Image via CrunchBase

Do you use your Facebook account to log onto places like LinkedIn and Yelp from your phone?

If so, get ready to start seeing ads in your mobile device’s Facebook News Feed that will be targeted based on your mobile app usage.

Here’s how it will work, according to the Wall Street Journal: if you like to play Zynga Inc.’s “Words with Friends,” your mobile News Feed will soon target you with ads for yet more Zynga games.

If the WSJ’s sources are correct about all this, the new ads will represent a boundary-breaking move for an ad-delivery company, given that none has thusfar tracked consumers on the basis of mobile app usage.

The ads will be enabled by the Facebook Connect feature, which lets users easily log in to third-party sites, applications, mobile devices and gaming systems with their Facebook identities.

Sources familiar with Facebook’s plans told the WSJ that the company is launching a new type of mobile advertising that will target consumers based on what apps they use, “pushing the limits of how companies track what people do on their phones.”

But wait, there’s more.

The unnamed sources told the WSJ that beyond tracking consumers’ use of mobile apps, Facebook is also pondering whether to track what people doon those apps.

That move would be an even bigger game-changer. As it now stands, mobile-ad networks only target consumers based on what ads a person clicks on from his or her mobile browser.

Both Apple and Google track their users’ mobile apps, but neither company tracks what people do in those apps.

One of the WSJ’s sources said that Facebook will charge advertisers every time an app is installed on a user’s smartphone.

That’s a highly profitable prospect, the WSJ noted, for obvious reasons – i.e., a heck of a lot more consumers download apps than click on ads:

Facebook can charge significantly more for an app installation than it can for the traditional cost of every one thousand people who have viewed an ad. 

Privacy advocates would far prefer that Facebook let users log in with Facebook Connect and then have a way to opt out of the new mobile ad targeting.

The WSJ quoted Justin Brookman, director of the Center for Democracy and Technology’s project on consumer privacy, who noted that consumers just aren’t used to having ad companies peering over their shoulders every time they use a mobile app:

"Once you're signed in, are you really expecting that Facebook is going to be watching you while you're on there?" 

Of course, with the post-IPO Facebook now under the gun to monetize features such as Facebook Connect, it’s hard to imagine that the company won’t track what people do in their mobile apps.

What would that look like? The possibilities are limited only by our activities while using mobile apps.

Searching for experts in a given field – say, infosec! – in LinkedIn, for example, would open up whole new worlds of targeted advertising.

One of the WSJ’s sources said the new ads might be announced on July 16, unless privacy concerns convince the company to hold off on mentioning it until Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg conducts the company’s first earnings call with analysts on July 26.

The new ads would then launch on July 30, the source said.

Source:- http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com

Image via Wikipedia

In our world today, it’s likely that you’ve heard of a little website by the name of “Facebook.” And if you haven’t, then you probably have been living under a rock. So with the phenomenon that is the largest social networking platform on the web, we are provided the chance to be more connected than ever before—and although being connected via Facebook allows for convenience, fun and other great opportunities, it unfortunately also fosters the misfortune of encountering individuals who aren’t connected for the same, good intentions as you…

Because the internet creates a place where anonymity is easy to obtain and take advantage of, you never know who you could be interacting with…or who could be checking out every detail of your Facebook profile. So before logging on to post pictures, write on a friend’s wall or “like” the page of your favorite band, be sure to check out the following ways that you can protect yourself on Facebook:

• Limit the personal information you share:- The whole point of social networking is to be social, right? And being social means sharing information with others…but before you get too carried away with the whole concept, stop and remember that once your information hits the internet, there is the chance that anyone in the world can see it. This is why in the “Info” section of your profile, it is best to only stick to the basics—never include your home address, place of employment, phone number, email or any other personally identifying details that would set you apart from the next person.

• Choose your friends wisely:- You’ve probably heard this saying since you were a kid, but no matter what your age, it’s one that should be listened to—especially when it comes to choosing ones on Facebook. Sure, it’s fun to rack up the amount of friends on your account to numbers hovering in the thousands—however, when you don’t actually know the people you are friends with on the internet, you could be asking for trouble. To avoid harassment or trickery from strangers lurking on the web, accept friend requests only from those people who you are acquaintances with in real life. And if anyone makes you feel uncomfortable on Facebook, don’t be afraid to cease all communication, block the person and even consider reporting them to the social network.

