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Social networks and the app ecosystems that surround them may find themselves at odds over user privacy.
Cult of Mac’s original screencap of the Girls Around Me application.
Last week, Cult of Mac had a fascinating, stomach-churning story about an application called Girls Around Me that scraped public Foursquare and Facebook checkins onto a map that showed people in your vicinity. Its branding was crass — “In the mood for love, or just after a one-night stand? Girls Around Me puts you in control!” — but, as the developers of the app argued, they had technically done nothing wrong aside from being piggish and crude.
Oddly, they were right.
They took publicly available data and put it on a map. The sexysexy frame they put around it made it *seem* creepier, but in terms of the data they accessed and presented, everything was within the rules of the game. They had done nothing that couldn’t be done by another app developer.
This is basically how app ecosystems working with data from Foursquare and Facebook and Twitter are supposed to work. Some people out there get an idea for something that the main services had never thought of and they build it out of whatever data is available.
Using the traditional privacy idea that once something’s public, it is public for any purpose, you’re lead down a very narrow path of reasoning about this app’s appropriateness and what the services it was built on could do about it. If app developers can use any data that’s out there and there is data that can be assembled into a creepy application, then there will be creepy applications. Foursquare, Apple, and Facebook are absolved from responsibility because of the technical impossibility of checking on each and every app’s creepiness factor. As Amit Runchal put it on his blog:
The implicit blame in these conversations is confusing. What, exactly,
is Foursquare et al. expected to do? Comb through each and every request
to their API? As of last year there were 10,000 developers using the Foursquare API. There are 146,000 publishers in iOS
and likely a similar number to be found on Facebook. Collectively there
are well over a million apps between all three platforms, with far
fewer employees available to review these apps. What are the solutions?
Hire more employees? There will never be enough. Do more in-depth
testing of apps? That will merely slow down the already
frustrating-to-many approval process and likely threaten the ecosystem
that we have come to depend upon. And still creepiness will get through.
It’s inevitable.
This is where we have to break down the concept of creepiness. And precisely where NYU philosopher Helen Nissenbaum’s concept of privacy in context is so important. First, a quick recap of her idea from last week’s story:
The standard explanation for privacy freakouts is that people get upset
because they’ve “lost control” of data about themselves or there is
simply too much data available. Nissenbaum argues that the real problem “is the
inapproproriateness of the flow of information due to the mediation of
technology.” In her scheme, there are senders and receivers of messages, who
communicate different types of information with very specific
expectations of how it will be used. Privacy violations occur not when
too much data accumulates or people can’t direct it, but when one of the
receivers or transmission principles change. The key academic term is
“context-relative informational norms.” Bust a norm and people get
upset.
According to the traditional privacy framework, there is no reason for people to get upset about Girls Around Me, or less crass apps that do the same thing. They’d already given up their data to the public, so why was anyone upset? But using Nissenbaum’s theory, the bad feelings that people have around the app make sense: People gave data to Foursquare or Facebook in one context and then it showed up in another context that they weren’t expecting.
I still take Runchal’s point: as long as there are thousands of applications being produced using data from Foursquare, Twitter, and Facebook, it is going to be very, very hard to keep these kinds of contextual privacy violations from occurring. I would go so far as to say that Nissenbaum’s ideas challenge the very notion of how application ecosystems are supposed to work. Social app developers, almost by definition, are supposed to come up with new uses — undreamed-of uses — for people’s personal data.
As more data about people flows into the Internet’s core social networks, I think their role as platforms that feed information to ecosystems of apps and their role as services that people use directly may find themselves at odds. Doing one of these tasks well might preclude you from doing the other well, too. After all, retaining the contextual integrity of information is how you get people to share with you in the first place. Think about it this way: Who would you tell your secrets to? The person who keeps his mouth shut or the person who allows your information to be repurposed because other people might find it entertaining?
If violations like this continue, respecting the context in which data’s given might not just be a good privacy practice, it might become a good business practice. And I’m not sure what that would mean for app developers who’ve become dependent on data from the big services.
