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Posts Tagged ‘Social’

Facebook has been making their own rules since they came on the scene. Although they’ve taken more and more heat for their almost-constant privacy changes, it seems like we find a new low every few months. Meanwhile, even the courts are beginning to side with Facebook on advertising issues. Facebook gained a partial victory in the US District court last week in a case on click fraud. Judge Jeremy Fogel decided that advertisers could sue Facebook for charges resulting from “invalid” clicks&madsh;but not “fraudulent” ones. A clause in Facebook’s advertising contract, tentatively upheld by the court, actually protects them from any suits about fraudulent clicks. A fraudulent click might include a competitor’s click campaign designed to drive up the advertiser’s costs. Click fraud is a felony in California (where the case was decided). This class-action suit was originally filed last July . The decision does mean that advertisers can subpoena click information to look for “invalid” clicks they were charged for, and sue Facebook for those. The court did not agree with Facebook’s argument on invalid clicks, though it was quite similar to their argument for fraudulent ones: Facebook argued that the litigation should be dismissed because all cost-per-click advertisers were required to agree to the company’s terms and conditions, which allegedly included the following language: “I understand that third parties may generate impressions, clicks, or other actions affecting the cost of the advertising for fraudulent or improper purposes, and I accept the risk of any such impressions, clicks, or other actions.” Facebook’s latest new venture, a Like button for the whole Internet, may also bring them some serious grief. Developers have revealed that Facebook’s new Graph API had at least one serious privacy loophole : the API allowed developers to see and display all public events a person has said they’d attend, regardless of whether that person is a friend or not. Ka-Ping Yee, a software engineer for Google.org (Google’s charitable arm, as the Guardian describes it), discovered the vulnerability . He was especially concerned that there was no way to block or opt-out of this setting, especially since respondents to events have no control over whether the event is listed as private or public. Although you could see non-friends who have RSVP’ed to a public event on the event’s page, the API loophole allows everyone to see a full list of a single user’s public events, regardless of their connection to you. This vulnerability may have actually been inherited from an old API. However, late last night, Facebook corrected the vulnerability. Shades of Google Buzz, anyone? Ultimately, I think the Graph API will probably face at least a few more privacy challenges, even before the watchdogs, federal government and litigators start in on it. What do you think?

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Facebook: Where Fraud Isn’t Frauduldent and Privacy Isn’t Private

Last week we brought to your attention the fact that Facebook was starting to spend some time in Washington, DC talking to folks in the intelligence community as well as the FTC . Well, now after US Senator Charles “Chuck” Schumer’s action we can understand why Facebook would like to develop some friendships in high places. The local ABC New York City affiliate ran this piece on the senator’s request . It’s interesting to see how the people who pay attention to local news are being “informed” about the online world especially when it comes to something they can get paranoid about like privacy. Schumer and most politicians want to play on the public’s fears so they can look like they are busy. What better place to make the public squirm than the idea that their private information is being spread across the Internet with no concern for wants and desires for that data. While it may not even be completely true it sure makes for good TV. As with most actions of this type it is likely that the senator’s staff brought this to his attention and told him that it was a “hot” topic and he should get some press. While he is there for the “good of the people” he is there for publicity so those people will keep him in office. In other words, I wonder just how concerned this senator truly is or is he just trying to get out in front of this and give the appearance of being on top of the “latest and greatest’ concerns of his constituency. Don’t you love how the system works? Anyway, Facebook obviously feels that if a US senator is going to call a press conference to announce his request for the FTC to examine Facebook’s privacy policies then they should have a say of their own. Here is Facebook’s response to the ABC report. “We were surprised by Senator Schumer’s comments and look forward to sitting down with him and his staff to clarify. Facebook’s highest priority is to keep and build the trust of the more than 400 million people who visit our service every month. To do so, we’ve developed the most powerful tools of any major Internet company to give people control over what information they want to share, when they want to share it and with whom. Last week, we announced several new products and features designed to enhance personalization and promote social activity across the Web. None of these changes removed or reduced people’s control over their information and several offered even greater controls. For example, we announced a new tool to give users much greater ability to restrict the information they share with applications and third party websites. We introduced new ways for websites to let Facebook offer personalization without the need for any user information to be shared with the site itself. We also announced a small pilot program with three well-known and respected partners – Microsoft, Pandora and Yelp – to provide additional personalization on their sites, based on information that is already publicly available. These partners were carefully chosen, reviewed, and are contractually required to respect users’ privacy preferences. Additionally, they are required to provide an easy and prominent method for users to opt out directly from their website and delete user data if users choose do opt out. Facebook and its partner sites have also added new and easy controls to help users manage their experiences when they visit these sites. We think these programs will make surfing the web a smoother and more engaging experience for people who use Facebook while honoring the trust we’ve been given.” Facebook wants to be the first to truly tie the social web together in a more cohesive fashion but it appears that this goal will not reached without clearing a few hurdles that are likely to be set Washington. What’s your take on Washington’s interest in Facebook?