• Keep your location undisclosed:- With Facebook you have the opportunity to share with everyone what you are doing, who you are with and exactly what you look like. So think before you use Facebook’s “Check-In” tool, update a status disclosing your location or post a mobile upload of where you are. These bits of information broadcasted on Facebook will give predators or other wrong-doers the information they need to inflict physical harm upon you or burglarize your home when you aren’t there.

• Use your privacy settings:- The creators of Facebook are well aware of the dangers that come with interacting on the internet so they’ve given you the ability to make your Facebook experience as secure as possible with their privacy settings. You can tailor these to meet your personal needs, but it is suggested that you use the highest possible settings to manage your default privacy, what you post, your tags, what gets shared with websites, how you block/report people and how you share all other information.

Joe Morris is a guest post author who shares with us tips for safely using Facebook. In addition, Joe also owns Best Dating Site where he provides tips for safe online dating.

Google is rolling out a new feature called “Find My Face” to Google+ users allowing them to opt-in to a new facial recognition feature for photos shared on the service.  Of course this isn’t the first foray Google has made into the facial recognition arena, they have offered the feature on Picasa Web Albums for a little more than three years. The feature is not available to all Google+ users yet , but Google has decided to alert users to the presence of the new feature instead of just turning it on.

Facebook introduced a similar function last December, but required users to opt-out of the service causing much consternation in their user community.

Google’s take on this feature sounds sort of interesting. They call it “Find My Face” and when enabled will suggest to people in your circles or who have +1′d a post of yours to tag you in photos they post that appear to contain your face.

Matt Steiner from the Google+ teamannounced the feature including a description of how it works.

Find My Face will provide a prompt like “Is this Matt Steiner?” when it thinks you appear in a friend’s photo. You will be notified if you are tagged and have full control to remove the tag or turn off the feature if you find it creepy.

The comfort level Google+ users will have with Google associating their mug with their real name will likely reduce the adoption of this feature, but for users who use Google+ for photo sharing it might be a nice option.

Despite the fact that I am not comfortable with my information being gathered in this manner, providing people with a choice is never a bad thing.

It is up to every individual to make an *informed* choice about how their personal information is shared and asking their permission is the right approach.

Source :- http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com

Related articles

• Google+ rolling out facial recognition feature (economictimes.indiatimes.com)
• Google+ Adds New ‘Find My Face’ Facial Recognition Feature for Photos (techland.time.com)

Image by dannysullivan via Flickr

Article From HuffingtonPost Written By Mandy Jenkins 

When Facebook launched its Subscribe feature in mid-September, quite a few journalists sighed in relief. This, we thought, is what we needed: A way to communicate with a larger audience of readers while maintaining a somewhat private personal life behind a friend wall. I’m sure it’s a great option to other professionals, celebrities and wannabe celebrities as well.

I enabled subscriptions the day they launched, mostly to test it out. After all, who would be interested in reading the occasionally inane updates of a non-famous non-reporter? More than 9,000 subscribers later, I found out.

In the six weeks since, I’ve found some things I like and dislike about the feature. This ongoing experiment has helped me to formulate a few tips that may help anyone who wants to use this feature.

Getting It Set Up

• Customize your profile information.

Your profile will be open to the public when you turn on Subscribe, so this is the place to lure people in (and possibly turn others away). Click on “Edit Profile” on the top right of your profile page. Use the ‘about me’ space to describe who you and and what you do.

This is also a good space to lay out what subscribers can expect from you. Do you frequently share links or start discussions on sports or politics? Say so. Will you talk about your personal life? What is your policy on friending?

I also use this area to put down a couple of ground rules, particularly “Don’t be a creep.”

• Adjust the privacy settings on all aspects of your profile.

If you adjust nothing here, it could very well be visible to the entire Internet. You can adjust whether areas such as your location, connections, contact info and interests should be publicly visible or shown only to friends (or certain groups of friends).

Keep in mind, while you might consider your life to be an open book, your friends and family may not be as comfortable. Think about their privacy when adjusting the ‘Friends and Family’ settings and remember whoever finds you will be able to find them.

• Decide what to do about those past posts.

