Entries Tagged 'Legal Issues' ↓

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 talk about why you shouldn’t use Facebook while you’re in a jury, how geo-location services could be the next big thing, and what a free market economist thinks of privacy regulations.

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Juror Removed from Trial Over Facebook Post

A Detroit-area judge removed a juror from a trial after defense attorneys pointed out a comment on the woman’s Facebook wall claiming that the defendant was guilty before the end of the trial. The woman wrote that it was “gonna be fun to tell the defendant they’re guilty.” The offending remark was discovered by the defense attorney’s son who works in his mother’s law office. He was doing Google searches for the members of the jury pool. It is possible that the juror may be found guilty of contempt of court for her actions.

Facebook Tied to Narcissism in Small Psychological Study

Mashable recently reported the results of a small survey of 100 college students, which showed that “young people with narcissistic personality traits were shown to exhibit Facebook activity that was distinctly more self-promotional.” The study specifically cited “About Me” sections that referred to the individual’s intelligence and photos that “were more about displaying the user’s physical attractiveness than about capturing memories with friends.” Given the subjectiveness of these qualifications, it would be a stretch to say that Facebook is for narcissists, but there are some interesting correlations.

Services Help People Disconnect from Social Media

If social media has taught us anything, it’s that people like being connected. But not everyone wants to be connected 24/7. That’s why a number of services have popped up in recent months that allow social media users to mute, block, or manage their Twitter followers and Facebook friends. This article from the Washington Post highlights some of the most popular of these services.

Geo-Location Services Still Await Wide Adoption

With the emergence of Facebook Places, geo-location services looks like they’re set to become the next big thing in social networking. They’re not there yet though. According to Forrester Research, “4 percent of Americans have tried location-based services, and 1 percent use them weekly.” This article from the New York Times discusses some of the obstacles faced by geo-location services, chief among them being the issue of privacy.

Paul Rubin: Ten Fallacies About Web Privacy

In today’s Wall Street Journal, Paul Rubin, an Economics professor from Emory University, discusses “Ten Fallacies About Web Privacy.” Rubin approaches the subject from a free market perspective, arguing that overly stringent privacy regulations are a detriment to the economy and hurt consumers. It is an argument that we have heard before, and we don’t entirely agree with, but Rubin argues his points well and the op-ed is definitely worth reading.

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.

In today’s Quick Hits, we discuss Facebook Places, how it’s impossible to block Mark Zuckerberg, and how a cop and a teacher are in hot water over Facebook.

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WSJ: Facebook Places Causes New Privacy Concerns

The Wall Street Journal has an update on Facebook privacy concerns in the wake of the company’s new location-based networking feature, Facebook Places. As usual, the issue revolves around the level of control Facebook gives users to manage checking-in to Places. According to the article, “Many privacy groups said they were pleased that Facebook had limited Places to voluntary check-ins–rather than constant real-time tracking of users’ locations–and also that the service set defaults for much of the shared information to be limited to a user’s circle of friends.Still, the Electronic Privacy Information Center and the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, one of the groups briefed by Facebook about the product before its launch, said Facebook didn’t give users adequate controls.”

Why Do You People “Check-in” to Their Homes?

In a column for the Washington Post, Rob Pergoraro talks about Facebook Places and how he can’t understand why some of his friends who are otherwise aware of privacy issues have decided to publicly share their own homes’ locations. Pergoraro ponders about the purpose of such a check-in and asks his readers what they get out of checking in from home.

You Can’t Block Mark Zuckerberg on Facebook

Facebook has taken great pains to provide easy-to-use privacy controls to its users. So why does the website make it impossible to block Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg? According to a Mashable report, if you attempt to blog Facebook man-in-charge, “you’ll get an error message that says, ‘General Block failed error: Block failed.’” The report speculates that the failure could be “a bug or an intentional inside joke.” In either case, it’s something that Zuckerberg doesn’t need bad publicity over, especially since he’s got a highly-fictionalized major motion picture about his life hitting the big screen soon.

Mass. Trooper Under Investigation Over Facebook Photos

A Massachusetts state trooper is under investigation after three photos appeared on Facebook showing the officer posing with underage women. There is a bottle of alcohol in the background of the picture and the officer is in full uniform, implying that the officer was in the midst of arresting the underage individuals when he agreed to pose for the photos. There is no word yet on whether the officer will be punished for his egregious lapse in professional judgment, but this story is a sober reminder that one’s online reputation is constantly at risk even in “real-life” situations.

School Administrator Fired After Criticizing Parents on Facebook

Additional Facebook foolishness comes our way via the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. In an article discussing how social networking can be risky for teachers, the AJC article mentions the story of a 30-year veteran Massachusetts school administrator who was forced to resign last week after posting on her Facebook page that the parents at her school were “‘arrogant” and “snobby” and that she was, “so not looking forward to another year at Cohasset Schools.” The administrator acknowledged her mistake and said, ““I take full responsibility for my stupidity and I hope it serves as an example to kids that they need to be very, very vigilant about their privacy.”