In today’s Quick Hits, we explore why politicians should be careful what they tweet, what Apple meant by its recent privacy changes, and the issues that will come up during Mark Zuckerberg’s biggest TV interview yet.

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China – Google Deal Becomes Official

It’s official, China and Google are friends again. Last week, we learned that Google and China had reached a tentative agreement that would allow the company to continue operations in the country. The agreement depended on Google discontinuing its practice of sending Chinese users to its censor-free Hong Kong domain. Google is still allowed to have a tab for users to manually switch to the Hong Kong portal. Today, Chinese government authorities officially confirmed the arrangement.

Apple Explains Changes to Privacy Policy

Last month, Apple Inc. made waves when the company made a revision to its privacy policy. The small but significant change gave Apple the power to collect “precise location data” and the “real-time geographic location” of Apple devices. After much criticism over the change, Apple has issued a 13-page letter explaining the policy in detail, clarifying that users must first opt-in to location sharing. Apple also explained how the company uses the information it collects.

Rep. Bobby Rush Proposes Alternate Internet Privacy Legislation

According to Politico, Rep. Bobby Rush (D-IL) has been working on his own version of the Internet privacy bill first put forward by Rep. Rick Boucher (D-VA) several weeks ago. Boucher’s legislation, which was criticized by Internet companies for being too harsh and by privacy advocates for being too soft, addressed the issue of behavioral online advertising and whether companies should be required to tell consumers how their data is being used. Rep. Rush’s legislation is expected to be a more moderate approach to the issue, but nobody outside of Washington D.C. has had a chance to examine his proposals yet.

Politician’s Anti-Scientology Tweet Draws Praise and Criticism

A UK politician has learned the hard way that you have to be careful what you say on Twitter. During a trip to London, Councillor John Dixon’s wrote this after passing a Scientology center: “I didn’t know the Scientologists had a church on Tottenham Court Road. Just hurried past in case the stupid rubs off.” Soon enough, others on Twitter picked up on Dixon’s tweet and began repeating it, eventually creating a Twitter trending topic for the phrase #StupidScientology.

Naturally, members of the controversial church were not too pleased and filed a complaint against Dixon. The Cardiff City Council’s Standards and Ethics Committee will convene to determine whether Dixon violated a code of conduct with his tweet.

Diane Sawyer to Interview Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg

Diane Sawyer will interview Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on ABC tomorrow night at 6:30PM. Zuckerberg’s appearance on “World News with Diane Sawyer” coincides with the news that his company will soon pass 500 million users. During the interview, Sawyer will tour Facebook’s headquarters in Palo Alto and talk to Zuckerberg about the privacy issues that have swirled around the company in recent months. The interview may also touch on the new film The Social Network, a semi-fictionalized account of Facebook’s founding.

In today’s Quick Hits, we talk about Facebook’s continued mobile growth, why a celebrity’s angry tweets are worth paying attention to, and thoughts from the National Association of Realtors on possible data privacy legislation.

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Facebook Adds 50 Million Mobile Users

Since April, Facebook has added 50 million mobile users for a total of 150 million. Facebook hopes to further increase this number with the introduction of 0.facebook.com, “a mobile site that includes all the key features of Facebook but is optimized for speed.” With the rise in smartphone use, a growth in mobile social networking was to be expected. With increased mobile social networking, however, comes an increase in data security threats.

Actress Kristen Chenoweth’s Twitter Complaint Gets a Starbucks Barista in Trouble

A lesson to all baristas out there, be nice to everyone you serve. Broadway and television actress Kristen Chenoweth took to Twitter recently to complain about a rude Starbucks barista. The celebrity complaint caught the attention of a Starbucks manager who informed her “I’m taking care of it.” Chenoweth doesn’t know whether she got the young woman fired, but, showing a lack of regard for the plight of the common worker, told David Letterman “People don’t have jobs so you better be grateful!”

Five Useful Firefox Privacy Extensions

The web makes life undeniably more convenient, but that convenience comes with a price. If you want to get information online, you also have to give some up in the form of personal browsing data. CNET’s Dennis O’Reilly highlights five extensions for the Firefox browser that can help web users limit the data that they are sharing online and better protect their privacy.

Do Gen Y Attitudes About Privacy Affect Security?

Sue Marquette Poremba of IT Business Edge discusses a recent Pew Research Center poll that predicts current members of Gen Y (individuals born during the 1980s and early 1990s) will continue to broadcast large amounts of personal information via social networking websites in 10 years. Poremba discusses this prediction in terms of how current Gen Y professionals may pose security problems for companies.