Article source: http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/04/deconstructing-the-creepiness-of-the-girls-around-me-app-151-and-what-facebook-could-do-about-it/255351/
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Computerworld - If, as reported, Facebook is building a search engine to rival Google’s, then the competition between the two Internet giants has intensified further.
About 24 Facebook developers, led by former Google engineer Lars Rasmussen are working on a new search engine, according to a report in Bloomberg Businessweek late last week.
Citing unnamed sources, the report said the project aims to enable users to more easily search Facebook’s status updates, posted articles, pictures and videos.
The new search engine could keep Facebook users from jumping off the social networking site to use Google’s search engine, analysts noted.
“I am aware of rumors that Facebook is working on a search capability that will slowly siphon off Google search customers,” said Patrick Moorhead, an analyst at Moor Insights Strategy.
“Search is still the number one use of the Web and is the front door for most users. Facebook obviously owns social networking but needs to rapidly grow through generic search and mobile,” he added
Facebook, whose upcoming IPO is expected to leave it valued at $100 billion, has seen Google move increasingly onto its social networking turf. Since both companies have powerful names and extremely deep pockets, the rivalry is not only important but both sides are well armed.
“It’s not surprising that Facebook is working on doing more with search, just as it wasn’t surprising to see Google push forward with Google+,” said Dan Olds, an analyst at Gabriel Consulting Group. “Google and Facebook are like scorpions in a bottle. And the bottle is gradually getting smaller and smaller as both expand their reach. Over time, they’re going to be directly competing in pretty much every area.”
Facebook’s move to take a bigger bite out of the search market should have Google looking over its shoulder as the social networking firm may have more leverage in the business than Microsoft and Yahoo, whose search engines couldn’t unseat Google.
“Search is the biggest and most durable killer app on the Web,” said Olds.
“In fact, you could even argue that search is the Web. Owning a successful search engine is one of the keys to the kingdom of Internet riches. Advertisers will flock to you and you can build a lot of ancillary products based on search. If Facebook can build a better search mousetrap, or at least a decent one, they’ll have a much more compelling product to sell to advertisers,” he added.
Olds noted that Google has a lot of user data, but not nearly as much as Facebook. A strong Facebook search tool, therefore, could prove very attractive to potential advertisers.
More in Internet Search
Article source: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9225771/Facebook_tries_to_out_Google_Google_with_new_search_tool
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As developers work to provide support for the higher-resolution screen of the new iPad, the latest apps to get a Retina-ready update are Facebook and Barnes Noble’s Nook.
Facebook on Monday updated its iPad app to version 4.1.1, adding support for new iPad’s “resolutionary” Retina display. With the latest version, owners of the new iPad will see a “crisp, high resolution interface,” Facebook said.
Also, Barnes Noble updated its free Nook for iOS app to version 3.1.3, adding sharper words and images for the new iPad’s display. The Nook for iPad app gives users access to Barnes Noble’s collection of more than 2 million books, magazines, and newspapers.
Users can download the new versions of Facebook and Nook for iPad from the App Store now.
The new iPad, which hit stores last month, comes with a highly anticipated 2,048-by-1,536 pixel Retina display. PCMag’s lead analyst for mobile Sascha Segan said the display is “as beautiful as you’ve heard, and colors are more saturated than on the previous model. It’s still reflective, which creates some problems outdoors, but at 264 pixels per inch, it’s the sharpest tablet screen there is.”
Other apps to recently be updated with support for the Retina display include Apple’s iTunes Movie Trailers and Netflix. But Netflix subscribers who just bought one of Apple’s shiny new tablets shouldn’t get too excited just yet. The updated Netflix iOS app includes high resolution icons and images — optimizing menus and movie thumbnails for the Retina display — but movies and TV shows are still being streamed in standard definition.
Meanwhile, the Facebook update also includes other new features and bug fixes. The app, for example, corrects an issue that caused the wrong profile photo to appear for people. It also lets users go offline in chat and adds support for several different languages.
