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Scam Alert: My Total Profile Views Today Facebook App Spams Your Friends

Facebook's founder, Mark Zuckerberg, has defended
its privacy policies

Privacy campaigners have welcomed a report that Facebook is to ask users to opt into any changes in the way it uses their personal information.

The social network previously announced alterations to its members' settings without asking for fresh consent.

The website is changing its policy after an investigation by the US Federal Trade Commission, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal.

Facebook is not commenting on the story at this time.

The report suggests the site has also agreed to privacy audits by an independent organisation over the next 20 years.

However, it says the FTC does not prescribe how consent should be obtained.
Suspicion

"Facebook has historically been extremely resistant to transparency in its own operations, so we welcome measures that would force the company to obtain express consent of its users," said the London based advocacy group Privacy International.

"However, it seems likely that the FTC's demands will only present a temporary obstacle in the path of Facebook's ambitions to collect its users' information.

"Faced with reams of small print, most users are likely to automatically agree to policy changes, with each change bringing us one step closer to Zuckerberg's vision of a privacy-free future."

The website's founder, Mark Zuckerberg, was questioned about the firm's privacy policies on the US television network PBS' Charlie Rose show earlier this week.

"You have control over every single thing you've shared on Facebook," he said, "You can take it down."

He also said other search engines and advertising networks gathered "huge amount of information" about internet users through cookies, which he claimed was "less transparent than what is happening at Facebook".

Complaints

The FTC's intervention is being linked to the Washington-based campaign group, Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC).

It filed a complaint with the commission in December 2009 claiming that privacy setting changes "violate user expectations, diminish user privacy and contradict Facebook's own representations".

EPIC noted that the website's users, security experts and others had voiced opposition to the change.

The organisation filed a follow-up complaint in 2010 claiming the social network had violated consumer protection law.

This year, EPIC also asked the FTC to investigate Facebook's use of facial recognition software on users' uploaded photographs and changes that gave the firm "far greater ability to disclose the personal information of its users to its business partners".
Knock-on effects

Facebook says it has more than 800 million members who have used the site at least once in the past 30 days.

The Reuters news agency recently reported that the site's revenues totalled $1.6bn (£1bn) in the first six months of the year thanks to its popularity with advertisers.

Facebook does not release detailed results as it is not a publicly traded company, although there is speculation it will float its stock in 2012.

Legal experts say any settlement with the FTC is likely to have implications for other internet firms.

"Users are not social networking sites' primary customers, advertisers and marketers are," said Andrew Charlesworth, director of the centre for IT and law at the University of Bristol.

"While the FTC settlement indicates sites must be more open about the ways they make personal data available, and provide users with greater control, Facebook and others will already be rethinking the techniques they use to persuade users to keep their personal data publicly accessible."

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-15692542

Preparation for Google+ to rival Facebook

Google will be rolling out major enhancements for its social networking platform Google+, such as integration of search and Google Docs, over the next three months in a bid to bridge the gap with rival Facebook.

According to a Financial Times report on Wednesday, the Internet giant will be looking to compete better with market leader Facebook with major improvements to its Google+ platform. The first round of enhancements will include incorporating Google Docs, the word processing application which will make collaborating on documents easier "within days", and its search function with the networking platform, noted Vic Gundotra, senior vice president of engineering, in the report.

Subsequently, all of Google's Web offerings "are going to be fundamentally changed by the Google+ graph", he added.

Users of multiple Google services, for instance, will be able to rely on a single system for sharing across the different platforms and not have to wonder whether to share content using Google+ or YouTube, Gundotra explained.

He also said the company is delighted with the more than 40 million users who have registered for its social networking service, but acknowledged the figure is still less than a tenth of Facebook's user base. The executive declined to say how many daily active users the platform has, though.

Google co-founder Sergey Brin, who sat in on the same interview, noted that Google was cleaning up its multiple brands in order to make them less confusing and said Google+ would be one of the core products going forward.

While in the past, the company wanted to let "a thousand flowers bloom", Brin noted that once these flowers bloom, "you [would] want to present them in a coherent bouquet".

