Newhouse Social Media

Newhouse Social Media

Newhouse Social Media  //  Curated by colleagues from the 2012 MAYmester PRL530 Social Media for Public Relations class in the Public Relations Master's Program at the S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, Syracuse University.

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Aug 7 / 9:40pm

Facebook Android Update - Too good to be true?

by Scar

So, my Droid told me today that I needed a Facebook update…in a really sneaky way.  It showed up at the top of my news feed. Like Facebook was one of my friends. I checked throughout the day, and there it was.  Always at the top of my news feed.  Thinking it might never go away, I relented and downloaded the update.

At first, I thought, “Wow. This is a lot better.”  It’s so much faster, and so much more like Facebook on a regular computer.

But then, creepiness.   I went to find friends, and it somehow synced with all of the people in my phone.  I had copied some work contacts onto my personal phone, so there was my work network on Facebook...with photos. This really, REALLY creeped me out.  I like the new app, but wish Facebook hadn’t gone into my contacts and then found them all on Facebook. What's creepier is that all of the photos matched perfectly.  Not one was wrong.   
Yes, I had to acknowledge the update's permissions before downloading, but some customizable privacy permissions would have been nice.  Is some privacy a bad thing?  I don't like that Facebook knows who all of my contacts are.  That's perhaps taking things too far.  They may be feeling the pressure from Google+, but a little restraint or forewarning would be nice.  Now, how can I go back to the old version?
Facebook for Android  got a long overdue update tonight (perhaps the final push was Mark Zuckerberg’s installing the Android app himself last week?), after playing second fiddle to the iOS version for far too long. The updated app gains some of the iPhone’s client look and feel, but also adds a draggable Notifications drawer and a new photo reel showing pictures and videos from friends.

The new client for Android supports more actions from the main screen. You can now respond to friend requests in the app, for example. There’s also a one-touch button to post a status update, support for Events — including RSVP in the app — and the new photo reel along the bottom. A Facebook spokesperson told me via email that the new client now supports in-app video playback that uses H.264 encoding, although I haven’t tried videos just yet. None of my friends are camera-happy today, it seems.

Android device owners that already have Facebook installed will see an update in the Android Market now. There’s still room for improvement here — I’m thinking support for Facebook chat and contact groups — but overall, the overhaul is welcome. And the Notification shade is a nice play on the native Android notifications, allowing Facebook users to be informed, but not overwhelmed with new information from their friends. After missing the fuller-featured app when I moved from iOS to Android in January, I’m ecstatic that I now have a richer Facebook experience — consider that a warning to all of my Facebook friends that I’ll be annoying them far more often now.

Many of the updates seem designed to keep users in the application longer. That’s not a bad thing — I personally prefer to stay in apps instead of bouncing out to the web for related features. Though like other Facebook mobile products, the new Android client doesn’t yet have ads, Android’s massive growing user base combined with increased engagement could make a killer platform for mobile revenue opportunities.

Filed under  //  privacy settings   Google+   facebook  
 
Jun 8 / 7:25am

Facebook Changes Privacy Settings to Enable Facial Recognition

by Philip Ryan Johnson

Dont-like-facebook

Image via cogdogblog

Have you heard about the controversey surrounding Facebook's new (well, kind of) face recognition feature? They've had the feature for some time, but now you can be sure that it has been activated on your account—without your permission, of course.

The New York Times had one of the better posts about it yesterday:

Facebook is pushing the privacy line once again, according to a new report from a security and antivirus company.

According to the report, from Sophos, Facebook recently began changing its users’ privacy settings to automatically turn on a facial recognition feature that detects a user’s face in an image. Once the person’s face is detected, the Web site then encourages Facebook friends to tag them. Facebook introduced this feature last year for its North American users; it is now rolling it out globally.

via bits.blogs.nytimes.com

Facebook never fails, it seems, to edge us closer toward having our own moments of absolute panic concerning our personal privacy online. Or sheer terror, even.