For more, see 20 Great Retina-Ready New Apple iPad Apps.
For more from Angela, follow her on Twitter @amoscaritolo.
For the top stories in tech, follow us on Twitter at @PCMag.
Article source: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2402501,00.asp
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Baldwin and Thomas.
(Jamie McCarthy – Getty Images)
Alec Baldwin is getting married again.
As the Huffington Post reports and Baldwin has confirmed on Twitter, the “30 Rock” star proposed to girlfriend Hilaria Thomas over the weekend. Baldwin, who celebrates his 54th birthday tomorrow, and Thomas, a 28-year-old yoga instructor and yoga studio owner, began dating about a year ago. The marriage is Thomas’s first and Baldwin’s second; he famously wed his “Marrying Man” co-star Kim Basinger in 1993 and divorced her in a very public and acrimonious split that was finalized in 2002.
“Congrats to my longtime friend @alecbaldwin and his wonderful bride to be @hilariathomas,” wrote Matthew Hiltzik, a media consultant who reps Baldwin, on Twitter. “Congrats on his engagement.” That tweet was retweeted by the man who plays Jack Donaughy, who has otherwise remained mum on details about the impending nuptials.
Meanwhile, Ireland Baldwin, the actor’s daughter from his marriage to Basinger, happily tweeted her congratulations to the affianced couple this afternoon.
“Congratulations to @AlecBaldwin [and] @hilariathomas on getting engaged!” wrote the 16-year-old. “Love you guys.”
Let’s all hope this marriage goes much more smoothly than the accidental nuptials of Donaghy and Liz Lemon. That bar certainly should be easy enough to exceed.
Article source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/celebritology/post/alec-baldwin-is-engaged-to-hilaria-thomas/2012/04/02/gIQAVEmBrS_blog.html
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Email is still the most common way people receive digital messages from companies, but messaging through Twitter and Facebook is more likely to cause people to press the “buy” button, according to new research.
A survey of British consumers conducted by ExactTarget, a digital marketing firm, found that 95 percent of respondents engaged with brands online in 2011. Of those people, 93 percent have given at least one company permission to send them emails, while 45 percent of consumers have “liked” a brand on Facebook and 7 percent have “followed” a business on Twitter.
But while email is used by more consumers to receive messages from companies, Twitter and Facebook are more effective at inciting a purchase, the study found — with Twitter emerging as the big winner.
Thirty-two percent of respondents said that they were more likely to buy something from a company after “following” the company on Twitter and 24 percent of respondents said they were more likely to make a purchase after “liking” a brand on Facebook. In comparison, only 21 percent of respondents reported that a subscription to a company’s e-mail list makes them more inclined to buy from that company.
To be sure, the study didn’t actually track consumers’ behavior online and instead relied on consumers’ perceptions of which digital channels are more likely to prompt them to make a purchase. “While [consumers] may not think of email as something that makes them more likely to buy from your brand,” the report noted, “[consumers] may forget to go back to your site without an email that reminds them to do so.”
ExactTarget’s findings come amid a recent push by Twitter and Facebook to revamp the way brands use their services to communicate with potential customers. Twitter in February unveiled a self-service system that enables small businesses to manage their marketing campaigns and budgets without having to deal with sales reps. Facebook, for its part, recently opened its new profile design, Timeline, to business, brand and organization pages, through which fans can now, among other functions, send private messages to brands.
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Article source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/02/twitter-business-shopping_n_1397799.html
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By Ben Deighton
BRUSSELS, April 2 (Reuters) – A one-click online payment system using Facebook and Twitter that could boost Internet sales for newspapers, music vendors and other low-priced goods and services is being tested by a major European media company, according to its developer.
The Internet poses an increasingly urgent problem for newspaper publishers who want to make money from the articles they put on their websites, but who are worried they will deter visitors by asking them to take out a full subscription.
The new system, developed by a start-up company in Belgium, means Internet surfers can pay to read a single article or download a piece of music without having to fill out forms or enter their credit card details on the website.