Google had earlier showed its determination to streamline its operations by shuttering Buzz, Photovine and Fast Flip, among others, in recent weeks.

Source: http://www.zdnetasia.com/google-preps-google-for-facebook-challenge-62302588.htm

Upcoming Facebook App: Know How Much Electricity YOU and Your Friends Use!

Friends can compare energy consumption, compete to improve. The free app is set to release early next year. It helps consumers make smarter energy decisions.

An upcoming Facebook app from OPOWER lets you compete to use less energy than your friends.

(CNN) -- Add energy consumption to the laundry list of things you can share with online friends on Facebook.

OPOWER, a company that uses game mechanics to encourage people to use less energy in their homes, is working with Facebook and the Natural Resources Defense Council to create an app that will let people share data about how much -- or little -- electricity they're using at home.

The app is expected to be available early next year, according to Facebook and OPOWER.
"It's not that sexy of a topic. People don't spend a lot of time thinking about their energy use -- so we're really excited to bring this conversation to life" with the upcoming app, said Marcy Scott Lynn, who leads sustainability programs at Facebook.

The hope is to get friends to compete against each other to use less energy, and to hold each other accountable for energy-use-reduction goals, said Ogi Kavazovic, a spokesman for OPOWER.
"A person in London could compete in energy usage with a person in California," he said.

A feature called "Friend Rank" lets Facebook friends see who in their social network uses the least energy per day. Another lets the app's users compare themselves to people who have similar-sized homes. The app also will let people compare their energy use with the Facebook community at large.

"People will be able to benchmark their home energy use against a national database of millions of homes. All benchmarking will be done on an aggregate level, ensuring complete data privacy," OPOWER said in a statement.

The app will automatically upload energy consumption data if a person approves that functionality.

"Everything you do related to this app will be a choice in terms of whether or not you choose to sign up for it; what you choose to share, if anything; how much of it gets published to your news feed; or whether you share it with your friends or invite your friends to use it," said Lynn, from Facebook. "It's entirely a choice
model."

The Facebook app essentially builds on how OPOWER already works. The company uses smart meter data from 60 utilities in the United States and the UK to give customers more detailed information about the energy they're consuming. Bills from OPOWER, for example, tell people how their monthly energy use compares to their neighbors, on average.

If they're doing well, or beating the average, customers get a smiley face on their bills.
It's a subtle effort to promote do-goodery, but the company says it's effective at getting people to use less power.

An average OPOWER customer uses 2 to 3% less energy, CEO Dan Yates told CNN last year.
NRDC, the environmental group, says the app will offer energy savings tips for users.
The point is to give people more information about how they're using electricity, said Jenny Powers, an NRDC spokeswoman.

"Right now you get your electricity bill and it's just one big charge and you have no idea what that means or how you can compare it with others," she said. "This sort of thing finally makes it relevant -- puts it into perspective, and offers solutions about how you can go about cutting that bill back, without losing any of your everyday comfort."

OPOWER currently reaches about 55 million homes, Kavazovic said. A person's utility must sign up with OPOWER and approve the Facebook app in order for the customer to activate the service.

The app could make these kinds of services more popular, Powers said, causing a "snowball effect" in which more utilities will want to sign up.

"In every other part of our daily consumption, we're able to find good deals -- coupons at the supermarket, sales at the hardware store. But we never catch a break on our electric bill," she said in an e-mail. "This app will collectively empower people to find their own hidden deals right within their bills."

Source: http://edition.cnn.com/2011/10/17/tech/social-media/opower-facebook-energy-app/index.html?eref=rss_tech&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fcnn_tech+%28RSS%3A+Technology%29

Mark Pincus launches Zynga Direct.

(Credit:Rafe Needleman/CNET)

SAN FRANCISCO--At the Zynga press conference today, CEO Mark Pincus dropped a bombshell that, according to the army of press handlers there, I was the only person to hear. "We are building a platform for play," he said. "We're not trying to be the company that makes the next hit game...but it's ok if we do. We're trying to do something broader than that."

Pincus said he's trying to get Zynga to build something similar to the Facebook platform, "but at a game level."

