Facebook’s privacy…!?

Facebook is the world's largest social network with more than 200 million active users worldwide. Since its incorporation just over five years ago, Facebook has evolved into a very popular online destination used by teenagers as well as adult of all ages.

This company has undergone a remarkable 'privacy-transformation'; in the beginning Facebook restricted the visibility of a users’ personal information to just their friends and their ‘network’ (private space for communication with a specific and individually selected group), but soon it transformed into a platform where much of your private information is public by default. Facebook has also changed the classification of its personal information several times, which was very confusing for their users.

To illustrate ‘Facebook’s shift away from privacy’, I have highlighted Facebook’s privacy policies in 2005, 2007 and 2010:

Privacy Facebook in 2005
The personal information that users submit to Facebook will only be available to their ‘friends’ and personal ‘network’, which can be monitored in their own privacy settings.


Privacy Facebook in 2007
The profile information which users submit to Facebook will be available to users of Facebook who belong to ‘at least one’ of the networks you allow to access your personal information through your privacy settings (for example; school, geography, friends of friends etc.). Furthermore, also your name, school name and profile picture thumbnail will be available in search results across the general network of Facebook.


Privacy Facebook in 2010
When users connect with an application or website it will have access to their ‘general’ information which includes their name, friends’ names, profile pictures, gender, user IDs, connection, and any content shared using the “everyone privacy setting” (the default privacy setting for certain types of information users post on Facebook is set to “everyone”). When users are uncomfortable with the connection being publicly available, they should consider removing (or not making) the connection.


In conclusion, this ‘privacy-transformation’ of Facebook shows a clear evolution. Facebook originally earned its core base by offering users simple and powerful controls over their personal information. As Facebook grew larger and became more important, it could have chosen to maintain or improve those controls. Instead, it slowly but surely helped itself (and its advertising and business partners) to more and more release its users' private information and limiting the users' options to control their own information...

Did you know this?! Tell me!?!

Pixiv: The newest trend in social networking!

You should forget Facebook and Twitter! The latest trend, created in Japan, is the new website on which upcoming and talented artists can post/show their creations.

Welcome to Pixiv, the largest online gallery in the world! Since 2007, this “social illustration site”, is continuing to amaze. The site, which let users’ present self-made drawings and paintings to other users and offers a number of basic social networking functionalities, now counts a whopping 1.5 million members.

The following image shows you how a typical ‘Pixiv-page’ looks like:


Note: Pixiv is a website all in Japanese, but can still be used by speakers of other languages with a little effort and a little help.

The website is meant for the submission of original artworks, but it is also possible to build a social network, along with following your favorite artists and bookmarking the images you love. There is a bulletin board system to post comments on others' boards, and a message system for short notes to other artists.

Let’s show you some impressive numbers: The service was established in September 2007. The user base of Pixiv stood at 100.000 users in March 2008. Furthermore, in June 2009, the website had already 1 million members, which means that they gained a half million people in about six months! Therefore, it took only 838 days to go from zero to 1.5 million members.

Currently, Pixiv racks up 1 billion page views a month, up from 720 million monthly, half a year ago). Members of this website post 18.000 drawings/paintings per day!

Spectacular isn't it...

Picture this: Concert tickets on your mobile Phone!

A new "m-commerce" service has moved to exploit existing bar-code scanning and mobile-handset technology, and the Patronaat Popstage (Haarlem) is the first concert hall which is going to use this service to process payment for their upcoming concerts.

The patented technology, "mobi-tickets," will be exploited in cooperation with Ticketing partner Paylogic. It sends a bar code to a mobile phone as a picture message, which can then be scanned by a typical point-of-sale system. The barcode can be displayed on any handset that can view picture messaging, which accounts for about 80 percent of the market. If the mobile phone cannot display picture messages, a unique number is sent, which is manually keyed in by the staff. Therefore, the customers will receive an SMS containing a bar code, called a mobi-ticket, with confirmation of ticket and event details. At the point of entry, the bar code on their mobile phone will be scanned by the ticket attendant using Denso scanning hardware.

The main advantage of Mobi-tickets is that the tickets can be delivered to the customer within minutes of the booking being made, and can be cancelled and reissued effortlessly. Furthermore, customers do not experience any problems in relation to papered- or e-tickets which they forget or which cannot be printed, because people always have their mobile phone with them!

Although, the possibility for those who would like to continue to receive a papered concert ticket will remain, this technology is set to become mainstream in the ticketing business…

A tweet a day keeps the wrinkles away!

While the use of social media sites for business promotion has become very popular in the United States, in the Middle East there has been a more muted response from companies to online social networking. An research organization estimates that 400 brands are represented on Twitter in the region including companies, government departments and non-profit organizations. For the past two years Spot On has been working with clients to help them understand social media marketing programs.


Despite the fact that social media isn’t popular in the Middle East, Dr. Lillian Khan is a very active ‘social media user’. She is active on Twitter (http://twitter.com/DrLillian), Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Dr-Lillian-Khan-Dermatologist/205228057000) and Blogger (http://drlilliankhan.blogspot.com/).