The company, called Paycento, uses the fact that surfers are often logged in anyway with their profiles on social networking sites like Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter.
It means that visitors to a website can pay small amounts with a single click, much in the same way that they would click a ‘Share’ or ‘Tweet’ button to post an article on their social network profile.
“Those social identity networks also are really identity providers … so we piggyback on that,” Pieter Dubois, the company’s 41-year-old founder, said.
Dubois, a former IBM executive, set the company up in the middle of last year because he saw a need for easy-to-use online payments.
“The payment is really seamless … so it’s like a one click payment on the internet,” said Dubois, explaining that it is one click if the authorization procedure is not used.
The system works by a user having an online Paycento account, which they then link to their Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin accounts.
“We want to make it economical for the merchant, for the publisher to offer something at any price point, that means both at 10 cents, at 5 cents as at 1 euro,” said Dubois.
For its small payments service, online firm PayPal in Britain charges 5 pence plus 5 percent.
Paycento is talking to venture capitalists to try to raise around 5 million euros ($6.66 million), which Dubois hopes will last the company for two to three years, when he hopes it will start covering its losses.
While the Paycento technology is not yet being used by online publishers, the company said a major European media company is testing a beta version, but declined to say which one because of a confidentiality agreement.
“We are going to make the full system, where you can really start doing commercial transactions, we would hope at the end of June … July at the latest,” said Dubois. ($1 = 0.7509 euros) (Reporting By Ben Deighton; Editing by Andrew Callus)
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Article source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/02/paycento-facebook-twitter-online-payment_n_1396678.html
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Disney’s Marvel Studios today announced the highly-anticipated movie The Avengers will be screened early for Facebook users. There’s a catch though: it won’t be available to watch early on Facebook; instead, it will be viewable in select cities.
Marvel Studios announced the movie will offer advance screenings around the world in cities where The Avengers has gained the most Facebook Likes. Early screenings will start with shows in Los Angeles, New York City, Chicago, Houston, and Miami on April 14, 2012. This is nearly three weeks before the film’s May 4 debut in the U.S.
Here’s where it gets interesting (especially for those who don’t live in the U.S. and always get shafted on promotions like this one). Marvel is also planning another round of early screenings in five more cities. Facebook users will be able to vote for their city on The Avengers’ Facebook Page (although at the time of writing the option was nowhere to be seen).
Admission will be available for free, and will work on a first-come, first-served basis. This is a recipe for pandemonium.
The entertainment industry continues to experiment with the best way to leverage Facebook (see links below). I hope these initiatives go well, because it would be great to see Facebook turn into a medium where you can watch, or at least get some sort of deal to see, both old and new releases.
The Avengers features Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Captain America (Chris Evans), The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) who are uniting to save the world from Loki (Tom Hiddleston).
Disney, Marvel, and the Avengers have 34.82 million Likes, 3.72 million Likes and 954,000 Likes, respectively.
See also:
Article source: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/facebook/facebook-fans-get-to-watch-the-avengers-early/11267
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A Palestinian woman accused of defaming the president on her Facebook page has been detained for two weeks while an investigation is carried out, activists said Monday, in what they say is a growing crackdown on writers who criticize the West Bank government.
Palestinian security forces arrested Ismat Abdul-Khaleq, a West Bank university lecturer, last Wednesday after they found writing on her Facebook page accusing President Mahmoud Abbas of being a traitor and demanding he resign, said lawyer Issam Abdeen of the Palestinian rights group al-Haq.
Abdul-Khaleq’s detention is the latest in what activists say is the Palestinian authorities’ increasing intolerance of criticism and a worrying trend of mining Facebook to spy on Palestinians.
Lilyan, daughter of Palestinian Ismat Abdul-Khaleq, a West Bank university lecturer, holds a photograph of her mother at the family house in in the West Bank city of Ramllah, Monday, April 2, 2012. Abdul Khaleq was arrested by Palestinian security forces on Wednesday, March 28, 2012, after they found writing on her Facebook page accusing President Mahmoud Abbas of being a traitor and demanding he resign, said lawyer Issam Abdeen of the Palestinian rights group al-Haq. (AP Photo/Nasser Shiyoukhi) Close
“We are genuinely concerned about tightening limits on freedom of expression and on the media,” Abdeen said. “We don’t want reporters to second-guess what they write on whether they will be punished or not.”
