Glassmap Suggests Privacy Dialog

A new real-time location sharing service called Glassmap is now available. Its founders have made their company’s stand when comes to privacy very clear. Observers claim that many online users are becoming more involved with software services and applications. Some of them admitted that their day would not be complete if they could not share pictures, post comments, or add friends. This may be due to a force that links a user to a certain software service or application.

Glassmap had the “Post to Facebook” option in its registration process, which solicited unfavorable comments. This has been criticized for alleged user privacy violations. If the user leaves this option checked, his or her Facebook Timeline would show an invitation to join Glassmap. Critics say that this exposes users to more privacy risks even if they might be benefited from it. This option is no longer available because Facebook told the company to eliminate this “feature”.

The founders are pushing for a real dialog about online privacy rather than wasting creative minds and technology on insignificant controversies. Instead, those concerned should start an investigation on important areas that need to be given real attention. There are four of these areas: real-time adaptability, transparency, the right amount of privacy, and user-service symmetry.

As often as the user changes his or her location, privacy thresholds continuously change. There are social networking companies like Facebook that offer their users the option to choose privacy thresholds. But this is still far from real-time adaptability. If this is to happen, users must be enabled to adjust privacy thresholds without difficulty as he or she moves from place to place. This kind of feature is yet to be experienced.

Other social networking sites are also shown disapproval due to lack of transparency. The definition of being transparent is that users clearly see their actual privacy settings. Users have to see not only which part of their information is shared but also with whom they share it with. There is a need to fine tune sharing someone’s information with “friends of friends”. It might seem alright to share with “friends”, but not with “friends of friends”.

Users deserve the right amount of privacy in order for it to be better privacy. This right amount is found in-between sharing everything and sharing nothing. The two extremes cannot give the right amount of privacy. Ideally, this can be found somewhere between these two. While this must be sought, transparency and control should still be preserved.

Different sectors are focusing their efforts at improving user-to-user relationships. But many privacy issues will clear up by enhancing user-to-service relationships. To realize this, service companies must present back to users the information that they gather. This is necessary because users must know what information is being collected from them. Finally, since service companies act as user-to-user proxies, they have to be more open to them.

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Do You Still Resist Facebook?

Looking at the staggering number of 800 million Facebook users, one can readily say that this social networking site is really becoming a household name. This is a cross-section of many kinds of users – according to age, profession, online preferences, or even purposes in joining. This internet giant has totally reshaped the lives of these users. Many of them could not let a day pass without sharing pictures, posting comments, visiting digital links, and much more.

This trend of having the social networking experience everywhere puts pressure on those who still refuse to join. Whether they are simply technophobes or privacy advocates, they are not spared from the attraction to conform to what others are doing. Finally, there were those who, for many years would not give up, but are now excited to be making “friends”. They say that they should have discovered the benefits of having a social network account years ago.

There are several reasons why some people reject Facebook. There are those who say that it is just a waste of time. Others reason that there are so many social networking sites out there and they are overwhelmed. They could not choose which one would give the best experience, so, the best thing to do then, according to them, is to ignore them all.

Of course, privacy is another reason why some would not join Facebook. With the ongoing issues about giving users better online protection through legislation, many would opt to stay “safe”. The reality is that there is an abundant presence of online predators and scammers. Others feel that being on Facebook strips off their privacy, giving the chance for online criminals to make them victims.

It was found that among the fastest growing number of Facebook users are older Americans. Further research revealed that most of them use Facebook to stay in touch with their children. However, there are also a large number of older Americans who are not comfortable with joining the social network. Considering that they did not grow up in the information age, they have biases against taking the advantages of the new communication medium.

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Internet Users Become More Aware of their Privacy

The picture of internet users is changing as they become more concerned about their privacy. To see how it is, researches and studies are being conducted by different entities. Once this is done, there will be a profile of how users view or feel about their social networking activities. Pew Internet & American Life Project participated in this endeavor and reported its findings. Among others, it said that social networking sites users are becoming more careful when accepting a friend. Unlike before, they are taking more time to find out which contents must be deleted on their pages.

Pew also discovered that two out of three of all internet users have active social networking accounts. In 2009, the figures revealed that more individuals decided to delete some “friends” from their lists. When compared by gender, more women than men did so. By age, more young people tend to do the same than older ones. These findings were gathered in a span of one year.

An Associated Press insider said that users have shifted from being passive to being more conscious about other people’s comments. There are an increasing number of users who deleted comments on their profiles. Pew also mentioned that a large number of users “untagged” themselves from photos that they find “unsafe”. This tends to show that they want to stay on the “safe” side, not like in the past.

