Archive

Posts Tagged ‘Facebook’

Facebook Lawsuit Shows How Outdated Our Privacy Laws Are

December 31, 2014 Comments off

wallstcheatsheet.com

The latest lawsuit filed against social networking giant Facebook may ultimately lead to change in how social networks can collect and use our communications, but in the meantime serves to highlight the obsolescence and vagueness of the legislation that protects the personal data we share via social networks and email.

Re/code reports that Facebook will face a class-action lawsuit that accuses it of violating users’ privacy by scanning the messages that they send to other users of the social network. U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton dismissed some state-law claims against the company but denied Facebook’s bid to dismiss the lawsuit, which will now seek to establish how routine the process of scanning messages is to the tech firm’s business.

Facebook has argued that the alleged scanning of users’ messages was covered by an exception under the federal Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) for interceptions by Read more…

Facebook can see what users type even if status is not posted

December 18, 2013 Comments off

latimes.com

Facebook

Facebook said tracking users’ activity even if they decide not to post a status or comment falls within the company’s terms of service. (Daniel Acker / Bloomberg / December 9, 2013)

By Salvador Rodriguez

Facebook has said that it is within its terms of service to see what users are typing even when the status or comment is never posted on the social network.

The Menlo Park, Calif., company confirmed that it can track users’ unpublished posts after two Facebook researchers disclosed that they had tracked the activity of about 5 million random Facebook users in the U.S. and England.

The researchers’ study looked at how often these users censored themselves while typing posts and comments on Facebook. If users typed more than five characters, the content was tracked. It was considered to be self-censored if it was not published within 10 minutes of being typed.

Facebook said the study did not track the exact words and letters that users typed, but whether or not they typed something. The methodology for the study also kept the Read more…

Google wants to move into your HOME: Giant plans to fit microphones in ceilings…

December 12, 2013 Comments off

dailymail

Californian firm's chief engineer Scott Huffman, pictured,Californian firm’s chief engineer Scott Huffman, pictured, said the microphones would act like personal assistants

Google is already heavily criticised for trying to know almost everything about us, and now the firm wants to get inside our homes, literally.

Engineering director Scott Huffman told The Independent that in his vision of the future Google users would have microphones fitted inside their homes.

Huffman envisages houses with microphones fitted to the ceiling that act like personal assistants; responding to voice queries and connecting to phones, tablets and other smart devices.

He said: ‘Imagine I say ‘Can you bring up a video of the highlights of yesterday’s Pittsburgh Steelers game and play it on a TV in the living room?’ and it works because the Cloud means everything is connected.’

Elsewhere he said he could ask his Google assistant where to go for lunch that serves a particular type of food and on a certain budget and Google will find somewhere.

Huffman could then get in his car and his sat nav would be already programmed to take him to the restaurant of choice.

The plans aren’t too much of a stretch from what the Google Now app already offers thanks to what’s called Read more…

How secretly developed software became capable of tracking people’s movements online

February 12, 2013 Comments off

The U.S. government can track where you are, who you’re with, what you look like, and where you’ll likely be next thanks to a tool created by defense contractor Raytheon.

The tool, called Riot, or rapid information overlay technology, looks at your Twitter, Facebook, Gowalla, and Foursquare to determine Read more…

Facebook new app update let them record sound & video from your phone, at any time, without your consent

January 19, 2013 2 comments

abovetopsecret.com

Posted by MrMaybeNot

For me this is where they stepped over the line. Facebook came out with an app update today on Android and when I looked at the new permissions this version request over the previous ones, I noticed that by updating, you consent to let Facebook use your microphone and record with your camera anytime, without your confirmation. I know I won’t be updating, but how many millions will?

Picture from my Android TV box: (same thing was asked on my phone)

Read more…

Big Google is watching you

January 16, 2013 Comments off

businessspectator.com

While travelling overseas at Christmas we naturally turned off mobile data on our phones to avoid being ripped off by the phone companies’ rapacious data roaming charges.