Abdeen said the Palestinian public persecutor’s office was particularly harsh in ordering the prolonged detention of those accused of defamation. Abdul-Khaleq is a single mother of two children.
In other recent cases, newspaper reporter Yousef al-Shayeb has been held for eight days for allegedly defaming public officials. Al-Shayeb was expected to be released Monday after a court ordered him freed on $8,000 bail after a public outcry.
Two other reporters were interrogated last week, one for his Facebook posts and the other over a story he was researching.
A Palestinian spokesman said he could not comment on the cases because the judiciary was independent of the government.
Defaming the president and other high-level officials is a crime in the Palestinian Authority.
“These expressions go beyond freedom of expression,” said public prosecutor Ahmed al-Mughani.
She is also accused of calling Abbas a “traitor” and saying he partied with prostitutes on the graves of slain Palestinians. Abdeen said Abdul-Khaleq denied she wrote those things.
———
Hadid reported from Jerusalem.
Article source: http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/palestinian-woman-held-alleged-facebook-insult-16055505
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Facebook for iOS has now joined other apps in supporting the new iPad’s Retina Display. An update was released today that brings the app to version 4.1.1, adding several minor improvements and bug fixes for all iOS users. However, those with the third-gen iPad, now get to enjoy a crisp interface with full screen images that take advantage of the high resolution 2,048 x 1,536 display.
Most of the improvements in version 4.1.1 of the Facebook app seem to be those that fix previous quirks. They include the ability to now go offline in chat, having all your friends included in your friends list, and other corrections to photos and names that may not have displayed properly before. Photos of people who like Facebook Pages now load correctly and the friend-request notification lights up now only if you have a request.
Additionally, there are new language options, which include Czech, Danish, Greek, Indonesian, Malaysian, Norwegian, Portuguese, and Thai. And of course, for new iPad owners, you can now view crisp high resolution Facebook photos. The update is available for download now from iTunes.
Article source: http://www.slashgear.com/facebook-app-for-ipad-gets-retina-display-upgrade-02221074/
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(UKPA)
–
2 hours ago
A police investigation has begun after another Premier League footballer was racially abused on Twitter.
Officers were contacted when Newcastle United’s James Perch was targeted on Sunday after a clash with Liverpool goalkeeper Pepe Reina ended with the Spaniard receiving a red card during his side’s 2-0 defeat.
A Twitter user, believed to be a 17-year-old Liverpool fan who works at a supermarket, tweeted racist comments about the Newcastle defender.
Other Twitter users immediately rounded on the abuser, telling him police would be informed and reminding the writer about what happened to student Liam Stacey, who was jailed for abusing the Bolton player Fabrice Muamba.
Stacey, 21, was jailed for 56 days after he admitted inciting racial hatred over remarks about the midfielder, who at the time was critically ill following his collapse during a FA Cup tie against Tottenham Hotspur.
A call about the abuse Perch received was made to Northumbria Police, but because the complainant was from County Durham, officers from that force will take up the issue.
A Durham Police spokesman said on Monday: “Northumbria Police contacted us yesterday afternoon after a member of the public complained about allegedly racist comments posted on Twitter.
“As the complainant lives in County Durham the matter was referred to Durham Constabulary and an appointment has been made for an officer to visit them and take further details.”
Last month a student who abused football pundit Stan Collymore was ordered to carry out 240 hours unpaid work.
Joshua Cryer, 21, from Jesmond, Newcastle, had set out to provoke a reaction from the former Liverpool and Aston Villa striker and used a racial insult, Newcastle Magistrates heard.
Copyright © 2012 The Press Association. All rights reserved.
Article source: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5gg1LLtO-h34Ha6z2AaFnZa22b9AA?docId=N0074741333377797194A
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