Surprise! Security firm Symantec yesterday reported that a hole in the Facebook security system allowed third-parties like advertisers access to user accounts and private data – and that this hole has been in place for the past four years, since Facebook first started offering apps to its users.
Reports over the weekend have claimed that UK journalist and newspaper Twitter feeds are possibly going to become regulated. In essence they’ll be brought under the regulation of the Press Complaints Commission later in the year. No doubt fingers will strike keypads aggressively in weeks to come, the fearless bunch that the UK press are.
In other Facebook news today, the social media platform is in hot water again for its marketing tactics. A father in the US is suing Facebook for not getting permission from parents or guardians before letting other users know when children ‘like’ brands. I’m not sure my dad would know what a ‘like’ was if it hit him with a stick.
This new feature will be available to all Facebook users and it’s been designed to make sharing easier, and a little more private. Its social networking architecture will work best with Facebook’s Groups function that was introduced last October, but don’t expect it to make streamlined advertising any harder either.
I wonder how many people asked that question on Sunday, when presented with that morning’s Sunday Times front page? I certainly did. But once my eyes had zoomed-in on the photo caption, I was reassured that the man was not Jay-Z’s new son-in-law, but rather the jeweler who sponsored her diamonds for the day. Good […]
A number of bloggers have been making reference to a ‘Jasmine Revolution,’ wherein Chinese citizens show discontent for local corruption by walking around crowded public areas on Sunday afternoons. This never happened, but Sunday walks did. Authorities are convinced that the protest is still happening.
Richard Metzger, television host and author, recently received an email from Facebook letting him know that a photo of his had been taken down for violating “Facebook’s Statement of Rights and Responsibilities,” which prohibits “nudity, or any kind of graphic or sexually suggestive content.” The photo in question was of two men kissing.
If you’ve seen “The Social Network”, then you’ll be aware of Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss (a.k.a. “the Winklevii”), who, in 2004 sued Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg for allegedly stealing their idea. Well their great battle against Zuckerberg may finally be over.
In a much anticipated move, the social media giant has finally unveiled its next step in advancing the power of journalism through social networking. It’s described as a central resource tool for journalists and the public to share, interact and find sources on the site. Try and stop us now Julius, Jimmy, Floyd and the other haters out there.
Earth Day 2011 is on the way, and environmental group Greenpeace has released a video telling us that a) coal is the number one contributor to climate change in the world, and b) Facebook needs a lot of coal to keep all 600 million of us tagging and poking.
The new platform, which is still currently in its design phases, will allow users to create the perfect girlfriend who will allegedly write on your Facebook wall, possibly tweet sweet nothings at you and keep your virtual happiness in mind using other social media platforms.
We all love Facebook. Some of us love Facbook so much that we’ve given up our meth addictions just to spend more time on Facebook. But every now and then Zuckerberg does something that just doesn’t sit right, like serving up adds as you type.
News just in, Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder of Facebook and seller of your personal information, is no longer single. The world may now breathe a collective sigh of relief. None of us could bare his loneliness for even one a moment longer.
If you say the word ‘protest’ too frequently in a cell-phone conversation in Beijing, your call gets cut off. No spice. We have pretty strict phone etiquette policies here at 2ov, granted, but generally we allow calls, once placed, to proceed without Big Brother intervention.
At last, a way to find pornography on the internet. You guys are reading the words ‘porn’ and ‘xxx’ and getting really excited, but believe me when I tell you that this is almost 99% technology news. Pornography is sort of besides the point here, so to speak. But click through, anyway.
The European Union is attempting to establish the “right to be forgotten online,” as a legislative response to embarrassing old data – risque photographs, stupid statuses – that refuse to disappear. The proposed bit of legislation would enforce higher privacy settings and offer greater user control.
Links between these two high rollers have been gossiped about and reported on before. It’s no big secret that shortly after his 2006 arrest on rape charges, JZ made a shimmy over to Tripoli for five days where he met with Colonel Gaddafi. Now JZ and the Colonel have had a little phone conversation.
Well, I mean not totally – it’s the evidence found on Facebook as grounds for the dissolution of marriage which causes 20% of all divorce cases in the US, but still. Big number. Increasingly, social networking sites form the primary source of evidence in custody battles and divorce proceedings, so heads up.
Due to the growing occurrence of ‘Facebook suicides’ a help system has been put in place, which allows users concerned about potentially suicidal friends to report the activity to Facebook, which will trigger a hotline response reaching out to the depressed party.
The Facebook programmers are busily working away on new features that give third-party developers and external websites the ability to access users’ home addresses and cellphone numbers. Now isn’t that charming?
Last week a very drunk gate-crasher at Paris Hitlon’s 30th birthday party managed to steal her $2 000 birthday cake.
Man, when was the last time a Facebook App was actually useful? I mean, Facebook is inherently a timesink, and this app isn’t so much useful as it is creepy, but semantics. The Breakup Notifier does what is says on the tin – it lets you know the second your crush isn’t in a relationship anymore.
That’s right, an Egyptian man has, as a show of appreciation to Facebook in helping to organise the January 25th protests in Cairo, named his baby Facebook.
It’s sort of hard to be on the internet right now without hearing about protests from whichever North African/Middle Eastern country is falling under the ‘freedom’ bandwagon, but this Google Maps/Twitter mashup contextualizes the online protest movement nicely – and in real time.
Ha. Last night, someone in control of the Red Cross Twitter feed accidentally posted “Ryan found two more 4 bottle packs of Dogfish Head’s Midas Touch beer…when we drink we do it right #gettngslizzerd. ” Then the internet found out & made a meme of it, resulting in a flood of Red Cross blood donations.
This morning’s headlines: The Berlusconi case keeps getting creepier and Hustler announce they’re developing Harry Potter porn, entitled “This Ain’t Harry Potter”. Wow, the return of Beavis and Butt-Head sounds remarkably savoury. Yup, they’re back and they’ll still be watching Whitesnake tribute music videos. Oh, and Jersey Shore.
Sort of. HP recently released a study looking under the hood of Twitter’s ‘Trending Topics’ function – revealing (gasp) that most of the time, popular topics get broadcast by major media twitter accounts, then amplified by their followers, rather than some wanky cloud-based news system.
Nothing much needs to be said in addition to the title of this post. Before I first saw this video on the Telegraph’s trusty website, I too had seen the link. I did my best to ignore it, but the urge to push my right index finger down proved too strong. What does that say about me? [VIDEO]
Here is a tip for becoming a successful politician: When you write newspaper columns criticising your own political party, they will be upset and invite you to a disciplinary. Logging onto Facebook and calling them “dickheads” will only make the situation worse.
World Wide Worx, the research company with their fingers on the pulse of SA’s cell phone data usage habits has ascertained, with careful research and tireless data sifting that, yes, Twitter is the next big thing. They estimate that at least 1 million South Africans are “using the service”.