privacy | WOPULAR

As Facebook grows, can it profit?

Social-networking site seeks to leverage user data to boost ad revenue, raising privacy concerns.

Senh: That's the big question, they're growing fast, but can they become profitable. With click-thru rates on social networking sites being so low compared to content sites, can they find another revenue stream? Will targeted advertising work? They've been talking about it forever. We were never really able to make targeted advertising work for Rotten Tomatoes, mainly because the size of that audience becomes so much smaller when you target them. But Facebook is one of the largest sites in the world, so that might not matter. The only problem is MySpace has been trying to figure that out since they were the biggest social networking site in the world, and look where they went.

Wal-Mart wants to get into your pants

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is putting electronic identification tags on men's clothing like jeans starting Aug. 1 as the world's largest retailer tries to gain more control of its inventory.

Senh: This is pretty scary, especially if they're hard to remove. I don't want to have to remove these tags from every piece of clothing I buy from them anyway. Plus, it's scary that they can track my whereabouts.

Twitter settles privacy charges with U.S.

Privately held microblogging service Twitter has agreed to a settlement with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission over charges that it put customers privacy at risk by failing to safeguard their personal information.

Facebook to simplify privacy settings Wednesday

One day after Facebook's CEO admitted that the company had made mistakes with users' privacy, the social networking site confirmed it will roll out new, simplified privacy controls on Wednesday.

Google grabs personal info off Wi-Fi networks

Google says it has inadvertently scooped up snippets of people's online activities broadcast over unprotected Wi-Fi networks during the past four years.

Facebook tries to save face

Facebook's latest modifications make it pretty clear that the company is eager to spread its brand even further across the Web -- and that's left some privacy advocates a little freaked out as they look at the vast amount of personal information that Facebook has on hand.

Facebook Scrambles After Bug Allowed Users To Read Private Chats

This week, Facebook users suddenly found themselves able to monitor the private conversations their friends were having on the site's chat service. TechCrunch's Steve O'Hear reported the bug early this morning. When we attempted to recreate the experiment, we found Facebook's chat feature has been disabled entirely; Facebook explains that chat is "down for maintenance", presumably to fix the hole.

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Social Network Users Are 'Oversharing,' Endangering Privacy: Consumer Reports

Consumer Reports, a longtime trusted name in product ratings and reviews, has today released their annual "State of the Net" report, whose findings suggest that over half (52%) of social network users post risky information online. Among the transgressions: using weak passwords, listing full birth dates, ignoring privacy settings and making mention of when you're away from home, to name a few.

Senators see privacy problem in Facebook expansion

Four U.S. senators want Facebook to make it easier for its more than 400 million users to protect their privacy as the website develops new outlets to share personal information....

Big changes for Facebook

Facebook announced some changes on Wednesday that are intended to make the Internet more social. Essentially, Facebook is stretching out into the rest of the web. And when you see these Facebook-looking features popping up on other web sites, how do you know what to do with them?

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