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US Senator Wants FTC to Look Into Facebook Privacy Practices

PR Web (press release) IntelBuilder 2.2 – Complete Social Media Website Platform To Offer Business … PR Web (press release) IntelBuilder Social Media Website Platform is the first platform that offers web content management system (CMS), social media marketing , and sales lead …

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IntelBuilder 2.2 – Complete Social Media Website Platform To Offer Business … – PR Web (press release)

You know that you are a major force in business when you go from a fun, social networking company to huge valuations and finally to Washington. Google has shown that they understand the importance of being in the US capital and working the lobbying angle. When there’s enough talk about antitrust and monopoly you need to do that. Facebook’s involvement in DC though goes even further as they talk to the intelligence community. SocialBeat tells us more Facebook has been gradually boosting its profile in Washington D.C. over the past year and is on the hunt for a second senior lobbyist to add to its office of four. Disclosures released a few days ago show that, on top of lobbying the usual suspects Internet companies reach out to like the Federal Trade Commission and the U.S. senators and representatives, the fast-growing social network has also been busy deepening ties to government intelligence and homeland security agencies. Facebook spent $41,390 on lobbying in the first quarter of 2010. That’s on top of the $207,878 it spent last year — the first year Facebook began releasing such disclosures. Although these numbers are tiny compared to the $4.3 million Google spent on lobbying last year, expect them to grow with the company’s influence and ambitions. So let’s take a look here. Facebook is a company that raises privacy concerns just by showing up every day. Now they are talking to intelligence agencies on the federal level. That kind of talk leaves plenty of room for speculation. It is the only Internet company amongst the likes of Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Yahoo and Apple who is reaching out to the Office of the Director of National Security which is an umbrella organization established after 9/11. This agency advises the President and works with the CIA. So what are they talking about? Privacy and federal cyber-security policy are the focus over the last three quarters. Facebook’s take? Andrew Noyes, the company’s manager of public policy communications, says most of Facebook’s work in D.C. consists of basic education — helping legislators and agencies understand how to use the social network for campaigning, reaching out to their constituencies and in their regular line of work. The U.S. Navy used Facebook to alert Hawaiians of a possible tsunami from the Chilean earthquake earlier this year, while the company says 35 government agencies are using social media for governance. It also doesn’t hurt to start to “grease the skids” for future interactions with the government does it? Considering the kind of data that could possible flow through Facebook there is likely to be more than less interest in what is being said from a legal / criminal aspect. We have already seen that criminals aren’t always the sharpest knives in the drawer . So how private do you think your information is on Facebook? If Facebook is “building relationships” in Washington and is the only big Internet player talking to intelligence agencies what could that mean? It’s Friday so let us know what you think before you check out for the weekend.

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Facebook Goes to Washington to Deepen Intelligence Ties

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