Gas prices have gone up again and the gas boycott emails are going around again, and a gas boycott still will not work. Photo Credit: Fibonnaci Blue/Flickr.com/CC-BY

There have been a prodigious number of chain emails and social media campaigns over the years calling for a gas boycott. The idea is that if people everywhere don’t buy gasoline for a day, it will force gas companies to lower gas prices and stop gouging their customers. The trouble with this idea is that a gas boycott won’t do a thing.

Chain letters rile up the masses

Every time that the price of gas starts to rise, someone inexorably begins circulating an extremely old saw: the “gas boycott” chain letter. The premise is simple; it starts along the lines of “enough is enough” and “the oil companies are ripping us off” and calls for people everywhere to not buy gasoline on a certain date. If, the chain message postulates, everyone will resist buying gasoline, the evil, suit-swaddled corporate bosses of the oil companies will be so hurt by the lost revenue that they will have no choice but to stop gouging their customers and lower the price of gas.

Gas prices set by speculators

Oil companies like Exxon-Mobil, British Petroleum and Royal Dutch Shell would love to charge less for gasoline to get people to buy more. However, it does not work that way. For one, according to Snopes, a gas boycott would only cut into the revenue of gas stations who have to buy their supply from the parent company. The cost of a gallon of gas depends on numerous factors, beginning with extracting the crude oil, which accounts for about 69 percent of the price of gas, according to AOL. Refining petroleum into gas, transporting gasoline to a refueling station and state, local and federal taxes are part of the total price.

Boycott Wall Street instead

Fluctuations in the price of gas have more to do with speculators, i.e. energy investors and commodity brokers, than with actual supply. For instance, oil and gas prices began spiking when political upheaval started in earnest in the Middle East. Libya is not a major exporter of oil to the United States, and neither is Egypt, Tunisia or Syria. In fact, according to the Energy Information Administration, the country the U.S. imports most of its oil from is Canada. It has more to do with the possibility of a supply interruption rather than an actual supply interruption, which causes commodity markets to raise the price, not suppliers. The only interruption in crude oil supplies was when U.S. based refineries recently stopped importing oil when they closed for spring maintenance and cut slightly deeper into existing supplies after the maintenance cycle was over, according to Reuters.

Sources

Snopes

AOL News

Reuters

Energy Information Administration

Facebook is a huge, valuable company -- because of a lot of pennies. Image: Flickr / bfishadow / CC-BY-SA

The company Facebook has recently been valued at approximately $65 billion. While the actual worth of the company cannot be safely estimated until the company goes on the market, it can safely be said that Facebook is worth a large chunk of cash. The value of Facebook, however, comes from its users.

Facebook statistics

Facebook publicly releases some of its basic statistics on the aggregate usage of the service. As of March 2011, Facebook reports it has more than 500 million active users, who collectively spend more than 700 billion minutes per month on the service. Goldman Sachs estimates the number of users on Facebook as “approximately 600 million.” Those users share about 30 billion “pieces of content” each year. While Goldman Sachs has estimated the value of Facebook at $65 billion, other investment firms have estimated Facebook’s value, should it go on the market, at between $40 billion and $60 billion.

Doing the math of Facebook usage

Given the uncertainty of the statistics of Facebook usage, pinning down exact numbers can be tough. In order to pin down the value of each Facebook user, however, some generalizations must be made. Assuming that there are 550 million active users of Facebook and they spend approximately 700 billion minutes per month on the service, that works out to approximately 1,272 minutes per month spent on Facebook, per user. That is 69 minutes per week, 9.8 minutes per day, per user. If Facebook is worth approximately $50 billion with 550 million users, that puts the value of each Facebook user at about $91. Assuming that the 700 billion minutes per month takes into account every day of usage, that means that 365 days a year of 9.8 minutes use, average, equals a value of about 25 cents per day. That means every minute a person spends on Facebook is “worth” about2.5 cents. A minimum-wage job in the United States currently pays about 12 cents per minute.

Micropayments versus advertising

This back-of-the-envelope calculation on the value of each minute spent on Facebook reveals a few big things. Micropayments have long been discussed as the “future of the internet.” Micropayments are tiny payments made for individual uses of content or services. Micropayments are defined differently by different services, but they are usually understood to be anything less than $20. While Facebook is opening up its new currency system, Facebook Credits, the majority of the company’s income is from advertising. So the next time you log onto Facebook, keep in mind that everything you do and the advertising you see are adding up. The amounts may be small, but in aggregate, your Facebook usage makes big money for the company.

Sources

CNN
Business Insider
Facebook statistics

Jeffrey Cox, recently fired for comments on Twitter, is further proof that social media has real consequences. Image from Wikimedia Commons.

Jeffrey Cox, formerly a deputy attorney general for the state of Indiana, was recently fired for comments he made on social media sites. He said on Twitter that pro-union protesters in Wisconsin should be cleared from the capital with “live ammunition,” and the comment was relayed to his bosses. This is only the latest piece of evidence show that irresponsible use of social media can ruin a career.