For years, Facebook's communications strategy to users has always been to limit awareness while rolling out new features, then deal with the consequences later on. Although controversial, this has worked out in their favor time and time again. The negative press and social media chatter dies down in a week or two and most users willingly accept the new, invasive features—or at least they slowly warm up to the idea. After all, we need Facebook more than they need us, and they know it.

At the end of the day we will most likey accept these new privacy-restricting features, regardless of how awful they are or how much they break sacred ethical business standards, forcing us to give up the ability to control what is rightly ours. They've done their homework; they've done their research; and they've compelted countless hours of user studies.

If-you-like-it
Image via badjonni

Facebook is not the uneducated toddler lacking any comprehension of what it means to be play nice that we think they are. Because unfortunately for us, their strategy actually works. And it will continue to work even better in the future as our culture continues to shift from one that values privacy to one that is more transparent and open. If you don't believe me that this is happening, find the nearest high school student and ask for his or her opinion. Being more open is a social norm for many Facebook users already, even to the point where they might not know what you are talking about if you ask. Is this a universal view? Of course not. But I dare you to find a college freshman and ask, just to be sure.

In the end, I suppose, both businesses and consumers benefit as long as Facebook has the balance of an Olympic gymnist while intelligently positioning themselves smack on the center of the fence.

Facebook continues to finds ways to connect our social lives more and more for our continuing pleasure and satisfaction. They do this while at the same time collecting far above and beyond the most extensive data set of human behavior in existence for the sole purpose of exploiting the spoils to feed profits of gargantuan proportions. Hey, it's a business. Corporate social responsibility need not apply—we'll continue to feed our addiction regardless. They know exactly how to give us what we want and push the limit just enough each time that it becomes impossible to "just say no" to Facebook. We'll get over it, eventually.

How to Disable Face Recognition for your Facebook Account

Jeez, this was definitely not easy to find. The New York Times article shares how it can be disabled, or you can just go to your account's privacy options page and follow the images below.

(download)

Filed under  //  privacy settings   controversey   face recognition   facebook   social change   trends  
 
Mar 12 / 10:50pm

Why No One Cares About Privacy Anymore

by Philip Ryan Johnson
At a technology conference in January, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told his audience that Internet users don't care as much about privacy anymore. The 25-year old said that, in the seven years since he started the company, "people have really gotten comfortable not only sharing more information and different kinds, but more openly and with more people--and that social norm is just something that has evolved over time." Zuckerberg defended the company's decision in December to push users to reveal more, saying "we decided that these would be the social norms now and we just went for it."
via news.cnet.com

Filed under  //  privacy settings   Regulation   facebook   google buzz   privacy   trends  
 
Feb 16 / 11:14pm

Internet Privacy

by Lauren Baer

I found the “e-mail is as public as a postcard” analogy to be a very interesting one. We use e-mails to send all kinds of information to one another. The rapid use of e-mail leaves us very vulnerable. As a general rule, you should never send anything over an e-mail that you wouldn’t write down on a postcard that anyone in the world could see. When you send an e-mail, your “postcard” goes through many other computers before arriving at its destination. Of course we all know that it is impossible to keep e-mail contained to just what can be placed on a postcard. Especially in business settings, people are constantly traveling and the best way to discuss business transactions is via e-mail.

My Question is: How can you be sure that anything is safe over the internet? Many people do their banking over the internet. Banks have placed extra privacy settings on their websites, but how can anyone be sure that they are any safer than an e-mail?

Filed under  //  privacy settings   e-mail   privacy  
 
Feb 16 / 6:58pm

Facebook is an open book

by Anna Stein

Today in class I learned that items that I thought were protected on Facebook were perhaps not. What is even scarier was a point brought up during the groups presentation about the information living forever; if the media today can uncover information about public figures' past prior to the internet age, what does that mean for our generation, who've grown up on the internet, in the future? How could this "minor" detail result in a monumental change in the future of our society and how it will conduct itself?

Filed under  //  privacy settings   facebook   personal information security