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Submission + - The SEO Spammers Behind Online Infographics (itworld.com)

Submitted by
jfruh
jfruh writes: "Over the past couple of years, you may have noticed a rash of often high-quality infographics by third parties appearing on your favorite websites. These images are offered to Web publishers free of charge, with the only request being a link back to the creator's own site. But when one blogger got an odd email from a the creator of infographic he put on his site two years ago, he did some digging and discovered that he had inadvertantly helped some shady characters do SEO spamming."
Facebook

Submission + - Inside Social Media's Fake Fan Industry (itworld.com)

Submitted by
jfruh
jfruh writes: "It's an open secret that many high-profile users of social media networks pay to pad their fan counts. But what you do you get for your money? One blogger decided to shell out some cash to find out. Instead of the real human fans he was promised, he found himself followed by a motley collection of obvious fakes created by non-English speakers and accounts that seem to mainly exist to spam porn links."
It's funny. Laugh.

Submission + - Why Klout's Social Influence Scores Are Nonsense (itworld.com)

Submitted by
jfruh
jfruh writes: "Klout is a new social media service that attempts to quantify how much "influence" you have, based on your social media profile. Their metrics are bizarre — privacy blogger Dan Tynan has been rated as highly influential on the topic of cigars, despite having only smoked one, decades ago. Nevertheless, Klout scores have real-world consequences, with people deemed influential getting discounts on concert tickets or free access to airport VIP lounges (in hopes that they'll tweet about it, presumably)."
Google

Submission + - Google+ Account Suspended? You Won't Find Out Why (itworld.com)

Submitted by
jfruh
jfruh writes: "Dan Tynan is a tech writer and blogger who discovered, while trying to post links to his writing on his Google+ profile, that his account had been suspended. This despite the fact that he used his real name and didn't violate the terms of service in any other way. Upon appeal his account was reinstated, just as mysteriously as it was shut down, but along the way he discovered a rash of people with suspended Google+ accounts who can't figure out what they did to anger the Google gods."
Facebook

Submission + - Biggest Web Trackers of Them All: Google, Facebook (itworld.com)

Submitted by
itwbennett
itwbennett writes: "A new report from Evidon, whose browser plug in Ghostery tracks Web trackers, makes it plain that 'if you want to worry about somebody tracking you across the Web, worry about Google,' writes blogger Dan Tynan. Google and Facebook, and their various services, occupy all of the top 5 slots on the Evidon Global Tracker Report's list of the most prolific trackers. 'And if you have any tracking anxiety left over, apply it to social networks like Facebook, G+, and Twitter,' adds Tynan."

Submission + - Jack Tramiel, founder of Commodore Business Machines, dies at age 83 (forbes.com)

Submitted by LoTonah
LoTonah writes: Jack Tramiel, the founder of Commodore Business Machines and later, the owner of Atari, died Easter Sunday. He was 83. He undoubtedly changed the computing landscape by bringing low cost computers to millions of people, and he started a price war that saw dozens of large companies leave the market. He also took a bankrupt Atari and managed to wring almost another decade out of it. The 6502 microprocessor would have withered on the vine if it weren't for Tramiel's support. Could anyone else have done all of that?
Facebook

Submission + - Why Making Facebook Private Won't Protect You (itworld.com) 1

Submitted by
itwbennett
itwbennett writes: "Facebook's privacy settings, such as they are, don't hold up in the face of prospective employers who demand to see applicants' profiles. In an MSNBC report, Bob Sullivan found that 'in Maryland, job seekers applying to the state's Department of Corrections have been asked during interviews to log into their accounts and let an interviewer watch while the potential employee clicks through wall posts, friends, photos and anything else that might be found behind the privacy wall....' Meanwhile, on the other side of the barbed wire fence, coaches and administrators are forcing student athletes to 'friend' them in order to monitore their activity of social sites."
Advertising

Submission + - 'Do Not Track' Won't Kill The 'Free' Internet (itworld.com)

Submitted by
jfruh
jfruh writes: "Dan Tynan is a privacy blogger and longtime proponent of the use of browser plug-ins and other technologies that block advertisers from tracking you web browsing habits. He's also a professional tech writer who makes his living writing articles for free, ad-supported sites. But he doesn't feel those two facts are in conflict, and points out that users pay good money to ISPs for those "free" sites."
Privacy

Submission + - Online Clearinghouse Offers To Defend Privacy (itworld.com)

Submitted by
jfruhlinger
jfruhlinger writes: "Privacy may have become a hot-button issue in the Internet age, but the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse has been fighting against corporate privacy violations for 20 years now. Today, they've launched an online complaint center that will hopefully help keep your private data private. Fill out the online form and the PRC will follow up with the privacy compliance officer at the company in question, or investigate whether a complaint to a government agency is in order."
United States

Submission + - Reverse Robocall Turns Tables On Politicians (itworld.com) 2

Submitted by
jfruhlinger
jfruhlinger writes: "One of the great banes of election season is that any politician can shell out a few pennies per voter and phone-spam thousands of people who'd rather not hear a recorded pitch. But turnabout's fair play, and now a service called reverse robocall will deliver your recorded message to elected officials as often as you'd like for a nominal fee. If you got someone who you'd like to call repeatedly, check them out."
Facebook

Submission + - Facebook's New Privacy Controls: Still Broken (itworld.com)

Submitted by
itwbennett
itwbennett writes: "ITworld blogger Dan Tynan was one of the lucky recipients of the new privacy controls that Facebook promised last week. The bad news: They still don't work, and may even be worse than before. 'Using Facebook’s new improved privacy controls, you can tag someone else in photo and then keep them from seeing it,' says Tynan. 'It's pretty simple; just change the sharing option so they don't see what you posted. So if you want to tag a picture of a jackass with your friend's name on it and make it Public, everyone on Facebook will be able to see it except one — the person whose name is on it.'"
Google

Submission + - Google Wallet: The End Of Anonymous Shopping (itworld.com) 1

Submitted by
jfruhlinger
jfruhlinger writes: "Google today announced Google Wallet, an NFC-base payment system that will allow people to pay for purchases just by waving their phone across a reader. It's the beginning of a future where commercial transactions are "frictionless" and convenient — but it's a future where every transaction can be tracked and data-mined, as Dan Tynan points out. Stores can user information about your Doritos purchases to rearrange their wares; Google could push coupons via its new Google Offers service; your health insurance company might be interested in your sodium intake. Are we ready for the brave new world?"
Privacy

Submission + - How To Protect Your Privacy and Make Money (itworld.com)

Submitted by
itwbennett
itwbennett writes: "You have precious personal information; marketers are willing to pay good money for it; and now there are services to broker the deal. London-based Allow Ltd., for example, negotiates with marketers on your behalf and cuts you in on the deal. One Allow customer, Giles Sequeira, made a whopping $10 for letting a single credit card company know that he's in the market for new plastic. In the U.S., a company called Personal is starting a similar pay-for-data service, and you can hop on its waiting list now."

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