Private Photos Find Way to Online Viewers

Souped-up Shutterfly is in beta and set to launch in August

(NEWSER) - With lost passwords and clunky sign-up procedures, online photo-sharing can be a bit of a hassle. But a new service from Shutterfly offers a simpler way, Katherine Boehret writes in the Wall Street Journal after taking it for a spin. Shutterfly Share still has some problems— you can’t post original videos, for one—that won’t be fixed by the Aug. 12 launch, but it offers a sleek and simple experience. More»

The WSJ examines the competition

(NEWSER) - Yahoo is shuttering its popular photo sharing site in September, but never fear—there are plenty of alternative places to dock your digital pics. The Journal surveys the field:

• Kodak Gallery is the easiest to navigate, but lacks editing tools and requires a yearly purchase commitment.
• Shutterfly is totally, no-strings-attached free, but it's simple to a fault. Users can't upload videos or submit images from a mobile device.

(NEWSER) - Facebook is starting a pilot program to test a more user-friendly version of its sprawling privacy controls, CNET reports. The 40 different settings now occupy six separate pages, and are so complicated that many users ignore them completely. “These can add up and pile up and not be as clean as one would like," Facebook’s chief privacy officer said today. So-called “transition tolls” will aid users in the switch. More»

As top sites are banned, web surfers rail against 'Great Firewall'

(NEWSER) - Frustration with government curbs on the Internet is growing among China's 140M web users. Wikipedia has been banned, and the censors recently shuttered photo-sharing web site Flickr, after a user uploaded a picture of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. Tens of thousands of human monitors and an elaborate filter system keep watch over China's browsers. More»

New rules will call for improvements on social networking sites

(NEWSER) - The EU is demanding enhanced privacy on Facebook and other social networking sites, calling for a “right to be forgotten." The justice commissioner will unveil rules before summer demanding, among other things, that strict privacy settings be the default for users. Sites like Facebook “can't think they're exempt just because they have their servers in California or do their data processing in Bangalore,” says a spokesman. “If they're targeting EU citizens, they will have to comply with the rules.” More»