National Association of Realtors Opposes Boucher-Stearns Legislation

The Boucher-Stearns data privacy legislation that is currently making the rounds in Washington D.C. has raised the ire of numerous groups. One group that has voiced their opposition to the legislation is the National Association of Realtors, who claim that if the law were enacted, “impose a difficult and costly compliance burden on our industry especially impacting independent contractors and small businesses,” and would have “serious unintended consequences both for Realtors and for homebuying consumers.”

In today’s Quick Hits, we touch on Facebook advertising, Twitter’s newest revenue stream, and the disconnect between tech guys and politicians.

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Facebook Explains How Advertising Works

In a post at the Official Facebook Blog, Facebook COO Cheryl Sandberg explains “the role of advertising on Facebook.” Sandberg writes that user anonymity is always protected on Facebook because advertisers never get to see personal data about users. Rather, advertisers submit their ads, ask Facebook to target a certain demographic of users, and then Facebook finds that demographic and delivers the ads.

Twitter Releases @Earlybird Feature

Twitter released one of its new monetization efforts, an advertising feature called Earlybird. The feature, which is modeled after websites like Woot.com and Groupon, offers followers of the @Earlybird account the opportunity to purchase products and services at a reduced rate for a limited time.

Facebook Most Popular Third-Party Log-in Credentials

According to Gigya, a provider of social sharing and third-party log-in tools, social media users prefer to use their Facebook account information to log-in to third-party websites more than any other alternative credential. The only exception to this is when users log-in to news websites. If a user is logging-on to a news website with third-party credentials, they will most likely use Twitter.

German Privacy Official Takes Legal Action Against Facebook

A German government official has taken legal action against Facebook for “illegally accessing and saving personal data of people who don’t use the social networking site.” According to Johannes Caspar, Facebook changed its privacy settings in April to allow users to block access to the contacts listed in their e-mail, but the previously saved contacts have not been erased and are being used for marketing purposes. The merit of Caspar’s argument has yet to be determined. Even among privacy-conscious Europe, Germany has some of the strictest privacy laws in the world.

Refining the Relationship Between Silicon Valley and Washington D.C.

In his Between the Lines blog on ZDNet, Sam Diaz ponders the relationship between Washington D.C. and Silicon Valley. While many tech experts are critical of politicians for being behind-the-curve when it comes to tech issues, Diaz argues that tech professionals need to do a better job of understanding how politics works and find different ways to appeal to policymakers.

In today’s Quick Hits, we talk more about Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s apology and we get into the issue of “brandjacking” on Twitter.

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Zuckerberg Apologizes for Privacy Issues Again in E-mail to Robert Scoble

Mark Zuckerberg reiterated his comments from this morning’s Washington Post article in an e-mail to technology blogger and web celebrity Robert Scoble. The e-mail conversation, which Zuckerberg permitted Scoble to publish, strikes a slightly more personal tone. In it, Zuckerberg says, “I know we’ve made a bunch of mistakes, but my hope at the end of this is that the service ends up in a better place and that people understand that our intentions are in the right place and we respond to the feedback from the people we serve.”

Tech writers and bloggers have been among the most critical of Zuckerberg during this debate. Reaching out to a friend in Scoble was a smart move that might help the young CEO regain some of his credibility with his most adamant critics.

Tom Krazit’s Open Letter to Google

CNET columnist Tom Krazit writes an open letter to Google asking the company to come clean about why the company was collecting Wi-Fi data through its Street View cars. Specifically, Krazit asks Google to “publish a detailed account of why this Wi-Fi software was created, how it was allowed to permeate a high-profile Google project for several years, and what Google employees knew about the collection of this data.”

Considering that government investigators may soon be asking these same questions, perhaps it would be to Google’s benefit to clear up these issues now. After all, with Zuckerberg’s apology, they won’t be able to hide behind Facebook’s privacy problems anymore.

During PR Crisis, BP Gets Brandjacked on Twitter

BP is facing a PR disaster over a massive oil spill in the Gulf Coast and Twitter has become one of the company’s biggest enemies. This article from the Detroit Free Press shows how BP was “brandjacked” on Twitter when an unknown user created the account BPGlobalPR. The account, which purported to be PR reps from BP, has racked up over 7,000 followers while lobbing jokes at BP’s relief efforts and insinuating that the company has no regard for environmental issues. BP’s official PR twitter feed has only 4,000 followers.