Lawyer loses job with three malicious words

Recently, a controversy began on the social media site Twitter. The popular news opinion site Mother Jones was Tweeting updates concerning the ongoing union protests in Wisconsin. When Mother Jones tweeted that Wisconsin police might be used to corral unruly protesters, another user replied “use live ammunition.” The user further tried to justify his comment, saying use of force by police cannot be called “murder” because law enforcement officers have the right to use force, according to Mother Jones. The website did some digging and discovered Jeffrey Cox was the author of the comments. The entries on Twitter and his now-defunct personal blog were passed on to his superiors — thus ended his 10-year career as a lawyer.

Many before Cox have made that mistake

There are numerous tales of people losing their jobs because of gaffes on social media sites. In the case of a Twitter user who came to be called “Cisco Fatty,” a tweet destroyed the user’s chance at a job before she even took it. Cisco Fatty wrote “Now I have to weigh the utility of a fatty paycheck against … hating the work.” Cisco, being the computer savvy company it is, found out about it, discovered the person’s identity and promptly rescinded the job offer.

Deep web

Companies can find out a lot of information about potential and current employees, and it is remarkably easy to do. Using a website like Pipl.com or a program that searches the “deep web,” or the information that traditional search engines don’t always include in results, a company can see a person’s profile on social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook or Myspace, any blogging activity and even voting history. Corporations and governments have an image to maintain, and employees are tied to those entities. What people do in their free time can certainly affect the company when it’s known who someone works for.

Sources

Mother Jones

Twitter and Facebook firings on Huffington Post

Pipl

Website Lovely Faces scraped data from Facebook in order to prove a point about the fragility of online social networks and data security. (Photo Credit: CC BY-ND/TMCNet)

In 2003, then Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg scraped the names and photos of co-eds from university servers in order to create a “hot or not” site called FaceMash. Zuckerberg, who would go on to found Facebook, was accused of stealing data and identities. Today, Wired reports that a media artist and a media critic have decided that turnabout is fair play when it comes to Zuckerberg’s ultimate creation. Paolo Cirio and Alessandro Ludovico’s social experiment dating website called Lovely Faces recently went online after scraping 250,000 Facebook profiles for names, locations and pictures – and Facebook is threatening to sue.

Lovely-Faces.com: Take ‘em and tag ‘em

Without obtaining consent, Lovely Faces grabbed Facebook user data and classified photos of male and female faces via a recognition algorithm into such categories as “easy going,” “smug” or “sly.” Lovely Faces also managed to grab the real names of Facebook users, but Cirio and Ludovico aren’t concerned about legality. Their claim, according to Wired, is that Lovely Faces is not a business venture, but art that challenges the notion that people should feel comfortable with sharing personal information via online social media.

“If we start to play with the concepts of identity theft and dating, we should be able to unveil how fragile a virtual identity given to a proprietary platform can be,” write the Lovely Faces founders on Face to Facebook. “And (we’ll see) how fragile enormous capitalization based on exploiting social systems can be.”

What Cirio and Ludovico aim to do to Facebook and any other large-scale monetized online social network is shine a light on the cracks inherent in the system. In their minds, the exposure would ideally cause such networks to crumble into the dust bin of over-hyped stock evaluations, the place where many failed dot coms fell when the bubble burst in the early 2000s.

Facebook doesn’t appreciate Lovely Faces ‘art’

Barry Schnitt, the Director of Policy Communications at Facebook, insists that scraping user data violates the social network’s terms of service. Thus, Facebook is currently investigating Lovely-Faces.com before taking legal action. Facebook has sued others before, such as the online security research firm Skull Security after it released 100 million Facebook user names and profile addresses. Zuckerberg and company may sue again.

Sources

Face to Facebook

New York Times

Wired

Dating on Facebook with Flyness: No illegal action required

Facebook has put new security features in place -- but are they too secure? Image: Flickr / MoneyBlogNewz / CC-BY

On the same day that founder Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook page appeared to be hacked, the site announced new security features. As with most Facebook changes, not everyone is happy. The social login is causing particular frustration with users.

Major Facebook hacking problems

In the past few days, Facebook has had several problems with hacking. Political protest pages and user’s accounts were being hacked, mainly from and dealing with users in Tunisia. Earlier today, Mark Zuckerberg’s page appeared hacked. The page was removed within minutes, but not before several screen shots had been taken by news outlets. Facebook has not released an official statement about the hackings but appears to be making some major changes.

Browsing Facebook with https

The HTTPS protocol that Facebook initially integrated in response to the Tunsinia hackings seems to have been made global. There is now an option to “browse Facebook using HTTPS whenever possible.” The HTTPS protocol is secure, though it also depends what kind of connection you use. Links posted to Facebook usually are not to HTTPS sites, so clicking a link while in that mode can be problematic from a security point of view.

