Entries Tagged 'Parenting' ↓

In today’s Quick Hits, we learn what privacy harm means, how Paris police feel about Google Street View, and the meaning behind the heavily encoded texting language of teens.

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Free iPad Scams Hit Facebook and Twitter

Twitter and Facebook have both become inundated in recent weeks by scammers promising free iPads to users. Once a scammer gains access to a user’s social media account, they send out messages to user’s friends containing a link to better-gifts.net. According to Reuters, “that Web site asks for personal information, and then directs the user to a variety of promotional offers from legitimate companies such as Netfilx, the Doubleday Book Club, and Columbia House DVD.Online marketing programs pay cash for Web traffic, and hackers have found that by phishing victims and then using that information to break into legitimate Twitter and Facebook accounts, they can earn money.”

NYT Tech Talk Podcast: Fighting Over the Facebook Movie

In this week’s New York Times Tech Talk Podcast, part of the show focuses on The Social Network, the allegedly fictionalized upcoming movie about Mark Zuckerberg and the origins of Facebook. The show specifically touches on Facebook’s vehement disagreements with the producers of the film over its subject matter and curious interpretation of Facebook’s early history.

Internet Expert Ryan Calo Explains “Privacy Harm”

In a Q&A for the Wall Street Journal, Ryan Calo, senior research fellow at the Center for Internet and Society at Stanford University Law School, attempts to define “Privacy Harm,” or what constitutes a harmful invasion of privacy versus something that is merely distasteful. In his thoughtful responses, Calo mentions subjective privacy harm versus objective privacy harm and the difference between a “privacy violation” and a “privacy harm.”

Google Street View Car Stopped and Searched in France

Google is operating Street View cars in France again, but not without a healthy bit of scrutiny. From BusinessWeek: “A car used by Google Inc. to collect data for its Street View mapping service was stopped and searched yesterday near Paris, less than a week after France’s privacy regulator criticized the company.The inspection was a result of Google resuming photographing French streets before officials decided whether the company complied with orders to limit Street View’s data collection, said Yann Padova, secretary general of the National Commission for Computing and Civil Liberties.”

Understanding Teen Texting

Kids and teens go to great lengths to hide their digital conversations from their parents. This article from CNN discusses some of the common Internet lingo that teens use when texting or chatting with friends and offers a handful of resources for parents to learn more about this ever-evolving and complex shorthand web language.

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.

In today’s Quick Hits, we talk about cyberbullying, the risks and rewards of teachers using social networking websites, and how Google’s South Korea office was stormed by police.

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Australian Study Shows Men More Image-Conscious Than Women Online

A study conducted in July for Carlton and United Breweries, surveyed 627 adults between the ages of 22 and 40 to determine what role social media plays in superficiality. According to the results of the study, men are more image-conscious online than women, with nearly 25% of male respondents claiming that they “actively manage their cyber profiles to project their `best self’ compared to 14% of their female counterparts.”

Teachers and Social Networking

This article in the Chicago Tribune talks about teachers on social networking websites and whether or not it is appropriate for teachers to interact with their students online. The central issue in the article is that social networking rules vary from school to school. While some teachers think that social networking is perfectly acceptable, others find it to be too dangerous and reject Facebook and Twitter out right. Given previous instances where teachers were fired over content on social networking websites, our advice to teachers would be to avoid students online and to be acutely aware of what you’re sharing online.

Questions and Answers About Cyberbullying

A second article in the Chicago Tribune addresses the equally complex issue of cyberbullying. Recently, the state of Illinois passed a law prohibiting cyberbullying via text messages, e-mail, and social networking websites. In the article, Jennifer Nielson, of the Greater Chicago chapter of the Anti-Defamation League, answers questions about cyberbullying and how the new rules will be implemented across the state.

Nick Saint: There is No Foursquare Stalker Problem

In an op-ed for Business Insider, Nick Saint argues that mainstream media outrage over “Foursquare stalkers” and the dangers of location-based social networking are overblown, and that the only way an individual would be a “stalking victim” is if they actively choose to share their information publicly on Twitter. Saint argues that without Twitter to amplify a user’s Foursquare update, there wouldn’t be a problem at all, and that because Twitter has been around for a while it’s no longer a “cool” topic for discussion.

South Korean Police Raid Google Offices

According to the Wall Street Journal, “Police raided Google Inc.’s South Korean offices Tuesday to probe potential violations of the country’s telecommunication-privacy law, in the latest move by authorities around the world to ratchet up scrutiny of the Internet search giant’s privacy practices.” The raid is centered around Google Street View, which has been the subject of international scrutiny since Google admitted to collecting Wi-Fi payload data via Street View cars several months ago.

In today’s Quick Hits, we talk about Google’s rumored social networking website, why employee social media use might not be the best thing for businesses, and how identity thieves are ruining kids’ credit scores before they’re even old enough to have a credit card.

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British Survey: Social Media Use May Cause £14 Billion Loss in Productivity

According to a survey of 1,000 British employees by MyJobGroup, “two million people – or six per cent of Britain’s 34 million-strong workforce – admitted wasting more than an hour every day adding friends, uploading pictures and videos and tweeting.” This time spent on social media websites could be causing productivity losses of “£14 billion a year.” Besides lost productivity, unmonitored employee social media use could lead to company secrets ending up on the web. For these reasons, it is important for companies to establish effective social media policies for employees.

Identity Thieves Target Kids’ Social Security Numbers

According to an AP report, identity thieves are now targeting children’s social security numbers to set up fraudulent accounts in other people’s names. The article states that, “Hundreds of online businesses are using computers to find dormant Social Security numbers — usually those assigned to children who don’t use them — then selling those numbers under another name to help people establish phony credit and run up huge debts they will never pay off.” In the Internet age, even children need to have control over their personal data. Parents need to take responsibility to ensure their kids’ identities are protected online.

College Students Compare and Contrast Facebook and Possible Google Social Network

In this article from ABC News, college students discuss what they do and don’t like about Facebook. The article then explores how Google’s long-rumored social networking website could be a viable competitor to Facebook. Specifically, the students in the article cited Google’s ability to integrate products like GMail or YouTube directly into its social network as strong reasons why they might leave Facebook.

Failure of Google Wave Could Help Google Me

Speaking of Google’s social networking website, this article from ComputerWorld discusses how the demise of Google Wave (the project officially shut down yesterday) may actually help Google Me. Google is a company that learns from its mistakes. With Wave, Google didn’t do enough to explain why the product was useful or make it an essential web experience. Google’s failures on that count will help it as it develops and markets Google Me.

Valleywag Stalks Mark Zuckerberg to Make Point About Privacy

The Gawker-run Silicon Valley gossip website Valleywag has begun a new feature that intends to show Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg what it’s like to lose one’s privacy online. The site has hired a paparazzi photographer to follow Zuckerberg around during the day and publish the photos online. Thus far, they haven’t found anything interesting, other than the fact that Zuckerberg drives an Acura even though he’s worth 4an estimated four billion dollars. Though ValleyWag is pushing the limits of ethical journalism with this series, it’s an interesting counter point to Zuckerberg’s own statement that the “age of privacy is over.”