This story shows how important it is for companies to maintain tight control over their online reputations. In the Internet age, social media tools are an important part of crisis communications planning.

‘Evil’ Facebook App Shares Phone Numbers

If you’ve been on Facebook for a long time, you may have seen or even participated in an event or group asking you to give your phone number because your friend lost or got a new phone. Now, a new Facebook application called Evil has taken all of those publicly shared numbers and turned them into a streaming website.

The creator of Evil, Tom Scott, made sure to keep the last four digits of the numbers blurred out, but that’s only because he’s a nice guy. With just a few simple adjustments, these phone numbers could be shared in plain public view for the world to see.

In today’s Quick Hits we touch on numerous Facebook stories, some Twitter legal news, and discuss the “Privacy Paradox.” Check it out.

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Facebook, MySpace Send Personal Data to Advertisers?

A recent Wall Street Journal article revealed that Facebook and other social media websites like MySpace “have been sending data to advertising companies that could be used to find consumers’ names and other personal details, despite promises they don’t share such information without consent.” The issue specifically revolves around Facebook referral URLs for advertising including username information.

Before you get too upset, however, ReadWriteWeb’s Marshall Kirkpatrick has analyzed the article and come to the conclusion that there was a small privacy issue, that is now being resolved, but that the overall tone of the article suggested something much, much bigger. In any case, it shows you how Facebook has become a lightning rod for anything privacy-related.

Facebook on Verge of Big Privacy Changes After User Complaints

Speaking of Facebook privacy, Times Online is citing several anonymous sources at Facebook who say that the site is planning a major change to its privacy controls that could make it much easier for users to keep their profiles totally private. As the Times article explains, “this would be a big reversal for the site, in particular for its 26-year-old chief executive and founder Mark Zuckerberg, who is known to have overruled those employees who argued that Facebook should make user data more private.”

Google Chrome 6.0 Predicts What Website You’ll Visit Next

While the Google Chrome 5.0 browser is almost ready for release in beta mode, Google has already moved on to testing for Google Chrome 6.0. According to a report from earlier this week at TrustedReviews.com, Chrome 6.0 will make browsing faster with “predictive pre-connections.” As the article explains it, these predictive pre-connections will “analyse a users browsing habits over time and automatically load the most likely places you’re going to want to click in the background.”

Is there a privacy issue at stake if Google is predicting what websites you are going to visit based on your previous browsing history?

Twitter Fights Court Order to Reveal Anonymous Users

Time Magazine explores a pending feud between Twitter and Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett. Corbett, who is running for governor in the fall, successfully petitioned a grand jury to subpoena information about two Twitter users who were critical of him. Twitter is fighting the court order and has pledged not to reveal information about its users unless it absolutely has to. According to Corbett’s people, the subpoena was “related to the an open case heading for sentencing and that the point of the subpoena was not to silence any criticism of Corbett.”

It’s a good thing it wasn’t meant to silence any criticism, because, according to the Time article, the two Twitter users cited in the subpoena have done nothing but ratchet up their criticism of the politician.

Understanding the “Privacy Paradox”

In an article for Psychology Today, Rob Doyle discusses the “Privacy Paradox.” According to the article, the Privacy Paradox relates to a number of studies in cyberpsychology that show there is no meaningful connection between fear over privacy issues and actual maintenance of privacy. It is easy to see the Privacy Paradox in action, just look at how few people have actually left Facebook over privacy issues.

In today’s Quick Hits we talk about some cybersafety issues, new research from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and why you should never complain about customers on Facebook.

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MySpace Making Comeback as Anti-Facebook?

Could MySpace be making a comeback? Recently, MySpace announced plans to make its website more private, offering an alternative to the more open Facebook. In response to MySpace’s maneuvering, a Facebook spokesperson told CNN “We’re listening to feedback and evaluating the best way to respond to concerns. We understand that maintaining people’s privacy is of paramount importance, not just to them but to the eco-system of the Internet as a whole and we welcome innovative ideas in this space.” Will those innovative ideas be coming from one of Facebook’s long-dormant competitors?

Facebook Hit With Huge Adware Attack

This past weekend, hundreds of thousands of Facebook users found their PCs infected by adware after clicking on a link promising the “sexiest video ever.” The adware attack, which Facebook disabled within 15 hours, still managed to infect a huge number of users. Roger Thompson, the chief research officer at AVG Technologies, attributed the fast spread of the attack to the “viral nature” of social networking.

