Entries Tagged 'Internet Safety' ↓

In today’s Quick Hits, we discuss law enforcement and social media, follow up on the case of the Facebook-addicted juror, and look at a case of stalking on Facebook (and why Facebook isn’t helping to stop it.)

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Cops Don’t Know How To Use Twitter

A new study by the Canadian Association of Police on Social Media reveals that many law enforcement agencies and individual law enforcement officers do not understand the proper way to use social media. According to the report, “21 percent don’t tweet, nine percent tweet personal opinions about crime or criminal justice, and three percent have tweeted in a way that could be interpreted as racist or sexist.” This information demonstrates how vitally important online reputation management is to law enforcement agencies and why they need to adopt and effectively implement intelligent social media policies.

Juror Punished for Facebook Message About Trial

A Michigan woman who was removed from a jury after defense attorneys showed the judge that she had publicly commented on the trial on her Facebook profile has been fined $250 and assigned a five-page essay on the sixth amendment by the trial judge. The woman had written that it was “gonna be fun to tell the defendant they’re GUILTY” on her Facebook page before the trial was fully finished. For her part, the woman recognizes her mistake and her attorney said the outcome was “appropriate.”

Can You Break Up With Your Facebook Friends?

In her “social netiquette” column, Bridget Carey explains why it’s important to occasionally go through your Facebook friends and delete the individuals you don’t know or don’t have any significant contact with. Carey also suggests a way to spare hurt feelings if you’re thinking of deleting someone you know in real life, but don’t interact with often. Using Facebook’s privacy controls, you can move people you don’t talk to, but don’t want to delete, into a separate group set-up to limit the amount of profile information they can see.

Mother of Three Stalked Online, Facebook Won’t Intervene

The Sydney Morning Herald has the story of a mother of three who has been the victim of a vicious Facebook stalker. For the last two weeks, the stalker has harassed the woman and her children with obscene and violent language and pornographic images. The incident began when the stalker hacked into the daughter’s Facebook account and began soliciting information about the family’s home address.

The mother of three says she contacted Facebook about the harassment and they informed her that they would shut down the account. Two hours later however, Facebook said they would be unable to follow through with her request. The woman has since filed a report with the police and an investigation into the harassment is ongoing.

Twitter Announces Plans to Log All Links Clicked by Users

Twitter has announced the roll-out of a singular URL shortening device, “t.co.” This long-expected development will allow Twitter to detect malicious links more effectively and generally improve security on the site. It will also allow Twitter to track and record all links clicked by Twitter users and store that information for future internal data mining. This latter development has made some privacy advocates nervous, but as CNET’s Declan McCullagh points out, there are several simple steps Twitter can take to alleviate these concerns.

In today’s Quick Hits, we look at two interesting pieces of data from recent social media research, ponder the privacy of Facebook Places, and discuss why Germany’s anti-web screening legislation probably won’t do much good even if it is passed.

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Over Half of Teens Online Don’t Know Their Facebook Friends

An AOL/Nielsen report reveals that 54 percent of kids online don’t personally know all of the friends they accept into their social networks. The fact that more than half of kids are willing to reveal important and intimate details of their lives to strangers is a disturbing finding and underscores the importance of proactive online reputation management for kids and teens.

Kids Retaliate Against Intrusive Parents Online

The AOL/Nielsen report also showed that 76% of parents with kids on Facebook have “friended” their teens online. Predictably, this has led to frustration from teens who feel that parents are intruding into their private lives. This article from the Los Angeles Times details one website, MyParentsJoinedFacebook.com, which serves as a repository of the annoying and embarrassing things some parents do on Facebook.

CBS Early Show Discusses Geo-Location Tagging and Social Networking

This morning on the CBS Early Show, the topic of Facebook Places and location-based social networking was discussed. The conversation quickly turned toward safety and whether it’s a good idea to share your precise location with your network when you’re out. Tech expert Katie Linendoll wisely observed that, “If I say that I’m on vacation in Los Angeles for a week, that also says my place is completely empty for a week. If you have somebody kind of semi-cyber-stalking you or somebody upset with you, you say you’re gonna be at the mall — not always a good idea.”

Student Boasts on Facebook About Spying on Teachers, Earns Fine

Students have always been curious about what their teachers say outside of the classroom, but no one has taken spying to an extreme like these two girls from Sweden. According to a report, the two teens planted bugging equipment in their school’s teacher’s lounge to overhear private conversations. The pair likely would have gotten away with their crime if not for another technological advancement: Facebook. When one teen bragged about their successful spying online, the pair were caught, taken to court, and fined approximately $270 each.

Germany’s Proposed Anti-Screening Law is a “Toothless Tiger”

The Sydney Morning Herald explores Germany’s proposed legislation that would ban companies from using the Internet to screen candidates before making a hiring decision. The article cites an Australian HR expert who claims that everyone uses social media to scope out applicants and that if the German law passed it would be a “toothless tiger” – impossible to regulate and enforce.

In today’s Quick Hits, we talk about cyberbullying prevention, a Foursquare founder’s thoughts on Facebook Places, and why a newly proposed German privacy law will be impossible to enforce.

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Eric Zorn: Teens Must Learn to be Their Own Internet Monitors

In a column for the Chicago Tribune, Eric Zorn offers parenting advice about monitoring the Internet. In addition to his advice, however, Zorn also remarks that, with so much access, “even moderately clever teens can outwit parents bent on surveillance.” To this end, Zorn writes that “teens must learn to be their own Internet monitors” and understand the importance of practicing strong and proactive online reputation management.

Foursquare Co-Founder Calls Facebook Places “Boring”

With Facebook Places set to take over the world of location-based social networking, competitors are beginning to speak out. In a recent interview with the Telegraph, Foursquare co-founder Dennis Crowley said, ““I have now had a chance to play around with Facebook Places and it’s not that great or interesting. It’s a pretty boring service, with barely any incentives for users to keep coming back and telling their friends where they are.” If even a fraction of Facebook’s more than 500 million users try out Facebook Places, it will be a major blow to other geo-location social media services.

AOL Launches Paid Child Safety Service

AOL recently launched a new child safety service called Safe Social. Safe Social employs monitoring technology to alert parents about a child’s actions online. The effort is AOL’s first branded paid consumer service in years. According to TechCrunch, AOL is licensing technology from the company SocialShield in order to offer Safe Social to customers.

Can Schools Search Cell Phones to Stop Cyberbullying?

How far should schools be allowed to go in their efforts to fight cyberbullying? That’s the question at hand in Oak Harbor, Washington where a new anti-bullying plan would give school administrators the ability to search through students’ cellphones if they are suspected of using them to “harass others through e-mails, text messages or photos.” Administrators compare searching a cell phone to searching a school locker, but some parents believe the plan goes too far.

Germany Proposes Law that Prohibits Cybersnooping

What if hiring managers were legally prohibited from using the Internet to screen candidates? That may soon happen in Germany where “Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere has drafted a new law on data privacy that, among other things, will clamp down on the information companies can legally collect on employees from social networking sites, such as Facebook and MySpace.” Germany is one of the most privacy-conscious countries in the world, but it seems that this law would be next to impossible to enforce.