Social Networking, Personal Data | featured news

...And now, with Facebook’s newfangled search tool, it can allow strangers, along with “friends” on Facebook, to discover who you are, what you like and where you go. Facebook insists it is up to you to decide how much you want others to see. And that is true, to some extent. But you cannot entirely opt out of Facebook searches. Facebook, however, does let you fine-tune who can see your “likes” and pictures, and, to a lesser extent, how much of yourself to expose to marketers.

Twitter says it turns over user data to government agencies in the U.S. in 69 percent of the requests made for such information, according to a new transparency report released by the microblogging site.

Facebook took steps to simplify its privacy settings, in its latest bid to give consumers more control and clarity over what personal information is shared.

Facebook users have until 3 p.m. ET/noon PT on Dec. 10 to cast their votes on changes proposed to the social network's data use policy and statement of rights and responsibilities — among them, the very right of Facebook users to vote on policy.

No baby photos in the status update, no "my kid said the cutest thing" tweets. Some parents are responding to concerns about privacy and safety by keeping their children's photos and stories offline, totally.

A New York judge has ordered Twitter to give prosecutors tweets and account information from an Occupy Wall Street protester who was among 700 people arrested during a march on the Brooklyn Bridge in October.

A Russian hacker claims to have uploaded almost 6.5 million LinkedIn passwords, The Verge reports. LinkedIn in says in a tweet that "Our team is currently looking into reports of stolen passwords. Stay tuned for more."

Facebook users' personal information could have been accidentally leaked to third parties, in particular advertisers, over the past few years, according to Symantec Corp's official web blog.

A Facebook engineer said that some applications were passing along personal data in a violation of policy.