In your privacy settings, there is an option to limit the visibility of past posts. If you have any doubt about the updates, photos and other stuff you’ve shared on Facebook in the past (including those crazy college photos), you might want to check this so new subscribers can’t dig back through your possibly sordid history.

You may also want to look at your photos page and set individually which past albums and images can be seen by the public.

• Set how people can find and contact you.

If you want to be easily found on Facebook (and why would you turn on Subscribe if you didn’t?), you need to be sure you’ll come up in searches. In your privacy settings, select ‘How You Connect’. Here is where you can set how strangers will find and contact you. If you’re actively looking to reduce friend requests, you should limit those who can send them to at least ‘Friends of Friends’.

• Turn on Subscribe.

Do this with the button on the top right of your profile page. This is also where you want to decide if those who subscribe to you can post comments on your posts. Your comment numbers will go up – and they will require work (see below), but consider this: Why would you read something you can’t comment on? Weigh this option carefully.

• Take a look at how the public sees your page.

At the top right of your page, click “View As”. Click “public” to see what subscribers will see or check how certain friends see your page by entering their name.

Follow Mandy Jenkins on Twitter: www.twitter.com/mjenkins

Related articles

• Facebook Privacy: 6 Key Moments (informationweek.com)
• The secret to using Facebook at work (guardian.co.uk)

If an unauthorised party has logged into your Facebook account, then you’re far from alone.

New official statistics revealed by the social networking giant reveal that 0.06% of the more than billion logins that they have each day are compromised.

Put another way, that’s more than 600,000 per day – or, if you really like to make your mind melt, one every 140 milliseconds. (By comparison, a blink of the eye takes 300-400 milliseconds)

The statistic was revealed in an infographic published alongside an official Facebook blog post trumpeting new security features introduced by the firm.

The new security features include Trusted friends (called “Guardian angels” in the infographic).

Facebook says that you will be able to nominate three to five “trusted” friends who can help you if you have a problem accessing your account – if, for instance, someone else has changed its password and locked you out of your email account. The idea is that if you need to login to Facebook but can’t access your email account, Facebook will send codes to your friends that they can pass on to you.

(BTW, nice middle names you’re using there, Facebook)

None of your friends on their own has enough information to access your account, as they are only sent a single code. But, of course, if your “trusted” friends turned out to be untrustworthy and banded together they would – between them – be able to access your account. So you best be sure that you keep a close eye on who your trusted friends are (especially if you’re prone to falling out, or they think practical jokes are amusing), and be pretty confident that they are taking their own computer security seriously.

Oh, and it might be an idea to remind yourself what the word “friend” actually means, as history has shown that many Facebook users have a very different idea of what a “friend” is from the rest of the world.

Another thought occurs to me – if a bad guy has taken over your Facebook and email account, isn’t it likely that he will also change who your trusted friends are at the same time? Wouldn’t that make the whole security measure kinda pointless?

Another new announcement is App Passwords - meaning that you will no longer have to log into Facebook apps with the same credentials that you use for your Facebook account. It’s certainly a good idea not to use your Facebook password with anybody other than Facebook – so it’s good to hear that Facebook will be offering this new privacy option.

However, it’s not hard to predict that the only people who might use such a feature might be those who are already very aware of privacy issues, rather than the great unwashed majority on Facebook.

Facebook’s infographic is too long and thin to properly embed on the Naked Security site, so here’s a link to where you can download a version for yourself.

Make sure that you keep informed about the latest scams spreading fast across Facebook and other internet attacks.

Source :- http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com

Related articles

• Facebook Says 600,000 Accounts Compromised Per Day (mashable.com)
• 600,000 + Facebook Accounts Get Hacked Daily (escapistmagazine.com)

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Google has launched a campaign promoting online safety, in association with the UK’s Citizen’s Advice Bureau.

The campaign, which will include adverts in newspapers, on public transport and online, is being run with the hope of encouraging internet users to take more care over their online activities – including using more secure passwords, and remembering to log out of websites when they have finished using them.

Awareness campaigns about online safety like this are important, as it’s clear that most internet users are pretty clueless about how to best secure their computers and surf safely online.

This isn’t because the public is disinterested in protecting themselves, but due to the fact that many people simply don’t know where to turn, or how to translate complicated buzzwords, geek talk and terminology into simple easy-to-understand English.

So, campaigns like Google’s “Good to Know” one are a *good* thing, as they translate sometimes complicated safety advice into simple terms.