What I heard: Zynga's going to open up its network, and maybe its tools, to non-Zynga developers. This model has worked brilliantly for Facebook, as he said. And Zynga appears to be at the right stage in its growth--huge but at a plateau--to launch an initiative like this.

What I'm supposed to have heard, as three Zynga PR people told me: Zynga Direct is the company's new direct-to-consumer platform for connecting individuals who want to play games together. The new ZTag identity that you can get on Zynga today represents the first "product" on the Zynga Direct platform. Zynga Direct will be a network of gamers that will exist independently of Facebook, even though it will rely on Facebook Connect for sign-up.

This is big news itself. There is a natural tension between Zynga and Facebook. Both companies make money by rubbing people together, via updates and apps (Facebook) or play (Zynga) and then extracting small revenues from the masses via ads or online sales. The more Zynga can shake off Facebook, while not walking away from the social graph that connects its users together, the more influence and money it can keep for itself.

The Zynga Direct that we're supposed to focus on will let users create their own game identities. You'll soon be able to play your Zynga games on Facebook using this pseudonym and not your real name, although since you log in with Facebook Connect, at some point they will have to be linked. At least at launch.
You should eventually be able to use your ZTag to log into Zynga games you play on Facebook as well as off it. So if you want to play Words With Friends on Google+, or your smartphone, without attaching that instance of the game to your Facebook account directly, yet still play with friends who are on Facebook, it should be possible. As Zynga gets more users on disparate platforms--Facebook, iOS, Google+--it becomes even more important for the company to make its network of users its own, and transcend any one social network that its piggybacking on.

In other words, as it grows, Zynga can't bet the bank on its relationship with Facebook. And as Zynga gets more aggressive with mobile games (it announced four iOS titles today), it also has to figure out which of its platform partners it's going to be happy paying. At the moment, an in-app purchase on aiPad Facebook game will generate a bill from both Facebook and Apple. Zynga might be wanting to reduce the number of companies it has to pay by half. And it's easier to cut out the social platform than the operating system.
But back to the now-you-see-it, now-you-don't version of Zynga Direct that Pincus (I think) announced, the Zynga Direct that will allow developers to connect with users, not the one that will allows users to connect with each other: It's time. Zynga has strong user numbers and awesome analytics about how users interact (4 billion "neighbor connections" it does analytics on, according to Zynga CTO Cadir Lee). The company has a team of strong social and game developers. But imagine what we might see if outside developers could get into this network.

After all, Facebook is a social powerhouse in part because it opened its platform to developers like Zynga. Now Zynga could become a platform unto itself and pass the baton down the line to a new generation of developers and entrepreneurs. Done right, there is more money to be made by building a platform than by building a few good apps.

I believe that is what Pincus intended to convey this morning. The timing is right. It will help the company grow. It's one of the ways Facebook became huge. And it's the smart next move for Zynga.

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-19882_3-20118910-250/zynga-secretly-launches-developer-platform-in-plain-sight/?tag=mncol;cnetRiver

Add caption

Facebook is adding a Websense Web link blacklist service to its arsenal of defenses designed to protect users from clicking on links that lead to sites hosting malware.

The social-networking site will be using Websense ThreatSeeker Cloud service, which warns people when they click on a link on Facebook that could be malicious, the companies announced today. Facebook will start rolling out the service today.

The partnership follows one that Facebook announced in May with the free Web of Trust safe surfing service. Facebook also has its own blacklist. The larger the pool of blacklists the better the chances users will be protected from malware, basically.

When users click on a link, the online blacklist databases are checked to see if the link is flagged. If the link is deemed unsafe, users will see a warning and be given the option of ignoring the alert, returning to the previous page, or getting more information.

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-27080_3-20114896-245/facebook-adds-websense-safe-browsing-to-its-defenses/#ixzz1ZlykDq2i

Mark Zuckerberg showing off Timeline at F8.

(Credit:James Martin/CNET)

Facebook is getting more heat over two controversial practices--tracking users after they log out and new automatic "frictionless sharing."

The tracking, done with cookies on users' computers, has prompted criticism from lawmakers and now a lawsuit, while privacy groups and regulators in Ireland are concerned about a new sharing feature that automatically posts user activities to news feeds without users intentionally doing so.