Facebook social login

The social login security feature of Facebook appears to be good idea on the surface. If you are logging into Facebook from a new computer,  Facebook could ask you to identify four or five of your friends’ faces from a multiple-choice list. The problem with this is that Facebook pulls the pictures of your friends that are “tagged,” and some photos are tagged with a person’s name who isn’t in the photo. You may end up having to identify your Facebook friends’ kids, pets or which “Simpsons” characters your friends think they are. In short, using the “tagging” system may not work well as part of a security feature, given how Facebook currently works.

Source

Digitizor

Facebook Credits are a secondary currency that can be reloaded using "real" money -- or credit cards. Image: Flickr / Moneyblognewz / CC-BY

Facebook Credits are a virtual currency usable on and through Facebook. First rolled out in late 2009, Facebook credits are purchased with “real” currency. On July 1, 2011, Facebook Credits will become the mandatory currency for all Facebook developers.

The system of Facebook Credits

Facebook Credits are a payment system for use in games and programs built into Facebook. Everything from Farmville plants to Castle Wars medallions can be purchased using Facebook Credits. Currently, the exchange rate is 10-to-1 — 10 Facebook credits for each United States dollar. Facebook Credits can be purchased using PayPal, credit cards and mobile payment systems. Facebook Credits operate in several different currency standards.

Making Facebook Credits required

Today, Facebook announced that it would require all game developers to use Facebook Credits as of July 1. Game developers are still allowed to create and use their own in-game currency, but they can only be purchased with credits. Facebook claims that it is putting this system in place to remove the barrier for entry that setting up payment systems can create. Facebook takes a 30 percent cut of all Facebook Credits transactions. In 2010, just one developer – Zynga – paid $30 million to Facebook to fulfill this 30 percent tax. That leaves 70 percent of the Facebook Credits to be turned over to the game developer.

The future of micropayments

Facebook Credits, much like other online payment systems, are based on the idea of “micropayments” – small payments and purchases, usually less than $5. Facebook Credits means that the company stands to make millions, if not billions of dollars. Facebook has also stated that it hopes to expand the Credits system into a full-blown payment system, much like PayPal or the new Starbucks Card system. These secondary currency systems, however, are prone to failure. In 2008, online game Second Life encountered its own banking crisis that ended up costing users millions of dollars. Will Facebook Credits face the same fate? Only time will tell.

Sources

Emoney
TechCrunch

Groupon may achieve the highest IPO valuation of a company to date. (Photo Credit: CC BY-ND/Justin/Single Dad Surviving)

Local business marketing and consumer coupon company Groupon is a rising star in the online retail community. The company has done so well that in November Google offered to buy Groupon for nearly $6 billion. But as the New York Times reports, Google doesn’t always get what it wants. Groupon will soon move forward with an initial public offering that could value the company at more than $15 billion.

Groupon raised $950 million from investors

Groupon’s funding push, which brought in $950 million from investors, included money from large investors such as Fidelity Investments, T. Rowe Price and Morgan Stanley. In anticipation of going public, Groupon met with banking representatives this week, anonymous sources close to the potential $15 billion-plus deal told Read Write Web. Over the past year, Groupon has expanded to 35 countries, gotten into 500 new markets (up from 30 in 2009), expanded its subscriber base by 2,500 percent. In 2010, approximately 60,000 businesses marketed their products and services to the public via Groupon’s coupon system.

Annual revenue at Groupon reportedly exceeds $1 billion. The company has more than 50 million users worldwide and a staff of 3,100.

Groupon CEO Andrew Mason has seen company’s value skyrocket

While nothing is official until Groupon’s IPO, company CEO Andrew Mason sees a Groupon stock value that’s out of sight. If Groupon does manage a $15 billion-plus IPO, it would be the highest initial valuation of a company to date, exceeding even Google’s 2004 IPO. With new Chief Financial Officer Jason Child (a 12-year veteran of Amazon’s international business arm) in place at Groupon, the ship appears to be in good hands.

Morgan Stanley and the IPO inside track

Financial experts believe that Morgan Stanley’s involvement in a potential Groupon IPO would give the company the inside track it needs to go public. Greg Sterling, analyst and founder of Sterling Market Intelligence, told the Times that Morgan Stanley’s sizable reputation on Wall Street should play a huge role in Groupon’s future.

Web startups raising major cash

Groupon’s $950 million from investors headlines what the Times calls a “particularly frenzied” time for Web startups. Twitter raised $200 million recently, and the company is valued at $3.7 billion. Career networking platform LinkedIn appears to be headed for its own IPO this year, according to insiders. Even Facebook appears to be on its way to an IPO in 2012 – reluctantly, claim reports – after a $450 million investment from Goldman Sachs.

Sources

New York Times

Read Write Web

Groupon mobile app review

By becoming a fan, Facebook users can receive AMBER Alerts on their news feed when word is sent out about a missing child. Image: CC benstein/Flickr

AMBER alerts will now be sent out on Facebook, the social networking site announced Wednesday. AMBER Alerts are emergency broadcasts notifying the public about missing children. A recent AMBER Alert posted on Facebook led to the safe recovery of an abducted child.