“Facebook is very responsive to threats when we identify them, and removing these applications as soon as they find them, but they’re still able to generate huge traffic, just because of the viral nature of social networks. It is staggering how many threats were propagated before they were stopped.”

Charlotte Waitress Fired After Complaining About Customers on Facebook

After being forced to stay an hour past closing by a couple who spent three hours at dinner, a Charlotte waitress was annoyed to receive a $5 tip. Rather than suffer in silence, she went on Facebook to complain about the customers. Unfortunately, she didn’t know her bosses were watching. When they saw the post, they fired her from her job.

Anyone who has worked in the food service industry knows how frustrating the job can be. Still, if you get a lousy tip or a bad customer, the first thing you do should not be to complain about them on Facebook. Your fellow servers might understand, but management most certainly will not.

Twitter Deals With Wide-Spread Phishing Scam

While Facebook was being hit with an adware attack, Twitter was dealing with its own cybercrime problems. According to USA Today, Twitter has been combatting a widespread phishing attack on the website, which tricks users into giving up their log-in credentials for the promise of “more Twitter followers.” Once a scammer has control of an account, they can use it to promote spam links or direct users to other malicious websites.

Here are a few of the phrases to watch out for:

FREE MORE TWITTER FOLLOWERS!

CHECK out this site, im a member of it, gets you more followers.

WANT MORE TWITTER FOLLOWERS?

Get more followers for free!

EFF Shows How 84% of Browsers Can Be Fingerprinted With Basic Data

In a stunning report, the Electronic Frontier Foundation has discovered that “the overwhelming majority of Internet users could be uniquely fingerprinted and tracked using only the configuration and version information that their browsers make available to websites.” Studying over 500,000 browsers, the EFF was able to determine that 84% had unique configurations. When a browser used Flash or Java, that number grew to 94%.

Given how little information it took the EFF to identify these unique fingerprints, it is guaranteed that someone with even more data (cookies, IP addresses, etc.) could put together a incredibly accurate user profile.

In today’s Quick Hits, we cover a lot of Facebook news (per the norm) and have an update on a story from January. Check it out.

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A Visual Evolution of Facebook Privacy Over Time

IBM developer Matt McKeon recently created a unique interactive graphic that displays how user privacy on Facebook has evolved over the last five years. It is a compelling reminder of how different the Facebook of 2010 is than the Facebook of 2005.

Man Arrested for Twitter Bomb Threat Joke Fined $1,500

In January, we wrote about Paul Chambers, the UK man who was arrested after jokingly tweeting about blowing up an airport over travel delays. According to the Los Angeles Times, “a judge at Doncaster Magistrates’ Court in northern England found him guilty of sending an offensive, indecent, obscene or menacing message over a public telecommunications network… [and] ordered Chambers to pay 1,000 pounds ($1,500) in a fine and costs.”

Facebook Board Member’s Account Hacked and Used in Phishing Scheme

In a bit of embarrassing news for Facebook, one of the company’s board members, Jim Breyer, recently had his Facebook account hacked. Worse still, Breyer’s account was then used by cybercriminals to send out a phishing message to thousands of Breyer’s Facebook friends. We’ve said before that phishing attacks can happen to even the most tech-savvy people, but the fact that Facebook is already facing scrutiny over privacy and safety concerns means there couldn’t be a worse time for this to happen.

Facebook Hires Ex-FTC Chair

Speaking of scrutiny over Facebook’s privacy policies, the company will soon face an FTC investigation to determine whether the company violated consumer protection law. To defend itself, Facebook has hired the former head of the Federal Trade Commission, Tim Muris. Muris was chair of the FTC from 2001-2004, during which time he helped spearhead the ‘no-call list,’ which protected consumer privacy by limiting telemarketing calls.

Is Criticizing Facebook Privacy for ‘Whiners’?

At TechCrunch, writer Paul Carr argues that people who blame Facebook for revealing private information are missing the point. According to Carr, if you want to keep photos and other things private online, “Don’t let them be uploaded to the Internet in the first place.” Interestingly, despite his snarky language, Carr’s stance is not too different from things we’ve written in the past. You must always think about what you’re sharing online and how it might affect your digital reputation. Carr even acknowledges that if someone else uploads a picture of you and refuses to take it down, “Facebook et al have an obligation to act to defend a person’s reasonable assumption of privacy.”