Dr. Lillian uses her social media resources in part to answer questions about skin conditions. While she does recommend various products, the physician also states frequently that certain symptoms need to be investigated in a medical setting for a definitive diagnosis and treatment. Her blog promotes various packages and other promotions at the clinic. She is sharing her expertise with the community, which is important for her to unify her business goals within all social media. Social media is allowing Dr. Lillian to interface with the community and grow her business, while building a reputation. This is why she must be transparent in her online business relationships.

Dr. Lillian does reveal certain of her personal details in posts and tweets. When people feel that they know someone, they are more likely to trust that person. This can be an especially effective marketing tactic in the Middle East where relationships have always been important. There needs to be common sense though in deciding what personal details to make public. Dr. Lillian has crossed over into a potential danger zone by posting her mobile telephone number on Facebook. Making such information easily available could lead to disruption in Dr. Lillian’s life and there could be security concerns.

Will Dr. Lillian’s efforts to grow her clinical practice succeed using social media alone? The best marketing campaigns in the Middle East are hybrid programs. These marketing efforts use both traditional marketing — such as advertising and roadshows, combined with promotion of the business message through social media including social networks, blogs and YouTube.

When companies do dive into social media without understanding the requirements of such a move, issues can quickly arise. It is very time consuming to write blogs and respond to Twitter queries. In the past, businesses simply turned over their marketing campaigns to ad agencies and the message was shouted out. With social media, consumers have the ability to shout back and companies need to respond.

In my opinion every business should consider if it’s worth to invest in online social networking, set goals for those efforts and then faithfully follow their plan…


Do you think every business should use social media? Give your reaction on this blog!

See you next time!

Maffia boss tracked down through Facebook!

A mafia hitman, who called himself Scarface, was arrested by Italian police today, after being tracked down via his Facebook account.

Pasquale Manfredi, 33, was on Italy's 100 Most Wanted List and had escaped from the Justice last November and loaded with accusations of Mafia association, murder, extortion, drug trafficking and illegal possession of weapons.

Officers had been tipped off that Manfredi was a fan of the global social networking sight and regularly logged on using his laptop. The arrest came after that Manfredi was connected to his profile on Facebook using a 3G modem internet connection. So the police could intercept the signal and find your refuge. The mafia boss was arrested in Isola Capo Rizzuto while trying to escape through the roof of the house which had served as a hiding place, realizing that the building was surrounded by agents.

Manfredi would long on under the Facebook name Georgie and even had a picture of Scarface on his site — officers said they believed he received coded orders via the site and also kept in touch with mobsters.


Manfredi had more than 200 friends on his Facebook site and police are going through them systematically to see if any others are involved in Mafia activity or are wanted.

Mr Giobbi said: "Manfredi is a good catch. He is particular cold and cruel. We tracked him down because we had information he was using a key to log on to the Internet and in particular use Facebook.

"The operation lasted several months and was successful thanks to good police work and sophisticated technology. Manfredi is suspected of at least two murders and is also wanted for drugs and arms offences.

"He is a very dangerous character and he was on the country's 100 Most Wanted but now one can be taken off the list thanks to meticulous police work and a through investigation."

This is not the first time Italian law enforcement has used Facebook to track down criminals. Last October, police near Rome arrested a burglar who logged on to the social network during a break-in and sent messages to his friends.

Shopping...now ridiculously easy!

It took a while, but Google has made its big move as a local shopping inventory gatekeeper. Google has announced the full launch of its stock-checking service, where mobile phone users can see if their desired item is available.

The new feature works on iPhone, WebOS and Android powered phones which detects your location when a product search is performed and shows the nearest store where the product is in stock. The interface also lets you select/change or manually enter your location for better results. The new “In stock nearby” feature is marked with a blue dot in the search results. Hit on the blue dot and it will show you more details about the stores that have the searched product in stock (for example stores phone number, navigate to the store using maps, etc.).

However, this service is only available for shops like Best Buy, Sears, Williams-Sonoma, Pottery Barn, or West Elm. Yes, you have got it right…at this moment this application is only available in the US. Therefore, Google has already offered to discuss the service with any other retailers as well, so there is every chance we could see this rolled out to the UK as well.

Following screenshots will give you a better idea of what the feature looks like.

Making a soundless call?!?!

The Institute for Anthropomatics has developed a technology that enables people to speak soundlessly and still to be understood by the conversation partner. This technology is called “Silent Sounds” and is based on the principle of electromyography, that is the acquisition and recording of electrical potentials generated by muscle activity. This muscle activity is measured in the face.


An example of this new innovation is soundless calling. The user can speak into the phone soundlessly, but is still understood by the conversation partner on the other end of the line. As a result, it is possible to communicate in silent environments, at the cinema or theatre, without disturbing others.
Already the "Silent Sounds"-system makes on average only one mistake every one hundred words!

Another field of use is the transmission of confidential information. For the transmission of passwords and PINs, for example, users can change seamlessly to soundless language and, hence, transmit confidential information in a tap-proof manner.

So in the near future, the electrodes will be placed in mobile phones...! Will you make use of this application? Tell me and give your reaction on this blog!

Have a nice evening!