Become a fan of AMBER Alert

Facebook’s new AMBER Alert program is a project initiated by Facebook, The Justice Department and and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. AMBER stands for  America’s Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response. AMBER Alert pages have been created for all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. To receive AMBER Alerts for their geographic area, Facebook users simply become a fan of the Facebook AMBER Alert page. When an AMBER Alert is issued, it will appear in the Facebook user’s news feed.

The story of Amber Hagerman

Facebook’s AMBER Alert program was announced on the 15th anniversary of the alert system. It was established after the murder of Amber Hagerman, a 9-year-old girl from Arlington, Texas, who was kidnapped while riding her bicycle. The AMBER Alert System began in 1996 when broadcasters in Dallas-Fort Worth partnered with local police to create an early warning system. Other cities and states soon joined in. Today there are 120 AMBER Alert programs nationwide. AMBER alerts have helped lead to the safe return of 525 missing children.

A Facebook/AMBER Alert success story

The combination of an AMBER Alert and Facebook helped authorities find a missing child about six weeks ago. Brittany Smith, 12, went missing after her mother was found murdered in Roanoke, Va. When an AMBER Alert was issued for the area, officers posted the alert on the Virgina State Police Facebook page. The page had 200 fans in the first day and a link spread quickly across the country. Five days later a women recognized the girl outside a supermarket in San Francisco with her mother’s boyfriend and called police. The man was arrested and the girl was returned safely to her father in Virgina.

Sources

MSNBC

PC World

CNET

Seeing numbers on Facebook? It could mean a lot of things, depending on context. Image: Flickr/ eraphernalia_vintage / CC-BY-SA

So you’re seeing all these Facebook numbers in status messages. These numbers in status messages on Facebook are simply a way of sending semi-public, semi-private messages. Though some are saying this could be a new avenue for bullying, the so-called “Numbers Game” is mostly an avenue for fun.

Facebook numbers in status messages

The appearance of numbers followed by individual messages in Facebook status messages has left many people wondering what the heck is going on. These Facebook numbers in messages are pretty basic. The idea is that individuals private-message their friends a number, and the recipient of the message post something about that person as their status, along with the number. Variations include a person posting their first memory about someone, “what they really think” about that person or what they most wish to do with that person.

Facebook numbers in status messages an avenue for bullying?

Anti-bullying activists have raised concern over the Facebook numbers in status messages. The worry is that some users of Facebook may use the opportunity to say negative things about one another on Facebook. The reality is, though, that if “played correctly,” the game asks for comments only about those who request the comment. While this doesn’t remove all possibility of bullying, it doesn’t exactly invite it either.

Other uses for Facebook numbers in status

The “numbers game” is just the latest use for numbers in Facebook messages. In the past, numbers with no comment have been used to indicate what type of undergarments are being worn or the age individuals were during particular “firsts.” The most interesting aspect of the Facebook numbers in status messages, though, is a study of social communication and group-based context communication. In short, the Facebook numbers in messages can mean different things to different groups, depending on the context of the situation.

Don't be a victim of phishing scams. (Photo: ToastyKen/Flickr/CC-BY)

If you value your Facebook account and the people you’re connected with, the last thing you want is to fall for and spread yet another viral scam. The ePrivacy app is among one of the latest Facebook scams to look out for. Like many other Facebook scams, you could fall victim if you’re easily enticed and perhaps even bring your Facebook friends and family down with you.

The ePrivacy app is yet another Facebook scam

The latest Facebook scam to watch out for is the ePrivacy app, which is spreading rapidly on the biggest online social network platform via the message, “OMG OMG OMG… I cant believe this actually works! Now you really can see who viewed your profile! on [link].”

As Facebook users, we want to stay up-to-date on the people we know. However, we also like to know who has been checking up on us, and the ePrivacy app is claiming it has the ability to do that. It promises to give you ultimate spying capabilities, showing you every person who views your Facebook profile. Whatever you do, don’t fall for it. Downloading the app will only give the app’s creator complete access to your personal information.

See who views your profile and catch a virus

Admit it; surely you would love to know who has been checking you out online. There have been many petitions to let Facebook users see others who have viewed their profiles, and scammers are quickly jumping on the opportunity. They know what people want, and they will use anything they can to their advantage.

If you don’t want complete strangers accessing your personal data, sending you e-mails and posting unauthorized messages on any Facebook page you administer, do not install the ePrivacy app or any other app that claims to do the same thing. The sole purpose of scams like this is to generate money for the mischief makers behind them, and they have no problem using your Facebook profiles to spread their spammy links even further.

Source

The Huffington Post

Google is granting a 10 percent raise to all 23,331 employees for 2011 as an incentive to stick around. Image: CC Rojer/Flickr

A Google raise of 10 percent for all its employees was announced last week. In addition to the raise, Google is giving its entire staff a $1,000 Christmas bonus. Tech insiders say the Google raise and bonus is an attempt to fight off employee defections to Google rivals such as Facebook.