The thing that Carr misses is the fact that Facebook changed course so rapidly and so dramatically that the company essentially pulled a bait-and-switch on users. In its early days, Facebook branded itself as a closed community for friends to connect. People who joined the website at that time have a legitimate reason to be angry with the company. Additionally, because Facebook makes its privacy settings so complex, it is unreasonable to expect non-tech savvy users to know how to lock down their account. (For a complete guide to Facebook’s privacy settings, check out our How-To Guide to Facebook Privacy.)

In today’s Quick Hits, we touch on some Facebook news, the importance of keeping your jokes clean on Twitter, and Google’s latest browser offering.

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Survey Shows Confusion Over What Info is Appropriate to Share Online

A survey of 500 Facebook users by Red Associates suggests that Facebook is not the ideal environment for deepening relationships. According to the study, “What defines social networks most [is] a lack of depth in relationships.” This is consistent with the notion that Facebook is a tool for maintaining peripheral social connections. A side effect of this is that there is confusion over what users consider to be “appropriate” information for sharing online.

Facebook Flaw Lets Users See Friends’ Chat Windows

As if Facebook’s official privacy policies weren’t bad enough, TechCrunch recently discovered a major security flaw in Facebook that allows users to watch their friends’ live chats in real time. When Facebook learned about the flaw, the company immediately disabled Facebook Chat and began working on the problem. Facebook says it has resolved the problem and chat should be up and running again soon.

Australian Comedian and Columnist Fired Over “Vulgar” Tweets

An Australian newspaper columnist and comedian has been fired from her job after Twitter messages she shared from the “Logie Awards” were deemed to be “offensive” and “vulgar.” In case you were wondering, the Logie Awards are like the Emmy’s but for the Australian television industry. Among the things Catherine Deveny jokingly tweeted was that she hoped 11-year-old actress Bindi Irwin “gets laid.”

Google Chome 5 Beta Gets Rave Reviews

Google Chrome 5 has been released in beta testing and it is already being championed by tech writers for its speed and integration of both Flash and HTML 5, among other improvements. The quality of Google Chrome as a web browser strikes to the heart of Google’s business strategy. By creating the best free products possible (GMail for E-mail, Google Search for web searching, etc.) the company gains the most users. And with those users comes endless amounts of data that can be used to power advertising, which is how Google earns the vast majority of its money.

Considering how good Google is at doing this, I doubt that, even with its massive growth, Facebook will ever be able to “replace” Google as some in the tech world have suggested.

In today’s Quick Hits we talk about moms and dads on Facebook, regulating the Internet advertising industry, “Twitter Bombing” in political campaigns, and more. Check it out!

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Almost Half of Parents Friend Their Kids on Facebook

According to a new survey from the consumer electronics retailer Retrevo, 48% of parents claimed to “friend” their children on Facebook. As more people join Facebook everyday (the website is rapidly approaching 500 million users), I would expect this number to increase.

Proposed Legislation on Internet Advertising Regulation to be Announced Today

According to the Wall Street Journal, U.S. lawmakers are preparing to announce proposed legislation regulating Internet advertising today. Per the Wall Street Journal, the legislation would force websites that collect visitor information to “disclose to consumers how that information is collected and used, with whom it is shared and the circumstances under which that sharing takes place.” Additionally, the website should feature the ability for users to opt out directly from the website.

The proposed legislation also deals with how websites manage data through third-party companies. From the article: “Consumers would need to grant these third-party companies special permission for their data to be collected. The draft legislation provides some exceptions. The ad company wouldn’t need to solicit permission to collect information about consumers if the targeted ad includes a link that explains which company was involved in making the ad appear, shows consumers what information is collected about them and gives them the chance to opt out.”

Martha Coakley was “Twitter Bombed” During Massachusetts Senate Race

During her failed Massachusetts senate race against surprise Republican victor Scott Brown, Democrat Martha Coakley was the victim of a so-called “Twitter Bomb” from a conservative political action group. According to researchers, nine accounts set up by the group sent out 929 tweets over a two-hour period reaching approximately 60,000 people. The impact that this “Twitter Bomb” had on Coakley’s loss is probably marginal, but it shows how important the web and social media can be in building up and knocking down political candidates.

Facebook Should Let Users Kill Privacy Themselves

In his Net Work column for PC World, Tony Bradley offers an open letter to Facebook. In it, Bradley explains that he, and many others like him, don’t mind giving up their privacy, they just want to do it on their own terms. Bradley proposes that rather than forcing new privacy controls on users over night, Facebook should have a beta testing period and get feedback first. Bradley also suggests that Facebook should make opt-in the default on all new privacy changes (since, according to him, people will opt-in without reading what they’re opting in to anyway).