Today, Reps. Barney Frank and Carolyn Maloney are going to request that the implementation date for the rest of the Credit Card Act‘s rules be moved to December 1st of this year instead of February 2010, after seeing companies “jacking up their rates and doing other things to their customers in advance of the effective date” all summer, reports Mary Pilon at The Wall Street Journal.
Data & Privacy
Great, Your Doctor Is Talking About You On Facebook
By 9.23.09
Apparently the new generation of med students aren’t as concerned as you might like them to be about sharing your medical information on Facebook or Twitter, says Time.
10 Extinct Twitter-Types Thanks To New Terms Of Service
By 9.16.09
Instead of cranking out cumbersome terms of service Magna Cartas that only lawyers will actually read, Twitter should follow the lead of Mashable and just come out and say what types of users it’s attempting to get rid of.
New Terms Of Service For Twitter
By 9.11.09
Twitter has just posted new terms of service clarifying a few points that have come up now that the service is popular and stuff. They’ve changed the terms to clarify a few points, such as advertising (they retain the right to advertise) ownership (you own your tweets) and rebroadcast (they can retweet you far and wide.) [Twitter Blog]
Quiz Yourself About Facebook Quiz Applications And Privacy
By 9.5.09
What do Facebook applications know about you and your friends? What do you know about what Facebook applications know about you? If you have Facebook, you can take this handy quiz from the ACLU of Northern California that tests your knowledge of Facebook, privacy, and outside developers.
Aussie Company Will Sell You Facebook Friends
By 9.4.09
Here’s a company that will help those who really, really need more help killing Col. Mustard in the parlor with the candlestick in Mafia Wars: Australian company uSocial is selling Facebook “friends” and Twitter followers by the batch. If you want 5,000 more adoring Facebook minions checking out your status updates, you pay $654.30.
Complaint From Canada Prompts Facebook Privacy Changes
By 8.30.09
If you’re suspicious of Facebook’s use of your personal data, the social networking site has made some recent changes that may make you very happy. And for this, you can blame thank Canada.
Watch Out For Pointless Self-Replicating Spam Facebook Application
By 8.21.09
Watch out for “[A friend] commented on a photo of you” notifications on Facebook. If you click on the notification and it asks you to install an application called “Your Photos,” RUN AWAY. Your friend didn’t comment on any photos of you, and the application exists to coax people to click on banner ads.
Facebook Says No To Advertiser Sponsored Accounts
By 8.12.09
Thanks to an update to Facebook’s Statement of Rights and Responsibilities, there will be one less place for advertisers to encroach onto your private life: your friends’ news feeds.
Facebook Members Go After Coca-Cola
By 8.12.09
How long will it take for Coke to give up on its Facebook page? That depends how long its PR machine can keep deleting the “fun facts” on its Wall:
Wave Of Fake Debt Collectors Hints At Possible Data Breach
By 8.4.09
The Better Business Bureau has released a warning to be aware of scammers calling to threaten people with arrest “within the hour” for defaulting on payday loans. What makes them stand out from normal debt collecting scammers is these callers have huge amounts of personal info on their victims, including Social Security and drivers license numbers; old bank account numbers; names of employers, relatives, and friends; and home addresses.
Grocery Store Cancels Facebook Coupon Deal, Enrages Customers
By 8.3.09
Marsh, a grocery chain in Indiana and Ohio, made a special coupon available to their fans on Facebook. The coupon was good for $10 off a purchase of $10 or more. Great deal, right? Until the promotion got out of hand, and the store stopped accepting the coupon on Friday, with no warning to customers. Based on past similar experiences, you can guess how well this turns out.
Facebook Bans Advertisers From Stealing Your Photo To Sell Stuff To Your Friends
By 7.30.09
Facebook has firmly told app developers that it’s not okay for them to steal your wife’s photo from her profile page and use it to entice others into a sexy local singles dating service.
Hacked Company: Notifying Customers Of Breach Is A "Burden"
By 7.27.09
Network Solutions, an e-commerce company, just experienced a data breach that resulted in them compromising 573,000 credit and debit card accounts. The company has begun to notify merchants of the breach so they can tell their customers, but gosh, it’s just so hard.
Free Food From Pizza Hut Via Twitter And Facebook
By 6.25.09
The new Pizza Hut social media intern has her first assignment, and it’s to give out codes for free stuffed pizza rolls to the company’s followers on Twitter and Facebook. Let’s hope they’ve planned ahead better than KFC did. [Mashable] (Thanks, David!)
Facebook Twice Feared Letting Angel Tread Its Network, Changed Its Heart
By 6.25.09
If you think 20th Century Fox was cruel to Dark Angel, canceling the show after just two seasons, get a load of what Facebook did to Dark Angel. Not the show, the person. Yes, there’s a guy out there who legally changed his name to Dark Angel. And on top of the gloom of instilling massive disappointment in everyone who meets him hoping he’ll be Jessica Alba, Dark Angel was deemed too fake of a name by the Facebook cops. So they booted his account twice.
Facebook Encourages Open Marriages—Just Ask Dan's Wife
By 6.24.09
One thing I personally hate about Facebook is how the ads co-opt my friends’ pictures and use them to try to sell me stupid stuff. Dan received one of those types of ads yesterday, only the combination of text and photo selection was a little… um, let’s say “open minded.”
