Previously, we discussed the whole Instagram debacle over the changes made to its terms and conditions. When company founder Kevin Systrom announced via blog post that he listened to the feedback from users and reverted a section dealing with advertising back to its original version, many thought they had won a solid victory. But did they?
Nilay Patel argues in a recent article for The Verge that this may not be the case, and his reasoning is sound.
"That certainly sounds like a win for consumers, but it's actually a loss: the newly reinstated terms of service clause is objectively worse for users than the new one, and it's worded far more vaguely – the language feels familiar and comforting, but you're giving up more rights to your photos," Patel writes.
As he points out, while the new language allowed Instagram to display photos in connection with advertising, the original terms let the company place advertising "on, about, or in conjunction with" user photos.
Whenever you buy a car or a house, there's always fine print – tiny lettering that people rarely read but causes many a headache. After all, the devil is in the details.
It's the buyers' responsibility to read the fine print and the terms and conditions, and make sure they are not being taken advantage of. It's okay to ask for help if the language is confusing. Most legal documents and service agreements use phrasing that would tie the average person's tongue in knots. So, seeking advice is actually … well, advisable.
The same applies to users of social media platforms. Take a look at the recent debacle with Instagram. The company that developed the popular photo-sharing service purchased by Facebook earlier this year – for a paltry $1 billion – recently rolled out a revised set of terms and conditions. The wording was so confusing that many legal experts cited by the tech media had difficulty sifting through itall, let alone the average user.
I’m starting a new video series on my AskSileo YouTube channel to address common questions that parents have about their kid’s safety on Facebook and online privacy in general.
AskSileo Episode 1: Children’s Safety on Facebook and Social Networking (drawing from first-hand experience)
I get this question all of the time: Is my kid safe on Facebook? The answer to that questions depends on three basic factors:
The amount of time you have invested in helping your child set up their Facebook account. If you haven’t spent at least 90 minutes in the process, they are in no way safe. It takes at least 1.5 hours to wisely populate their profile, customize privacy and security settings and read through the Facebook Data Use Policy (notice that Facebook no longer refers to it as a privacy policy, because the reality is that you have almost no privacy on Facebook).
Satisfaction with social-networking powerhouse Facebook has slumped, according to the latest survey from the American Customer Satisfaction Index — hitting a new record-low score in the social media category that placed it in the five lowest-scoring companies out of more than 230 surveyed. There are several immediate factors that undermine user trust:
Inconsistency. Facebook’s user interface changes constantly (think Timeline) and this inconsistency leaves users feeling like they don’t know what to expect next from the social media site. Consistency builds trust, but Mark Zuckerberg doesn’t seem to have much vision for consistency.
Lack of Transparency. The average user has very little comfort with or knowledge about how Facebook is collecting, analyzing, using and selling their personal data. While Facebook has a range of privacy and security settings, most users still don’t comprehend the enormity of the information that Facebook collects on them. This lack of transparency leaves users with a bad taste in their mouth, like they are being cleverly deceived for the sake of profit.
None of us wants to be part of a scam that allows links to be forwarded as if from a friend, invading their privacy and endangering their sensitive information. It’s not always easy to avoid bad sites but by just being aware of the problem, you can become more adept. The following article is a summary of an original post By Rob Spiegel, E-Commerce Times.
In its on-going effort to mitigate spam activity, Facebook filed a lawsuit against a company that allegedly ran a “likejacking” operation. “We’re hopeful that this kind of pressure will deter large scale spammers and scammers,” said Facebook spokesperson Andrew Noyes. The state of Washington is also applying pressure, having mounted a similar lawsuit against the same company. Both suits were filed citing violation of the CAN-SPAM Act, which prohibits the sending of misleading electronic communications. Facebook and Washington state filed federal lawsuits on Thursday against Adscend Media for “clickjacking,” a form of spamming that fools users into visiting advertising sites and divulging personal information.
Business Killers: Identity Theft and Data Breach Protection Webinar on November 10
On November 10, I will host an interactive webinar sponsored by Deluxe that will explore how small businesses can protect themselves from identity theft. As someone who lost more than $300,000 and my small business to identity theft, this is a topic I care about deeply. In addition to delivering keynote speeches at conferences, I also provide consulting and guidance to organizations like the Federal Trade Commission, Pfizer and the Department of Defense on how to best protect the sensitive data inside of their organizations.
During this multi-part webinar, I will provide simple, actionable tools and advice to help small businesses protect their data and retain information privacy. I’ll also explain how the information economy has shifted the competitive landscape and increased our data exposure. Attendees will learn the following:
I’ve got a neighbor who’s going back to college this week and reminds me that this is by far the highest risk group for identify theft and it’s for a couple of reasons. When these kids are going off to college, it’s the first time they are getting true financial independence, which might never have been trained to handle. They have access to credit cards, to new bank accounts, and they’re managing it themselves. That’s a huge red flag that there’s going to be trouble. Number two, they’re going into an environment where their stuff is not particularly protected. They’re in a dorm room, they’ve got roommates that may need extra cash; they know they can take advantage of them. So it’s kind of a high risk environment. The third reason is because they do so much online. There’s so much social media interaction and that’s where ton of information is stolen. So you need to take some of these steps that are in this blog post. Help your students take them. It will help them out not just this year in college but helping them build their financial future going forward. Your identity is pretty much everything in terms of your net worth. You got to take care of it now.
During a recent 60 Minutes interview, I was asked off camera to name the Achilles’ heel of an entire country’s data security perspective; what exactly were the country’s greatest weaknesses. The country happened to be New Zealand, a forward-thinking nation smart enough to take preventative steps to avoid the identity theft problems we face in the States. The question was revealing, as was the metaphor they applied to the discussion.
Achilles, an ancient Greek superhero — half human, half god — was in the business of war. His only human quality (and therefore his only exploitable weakness) was his heel, which when pierced by a Trojan arrow brought Achilles to the ground, defeated. From this Greek myth, the Achilles’ Heel has come to symbolize a deadly weakness in spite of overall strength; a weakness that can potentially lead to downfall. As I formulated my thoughts in regard to New Zealand, I realized that the same weaknesses are almost universal — applying equally well to nations, corporations and individuals.
Direct messages sent through Twitter can be easily exposed, thanks to a loophole in Twitter’s API, according to Gary-Adam Shannon at Search Engine Watch Reports. When a user logs into another site using their Twitter user name and password, the site can gain access to the private messages, says Shannon. He goes into technical detail, but essentially it’s just a small hack.
Shannon recommends you don’t ever log in to a site (other than Twitter.com, obviously) using your Twitter user name and password. Another writer at Search Engine Watch recommends that users erase their Direct Messages after viewing them. There has been no comment from Twitter, but we hope they are looking into the issue now that the problem has been made public.
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