The profile options of whether to make it “public” or “private” are also useful to users. Only twenty percent have set their profiles to public, while fifty-eight percent set theirs to private. With this, more users want their profiles to be viewed only by friends. It is expected that the percentage of users who find it difficult to manage their privacy will decrease. At present, 49% said that they can manage their privacy without any trouble. This means that more social networking users are placing stricter limits on their privacy.

For the Obama administration, improved and stronger privacy protection for users of social networking sites is needed. Considering that technology for tracking users is becoming more sophisticated, there is a need for control and regulation. If this is not done, this technology is a threat to the privacy concern of users.

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Fighting Cyber Crime the Better Way

As the use of mobile devices becomes more popular, the number of cyber crimes also increases. The internet can now be accessed by almost anyone who has a smartphone or other digital device. This worsening scene has made law enforcers look for more inventive ways of combating these criminals. The usual strategies alone cannot be effective against cyber crime. It needs a good deal of initiative, coupled with technology, in order to take a good stand against cyber criminals.

In California, a new special eCrime Unit is now catching and prosecuting internet crooks. This is a team created by the State’s Attorney General and, is comprised of 20 attorneys and investigators. It uses modern techniques to target criminal activities like email scams, piracy, child pornography, online fraud, and others. Many people have been, and are still being victimized by cyber crime, or e-crime, both online and off.

The unit has already solved one case and put a man in jail who was found guilty of hacking email and Facebook accounts. What he usually did was to break into an account, and he would then intimidate its owner by threatening to expose embarrassing pictures. Another case involved a criminal group whose main activity was using card scanners and hidden cameras at ATM machines to steal passwords and other sensitive account information.

Knowing that the internet is very important to the economy, to individuals, and to businesses, these criminals are not lacking in victims. From offline, their operations shifted online to steal very important information from individuals and groups. The year 2012 is seen to be a year of battling against online criminal activities. The past year proved to be problematic in terms of scams; this year will give rise to other types of online crimes.

More systematized and focused internet crime fighting activities will be delivered by the new eCrime Unit. According to the Attorney General, California would like to set a new trend in going after cyber criminals and prosecuting offenders. They will make sure that internet technology is useful not only to online criminals but more so to law enforcement agencies.

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Parents for Internet Safety

How can young people be protected online? Who should be responsible for their safety? These are some questions that parents and government are trying to find answers for. In the midst of debates about online safety for children, the fact remains that children need to be protected. Today’s internet technology gives so much freedom to children. They can have online access at home, on the street, or in the schools. This easy access exposes children to potential harm because of their eagerness to interact with the technology.

Various observations were shared with each other by concerned groups during a free discussion. A study found that 60% of 12- to 15-year-old children use the internet on their own. The prime danger for them is their exposure to pornography. Their curiosity could start with access to sites that show indecent images. They would then keep looking for more, until they finally end up on pornographic sites.

This age group of young teens is the most vulnerable, which is why they need to be protected. At the same time, these children need the internet to gain access to the vast wealth of knowledge that it offers. To solve this dilemma, there should be some sort of regulation for children’s interaction with the online community. It appears that parents are the most appropriate agents of regulation. Sophisticated technology that aims to protect children can never replace the parents’ influence on their children.

Parents only need to be more educated on how to deal with their children’s online safety. One way of doing this is through a partnership with the schools. Digital literacy can be made part of the formal curriculum, and it could also involve parents. Along with this is the need to put in resources for parental education. This could start by making parents aware that their children’s internet use involves risks. This is very important because it would be difficult for parents to regulate their children if they are not aware of the dangers.

Aside from schools, a concerted effort of other institutions is needed. There are charities, companies, and legislators, all of which could share resources and expertise. Online protection of children cannot be left to trial and error among themselves. While the internet can be our children’s vast resource of good information, parents must always be on guard to protect them.

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Forget About Privacy

Social networking has become very popular, and it encourages more users to share personal information, even to those whom they do not know. These individuals want to expand their circle of “friends”, so they literally make themselves available to the internet community as a whole. Privacy protection no longer receives as high a priority as it used to have. As more modern technology becomes available, information sharing becomes easier and more exciting.

There are some unfamiliar facts behind Facebook users. Facebook has about 800 million users, and they can be classified into three categories. There are those users who sign on at least once a day. The second group is made up of those who sign on at least once a week. The last and third group includes those members who use it less often. There is a recently conducted telephone survey by Facebook of 2,000 adult respondents. This survey tried to look into how people view privacy in contrast with social networking.

