Privacy News & Articles

Thanks to another revision of their privacy policy, Facebook has been in the headlines this week for all the wrong reasons. Whether or not the thousands leaving the platform will increase to a significant number on the 31st of this month (a.k.a Quit Facebook Day) remains to be seen, but MySpace is taking advantage of this tiny window of oppotunity regardless. In a move that aims to attract Facebook's sloppy seconds, the ex-king of social networking has announced the simplification of their own policy.  

Facebook changed its privacy policy again. Please, alert someone, we don't think we can contain all the shock and surprise we're feeling right now.

Okay but seriously, this time users have been affected so deeply that an official Quit Facebook Day has been instituted, and authorities from both the U.S. and Europe are up in lawsuit-filled arms. Is the social network on its way to becoming a victim of its own success, or are we just being too paranoid?

This week Google addressed the concerns about issues raised by information commissioners in ten different countries over privacy and Buzz, while data protection in federal agencies is also a concern.

Is waiting for the White House's Office of Management and Budget (OMB) guidelines on a new Federal Government cookie policy like waiting for Godot? One might not be blamed for thinking as much.

Social media moves so fast, it's hard to keep up. Here are the week's top stories in scan-friendly format:

• Keep Facebook In Check With Your Data
• Social Networking Accounts for 60% of Mobile Traffic
• Twitter Launches Embeddable Tweets
• Social Networking Sites Need To Own Privacy, Says Researcher

These last few days have been all-embracing, to say the least. Examining social networking in the workplace, new mobile solutions, the reappearance of knowledge management and snowballing conspiracy theories about privacy, this week's roll-up is brimming with the latest Enterprise 2.0 news. 

Can Google hear you think? Independent computer security researcher Moxie Marlinspike seems to believe so. He used his stage time at this year's SOURCE conference in Boston to raise awareness around Big G's data harvesting practices, admonishing the search engine's ability to mine way more information than statistics say you're comfortable with. 

Social media moves so fast, it's hard to keep up. Here are the week's top stories in scan-friendly format:

• Twitter Finally Exposes Money Making Plans
• U.S. Government Agencies Are Free to Use Social Web
• Google Launches Buzz Button
• Who's Winning with Online Identity?

Earlier we referenced a recent report that indicated that companies are spending too much time on compliance and not enough on protecting secrets. We thought we’d take a closer look and examine the study’s implications in the enterprise.

It's no secret that our coveted confidentiality is getting the brush-off in the social software corner. Mentioning the Google Buzz thing again would be like beating a dead horse, so we won't, but know this: The number of instances in which social software has shown disregard for sensitive information is growing, and it's making many Enterprise 2.0 folks sweat.

We’ve certainly heard plenty from CEOs about privacy being dead and all, but considering the heat coming from related debates, perhaps it’s time to hear from the opposing team.

Danah Boyd, social media researcher for Microsoft, took the stage at this year’s SXSW conference, and with her 10+ years in the social realm, claimed privacy is alive (but not well), and schooled us on the intricacies of screw-ups from some of the biggest names out there: Google and Facebook.

This week, GRC chases social media, hospitals find themselves unprepared for new changes in records management and corporations risk losing valuable data.

Social media moves so fast, it's hard to keep up. Here are the week's top stories in scan-friendly format:

• Gartner Says Social Will Rule The Enterprise
• Twitter Use Growing Fast in the U.K.
• Watch Out For Social Networking Spam and Malware
• Facebook: Our Users Are Aware of Privacy Settings

Not satisfied with scouring the dusty corners of the Internet to quench your search thirst, Google (news, site) goes up-to-the-second with Real Time Content.

While it’s mildly annoying to have a flock of sales associates approach you the second you step into a store, but apparently consumers don’t mind the special attention when they’re shopping on the Internet.

This is especially important to note when you consider numbers like 74, which, according to a recent survey from SDL Tridion (news, site), is the percentage of people who actually like it when businesses mine their personal shopping information.