend in surveillance is much closer to home. Advertisement Social media has become the latest way governments, police and corporations spy on their citizens, most of whom have no idea they are being watched. But it is not just governments and security agencies spying on cyber space.
Facebook Users Can Now Edit Their Comments Within a Few Seconds of Posting Facebook Users Can Now Edit Their Comments Within a Few Seconds of Posting Facebook users can now edit a comment they’ve left on a news feed story or wall post by clicking the ‘x’ button within the first few seconds after posting the comment. Instead of deleting the comment as before, the ‘x’ button re-opens the comment input field and lets users edit the previously entered text. This new feature should help users who’ve posted a long comment, but then immediately notice a typo or want to change the comment without having to delete it and re-type the whole thing. Our initial tests show the time window in which edits are permitted to be about 12 seconds. After that, the only option is to delete the comment. A post’s author and other commenters will only receive a single Facebook notification for a comment that has been edited and reposted multiple times. The purpose the feature is likely to encourage users to comment with more confidence, and to decrease the number of comment deletions.
Sécurité du web : le règne des passoires Pendant que les médias se focalisent sur quelques petits détournements de données, les VRAIS « piratages » restent impunis. La faute à un réseau construit de manière à être impossible à protéger... et qu'aucun dirigeant ne semble vouloir colmater ! En 1994, apparaissait le Web. L’un des premiers sites était Playboy.com. Depuis cette époque, toutes les entreprises ont ouvert une vitrine sur cette sous-partie d’Internet. Mais avec l’explosion du nombre d’ordinateurs interconnectés, sont apparus… les piratages. Que vous soyez puissant ou misérable… D’autant que généralement, le seul perdant, c’est le client. Pas de souci, tout cela est si vite oublié… Ceux qui ne l’oublieront pas sont généralement des anonymes, qui n’ont pas les moyens de faire payer ceux qui sont à l’origine de leurs ennuis. Bien entendu, ces entreprises, ces ministères, blâmeront les « pirates » qui ont accédé à ces données. Leurs économies de bouts de chandelles ont des conséquences. Bilan des courses ? Rien. Photos flickr
No-Bake Chewy Cookies and Cream Bars Oh how I love a treat that can be whipped up in about 15 minutes. My boys and their buddies couldn’t get enough of these Chewy Oreo Bars we had as an after school snack this week. Sometimes my spontaneous recipe creations turn out to be the most fun, lol! Yes you use an entire package of Oreo Cookies, but what you get in return is a marshmallow-y Oreo treat that is worth every bite Surprise the kids (and yourself) with this one, they’ll be all smiles, Enjoy! 3 whole ingredients. Break out your Cookies! Place them all in the food processor or blender and mix until ground. Like so. Melt the butter and marshmallows into a large bowl until puffed. You’ll get a little something like this Working quickly, pour in your ground cookies. Mix, mix and mix You’ll get a gooey mess….that’s delish! Transfer to an 8×8 inch baking pan and let set for about 10 minutes. Cut into squares and indulge No-Bake Chewy Cookies and Cream Bars One 16 oz package of Oreo 5 cups Large Marshmallows 4 tablespoons butter 1.
I Have Seen The Future, And Its Sky Is Full Of Eyes Allow me just a little self-congratulatory chest-beating. Four years ago I started writing a near-fiction thriller about the risks of swarms of UAVs in the wrong hands. Everyone I talked to back then (including my agent, alas) thought the subject was implausible, even silly. In the last month, the Stanford Law Review has wrung its hands about the “ethical argument pressed in favor of drone warfare,” while anti-genocide activists have called for the use of “Drones for Human Rights” in Syria and other troubled nations; the UK and France declared a drone alliance; and a new US law compels the FAA to allow police and commercial drones in American airspace, which may lead to “routine aerial surveillance of American life.” We’ve been reporting on UPenn’s amazing drone-swarm research (great title, John!) Terrified yet? Meanwhile, obviously, a lot of people aren’t happy about the notion of police drones – and would rather they be used by the Occupy movement or by livestreaming media.