The survey results showed that the more users make use of Facebook, the less they become concerned about privacy invasion. One respondent frankly said that he is not disturbed if people know about his online preferences or habits. This user admitted that he frequently uses Facebook more that once a day. He signs on either to get updates on his friends, or to play a popular Facebook-based game.

People who go online less often are more concerned about their privacy than those who log on more frequently. This was clearly shown in the results of the aforementioned survey. Respondents were asked if they were “very concerned” about their privacy. Taking the results together, the following were the figures gathered. Those who less frequently use Facebook comprised the highest number, at 39% of the respondents. One of the interesting results is that only 25% of those who use Facebook at least once a day said that they were “very concerned”.

Privacy concerns are the “offspring” of people who use Facebook more often. As they visit the networking site more often, they tend to share more information on the web. The availability of this kind of data online attracts many data mining companies. One can safely say that the tendency of users to easily share their information will continue. This is because social networks present more easy-to-use and stimulating features. Also, the social nature of man motivates him to connect with other people, sometimes without thinking of the consequences.


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On Keeping Private

The presence of social networking has already spread through the internet. Among them are the three giants – Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. These have become well-known for their “Like”, “Follow” and “+1” buttons, respectively. Users can now read over a web page and click “Like”. This can be done with almost anything online. In short, many people do like what they read on the web. The problem is that users can be “followed” from every page that contains these sharing buttons even if they do not click them. The users then become targets of advertisements and, worse than this, they could lose a lot of privacy.

Users are being tracked without their knowledge and of course, without their consent. Information sharing technology is now so easy that codes can be embedded in almost every web page. One can observe its use by social networking companies. They do this by embedding codes with the file sharing buttons in a web page. Unknown to the user, the code works as he or she visits the page, recording his or her “presence”, and building a profile of his or her product preferences. In due time, the user becomes a target for advertisements based on the nature of pages that he or she usually opens.

Thanks should go out to Firefox and its new product extension, Priv3, that will allow your visits to be tracked by websites only when you permit them. This tool comes in handy when you are using Firefox. With this, those embedded codes will become powerless. This means that you can surf the web wherever you want without worrying about being tracked. Your presence will not be recorded unless you hit the “Like” button on Facebook or you tweet it with Twitter. Facebook or Twitter will only know that you have been on a particular page only if you hit the share buttons.

Users are guaranteed the same satisfaction even if they use Priv3. This capability will not affect one’s enjoyment of these networking sites. Priv3 is a technology that can go around many of those “blocks” in order to ensure the same high quality of enjoyment for users. Third party sites cannot track your online activities even if you keep logged on to social networking sites. It is because Priv3 prevents them from doing so unless you intentionally give permission. Priv3 comes free for everyone in order to keep their privacy.

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Still on Children's Online Privacy

The problems regarding privacy have always been disturbing and lawmakers are looking for more ways to better protect children. The law, at present, has specified provisions that protect children when they surf online. Businesses are required to follow special rules concerning the collection and use of children’s personal information online. Still, lawmakers have a diverging stand on this issue. Those in the U.S. House Energy and Commerce are taking two sides on whether there is a need to craft special protection for kids 13 to 17 years old.

The 1998 Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) has special provisions on child protection. It contains special requirements for websites that allow children under the age of 13 to access them. These websites cannot allow access if they do not have parental permission. They must have a parent’s permission before they can collect, use or disclose a child’s personal information. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) sees the need to revise the meaning of personal information. The present state of technology should by now include Geo-location data and other identifiers, such as cookies.

When it comes to covering teenagers, there is also a divided opinion as to the extension of coverage under COPPA. In order to broaden its privacy legislation, privacy advocates are saying that Congress should include special protection for teens. There are at least two state representatives who proposed a more radical legislation. They want to bar websites from tracking all children when they surf online.

Also, the idea of a “web eraser” was brought up. This older proposition required businesses to provide a mechanism that allows teens to erase their online tracks. With this mechanism, all of the personal information a teenager would leave when they browse would be deleted as soon as they logged out of the site. This is extremely useful, especially in social networking sites, where teens give out most of their personal information.

Teenagers usually make online mistakes by providing too much personal information in the sites that they visit. They are surprised when these mistakes haunt them months, or even years later. A privacy advocate group sees this as their basis for saying that kids need more protection than they have right now.

