How sticky is membership on Facebook? Just try breaking free
Maria Aspan, The New York Times, 2-10-2008
Some users have discovered that it is nearly impossible to remove themselves entirely from Facebook, setting off a fresh round of concern over the popular social network's use of personal data.
While the Web site offers users the option to deactivate their accounts, Facebook servers keep copies of the information in those accounts indefinitely. Indeed, many users who have contacted Facebook to request that their accounts be deleted have not succeeded in erasing their records from the network.
Source: news.com
Experts to Facebook: Mind Your Manners
Stefan Berteau found that Beacon [Facebook's new information collecting system] tracks users even if they are logged off from the social-networking site and have declined having their activities broadcast to friends.
In this case, users aren't informed that data on their activities at these [partner] sites is flowing back to Facebook or given the option to block that information from being transmitted...
"Some say that if you belong to a social-networking site, you've given up your privacy. This shows that Facebook is the one that's really overreaching, collecting a lot of information from all over the place," said attorney Guilherme Roschke, a Skadden Fellow at the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC).
Source: PC World, http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,140321/article.html
Facebook: The Privacy and Productivity Challenge
Our research shows that 41% of Facebook users will divulge personal information - such as email address, date of birth and phone number - to a complete stranger, greatly increasing their susceptibility to identity theft. In most cases, it was possible to access users' family photos, information about likes/dislikes, hobbies, employer details and other personal facts - all information that could help a criminal guess someone's password or impersonate them. Many more have made details of their friends and family freely available to millions of other Facebook users.
Source: Sophos, http://www.sophos.com/security/topic/facebook.html
What Teens Post On Web Profiles
Washington Post, 7-31-2007, p. D02
· 82% include their first name.
· 79% post photos of themselves.
· 66% include photos of their friends.
· 61% include the name of their city.
· 49% include the name of their school.
· 40% have included an instant-message screen name.
· 40% stream audio to the profile.
· 39% link to a blog.
· 29% include an e-mail address.
· 29% included their last name.
· 29% post videos.
· 2% include a cellphone number.
Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project
MySpace deletes 29,000 sex offenders
Reuters, 7-24-2007
Popular Internet social network MySpace said on Tuesday it detected and deleted 29,000 convicted sex offenders on its service, more than four times the figure it had initially reported.
Click here to read the full article.
'Private' Online Photos Really Aren't
Wayne Parry, Associated Press, 7-12-2007
But there's no such thing when it comes to photos posted online or e-mailed to others.... Antonella Barba became worldwide news earlier this year when racy photos of the "American Idol" contestant surfaced during the competition.
"I used to say 'Cover your tracks,' but it really should be, 'Don't make tracks that need to be covered,'" Barba said Thursday. "Once anything is online, it's free rein.
...
[Miss New Jersey Amy] Polumbo's mother, Jen Wagner, said her daughter was just like millions of other young people who thought that just because their Facebook or MySpace page was set to "private," their photos would remain that way.
"They don't realize how many people can eventually see these photos," she said.
The photos of Polumbo came from her Facebook page, which has since been taken offline.
...
Steven Jungman, director of recruiting for Houston-based ChaseSource LP, told of a young woman his firm helped land a job with a company working on a sensitive project.
"This was a project that had to be kept secret, that if the competition found out about it or the media wrote about it before it was rolled out, it would be very bad for business," he said. "It even had a secret nickname.
"Every day, twice a day, the company did a ... search for that title, just to make sure nothing was getting out about it," Jungman said. "One morning, an interesting link came up, to someone's My Space page. It went, 'My name is so-and so, I'm working on such-and-such for so-and-so.' And right next to that were photos that would make Anna Nicole Smith blush, and Paris Hilton go, 'Whoa!'"
Two days later, the woman was fired.
Other tales abound of job applicants getting passed over because their online pages showed them smoking marijuana, passed out after drinking, or flashing too much skin.
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Polygamist's Son Sent to Jail for Having Sex With 13-Year-Old After Pair Met on Myspace
Associated Press, 7-10-2007
A judge sentenced the son of an imprisoned Utah polygamist to 180 days in jail Tuesday for having sex with a 13-year-old girl he met on the Internet site MySpace.
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Second Man Accused of Parole Violation by Posting MySpace.com Profile
Associate Press, 6-22-2007
A second convicted sex offender has been accused of violating his parole by creating a profile on the social networking site MySpace.com without his parole officer's permission.
...
"This arrest demonstrates that many of these convicted sex offenders are violating their parole and socializing in the same space as millions of children," [Connecticut Attorney General Richard] Blumenthal said. "As astonishing and appalling as the discovery of thousands of sex offenders on MySpace, these convicted felons using their real names are only the tip of the predator iceberg."
Click here to read the full article.