Google’s $1-billion raise

The Google raise, effective Jan. 1, 2011, has been offered across the board to every one of the company’s 23,331 employees. Google is even paying the taxes on the $1,000 holiday bonus so employees can take home a nice round number. According to Business Insider, the raises could cost the company $1 billion a year. The holiday bonus of $1,000 will cost Google about $20 million. Fortunately, those of us who don’t work for Google can get quick cash for Christmas easily with a payday loan or personal installment loan online.

Google captains jumping ship

The Google raise is a response from the company to fight off a talent drain as rapidly growing rivals aggressively approach top Google employees. But in an ironic twist, the Google employee who leaked news about the raise was fired and may have to borrow money for the holidays. Getting fired for releasing information that prospective Google employees should probably know seems counter-intuitive for a company losing top talent. CNN reports that in the past few weeks, Google lost such top guns as YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley, AdMob co-founder Omar Hamoui and Google Maps and Wave creator Lars Rasmussen.

Facebook plunders Google

Facebook has been the biggest raider among those companies seeking talent trained at Google. Mark Zuckerberg’s right hand woman at Facebook is Sheryl Sandberg, former chief of sales and operations at Google. Bret Taylor, Facebook’s chief technology officer, was a top product manager at Google. On LinkedIn — which is also competing with Google for talent — 300 of the 1,900 Facebook employees profiled on the site list Google as a past employer on their resumes. That’s about 15 percent of Facebook’s staff of about 2,000.

Sources

Business Insider

CNNMoney.com

bNET

Facebook will reveal a new webmail client codenamed “Project Titan” on Monday. (Photo Credit: CC BY-SA/Snortbook)

While Google has a head start in the webmail client field with Gmail, Facebook believes they have a Gmail killer that’s ready for the world. TechCrunch reports that Facebook will roll out Project Titan on Monday. Experts predict that Facebook’s highly anticipated webmail client could give Gmail a run for its money.

News of the Gmail killer has circulated since February

According to Gizmodo, Facebook’s Gmail killer called Project Titan is intended to replace Facebook’s current messaging platform. It will have full POP and IMAP support, and users will receive their own @facebook.com e-mail address. This webmail platform will also include message search capability and, most significantly, will allow Facebook users to send messages to people outside of the Facebook network. Thus, Facebook users will have one less reason to leave Facebook in order to perform basic online tasks. Considering that Facebook has upwards of 500 million active users (according to their Press Room), keeping everyone inside the borders of Facebook is a profitable proposition, indeed.

Project Titan: not just an IM upgrade

As TechCrunch excitedly points out, Project Titan won’t simply be an upgrade to existing message services. It will be a full-powered webmail client. However, it seems likely that there will be bugs at launch, as is the case with any new product. Yet experts see a “huge amount of potential.”

Facebook plans to dominate your online world

Everyone knows that Facebook dominates the social networking world. It also has the most popular photo storage product and events calendar products around and a tremendous micropayments system that works well with games. If the Gmail killer Project Titan can cut into Gmail’s webmail market share – and integrate the product seamlessly into its existing platforms – it will be like the smell of napalm in the morning for Mark Zuckerberg and company. It’s no wonder that Google got nasty with Facebook last week over freedom of contract data. They may be hearing a Gmail killer coming around the mountain.

Sources:

Gizmodo

TechCrunch

Trade the Trend’s coverage of Project Titan

The Google vs. Facebook battle rages on. (Photo Credit: CC BY-SA/Media Collective)

The Google vs. Facebook online data war rages on, reports the Guardian. The latest exchange of blows centers on Google’s view that Facebook leaves users in a “data dead end” that is inconsistent with a “world of true data liberation.” In short, Google has criticized Facebook because users of the social network cannot export their contact data to other applications in an efficient manner. To make Facebook understand the gravity of this issue, Google has banned Facebook from using its data feed for Gmail contacts.

Google punches Facebook, Facebook leapfrogs Google

Google’s hard-line data stance against Facebook temporarily prevented Facebook users from being able to import or invite contacts from Google services via the automated path. Not one to take things lying down, Facebook responded with a hack that effectively enabled its users to reach over the Google roadblock. New Facebook users can download and then upload a file containing their Google contacts without ever having to leave Facebook.

Google’s Data Liberation Front, a team of company engineers committed to making it easy for Google users to move their information in and out of Google products, is reportedly “disappointed” in Facebook’s move, writes the Guardian. From a Google corporate statement:

“We’re disappointed that Facebook didn’t invest their time in making it possible for their users to get their contacts out of Facebook. As passionate believers that people should be able to control the data they create, we will continue to allow our users to export their Google contacts.”

Facebook has yet to comment on the issue.

Will this escalate the Great Online Data War?

