Internet

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has revised its rules about online advertising to better account for new trends in social media. The FTC warns that the short format of ads on Facebook and Twitter is no excuse for misleading customers. The warning ... comes in a document called ".Com Disclosures: How to Make Effective Disclosures in Digital Advertising." It's an update to an original set of guidelines called "Dot Com Disclosures," which was published in 2000. This is the first time the rules have been updated, even though the Internet has changed dramatically since that time. The key to the ... (view more)

The Authors Guild has formally objected to Amazon's plans to take control of a new website domain dedicated to books. They say it is inappropriate for a private company to control such an important (and generic) domain name. The dispute centers on ... the new top level domain system. Until this year, all website addresses had to have an ending (or top level domain) that was either '.com' or '.org,' or a specific country code, such as '.ca' for Canada. Under the new system, organizations can apply to take control of virtually any term. For example, a technology site could move to a ".site" address ... (view more)

Facebook says it is doing everything possible to deal with offensive pages related to December's Sandy Hook school shooting. Three politicians have complained that the pages are not only abusive, but might even be designed to defraud Facebook users. ... Connecticut politicians George Jepsen (state attorney general) Elizabeth Esty (a member of the House of Representatives), and Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy (both state senators) recently wrote a joint letter to Facebook about the issue. (Source: senate.gov ) Politicians: Pages Violate Facebook Policy The letter notes that Facebook now ... (view more)

Mozilla says it will take steps to stop advertisers from violating Firefox user privacy. But advertisers have labeled the move an act of war. Mozilla has announced that it will change the Firefox browser so that third-party cookies -- such as those ... from advertisers -- are blocked by default. Cookies are small text files created by websites and stored on your computer. Cookies Key to Website Advertising In many cases cookies help the website visitor. For example, a cookie might store your username to make logging in faster, or it could store your ZIP code so you can instantly get customized ... (view more)

Twitter enthusiasts need not worry about what will become of their social network accounts after they have died. A new service promises to continue sending out tweets on behalf of the deceased long after they have crossed over to the other side. The ... application, which is called 'LivesOn,' studies your current online behavior, analyzes the tweets you post, and altogether learns your social network personality. All information (including your likes and hobbies) is collected and automated tweets are then generated through a personalized LivesOn feed. The service even has a quirky, albeit catchy ... (view more)

A US government contractor has produced software that can track a person's movements and predict their behavior. The software hasn't yet been sold to commercial firms but has been tested, with success. The project is the work of Massachusetts-based ... Raytheon and the US government. The software is called "Rapid Information Overlay Technology," or RIOT for short. RIOT doesn't do anything that humans couldn't do themselves -- it just does it much quicker. It works by gathering together data from people's online activities. Location-Tagged Photos Help RIOT Software One of the keys to the ... (view more)

Each day, millions of images and messages are sent through social media platforms. Now, those who have regretted transmitting personal information in this fashion will be relieved to find that a popular new app is making significant strides in ... changing the way people share private data on social networking sites. Snapchat doesn't store data -- including messages and photos -- for years on end. Instead, this information is wiped out, permanently, at a time set by the sending / posting user. It's a simple concept, but early indications reveal that Snapchat is becoming a popular alternative to ... (view more)

A recently-filed lawsuit claims some of Facebook's main features, including the "like" button, copy ideas patented 15 years ago. In fact, the lawsuit is being brought on behalf of a man who died just a few months after Facebook launched. The lawsuit ... has been filed by Rembrandt Social Media, a company set up to handle the intellectual property of Dutch programmer Joannes Jozef Everardus van Der Meer, who died in 2004. At that time Facebook was only available to students in select colleges, though it had just become a corporation. 'Surfbook' the Facebook Framework? The patents at ... (view more)

A recent Facebook outage not only prevented logged-in users from accessing the social networking site, but other sites as well, including Gawker, CNN, Mashable, and The Washington Post. The glitch occurred Thursday, February 7, 2013. It lasted just ... a few minutes and only affected those people who were logged into Facebook at the time. However, the issue didn't just affect access to Facebook -- instead, users reported being unable to view many other sites. Facebook Users Unable to Access External Sites According to reports, when users tried to visit sites like ESPN, Gawker, and CNN, they were ... (view more)

Concerned about what your kids are doing on Facebook? You're probably not alone. One Massachusetts father decided it was worth $200 to keep his daughter off the social networking site for a five-month period. Surprisingly, the deal wasn't Paul ... Baier's idea. Instead, Baier says his 14-year-old daughter, Rachel, came up with the plan. "She approached me," the senior Baier said. "She has been frustrated she hasn't been able to find a babysitting job and she has been looking for ways to get cash ... So she asked, 'If I didn't use Facebook for so long would you pay me?'" Daughter's Facebook Usage ... (view more)