Back when online music service Spotify first launched in the U.S., users had the option of using their Facebook ID to log in. But that all changed last week, around the same time that Facebook launched their much-derided redesign, and now new Spotify users must use their Facebook ID to log in. [More]
Senators Blumenthal And Franken Ask Social Intelligence Corp About Using Your Facebook Photos In Employer Background Checks
By 9.26.11
Senators Blumenthal and Franken have figuratively posted on Social Intelligence Corp’s Facebook wall a poll asking the company to answer several questions about its background check business. What makes this company’s service unique is that it scours the internet profiles of prospective employees and flags them for things like holding drinks or holding guns. [More]
Facebook Thinks You Should Stop Making Friends
By 9.22.11
Kevin has had his Facebook account for quite a few years, but decided to poke around and go on a friending spree to make it easier to make contacts and find a new job. That’s how he learned the hard way that while Facebook wants you to connect with people, they don’t really want you to connect with so many of them that you look like a spambot. [More]
Netflix CEO Jokes That Irked Investors May Be Trying To Poison Him
By 9.22.11
It’s been a downer of a week for Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, whose attempt to soften the blow of deciding to split off his company’s DVD-by-mail division into the questionably named Qwikster was met with much derision and an initial dip in the company’s stock price. But Hastings has either been able to maintain a sense of humor about the situation or he wants the world to know he fears angry investors are out to poison him. [More]
How To Get Rid Of The Facebook News Ticker
By 9.21.11
Facebook rolled out some new tweaks this week, like adding a real-time “ticker” of all your friends’ updates in the right sidebar, and making pictures bigger in the news feed, along with a few other tweaks. Some people woke up to them and promptly starting making Facebook status updates on how much they hate the new Facebook. Well, there’s a few ways to roll them back and get the “old” Facebook. [More]
FTC Proposes Changes To Law Protecting Kids' Privacy Online
By 9.16.11
The Federal Trade Commission announced yesterday that it is seeking public comment on proposed changes to the Children’s Online Privacy Act, which would strengthen the law’s ability to protect children under the age of 13. [More]
Domino's Brings Back Noid In Shoot-Em-Up Facebook Game
By 8.10.11
Domino’s has brought back it’s iconic 80’s character “The Noid” for a one-week appearance in an 8-bit promotional shoot-em-up Facebook game. Sadly, you lose points when you shoot the Noid. [More]
NYPD Forms New Unit To Monitor Facebook And Twitter For Signs Of Criminal Activity
By 8.10.11
Be careful the next time you’re planning a bank heist on Facebook or send out a Tweet that reads “there were only supposed to be two alarm systems wtf???” As we’ve already reported, cops around the country have begun using social media to track down criminals, and now comes the news that the New York City Police Department has actually created a unit that monitors Facebook updates, Twitter feeds and the like to detect the planning of, or bragging about, illegal goings-on. [More]
NYC Deputizes All Citizens As Secret Shoppers
By 7.28.11
Inspections by New York’s Department of Consumer Affairs found that two-thirds of the supermarkets they visited were overcharging customers at the checkout counter. That’s up from 1 in 3 last August. So now they’re turning all shoppers into “deputized inspectors” to report malefactors. [More]
New Service Adds Your Drunken Facebook Photos To Employer Background Checks, For Up To Seven Years
By 6.21.11
The FTC has given thumbs up to a company, Social Intelligence Corp., selling a new kind of employee background check to employers. This one scours the internet for your posts and pictures to social media sites and creates a file of all the dumb stuff you ever uploaded online. For instance, this sample they provided was flagged for “Demonstrating potentially violent behavior” because of “flagrant display of weapons or bombs.” [More]
TransUnion Wants You To Share Your Credit Score On Facebook
By 5.27.11
Social media may have created a culture of over-sharing, but what’s too personal to share with your Facebook friends? Michael was checking his credit report, and was surprised to see a “Share on Facebook” button directly below his credit score. [More]
Mark Zuckerberg Willing To Fight For The Right To Get Pre-Teens On Facebook
By 5.20.11
In the wake of the Consumer Reports study that found that nearly 40% of minors on Facebook are actually under the age of 13, there has been a lot of discussion about age-appropriate internet use. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg recently made his feelings pretty clear — Not only does he believe pre-teens belong on Facebook, he plans to fight to change the laws intended to keep them off the site. [More]
Facebook Is Number One Tool For Divorce Lawyers
By 5.18.11
The days of finding lipstick on a shirt collar are over. All you need now is to look on a cheating spouse’s Facebook wall, as one man in a 20-year long marriage learned. [More]
It Was Bound To Happen: Baby Named After Facebook "Like" Button
By 5.17.11
Given the sheer number of people on Facebook — and given the vast number of parents who have no problem saddling a child with a name that will require an explanation for its entire lifetime — it was inevitable that someone out there would be so inspired by Facebook that they would name their kid after the site’s “Like” button. [More]
How To Fight Clickjacking On Facebook
By 5.13.11
To help combat clickjacking, Facebook is adding a new feature that will spot scam-like behavior by pages on its site and ask you to confirm your “like” before automatically adding a story to your profile and your friends’ News Feeds.” So how do you as a user fight clickjacking on Facebook? It’s a really easy one-step process. When you see a post that says “to watch this kkkkrazy video, just copy and paste this URL into your browser,” — don’t do it. [More]
Facebook Fesses Up To Being Behind Google Smear Campaign
By 5.12.11
Earlier this week it was revealed that a top PR firm was, on behalf on an unnamed client, testing the waters of the blogosphere, trying to find writers to post anti-Google items with promises of getting that content linked on bigger sites. Now a new report on The Daily Beast confirms that the folks at Facebook were the ones behind the attempted smear campaign. [More]
The Mark Zuckerberg Who Didn't Found Facebook Kicked Off Facebook
By 5.12.11
How dare non-Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg be so impertinent as to have the same name as Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg! The nerve! The social networking site has retaliated against NFF-Zuckerberg for the very impudence of being born and named thusly by booting him from Facebook. That oughta teach him a lesson. [More]
Report: Nearly 38% Of Minors On Facebook Are Under Age Of 13
By 5.10.11
Most of the people reading this post were older than 13 years of age when Facebook was unleashed upon the world a few years back, so we never had to lie about our age just to play Frontierville or post grainy camera phone photos of ourselves. But according to a new study from our kin at Consumer Reports, more than one in three of the 20 million Facebook users under the age of 18 are also too young to actually be on the site in the first place. [More]
