Related News: New video law lets you share your Netflix viewing on Facebook

Posted on January 18, 2013 by ACFI

One new article link has been added to our Related News page. CNN Money published an article titled New video law lets you share your Netflix viewing on Facebook.

Netflix is now free to create a U.S. Facebook app that shares users’ viewing history if they opt in, after the company successfully lobbied Congress to amend a 1988 law.

A Netflix spokesman said the company “will launch social features in the U.S.” sometime in 2013. The law in question, called the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA), previously prohibited “a video tape service provider” from revealing customer information without the customer’s written consent.

Source: CNN Money

Related News: Zuckerberg family pic stirs Facebook privacy debate

Posted on January 7, 2013 by ACFI

One new article link has been added to our Related News page. CBS News published an article titled Zuckerberg family pic stirs Facebook privacy debate.

Even Mark Zuckerberg’s family can get tripped up by Facebook’s privacy settings.

A picture that Zuckerberg’s sister posted on her personal Facebook profile was seen by a marketing director, who then posted the picture to Twitter and her more than 40,000 followers Wednesday.

That didn’t sit well with Zuckerberg’s sister, Randi, who tweeted at Callie Schweitzer that the picture was meant for friends only and that posting the private picture on Twitter was “way uncool.” Schweitzer replied by saying the picture popped up on her Facebook news feed.

Source: CBS News

Related News: Instagram backtracks after user privacy revolt

Posted on January 7, 2013 by ACFI

One new article link has been added to our Related News page. CNN published an article titled Instagram backtracks after user privacy revolt.

(CNN) — Faced with a loud and angry backlash from some of its most active users, photo-sharing app Instagram backtracked Tuesday on new language that appeared to give the company ownership of their images.

“The language we proposed … raised question about whether your photos can be part of an advertisement,” Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom wrote in a blog post. “We do not have plans for anything like this and because of that we’re going to remove the language that raised the question.”

Source: CNN

Related News: FTC’s Second Kids’ App Report Finds Little Progress in Addressing Privacy Concerns Surrounding Mobile Applications for Children

Posted on December 13, 2012 by ACFI

One new article link has been added to our Related News page. The Federal Trade Commission published an article titled FTC’s Second Kids’ App Report Finds Little Progress in Addressing Privacy Concerns Surrounding Mobile Applications for Children.

The Federal Trade Commission issued a new staff report, “Mobile Apps for Kids: Disclosures report coverStill Not Making the Grade,” examining the privacy disclosures and practices of apps offered for children in the Google Play and Apple App stores. The report details the results of the FTC’s second survey of kids’ mobile apps.

Since FTC staff’s first survey of kids’ mobile apps in 2011, staff found little progress toward giving parents the information they need to determine what data is being collected from their children, how it is being shared, or who will have access to it. The report also finds that many of the apps surveyed included interactive features, such as connecting to social media, and sent information from the mobile device to ad networks, analytics companies, or other third parties, without disclosing these practices to parents.

Source: Federal Trade Commission

Related News: Facebook’s new ‘Find Friends Nearby’ feature: Creepy or clever?

Posted on June 25, 2012 by ACFI

One new article link has been added to our Related News page. MSNBC published an article titled Facebook’s new ‘Find Friends Nearby’ feature: Creepy or clever?.

The feature is incredibly convenient if you happen to be chatting with someone in person and want to add him as a Facebook friend. Rather than tapping out his name and wasting minutes scrolling through a list of similarly named individuals, you can just ask your new pal to open up the Find Friends Nearby page and add him with a quick tap.

Opening up the Find My Friends page, while convenient, also exposes you to potential awkward or creepy moments. There is always a chance that someone you are avoiding or not interested in interacting with will happen to have the same page open — and spot your name. He or she would instantly know that you are nearby and quickly view the public information on your Facebook profile.

Source: MSNBC

Related News: Acxiom Corp: The ‘faceless organization that knows everything about you’

Posted on June 21, 2012 by ACFI

One new article link has been added to our Related News page. The Week published an article titled Acxiom Corp: The ‘faceless organization that knows everything about you’.

“If you are an American adult,” says Singer, “the odds are that it knows things like your age, race, sex, weight, height, marital status, education level, politics, buying habits, household health worries, vacation dreams — and on and on.” It does more than collect that information, though. It uses it to pigeonhole people into one of 70 very specific socioeconomic clusters in an attempt to predict how they’ll act, what they’ll buy, and how companies can persuade them to buy their products. It gathers its data trove from public records, surveys you’ve filled out, your online behavior, and other disparate sources of information, then sells it to banks, retailers, and other buyers.

Source: The Week

Related News: Facebook acquires facial recognition startup, may broaden tagging ability

Posted on June 21, 2012 by ACFI

One new article link has been added to our Related News page. Ars Technica published an article titled Facebook acquires facial recognition startup, may broaden tagging ability.

On Monday, Facebook announced that it would acquire Israeli startup Face.com for an undisclosed amount.

Face.com develops a mobile face recognition platform that can be used in various online and smartphone apps. The implications for how this could affect use on the world’s largest social network are huge—it may soon become even easier for mobile phone users to tag people, blurring the line between the physical and online worlds even further.

Source: Ars Technica

Related News: Facebook Wants Your Phone Number

Posted on June 21, 2012 by ACFI

One new article link has been added to our Related News page. Gizmodo published an article titled Facebook Wants Your Phone Number.

As part of a new security initiative, Facebook wants your phone number. It claims that it will help you recover your account in the event of an emergency—but should you hand it over?

Source: Gizmodo

Related News: Facebook Privacy: 5 Most Ignored Mistakes

Posted on May 4, 2012 by ACFI

One new article link has been added to our Related News page. InformationWeek published an article titled Facebook Privacy: 5 Most Ignored Mistakes.

Facebook no longer represents that it offers privacy as a matter of policy, like some other companies do. It states outright that it will use your data. It has a Data Use Policy instead of a Privacy Policy.

But consider the dictionary definition of privacy: 1) The state or condition of being free from being observed or disturbed by other people; 2) The state of being free from public attention. If that’s your gold standard, then you cannot use Facebook or any other online service for that matter, at least not without privacy-protecting technology. Once you venture online, once you share, you’re talking about something less than privacy. Online services may talk about how they respect privacy, but they should really be talking about data usage and sharing.

Source: InformationWeek

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