Instead, everywhere I went I asked for the Wi-Fi password and sometimes didn’t even need one. No problem, although using Google maps to get around in the street was impossible.

 

In fact with all three phone networks in Australia whacking up their data prices, I’m thinking of turning off mobile data at home as well. There’s more and more public Wi-Fi around and although the domestic Read more…

Recognition software will scan Facebook for incriminating markings

September 10, 2012 1 comment

dailymailPolice may soon be able to catch criminals by the ink they are sporting.

Computer scientists are developing a new program that will be able to identify suspects by their tattoos and match them to photos in police databases or on social media.

Automatic identification through recognition of body art could provide a much needed breakthrough in detective work, often thwarted by grainy footage from surveillance videos that make it difficult to see a criminal’s face to use facial recognition.

Tattoo artist at workTattoo recognition: Computer scientists are developing a computer program that will be able to identify suspects by their tattoos and match them to photos in police databases (file photo)

‘Those photos are often so bad that face recognition wouldn’t come even close’ to finding a match in a database, Terrance Boult, a computer science professor at the University of Colorado, explained to Live Science.

To rectify this problem, Boult worked with a team of researchers to develop a computer program that Read more…

Categories: Social Networking Tags: ,

Facebook Now Has 104,857,600 GB Of Your Personal Data Stored On Its Servers

March 16, 2012 Comments off

breakingnewsworld

Facebook users take for granted just how much of their personal data is surrendered when they sign up to the site and liberally share their lives on the popular social networking platform. But for the interested user, the numbers are here. According to the S-1 filing made by Facebook in anticipation of its IPO, a whopping 104,857,600 GB of data is stored on Facebook servers at any one time.

Facebook Now Has 104,857,600 GB Of Your Personal Data Stored On Its Servers facebook power users

That number was written in the SEC filing as 100 Petabytes of data, but most people of course don’t even know what a Petabyte is or how to gauge its size in relation to something else. Thanks to the fine folks over at TechCrunch though, a visual representation of the figure was created. The simplest way they found to put the number in perspective was to compare 100 Petabytes to the number of Toshiba 320 GB hard drives it would take to accommodate the overall number of bytes. Turns out in order to store 100 Petabytes of data; you would need 312,500 Toshiba hard drives.

Now some people may think Facebook is showing off, but when you really think about it, 845 million active users are bound to have lots of ‘stuff’ to share. And sharing and storage is one in the same where Facebook is concerned.

Should Facebook delete very old shared data from their servers? Let us know your thoughts below.

Official List Of Words Feds Monitor On Social Networking Sites

February 28, 2012 9 comments

alexanderhiggins

The Feds have been forced to release their social network monitoring manual, which contains the list of words the government watches on social media and news sites.

Earlier the Huffington Post reported on the Feds have been forced to give up their list of words they monitor on Facebook, Twitter, and comments being posted on news articles so I compiled that list below.

Homeland Security Manual Lists Government Key Words For Monitoring Social Media, News

Ever complain on Facebook that you were feeling “sick?” Told your friends to “watch” a certain TV show? Left a comment on a media website about government “pork?”

If you did any of those things, or tweeted about your recent vacation in “Mexico” or a shopping trip to “Target,” the Department of Read more…

India Bans Army From Using Social Networks

February 7, 2012 Comments off

breakingnewsworld.net

The contemporary soldier has to operate in a very sophisticated setting, using some of the latest technology, but many armies around the world are quite selective about which bits of technology they allow their soldiers to use.

India Bans Army From Using Social Networks indian armyOne case in point is the Indian Army which has taken the rather broad and somewhat harsh approach of banning entirely, the use of social media and social networks by its soldiers. The reason given for the wholesale ban is the typical “security safeguards” excuse, and many in the blogosphere are simply not convinced by it. Although there hasn’t been an official confirmation from the Army, sources close to the situation say that the ban is effectively immediately and will affect the 36,000 officers and 1.3 million regular soldiers that currently make up India’s armed forces.

The ban means that once you a soldier is enlisted in the Indian Army, he or she is not permitted to even have Read more…