Greek dramatist Aeschylus (525 BC – 456 BC) once wrote that “In war, truth is the first casualty.” The most likely scenario is that the Great Online Data War – Google vs. Facebook – does not have one clear party in the right or in the wrong. The truth of the matter is that Google and Facebook will make decisions that benefit themselves first. This recent skirmish between the online titans makes it seem as though Facebook simply doesn’t want to provide an escape route for its users, but Google could simply be looking for an opening in Facebook through which it can extend a new battering ram in the rumored Google Me service.

Sources

Guardian

On Anderson Cooper's show, Clint McCance announced his resignation. Image by: minds-eye/Flickr/CC-BY-SA

Clint McCance, the controversial member of an Arkansas school board, has announced his resignation. He went on “AC360,” the CNN news and interview program hosted by Anderson Cooper, to discuss his Facebook comments. He was apologetic and conceded his remarks were inappropriate. He also was remorseful for spreading hate speech. He also announced he was leaving his position on the school board.

Clint McCance resigns in Anderson Cooper interview

Earlier this week, a member of an Arkansas school board, in Pleasant Plains, Ark., was discovered to have posted some incredibly inflammatory remarks about homosexuals and the recent spate of suicides of gay teen boys. The Facebook posts in question were opposing the Wear Purple on October 20, or Spirit Day, movement. He wrote “we are honoring the fact that they sinned and killed thereselves (sic) because of their sin,” and other hate-filled responses to commenters followed. He caused a media sensation and was interviewed recently on the “AC360″ program on CNN, by host Anderson Cooper. Cooper asked pointed questions of McCance. Before the end of the interview, McCance announced he was resigning his post as Vice President of Midland School District.

Facebook remarks ignite controversy

So far this year, five stories of teenagers who were bullied because of their sexual orientation and committed suicide have made it into the news. McCance’s comments on Facebook, though having quasi-religious origin, were not well received. In the post, he said he wouldn’t wear purple unless “they all (gay people) commit suicide,” and that he was glad that gay people “give each other AIDS and die.” He further went on to say he would disown his own children and “run them off” if they were to come out as gay. When Cooper asked McCance if he would really do that, McCance said he didn’t know. The Midland School District, and the Arkansas commissioner of education released statements condemning his statements.

Sources

CNN

Sure, kitty likes it now – but what about after Italian hackers have stolen everything? (Photo: CC BY/diana/Flickr)

Securing one’s home with the best anti-intrusion and alarm systems money can buy is a great idea in the real world, but securing a virtual home can be equally important when Facebook is involved. As MSNBC reports, Italian authorities are currently investigating a virtual home burglary that occurred in the Facebook game “Pet Society.”

Playfish does not endorse virtual home burglary

“Pet Society,” a pet simulation game from Playfish, enables players to amass virtual, fashionable trappings to amuse their electronic pets while tempting perpetrators of virtual home burglary in the process. Or at least that’s how Paola Letizia, 44, of Palermo, Italy, categorized it when she told police that a hacker had emptied approximately $140 of virtual items from her blue virtual cat’s abode. Everything but the cat was gone.

“I don’t think it matters that the flat only exists in Facebook,” Letizia told the Italian media. “It is real to me and I have suffered a real loss.”

Italian police are treating the virtual home burglary as “aggravated entry” into Letizia’s Facebook account. Once the thief is located, the penalty could be up to five years in a real prison.

Micropayments and virtual banks: Modern convenience, modern risk

Virtual home burglary on Facebook in “Pet Society” is the latest in a series of unfortunate financial events in the virtual world. According to Wired, online banks that cater to virtual societies like those in the game “Second Life” have had their difficulties. Ginko Financial, a “virtual investment bank” in “Second Life,” collapsed back in 2007, perhaps one of many early signs of the oncoming recession. There were calls for oversight, transparency and accountability after Ginko fell, particularly because virtual banks were not subject to the same federal regulation that applies to standard online financial institutions. Considering that Ginko was unable to pay back 200 million Lindens ($750,000), the scope of the problem was more significant than in “Pet Society.” But both cases suggest that more must be done to protect people and their money online.

Sources

MSNBC

Wired

Allegations that Facebook is outing gays to sponsors has many users worried. (Photo Credit: CC BY/Alessio85/Flickr)

According to online security researcher Christopher Soghoian’s blog Slight Paranoia, Facebook may be in hot water again. A paper by a Microsoft researcher and two fellows from the Max Planck Institute for Software Systems entitled “Challenges in Measuring Online Advertising Systems” includes troubling findings about Facebook. Specifically, the paper implies that via a loophole, Facebook may be outing gay users to advertisers.

Facebook outs gay users who list sexual preference

Facebook outing gay users isn’t an exercise in mind reading, content scrubbing or candid photo analysis. The fact is that Facebook users have the option of listing the gender of the type of partner in which they’re interested. This is why Facebook was designed by Mark Zuckerberg in the first place. Considering that Facebook targets ads to users based upon demographic data, it would be no great stretch to also target users based upon sexual preference.

