Facebook Critics: Does Behavioral Advertising by Any Other Name Smell as Foul?

Facebook  CEO Mark Zuckerberg called it “the most transformative thing we’ve ever done on the Web,” and Ginger McCall, chief counsel for the Electronic Privacy Information Center, didn’t disagree.

“I was stunned and shocked and somewhat awed by their brilliance, I watched the keynote and was just floored and excited at the same time, because this gives me lots of…

Tweet Your Way Into a Job

The constant drumbeat of bad economic news didn’t stop Jennifer Cloud from pursuing a job in her chosen field of interactive marketing Free Report – Discover the Difference of Email Marketing 2.0!. Armed with a degree in communications and a desire to learn new technologies, she started using Twitter.

“I was wondering if the resumes I was blindly submitting online…

Facebook Privacy Changes Draw a Little Concern, a Lot of Apathy

Facebook  is proposing another round of changes to its privacy policy.

The updates are meant to better explain certain features, said Facebook Deputy General Counsel Michael Richter in a blog post — such as why invitations that non-users receive to join Facebook sometimes include the names of persons other than the one who sent the invitation. (It’s because those people…

Facebook Helps Social Start-Ups Gain Users

The only thing more challenging than deciphering the names of all the social-minded Web sites battling for attention at the South by Southwest technology conference here — Brizzly, Vicarious.ly, Stalqer, Quora and so forth — would be the chore of signing up for each one individually.

But a growing number of start-up companies are getting around this problem by,…

Ads Posted on Facebook Strike Some as Off-Key

Facebook, the world’s biggest social network, is selling more ad spots to big companies like Wal-Mart Stores, Procter & Gamble and PepsiCo.

But the site’s pages are also home to countless ads from smaller companies that can be funny, weird or just plain creepy — those suggesting you are, say, eligible to get a free iPad because you are exactly…

After Fumble, Microsoft Redoes Phone Software

Mobile phone software from Microsoft has long resembled an underpowered version of its Windows desktop software. Users never embraced its bland interface, sluggish response time and businesslike menus that required lots of clicking to perform tasks.

Microsoft’s new smartphone software, Windows Phone 7 Series, turns a phone into something akin to an electronic butler that tries to…

Facebook: A Tempting Danger Zone for Businesses

Social networking sites are a threat to online security, and Facebook is the worst offender, a report from Sophos states.

The number of businesses hit by malware and spam attacks through social networks rose by 70 percent in 2009, the report found. More than 72 percent of businesses believe employees’ behavior on social networking sites could endanger security.

The issue…

How to Kill a Facebook Bot

A website application knows it has achieved maximum popularity and dazzling success when it begins experiencing withering attacks from viruses. If that’s true, then 7-year-old Facebook has arrived.

According to computer threat experts at Kapersky Labs, there are nearly 340,000 different strains or “signatures” of computer viruses roving wild on the Internet today.

Facebook is now so popular that it too…

FarmVille’ Provides a Sugar-Coated Taste of the Ag Biz

Even while calling Chicago home, Laura Hawkins Grimes is a country bumpkin. Her scenic rural spread has three dairy farms, two ponds and a log cabin, all skirted by a white picket fence as scarecrows stand sentry over her blackberries.

The best part is the 40-year-old sex therapist never has to leave her computer to tend to it all.

She’s one…

Facebook Partners With McAfee to Chase Out the Rats It Let In

Facebook has partnered with McAfee to improve the social network’s security measures.

The arrangement will have McAfee remotely clean up Facebook subscribers’ PCs if the social networking site detects that the computer is infected. These subscribers will also see an ad for a six-month free subscription to McAfee’s Internet Security Suite software.

Both companies will codevelop educational materials that will be…

Viruses That Leave Victims Red in the Facebook

Malicious programs are rampaging through Web sites like Facebook and Twitter, spreading themselves by taking over people’s accounts and sending out messages to all of their friends and followers. The result is that people are inadvertently telling their co-workers and loved ones how to raise their I.Q.’s or make money instantly, or urging them to watch an awesome new…