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Privacy, We Hardly Knew Ye

Facebook is reverting us to a pre-urban state: David Frum

(Newser) - Between Facebook and cell phone videos that propel any unguarded moment into a viral one, we spend a fair amount of time these days bemoaning the loss of privacy. But the truth is, privacy has only existed for a matter of decades, writes David Frum at CNN . "For most... More »

You Are What You 'Like' on Facebook

Scientists find smart people like curly fries, liberals like ... cuddling

(Newser) - The race, sexual orientation, political leanings, and many other personal details about Facebook users can be revealed with a stunning degree of accuracy by analyzing their "likes," according to new research. Experts using data from 58,000 volunteers created a program that could spot gay men 88% of... More »

Facebook Changes Actually Got Users to Share More

...whether they realized it or not

(Newser) - Facebook users started sharing a lot more after the site modified its interface and default settings in 2009 and 2010—whether they realized it or not. A seven-year study from Carnegie Mellon researchers found that from 2005 to 2009, users were trending toward keeping more information private, a trend that... More »

Facebook Unveils Ambitious New Search Feature

You'll be able to search the 'graph' for info from your friends

(Newser) - Facebook held a major press event today, but kept the media guessing about what it would be unveiling. The answer was what Mark Zuckerberg described as the "third pillar" of Facebook: Graph Search. Basically, the idea is to allow people to search for people, places, and things to do... More »

Facebook Yanks New Year's Notes Over Privacy Fail

Holiday messages could be read by strangers

(Newser) - Facebook was hoping to allow users to write special messages to be sent at midnight tonight, but a student in Wales discovered a small problem: It's way easy to read—or delete—other people's private notes, the Daily Mail reports. Tweaking the URL of a message sent via... More »

Latest Victim of Facebook Privacy Flub: Zuckerberg Sis

'It's about human decency,' complains Randi Zuckerberg

(Newser) - It looks like Facebook's ever-changing privacy functions aren't just frustrating for you and me—even Mark Zuckerberg's sister (a former Facebook official herself) can screw up. A family photo Randi Zuckerberg posted on her Facebook page was tweeted by a friend of a family member, upsetting Zuckerberg,... More »

Instagram: We Can Sell Your Photos, Pay You Zilch

How do you opt out? You can't!

(Newser) - Get ready to feel a little more violated: Instagram has decided it can now sell your photos. Without telling you. And you have no say. And won't see a penny. In a new intellectual property policy revealed yesterday and set to take effect Jan. 16, Facebook-owned Instagram now retains... More »

Facebook Posting 'Private Messages': Reports

But maybe they're just old wall postings?

(Newser) - Are people's private Facebook messages appearing in their Timelines today? French newspapers posted stories saying as much, and similar incidents cropped up in the US, reports Slate , but now TechCrunch reports that the messages from 2007 to 2009 are actually old wall posts that were never private in the... More »

Let's Nationalize Facebook

Let's make the site a force for good: Philip Howard

(Newser) - Facebook is capable of being a tool for the greater good, but right now, it's falling way short of that potential, writes Philip Howard at Slate . His solution: Let's nationalize it, even though the idea "might seem crazy." We could start with a public majority stake... More »

Illinois to Firms: Paws Off Applicants' Facebook Logins

New law will make it illegal for them to request password info

(Newser) - Good news, Illinois job seekers: Would-be employers are now legally barred from demanding your social media passwords and taking a gander at those margarita madness photos you thought only your friends could see. Gov. Pat Quinn yesterday signed a law that will make it illegal for employers to ask job... More »

Facebook's New Buy Had Huge Security Hole

Face.com app's flaw allowed Facebook, Twitter hijacking

(Newser) - Facebook has made a new acquisition, snapping up Israeli facial recognition firm Face.com in a deal believed to be worth up to $100 million. But while Face.com's technology—which is already used to auto-tag photos on Facebook—has plenty of fans, its KLIK mobile app had a... More »

Why I'm Saying Goodbye to 'Facebookistan'

Facebook useful, but Steve Coll objects to company's terms, and more

(Newser) - Four years and 4,000 friends later, Steve Coll is calling it quits when it comes to Facebook. It's not that Coll doesn't find Facebook useful or understand its appeals. To Coll, quitting what one of his colleagues has dubbed "Facebookistan" is an exercise in citizenship, his... More »

Poll: Users Don't Trust Facebook

And they don't click on sponsored content or ads

(Newser) - Investors are going wild for Facebook, but the site's actual users are less enthusiastic about its prospects, a new AP-CNBC poll reveals. Half of respondents said Facebook was overvalued at its presumed $100 billion valuation, and that shot up to 62% among active investors. Part of the reason they'... More »

Everybody's Lying on Facebook

One-quarter of survey respondents admitted to altering their info

(Newser) - How to protect your privacy on Facebook? For an increasing number of users, the answer is simple: Lie. A quarter of respondents in a new Consumer Reports study admitted that they “alter personally identifiable information,” such as birthdate, on Facebook. Technically, that’s a violation of the social... More »

Some Employers, Schools Demand Facebook Logins

Maryland may ban practice

(Newser) - Some employers and colleges have found an ingenious way around Facebook's pesky privacy settings: Simply demand that applicants or students friend you, give you a tour of their account, or even divulge their usernames and passwords. MSNBC reports on a number of places instituting the troubling practices:
  • At Maryland'
... More »

Women More Likely to Unfriend

They're also a lot more cautious with their content

(Newser) - Women are the less fair sex when it comes to social networking. Ladies are a little more likely to delete friends on sites like Facebook and Twitter than gentlemen are, and a lot more likely to keep their pages private, reports AFP . A Pew Research Center study found that 67%... More »

Facebook Tracks You Even After You Log Off: Lawsuit

Two attorneys file class-action suit over tracking cookies

(Newser) - Facebook is facing a class-action lawsuit over claims that it violated privacy laws by continuing to track users even after they logged off the site. The suit was filed by two renowned Baltimore attorneys on behalf of plaintiffs Laura Maguire and Christopher Simon, the Daily Record reports. The attorneys accuse... More »

Facebook Glitch Allowed Access to Private Photos

... and Mark Zuckerberg himself learned the hard way

(Newser) - A temporary glitch allowed Facebook users to view others' private photos with a surprisingly easy trick, reports ZDNet . It's been fixed, but not before some of Mark Zuckerberg's own private photos got pilfered and reposted on blogs, like here at Launch. The trick: You could report an image... More »

Facebook Settles Privacy Case With FTC

It agrees to independent audits for 20 years

(AP) - Facebook is settling with the FTC over charges it deceived consumers with its privacy settings to get people to share more personal information than they originally agreed to. The charges go back to at least 2009, when Facebook changed its privacy settings so that information users may have deemed private,... More »

How Facebook Watches You

Social media giant tracks your previous 90 days of browsing

(Newser) - Facebook is watching you—even if you’re not a Facebook user—but insists it’s less nefarious than rivals who do the same thing. The social networking giant uses tracking cookies to keep a running log of every page users have visited for the past 90 days, engineering director... More »

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