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Users Will "Like" Facebook's Vanity Page

Among the names in social networking, Facebook is considered a giant. To give users an improved experience, it continuously introduces new features in its service. Sometimes, privacy issues get in the way, but the company manages to address these issues promptly. Millions of its users are satisfied, although sometimes, it receives criticisms from others. Nonetheless, Facebook keeps on discovering new ways of enhancing social networking, and it is succeeding. Just very recently, it rolled out its newest addition of making pages more accessible to its subscribers.

Facebook calls the newest addition a “vanity” or customized URL. As the name suggests, this page can be created by the user himself. Actually, this is not very new because it has been around for quite some time. However, it previously required the user to have at least 25 “Likes” on his or her newly created page before it could be registered. This was done in order to make sure that the page meets the standards of a suitable page.

For users who do not want a unique URL that is difficult to remember, the vanity URL is a great option. This type of page was once most wanted by those who promoted a cause or a brand. With this easier-to-remember option, the user can now select a shorter and unique username.

Users noticed that there was no prior announcement made of Facebook’s lifting or removing the 25-Like limit. One YouTube user discovered the change while he was trying to register using the Username registration process. Those who have existing pages with a small number of “Likes” will surely approve of this development. At present, the registration process no longer considers how many “Likes” they do or do not have.

This is the answer for users who work with brands, charities and other organizations. They can now easily share the pages that they have created “without having to share an ugly link”. In the end, Facebook will be the one that is benefited because it will increase participation on its service.

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Don't Push Your Children Away

There are parents who push their children away from the internet because they say that digital technology contains so much information that it makes it hard to control. Others reason that the internet takes up so much family time and builds an invisible wall among the family members. Still others assert that children could become exposed to online predators who pretend to be friends.

No matter how much we try to suppress or refuse it, technology is always a part of our lives, including that of the children. Information is deposited into this virtual world that holds limitless potential for good. In fact, it is more harmful to deprive children the chance of using the technology rather than guiding them on how to use it. Aside from not benefiting from it, they become dangerously curious, which usually leads to misuse.

With proper control and guidance from parents, children’s online experiences can be as rewarding as any offline activity. The internet is a threat to children’s privacy only in the absence of well-defined rules that both parents and children have agreed upon. It can also be added that many parents need to teach themselves more about the internet.

Yes, parents need to know more about the internet than just the basics of online browsing. They should also use such online stuff like email, online purchasing and, of course, social networking. Parents will have less fear and be in a better position to do what is right when they are well-informed. They can teach their children how to maintain their privacy while keeping in touch with their friends in the social network.

Parents who know how to use the internet will have access to websites that are potentially dangerous to children. There are websites that can lure children into providing some personal information about the family just so they can obtain an online freebie. In its simplest sense, the internet is a widely commercialized medium. Children do not have the maturity to appropriately handle these targeted advertising tools. They can only be safe with their parents as their first line of defense.

Not all children are on the same level of development. Parents cannot give a one-shot solution to online safety. They need to adapt internet safety rules according to the level of the child. It is not good for parents to threaten or to bribe their children. Above all, parents have no reason to deny their children the benefits of the internet simply because they are uninformed about technology.

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Are Privacy Policies Still for Real?

Internet users are asked to provide some personal information every time they sign up for a website. When they do this, they do not bother reading the privacy policies of these websites. Without their knowledge, there are different ways in which this uploaded information can be used. The users only become aware that this happens when they are affected in some way. With websites now literally relaxing their privacy policies, users might be up for some unexpected events.

It is surprising that many users do not think twice before giving up their information. Social networking companies have offers that come as freebies or added apps and services. Users who want to take advantage of these must first supply some information. Without second thought, many of them would willingly supply the data asked of them.

Some companies are careful with their privacy policies and how collected data will be treated. However, there is a move towards relaxing privacy policies. Privacy advocates say this is worrying because it is becoming all too common. With this move, users’ information will be more open to exploitation. This means that many websites are planning to use collected user data for other purposes.

It is disturbing because users’ information may be used in areas that they did not know about. Every user knows that the data they supply contains a lot of personally identifiable information. It includes date of birth, address, shopping history, location, and many other things that are freely supplied. This data can be a potential source of lucrative business. This can be used to identify individuals or groups for targeted advertising.

There are new kinds of companies that are becoming interested in using this data. When privacy policies become relaxed, these companies could possibly have access to it. Insurance companies are among those that can use this data to better know the interests of policy holders. They are interested in what clients buy, whether they smoke or not, what their favorite extreme sports are, etc. Social networks have a large amount of such information and it is readily available.