A blogger wrote last weekend that he discovered that his Web surfing was being tracked by Facebook even after he logged out. Facebook admitted that it personalizes content by putting cookie files on user computers that remain even when users are logged out, but told CNET earlier this week that it quickly acted to remove uniquely identifying data from post-logout cookies and that it did not store or use that cookie data for tracking.

"This admission came only after an Australian technology blogger exposed Facebook's practice of monitoring members who have logged out, although he brought the problems to the defendant's attention a year ago," according to the complaint filed in federal court in San Jose, Calif., and reported on by Bloomberg today.

The lawsuit was filed by Perrin Aikens Davis of Illinois and it seeks class-action status. It seeks unspecified damages and ask the court to block the tracking based on alleged violations of federal wiretapping, computer fraud, and abuse laws, according to the report.

"We believe this complaint is without merit and we will fight it vigorously," Facebook spokesman Andrew Noyes told CNET in an e-mailed statement.

Also today, the Irish data protection commissioner plans to investigate Facebook's privacy-related activities following complaints by privacy groups in Europe and the U.S., according to a Reuters report.
It's been a rough week for the company. Yesterday, a collection of advocacy groups asked the Federal Trade Commission to ban Facebook's "frictionless sharing" and new Timeline features announced at F8 last week. On Wednesday, two U.S. congressmen asked the FTC to investigate Facebook over the post logout cookies. And a Chicago company has filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against Facebook over the Timeline feature.

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-27080_3-20114163-245/facebook-sued-over-tracking-users-after-logout/#ixzz1Zgt2jrGx

Flickr announced its first official Android app today.

(Credit:Yahoo)

SAN FRANCISCO--Yahoo today unveiled the first officialAndroid Flickr app, as well as a new feature that will allow users of its popular photo service to quickly and easily share pictures in real time with family and friends.

The new Flickr Android app gives users the ability to see their own photos, albums, and photostream, as well as that of friends and contacts.

(Credit:Yahoo)

Released at a press event here that was meant to highlight part of Yahoo's overall mobile strategy, the new Android Flickr app is the first Yahoo has released, although developers have already built dozens for both Google's and Apple's mobile operating systems. There is already an official iOS app.

Within the new Android app, users will be able to access all their own photos, as well as their albums and contacts. They can see activity streams, and photos that friends have uploaded.

In addition, Flickr developed its own camera experience that is built into the app. It has a custom viewfinder that allows a user to select different photo ratios, and lets him quickly name new photos and add metadata. The app also automatically appends geolocation data. Any new photograph taken inside the app can be instantly and automatically uploaded to Flickr, and can also be sent to other social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr, by clicking a check box.

Photo Session
In addition to its new Android app, Flickr also unveiled its new Photo Session feature, which is intended to replicate the traditional way that people would show others pictures from vacations or of their kids or pets. But instead of requiring that everyone be in a room together, Photo Session is meant to make it possible to share such experiences regardless of where anyone is.

It works, said Eileen Hiromura, the product manager for Photo Session, by generating a unique URL that a Flickr user can then send to up to 10 friends or family members. Once they click on the URL, those people can then join a group viewing of an album.

Flickr unveiled Photo Session, a feature that makes it possible for users to share photos with friends and family in real time.

(Credit:Yahoo)

The idea here is that the person who generated the session controls how those he or she shared it with see the pictures. So, as that person moves from photo to photo in the album, others taking part in the session will see the same progression. The feature works on computers, iPads, and iPhones. The URL lasts for 24 hours.

Photo Session also lets others who are partaking in an album viewing to make modifications to photos--such as drawing on them--that are instantly seen by everyone involved. And anyone invited to join a Photo Session group can also choose to browse the photos at their own leisure rather than look at them at the speed chosen by the photos' owner. If they want, they can then re-join the group whenever they want.

Photo Session will allow anyone participating in a group to modify photos. Everyone else in the session will see the modifications, such as drawings.

(Credit:Yahoo)

Flickr lead product manager Markus Spiering suggested that it's not entirely clear when users will create new Photo Sessions, but said it's likely that people who want to ensure friends and family members will be available to join a group together will contact those people in advance of sending out the session invitation.