Google, of course, has an interest in people not turning their backs on the internet – it wants users to feel safer online, as that will ultimately increase the popularity of the internet and help Google grow.

To their credit, Google provides a number of technologies to help users defend their accounts from being hacked – but only a minority of users seem know about them. If you haven’t already done so, check out my advice on how to stop your Gmail account being hacked, for instance.

It’s notable that part of the “Good to Know” campaign appears designed to reassure internet users about the data that Google collects about them to provide its services.

The critical thing, however, will be what I call my “Aunty Hilda test”. If the only people who hear about this advertising campaign are people who are already techie geeks or people who work in information security then it will have failed.

If, however, my Aunty Hilda hears about the campaign – and genuinely learns something about how to protect herself online – then it truly will have succeeded.

With cybercrime and internet fraud on the increase – it’s never been more important to raise awareness and give people simple instructions on how to be safer on the net.

You can find out more about the “Good to Know” campaign atwww.google.co.uk/goodtoknow.

Related articles

• Google teams up with the Citizens Advice Bureau to promote online safety (thenextweb.com)
• Google teams up with Citizens Advice Bureau (telegraph.co.uk)

Image by hlwimmer via Flickr

By Julia Angwin, Wall Street Journal

A study released Tuesday shows that 45% of the top 185 U.S. websites transmit identifying details about their visitors to at least four outside websites.

The data transmitted was primarily a “username” – which is the name a person uses to log into a website – or a user ID assigned by the website to a user. It was usually transmitted through referrers – which is information about the web page transmitted automatically.

In some cases, the data went much further: the study found for instance that the online dating website OKCupid sent the gender, age, zip code, relationship status and ‘drug use frequency’ to two companies that sell personal data in auctions, BlueKai and Lotame.

Lotame confirmed that is has a data licensing relationship with OKCupid, but said it does not use data in the “drug use category.”

BlueKai told Digits that it does not buy or sell data attributes like “drug use frequency” from OKCupid. “We do capture standard demographic attributes like zip, age and gender from several publishers,” a spokesperson said.

It’s not clear how many companies that received the data used the identifying information. But researcher Jonathan Mayer, a PhD student at Stanford University’s computer security lab, said that the study proved that online tracking is not anonymous.

Read the full story at the Wall Street Journal.

Related articles

• Privacy Study: Top U.S. Websites Share Visitor Personal Data (blogs.wsj.com)
• A New Term For Cookies and Online Trackers: The ‘Cyberazzi’ (forbes.com)
• Privacy Study: Top U.S. Web Sites Share Visitor Personal Data (allthingsd.com)

Image via CrunchBase

An Australian technologist has claimed that Facebook can track the web pages you visit, even when you are logged out of the social networking giant.

According to Wollongong-based Nik Cubrilovic, when the user is logged out of Facebook, rather than deleting its tracking cookies, the site merely modifies them, maintaining account information and other unique tokens that can be used to identify its users.

This simply means that any time you visit a web page with a Facebook button or widget, your browser is still sending personally identifiable information back to Facebook.

“Even if you are logged out, Facebook still knows and can track every page you visit,” Cubrilovic wrote in a blog post.

“The only solution is to delete every Facebook cookie in your browser, or to use a separate browser for Facebook interactions,” he added.

Cubrilovic said he tried to contact Facebook to inform it of his discovery but did not get a reply, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.

He said there were significant risks to the privacy of users, particularly those using public terminals to access Facebook.

“Facebook are front-and-centre in the new privacy debate just as Microsoft were with security issues a decade ago,” Cubrilovic said.

“The question is what it will take for Facebook to address privacy issues and to give their users the tools required to manage their privacy and to implement clear policies – not pages and pages of confusing legal documentation, and ‘logout’ not really meaning ‘logout’,” he added.

Source :- http://in.finance.yahoo.com

Related articles

• Facebook tracks what you do online, even when you log out of Facebook (paulspoerry.com)
• Facebook tracks what you do online, even when you’re logged out (venturebeat.com)
• Facebook denies cookie tracking allegations (zdnet.com)
• Facebook is watching (theage.com.au)
• Logging Out Of Facebook Is Not Enough (ghacks.net)
• Facebook can track you even after you log out (theinformativereport.com)

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Mila Kunis, the star of movies such as “Black Swan” and “Friends with benefits“, is the latest celebrity to be making the headlines over allegations that hackers broke into her mobile phone and stole nude photos.