Personal privacy settings are supposed to prevent such a line from being crossed, but the study outlined in the recently published research paper found that ads targeted to a test profile for a fictional gay male user received ads that were radically different than a group of control profiles. Interestingly, ads to the fake lesbian user profile received ads that were not very different than the fabricated hetero female profile. The study authors explain the difference between gay and straight male ad targeting by pointing out that a gay bar wouldn’t want to place its ads on the profiles of straight men, whereas some straight women might be interested in such an ad, writes Gawker.

Click on an ad, flash your ID and preference information

Next comes the ongoing battle consumer protection groups have with Facebook. Clicking on an ad may expose a Facebook user’s IP address, e-mail address or browsing data to an advertiser. In the case of gay users, Facebook could indeed out gay users by revealing that information when an ad is clicked. But even if a Facebook user selects to hide sexual preference via privacy settings, clicking on an ad targets gay men, suggests Gawker, can open up that user to additional “gay-themed” advertising.

Sources

“Challenges in Measuring Online Advertising Systems”

Gawker

Slight Paranoia

If there's a face under there, Facebook's lawyers would like a word. (Photo Credit: CC BY/William Berger/My Castle of Quiet)

Facebook is facing off with U.S. courts once more, reports TechCrunch. However, this time it has nothing to do with bullying websites TeachBook or PlaceBook into changing their names because they dared to use the word “book.” Now, Facebook is attempting to trademark the word “face,” picking up where U.K. company CIS Internet Limited left off in 2008. Facebook has purchased CIS’s trademark application and is moving forward.

Facebook’s trademark move: a good way to lose face

Facebook’s attempt to trademark “face” isn’t a complete surprise. In terms of corporate branding, trademarks are a big deal, but sometimes things get a little out of hand. A man once attempted to trademark “ganja” in court. The website Fark.com once attempted to trademark “NSFW.” And then there’s Snooki from “The Jersey Shore,” who tried to trademark her nickname so that nobody else could cash in on that train wreck of a brand. Facebook will lose face just like the rest of them for their waste of the legal system’s time.

Aaron Greenspan objects

The same Aaron Greenspan who once claimed that he helped Mark Zuckerberg create Facebook is against the company’s attempt to trademark “face.” Greenspan’s company Think Computer created a mobile payments app called FaceCash, and if Facebook gets its desired “face” trademark, Greenspan would have to pay. So would Apple, whose Facetime video calling app appears on the iPhone 4. Greenberg and no doubt many other entrepreneurs would appreciate being able to use the generic term in naming future products.

Facebook, wipe the egg off your face and move on

Considering how aggressive Facebook has been in defending its trademarks in the past, there’s little doubt that it will pursue unlicensed “face” users with atomic fury. Perhaps individuals with no corporate aspirations at all will have to be careful, or the Zuckerberg express will enter their homes like a thief in the night and legally claim their faces. Think of John Travolta and Nicolas Cage in the film “Face/Off,” or the characters in the Kobo Abe novel “Face of Another.” See how much trouble they got into over faces? Even a Tleilaxu face dancer from the “Dune” books wouldn’t be able to hide.

Sources

Facebook’s patent application for “FACE”

TechCrunch

Wikipedia

Do you want to delete your Facebook account? Here's how. Image from Flickr.

Amid concerns with privacy, new Facebook connect features and aggressive growth, many Facebook users are wondering “How do I delete my Facebook account?” The answer to this question is relatively simple, though questions about Facebook privacy may still persist. A Facebook account may feel like a necessity, but if you choose to delete a Facebook account, you can still operate in normal society. You can even get a pay day loan, log into other social networks, and order your movies online.

How do I delete my Facebook account: deactivation

If you’re wondering “How do I delete my Facebook account?” you actually have several options. Your first choice is a full deactivation. By deactivating your Facebook account, you are still allowing Facebook to store your information, pictures, updates, etc. However, a deactivated account becomes entirely “non-public” and is stored in case you re-activate your account. This is what you should do if you are not 100 percent sure that you want to delete your Facebook account. Go to your settings tab on the Account Settings page and choose “deactivate.” While this will not fully delete your Facebook account, it removes your account from search, profile and content association. You will need to manually delete all Facebook Connect accounts.

How do I delete my Facebook account permanently?

If you want to know how do I delete my Facebook account, and you are completely sure you do not want to return to Facebook, the process takes two weeks. Start by going to the Facebook Help Center and clicking “delete account” or go to the How do I delete my Facebook account page. Once you click on this link and confirm that you want to delete your Facebook account, you have to wait 14 days. Do not log into Facebook during those 14 days, or your deletion will be reversed. Facebook will not continue to associate any information with your email address after that point. You will also need to manually delete all Facebook Connect accounts.

Concerns about Facebook privacy lead to Facebook delete account increase

Many people with Facebook accounts are choosing to delete their accounts because of Facebook privacy. The website has always raised questions about Facebook privacy, as it is intended for use as sharing information. However, from the first time the website was set up, it has made major privacy changes first and reacted to user’s Facebook privacy concerns second.

