Reputation Management, Internet Privacy, and Social Media Quick Hits

In today’s Quick Hits we find out that nobody would pay to use Twitter, learn how info from 100 million public Facebook profiles has been harvested and shared, and wonder whether it does any good to criticize Google over privacy offenses.

–

Nobody Would Pay for Twitter

Millions of people love using Twitter everyday, but if you asked them to pay for the service, things change in a hurry. According to a new study from the USC’s Annenberg School of Communications and Journalism, of the 49 percent of Internet users surveyed who have used services like Twitter, zero percent said they’d be willing to pay for it. Without substantial improvements for paying customers, there’s no reason to expect a user to pay for something that they’re used to getting free. This underscores the reason why social media websites often rely on targeted advertising to turn profits.

Recap of Senate Hearing on Internet Privacy

Yesterday, representatives of Google, Facebook and Apple testified on issues of Internet privacy before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. This article from the San Jose Mercury News analyzes the hearing, during which Senators sought tighter restrictions on behavioral advertising while tech companies made the point that their advertising is worth billions of dollars to the economy. Representatives from the FTC and FCC were also in attendance.

School District Confused Over Official Page and Facebook Community Page

This article from the Dallas News details how the Carrollton-Farmers Branch school district is struggling to distinguish the Facebook Fan Page that they created from the Facebook Community Page that Facebook automatically created. Though seemingly innocuous, this article touches on an important issue for school districts, small business owners, and anyone else using Facebook Fan Pages. In order to own your presence on Facebook, you must be proactive in establishing your official page and reaching out to your community of users.

Info on 100 Million Facebook Pages Shared on Torrent Site

According to the IT website Thinq, information about 100 million Facebook pages has been found on an Internet torrent website for peer to peer sharing. The data was harvested by Ron Bowes of Skull Security using a custom-made web crawler program. According to Thinq, “The file contains user account names and a URL for each user’s profile page, from which details such as addresses, dates of birth or phone numbers can be accessed. Accessing a user’s page from the list will also enable you to click through to friends’ profiles – even if those friends have made themselves non-searchable.” Interestingly, Bowes didn’t do anything illegal in harvesting the information, as it was found in Facebook’s open access directory.

Punishing Google, Facebook Pointless Without Clearer Privacy Laws

In an article for Forbes’ “On The Docket” blog, Glenn G. Lammi argues that pouncing on Google, Facebook, and other Internet companies for privacy violations is useless so long as our overarching privacy laws are not modernized and centralized. Lammi says that “piecemeal” approaches to privacy enforcement only serve to “chill entrepreneurship, and impair job creation” and that a stable law, applicable across all states, is the best way to approach the issue.