Facebook, Groupon and Linkedin admitted that they share data but are not involved in information selling. A representative said that social network users have control over the data that they share, especially photos. Facebook users, for example, can choose the appropriate privacy settings. They can opt to block those applications that they choose not to allow. Social networks say that while privacy policies may be relaxed, users are still protected. They just have to self-regulate every time they decide to share data online.

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New Suggestions from Facebook

Facebook is still up at making innovations in its services despite some privacy concerns alongside with those changes. It could be remembered that the social networking giant received so much criticisms for several times. Some critics said that it has never learned its lesson. Here it is once again, changing its privacy settings and rolling out another feature without users’ knowledge.

The new service feature is called Tag Suggestions. Changes in Facebook’s privacy settings allow the feature to automatically recognize a user’s face. When an image is ready to be tagged, Tag Suggestions maps the user’s face and detects whether or not there are matching images in the same or other albums. If there are, then these images are automatically tagged, saving the user time in doing so individually.

It is clear that anybody aside from you can do the tagging. Chances are that anyone can tag you in something incriminating although they do not intend to. This is very possible to occur because the user might not individually inspect the tagged images for possible problems. How much more when someone would intentionally drag you into a compromised situation with your photos?

This feature was rolled out by the company in the later part of last year. Unlike the previous features when users were given the option to opt out beforehand, this time it is different. Facebook said users should experience how it is before they could change back the privacy settings. However, privacy advocates do not accept this as a valid reason. They say this is still Facebook’s old style of pushing new features without clear explanations as to what it is about. In addition, they also said that there seems to be a pattern of changing privacy settings first and letting users ask questions later. Facebook accepted its failure to clarify the issue among its users before the roll out started.

In an explanation, Facebook said that the feature on facial recognition was meant to address complaints of users. It added that users have been complaining that tagging photos one by one is a tedious task. Working with large photo albums, it is cumbersome to tag the same people over and over again. Authorities clarified that an evaluation will be done as to whether Facebook’s action broke some privacy rules and deserved punishment.

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Social Media Etiquette for Moms

The social media has successfully hooked users of all ages, and new moms are given the rules regarding information sharing when it comes to their children. Babble.com encourages parents to follow some rules of etiquette on the internet. These rules include standards regarding how new mothers should manage the sharing of information about themselves and their children. Generally, moms have the natural tendency to post anything that they consider as their child’s happy moments or milestones.

Moms would unsuspectingly share their child’s photos and activities on the internet without any inkling that what they are doing could affect their privacy. While this could be acceptable to some degree, Babble recommends that parents should not be careless about it. It has laid down some rules for using information that risks some questions on internet etiquette and privacy.

Moms are told not to share details about their baby’s bathroom habits. There might be some peculiar incidents in these stories that moms would find interesting or “funny”. However, no amount of good storytelling can hide the fact that they are posting something ridiculous. A social networking site is not the place to post these stories. Moms need to think before they post.

Another thing that moms should avoid sharing - what they do from sign on to sign off. There are those who post their every action and tend to add a hint of self-righteousness in it. Everyday household activities are normal and should not be “sold” to the public as being unique. Moms should learn how to exude good vibes that could infect other moms who might also be in the same boat.

Child photographs are another concern. Moms are advised to have an archive of the “best of” photos of their children. It is absurd to find 20 photographs, all of which are showing a toddler crying. To every mom, a child’s photo is a work of art and deserves display, but she should learn to limit. She should choose only those really significant photos for her friends to see.

Birthing photographs are considered treasures, especially those of the first born child. However, no matter how beautiful moms think of the event, they should never post those pictures. These revealing photos would not add to man’s knowledge about childbirth. Instead of posting these kinds of pictures, moms should engage in more worthwhile social networking activities. Why should they not post positive comments about other children? They can make other moms happy and secure knowing that their children are also appreciated by others.

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Flink12 and Privacy in Social Networks

There are many social networking platforms available today to share your public self. But where do you go to privately and safely share your personal, day-to-day thoughts and experiences? Flink12 was created as a safe and secure way to share your private life. It is playful, safe, extremely private and easy to use. A unique way of sharing and communicating, Flink12 allows you to share your life in a meaningful way with the people you know and care about the most.

What is a Flink? A Flink is a group of twelve cows. Flink12 allows you to create individual groups of twelve people or Flinks for your friends, family, or coworkers. These Flinks allow you to communicate in a discreet way, sharing professional information with coworkers and personal information with friends and family. These groups of twelve are ideal for sharing different information for different types of relationships.



To sign up for a free Flink12 account, you can visit www.flink12.com.