Yahoo's eight mobile pillars

Flickr's announcements today were part of what Yahoo head of communications and community products Steve Douty said was the company's newly defined eight mobile strategic pillars.

Those pillars are, Douty said, delivering personal, quality content; a three-screen approach that brings Yahoo content in a seamless fashion to users'tablets, mobile phones, and computers; creating app-enhanced experiences; creating social and local scenarios that take advantage of what Yahoo knows about its users; creating continuous conversations between users irrespective of what kind of device they're using; sharing companion experiences with friends and family across devices; doing a better job of monetizing the company's mobile base via better mobile ads and commerce; and lastly, building new partner-friendly capabilities.

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13772_3-20112921-52/flickr-launches-android-app-real-time-photo-sharing/#ixzz1ZIqPO51y

Facebook vs. Google?

The algorithm is the key to success.

That's how Google replaced Yahoo as the Web's best search engine in 1998. Google became the font of the online world's information by both finding more information online than any other search engine, and by figuring out what of it was the most important to the Web's users. Google algorithmically connected the Web to people.

Facebook, by contrast, has always been about connecting people to each other, but as the the latest version of the Facebook platform illustrates, the company is now about using that information to do what Google has traditionally done: connect people not just to each other, but to things, ideas, and media.

The algorithm is a big part of today's announcement at the F8 developers' conference. The algorithm can determine what you're likely to like based on who you like, what you do, where you go, which apps you use (and how), and so forth--all of which is information that Facebook will now collect through its own service and all the apps that are being built to run on it.

Mark Zuckerberg describes how Facebook will connect people to media based on the strengths of their connections to other people.

(Credit: James Martin/CNET)

Google also knows what you do online, but it doesn't have close to the same depth of personal information that Facebook has, for two reasons. First, Google's core service, search, is a way station, not a destination. Google knows where you're going because you transit the site and because you may be tipping it off through your browser's search bar or through ads on the sites you visit. But Facebook is a destination. People go to Facebook and stay there. And communicate. And like. And so on. All the while, Facebook collects the data.

Second, Facebook knows who your friends are. In addition to the fact that you tell it this when you "friend" people, how and with whom you communicate on the site is more data that Facebook's algorithm can use to classify your connections to other people. When you respond to what Facebook is now calling "lightweight engagement" activities in the Ticker--when you decide to listen to a song alongside a friend, for example--Facebook files away this information, building, bit by bit, a dossier on your preferences and the people who are most likely to influence you.

For advertisers, this data is more valuable than Google's. Facebook will be able to cluster likely interest groups together and sell marketers access to those people. The company will be able to work with media companies to make advertising on their pages more effective. This is a serious and credible threat to Google's position as the Web's premier advertising provider.

For users, Facebook will, probably quickly, learn what each of us is likely to like by watching what we do on the site. This will help solve a big problem on a Web overloaded with novel information: discovery. By mining the "data exhaust" collected from the activities, links, likes, and so on that we all generate, Facebook should be able to predict, with increasing accuracy, what we're most likely to engage with, be it music or grocery ingredients.

If Facebook gets this wrong, users will continue to complain about the new design of the site as being too cluttered and confusing. But if the algorithm starts to feed people links to things they like but didn't know they'd like, it means the algorithm is working and Facebook is on its way to becoming the source of the most valuable information on the Web: who likes what, who they influence, and how to reach the people most likely to influence others (hint: go through their friends).

It's scary to see one single company own this database, but Facebook is coating this pill in sweet candy. We will find music we love through it. We will connect with friends to go on hikes with it. We will learn things from publications using Facebook because we see our friends reading them. And we'll make the whole thing easier for our friends, and Facebook itself. But stuffing Timelines full of personal resumes of preferences and activities.

There will likely be privacy missteps along the way, as Facebook turns on the algorithm and makes the data available to more developers through its platform. One might be tempted to step away from Facebook or to try hard to not engage with the flow of attractive links and media that comes through it. But I think it's going to be hard for people to say no to what Facebook will soon be offering.

