Last week, Facebook came out swinging against the practice of employers asking employees or potential hires for access to their social network accounts, in order to dig around and find out more about them. And now, U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal and Charles Schumer are pushing the government to investigate the matter further. [More]
Data & Privacy
The 8 Remaining Worst Company In America Contenders Sure Are An Elite Bunch!
By 3.27.12
Two weeks ago, 32 of the nation’s worst businesses entered the Worst Company In America Battledome Nonagon, hoping to prove they could out-twit, overcharge and outlast the others to ultimately be named the Worst Company In America 2012. Two dozen companies have since been fed to the shark-eating robot piranhas and only eight remain with a chance to be crowned with the Golden Poo. [More]
Facebook Agrees: Employers Should Definitely Not Be Asking For Your Passwords
By 3.23.12
We weren’t the only ones shocked to find out that employers have been asking job applicants or in some cases, actual workers, for the passwords to their Facebook, Twitter and other social media accounts. Facebook has issued a statement addressing that practice, calling it “alarming.” [More]
Facebook Ups Photo Resolution So Everyone Will See Your Giant Pores
By 3.22.12
No one’s perfect, not even after a few layers of makeup to cover that exponentially expanding zit, and now everyone will get to see those imperfections up close on Facebook. The social networking site announced they’re automatically showing photos in “the highest resolution possible.” [More]
Worst Company In America Sweet 16: USPS Vs. Facebook
By 3.21.12
The old world clashes with the new this afternoon as the company that used to connect people around the country tries to take down the website that everyone now uses to show off photos of their kids. [More]
Potential Employers Now Have The Nerve To Ask For Applicants' Facebook Passwords
By 3.20.12
What’s your response if I ask for your Facebook password so I can log in as you and just poke around, see what’s up? Probably something like, “Get out of my face, you crazy person.” But apparently, some potential employers are actually asking for those private details with job applicants. The nerve! [More]
Worst Company In America Round One: Facebook Vs. Sprint
By 3.19.12
Here we have a Round One battle between two opponents with peculiar predicaments. In one corner is a website that continually tries to invade your privacy but to which everyone on the planet seems to belong. And in the other corner is the phone company that claims to offer truly unlimited data plans, but which can’t seem to get new customers. [More]
Should Your Estate Be Able To Access Your Facebook Account After You're Gone?
By 3.16.12
In ye olden days of yore, when someone passed away, the estate or family would pore over private papers, diaries, letters and any record of that person’s life, as part of preserving the deceased’s legacy. Now, a whole lot of that life record is online. So should access to your social media accounts live on after you die? [More]
Yahoo Files Patent Suits Against Facebook For Social Networking, Messaging
By 3.13.12
When Facebook was shooting up in popularity, everyone wanted to hang out with them and get something going, including Yahoo. But Yahoo has had enough of Mark Zuckerberg, it seems, as they’re filing patent suits against Facebook claiming it’s using technologies they developed without paying any licensing fees. [More]
Here It Is, Your Lineup For Worst Company In America 2012!
By 3.12.12
Welcome to Consumerist’s 7th Annual Worst Company In America tournament, where the businesses you nominated face off for a title that none of them will publicly admit to wanting — but which all of them try their hardest to earn. So it’s time to fill in the brackets and start another office pool. That is, unless you work at one of the 32 companies competing in the tournament. [More]
Facebook: We're Not Reading Your Texts But We Can If We Wanna
By 2.27.12
You know that list of permissions you breeze by when downloading an app? The ones you likely don’t read but that could contain all kinds of little things you might not want to put in the hands of say, Facebook? Yeah. You should probably be reading those, since Facebook permissions for its mobile app allows for it to read your text messages if they want to. [More]
Airline Using Facebook To Turn Jet Cabin Into High School Cafeteria
By 2.24.12
As adults, most of us are perfectly okay with the notion that it doesn’t really matter who you sit next to on the plane. You take your seat, eat your free peanuts and sleep through Two & a Half Men reruns. But Dutch airline KLM is testing a new service that allows Facebook and LinkedIn users to try to find the cool kids’ section of the plane. [More]
Those Pictures Of You Carousing With Your Friends On Facebook Could Actually Help You Get A Job
By 2.22.12
Worried that a potential employer is somehow checking out your Facebook profile and seeing photos of the time that made you swear never to drink tequila on an empty stomach ever again? Don’t be! A new study says your profile could be closely linked to job performance, and those boozy pics just make you look friendly and extroverted. [More]
Good News For Haters Of Smug Pigs: Angry Birds Now Flingable On Facebook
By 2.14.12
If you’re still rocking a flip phone or some other non-smartphone, heck, we’ll just call it a dumbphone, and have been aching to try slinging irate avians at smugly grinning, egg-eating pigs, today is your day. Angry Birds is officially heading to Facebook via an app on the social media network. [More]
Facebook Hasn't Even Gone Public And People Are Already Selling Fake Shares
By 2.3.12
You’re all educated, gorgeous people so you are fully aware that shares in Facebook won’t be publicly available for several more weeks. But that didn’t stop a woman in Wisconsin from using fake stock in the website to pay for home repairs — she even gave some to her daughter for Christmas. [More]
Facebook Officially Files For IPO; World Continues To Turn
By 2.1.12
Facebook, the startup website that the kid from Squid & the Whale was accused of stealing from those twins in that pistachio commercial (or at least that’s what I learned from fast-forwarding through The Social Network), is finally set to join the ranks of the publicly traded. The company has filed papers for its initial public offering, which is expected to make a bunch of people really, really rich and maybe, just maybe, make us all love one another again. [More]
FTC Commissioner Puts Verbal Smackdown On Facebook & Google Over Privacy
By 1.27.12
Aww, snap! Federal Trade Commissioner Julie Brill doesn’t care that her speech opening a forum on Data Privacy Day was being streamed on Facebook and likely Googled by many — she still put the verbal smackdown on those two companies for their problems protecting user privacy. [More]
Ready Or Not, Here It Comes: Facebook's Timeline Will Become Mandatory On Profiles Soon
By 1.24.12
You’ve seen it lurking on your friends’ Facebook profiles, and felt the oppressive weight of the stress to eventually pick the perfect, horizontal cover image, and now the time is almost nigh — the Timeline feature will soon be the default interface on Facebook, and mandatory for all users. [More]