How do I delete my Facebook account spurred on by Facebook privacy question

Many people are wondering “How do I delete my Facebook account” after seeing IMs sent by the founder that were printed in many different news sources today. Almost immediately after launching Facebook in his dorm room without the help of any other web developers, Mark Zuckerberg sent several instant messages that seem to describe his entire view of Facebook privacy. What did those Zuckerberg Facebook privacy IMs say?

Zuck: Yeah so if you ever need info about anyone at Harvard

Zuck: Just ask.

Zuck: I have over 4,000 emails, pictures, addresses, SNS

[Redacted Friend's Name]: What? How’d you manage that one?

Zuck: People just submitted it.

Zuck: I don’t know why.

Zuck: They “trust me”

Zuck: Dumb @$#%s.

Ouch. That’s a Facebook privacy faux pas that is bound to hurt. The company is currently worth about $22 billion, and Facebook has, at times, surpassed internet giant Google for direct online visits. Many people within the company know that their entire livelihood depends on Facebook users not deleting their accounts, so it will be interesting to watch how the company balances a need for privacy with a need to keep the company financially solvent.

How would you feel about one search engine combining all of your social networks? Image from Flickr.

Spokeo.com claims to do something very simple: aggregate all the publicly available information about a person and sell it to anyone who is willing to pay with payday loans or otherwise. Many are asking if it’s a Spokeo.com scam, or if Spokeo really does offer a legitimate service. The answer is … sort of. “Spokeo.com is a scam” isn’t entirely true, but the functionality of Spokeo isn’t necessarily entirely legitimate.

What Spokeo.com offers

Spokeo.com itself is a search engine that aggregates social networking information. Any information considered public on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Ning, Netflix, Flickr, Last.fm or any other network is aggregated using the Spokeo.com search. The aggregator matches the information it gathers with an e-mail address. Spokeo.com then sells the information it aggregates to anybody who gets payday loans no faxing or any other financing to pay for the information.

Spokeo.com scam?

There have been many allegations that Spokeo.com Scam might be a better name for the company. Spokeo.com itself states in its privacy policy that it only gathers publicly available information. Independent tests by snopes.com and news services have found that the opt-out process on Spokeo.com is spotty. Spokeo.com scam whistle-blowers also claim that Spokeo.com scam billing processes are of concern.

The response of Spokeo.com to scam allegations is that company heads are “just launching a new version of Spokeo and are reviewing policies and algorithms.”

Keeping social networking information safe from Spokeo

The spookiest thing about Spokeo.com, scam or not, is that it aggregates information on the internet you may or may not want shared. More important than which web sites like Spokeo.com might be aggregating your information is what you choose to share. If available, set your privacy settings to a level you are comfortable with.

Spokeo.com is an aggregator – so be sure to remove information you do not want public from the original web site where the information was available. Beyond protecting yourself from the potential Spokeo.com scam, it is just good practice in protecting yourself online.

Sources

Snopes.com
Pandia Search Engine News
Spokio.com blog

Are your next employers looking at your Unvarnished profile?

Your professional and personal reputation is next up for review – by anybody – on the Unvarnished website. Unvarnished gives an opportunity for anyone to post their “review” of you as a person. While this could be an incredibly useful tool, in the end Unvarnished could end up more of a headache than it’s worth. In the end, we can only hope that Unvarnished doesn’t become a reason for banks to deny you the best personal loan rates.

Unvarnished bills itself as reputation management

Unvarnished is a website that invites you and others to post your “unvarnished” reviews of people. As a business tool, Unvarnished claims that it helps you “get recognition for your accomplishments and actively manage your career growth.” Any user can post a review, and any user can create their own profile. It appears that Unvarnished uses Facebook profiles to “verify” identity – which means if you have no Facebook profile, you cannot post or claim Unvarnished profiles. The Facebook link also means that Unvarnished will be much easier to cheat than a payday loan company – because a “verified” Facebook profile is just about anything but.

The problem with Unvarnished

The problem that Unvarnished presents is much the same as Yelp and RipOffReport.com. These websites can provide a very valuable service and caveat emptor reviews. However, there are always two sides to every story. Unvarnished claims to have a “community” system that will help keep bad reviews in check. However, the simple reality of Unvarnished is that, like every other review website, unhappy people are much more likely to speak out than happy people. This means that Unvarnished could present an unvarnished – if very skewed – view of you.

Should I get an Unvarnished account?

So, yes, Unvarnished review could be very skewed. And yes, Unvarnished could provide a real pain some days. However, in the end, most professionals and businesspeople would do well to get an Unvarnished account. If nothing else, knowing what others are saying about you is important – especially if it is negative. Unvarnished is one more place to keep an eye out for feedback, and respond if you need to. Most especially in a difficult job market, keeping a close eye on your reputation on places like Unvarnished is important.