In the wake of the story about nude photos of Scarlett Johansson, several gossip websites have reported that they were contacted by people offering to sell them pictures stolen from Mila Kunis.

In Kunis’s case, the images are said to have been taken from her mobile phone, and apparently show her “Friends with benefits” co-star Justin Timberlake lying on a bed topless, wearing some pink underwear on his head, and an image of Mila Kunis in the bath.

A fourth explicit image is said to feature an intimate part of a man who cannot be identified because his err.. head is out of the frame.

It’s also alleged that private SMS text messages between Kunis and Timberlake are available on the internet.

Clearly, there’s a continuing theme of celebrities having nude photographs of themselves leaked onto the internet – whether to publicise their careers or latest movies, or to make money for those who stole the images.

Past victims have included Christina Aguilera, Lady Gaga, Miley Cyrus andVanessa Hudgens.

So, here’s my simple advice which I recommend to every Hollywood actor/actress, rapper and TV reality star. Cut it out and keep it in your wallet:

In fact, this is good advice for anyone to remember who finds themselves naked with a camera pointed at them, or is considering taking a self portrait before remembering to put on their clothes.

By the way, it’s best to print out this page before you cut-out this advice. You don’t want to damage your monitor. And ask a grown-up for help with the scissors.

And that’s how you avoid having naked photos stolen by hackers.

Source :- http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com

Related articles

• How to avoid having naked photos stolen by hackers (nakedsecurity.sophos.com)
• Photo Hacking Scandal Hits Mila Kunis and Justin Timberlake (shoppingblog.com)
• Report: Hackers Leak ‘Seductive’ Photos of Justin Timberlake From Mila Kunis’ Phone (moviefone.com)
• FBI hunts hackers over Scarlett Johansson, Mila Kunis nude photos (canada.com)
• FBI hunts hackers over Scarlett Johannson, Mila Kunis nude photos (calgaryherald.com)
• Justin Timberlake Nude? Mila Kunis’ Phone Gets Hacked! (now100fm.radio.com)

Image via Wikipedia

The FBI are once again investigating reports that nude photos of a famous celebrity have been leaked onto the web.

Twitter was ablaze earlier today with messages claiming to link to naked pictures of film actress Scarlett Johansson, which were allegedly stolen from her iPhone by a hacker earlier this year.

The photographs may or may not be of Scarlett Johansson, but I would suggest that every hot-blooded male exercises some restraint as it’s extremely possible that cybercriminals might exploit the interest to post dangerous links on the web designed to infect computers or steal information.

Of course, Scarlett Johansson isn’t the first celebrity to have fallen victim to a nude photo hacker.

Nude photos and videos of Vanessa Hudgens, the star of “High School Musical“, surfaced on the net earlier this year, after it was claimed the actress’s Gmail account was hacked.

Other victims in the past have included Christina Aguilera, Lady Gaga andMiley Cyrus.

Late last year, German investigators alleged that two hackers had
broken into the accounts of over 50 pop stars, including Lady Gaga, Kelly Clarkson, and Justin Timberlake.

In that instance, prosecutors claimed that hackers infected computers with malware in order to steal celebrities’ credit cards details, private pictures, emails and unreleased songs.

Celebrities may be very privileged, but they deserve privacy as much as the rest of us when it comes to their personal phone and email messages.

And like the rest of us, they are just as capable of being foolish about their computer security.

There’s a very simple lesson that celebrities should learn: if you must take nude photos of yourself, don’t leave them on your phone or store them in your email.

Source :- http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com

Related articles

• Scarlett Johansson Nude Photos Prompt Investigation (huffingtonpost.com)
• Naked Photos of Scarlett Johansson… (923now.radio.com)
• Leaked Scarlett Johansson Nude Photos Prompt FBI Investigation (PHOTOS) (blippitt.com)
• Scarlett Johansson Hacked Pics Hit Net (rightcelebrity.com)
• Scarlett Johansson alleges hacking; FBI confirms celeb-focused probe (latimesblogs.latimes.com)
• Scarlett Johansson Nude Photos Scandal in Hollywood, 2 Sexy Photos… (2010calibaja.wordpress.com)