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-19882_3-20110418-250/yes-google-really-should-worry-about-facebook/#ixzz1Z7dy2xCk

Mark Zuckerberg introduces Timeline at F8 2011.
(Credit: James Martin/CNET)

SAN FRANCISCO--Facebook is rolling out some of the biggest changes in its history, unveiling its new Timeline and all-new Open Graph features today, features that will radically change how users display their information, and the way they discover new content.

At F8, Facebook's annual developers conference, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the two new features. Timeline, he explained, is "the story of your life," significantly altering the way people's information is shown on the world's leading social network, presenting "all your stories, all your apps, and a new way to express who you are," Zuckerberg said.

Timeline, which went into beta today, is designed to let people go back in their lives, Zuckerberg said. "It's how you can tell the whole story of your life on a single page."

This is an extremely significant change to the way Facebook looks. With Timeline, users will see several new sections, including visual tiles, ways to get all their apps, and a cover photo.

To be more precise, in Timeline, all a user's stories appear in the bottom left-hand side of the page, much like their existing Wall. On the right, there's a timeline that breaks down all posts from various points. And finally, there's a large "cover photo" at the top of the page. The idea is that this allows users to jump back to their earliest Facebook posts.

Zuckerberg said that Timeline is already enabled for mobile devices.


Zuckerberg shows off how Facebook's new Timeline looks on a mobile device. (Credit: James Martin/CNET)

In Timeline, users will be able to see everything shared recently. Click on a year in the timeline, and it scrolls down to that year. Years will also get broken down by month. Users can roll their mouse over a point in time, and they instantly get the option to add photos, notes, and other items to that time period.

In addition, items in the Timeline will be posted on a map, so users can visually see what they've done. The map is built by Bing, a result of the partnership between Facebook and Microsoft.

While Timeline is only in beta now, developers will be able to access the new feature immediately.

Open Graph, Ticker
After unveiling Timeline, Zuckerberg then moved on to Ticker, part of the next version of the social network's Open Graph.


Mark Zuckerberg introduces the Facebook Ticker and its link to Spotify today at F8. (Credit: James Martin/CNET)

The idea, he said, is to enable a "completely new class of social apps."

Open Graph and Ticker will be rolled out slowly, giving developers a chance to create apps for Timeline. However, Zuckerberg said the elements of Open Graph that help people discover media content like music, movies, TV, and news will be available immediately.

Last year, Zuckerberg said, Facebook rolled out Open Graph, a map of all a user's connections in the world, and made it so users can connect to anything they want in any way they want. But now with the next Open Graph, he said, users will also be able to connect to an order of magnitude more things than ever before using Ticker, a way to express "lightweight" actions, thoughts, and other things anytime they want.

Facebook updates will now include verbs when people listen to songs, cook
a meal, or watch a show.
(Credit: James Martin/CNET)

When a user shares a post normally, it goes into their news feed. But when that user adds activity through Open Graph, it will go into Ticker, and into Timeline, but not into the news feed unless that's what's desired, Zuckerberg explained. It's a stream of everything a user is experiencing and expressing through Facebook, and the first time the service has enabled sharing so-called lightweight activities, such as listening to a song, watching a movie, reading a book, or even cooking a meal.

And Zuckerberg said that he expects this will enable users and others to create "a completely new class of social apps than what was ever possible before," including those about music, movies, TV, books, and any media as well as lifestyle apps that let people express all kinds of things about their lives: their runs, their naps, their moods, and much more.

All told, the new feature will allow "frictionless experiences," "real-time serendipity," and finding patterns and activity, Zuckerberg said.

Clearly, Facebook designed the new Open Graph with the intention of allowing users to easily access all kinds of media content from a wide range of publishers. That includes music, movies, TV, news, and games. On stage, Zuckerberg and guest speakers including Spotify founder Daniel Ek and Netflix CEO Reed Hastings talked about how music and video content can be easily discovered, and Zuckerberg talked about how dozens of partners will be making news stories available through Open Graph. In addition, many game publishers will allow users to get easy and streamlined access to the leading type of Facebook content.

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-20110181-93/what-facebook-announced-at-f8-today/?tag=topStories