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| Twitter Ordered to Give Up WikiLeaks Data | |  A federal judge on Thursday ordered Twitter to give up information about three account holders under investigation for possible connections to WikiLeaks. The decision rejected an appeal by the three account holders that argued their IP addresses should be considered private. Those account holders -- Jacob Appelbaum, Rop Gonggrijp and Birgitta Jonsdottir -- have addressed the situation on Twitter. Gonggrijp, a Dutch citizen, used his feed to direct users to a blog post arguing that the decision is a blow to Internet privacy. "The consequences of this decision for me are extremely limited: there's not a whole lot you can learn from records that Twitter has on me that you can't learn from reading my blog," he wrote. "There are bigger principles at stake though, and this is not a good ruling for online privacy." Jonsdottir's feed led readers to an Electronic Frontier Foundation article on the subject with her quote: "With this decision, the court is telling all users of online tools hosted in the U.S. that the U.S. government will have secret access to their data." Appelbaum, a U.S. citizen, stated: "Today is one of those 'losing faith in the justice system' kind of days." The case began in January when the U.S. government subpoenaed Twitter to hand over private messages between WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and others within the organization. The EFF, the American Civil Liberties Union and attorneys representing WikiLeaks fought the subpoena, but in March, a federal judge granted the U.S. government access to the accounts. That led to another round of appeals, which Judge Liam O'Grady, from the United States District Court in Alexandria, Va., rejected on Thursday. O'Grady's 60-page opinion stated that Twitter users "voluntarily" hand over their IP addresses when they sign up for an account and agree to Twitter's terms and conditions. Twitter's privacy policy states that it "may disclose information about an account if Twitter believes it is reasonably necessary to comply with a law, regulation or legal request." Representatives from Twitter could not be reached for comment on the decision. Do you think Twitter should be required to hand over personal information about its users? Image courtesy of Flickr, shawncampbell |
| Facebook Timeline: The Next Step Is Coming Soon | |  Last night I went in search of an answer to a question that has vexed this industry for weeks: When will Facebook Timeline officially launch to the masses? The world's most popular social network was holding a tiny gathering in downtown NYC, where I'd get to rub elbows with Timeline's architects. I went, figuring one of them had to know the truth. The small club atop a trendy hotel in lower Manhattan was crowded and dark. It offered amazing vistas of the city skyline and doted around the periphery of the room were stations where designers would talk about how they came up with some of the ideas in Timeline. Eventually, I found a bespectacled guy talking excitedly to another reporter. I began to listen in: "One of the things we learned is that you can't just walk in and rearrange the furniture." It was Sam Lessin, product Manager for Facebook Timeline, explaining why Facebook was taking its time rolling out Timeline. The update radically rearranges users profile pages into, essentially, a timeline of their lives on Facebook and -- if they fill in more details -- even before they got on the social networking service. Those who really want Timeline right now can, Lessin reminded me, get it. This is true; I jumped through a few simple developer hoops to get mine and told Lessin how I marveled at the things Timeline automatically surfaced about my time online. When your Facebook world is random and disorganized, you can forget about certain photos and comments-even the ones that generated more Likes and comments. Timeline reminds you by automatically finding the important ones and putting them in chronological order. I inched closer to Lessin, who sounds a lot like Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. He was warming to his subject and explained the early access enterprising people like me have enjoyed is part of Facebook's Timeline roll-out strategy. The social networking giant is giving those more skilled in technology and social network tools time to learn the new platform. In essence, it's building an army of Timeline foot soldiers-not Facebook employees, but regular people who have gone out of their way to access and build their own Timelines. These early adopters are already embedded with their own often less technically adept family members and friends. The Timeline soldiers can help when friends and family are confronted by the sweeping changes found in Timeline. It's also clear that, with events like this one, Facebook is trying to educate the media on the fundamentals and benefits of Timeline, which I'm sure Facebook execs figure could help buffet back a public outcry when the changes go live for everyone. SEE ALSO: How to Enable the New Facebook Timeline NOW Changing things and then trying to explain won't work, Lessin told us. "We can write all the FAQs in the world and they won't read them," said Lessin. Facebook Timeline can't stay in this beta form forever. Lessin agreed and said eventually Facebook will take that next step and make Timeline opt-in for all. I pressed and asked when that next "step" would come. Lessing would only smile and say "soon." Will there ever come a time when Facebook will, in fact, "rearrange the furniture" for all of its users? Lessin said that "someday" Facebook will do the global switchover, but would offer no details of when that might actually happen. So for now, the couch stays where it is; that ottoman is fine over there and your favorite easy chair has not moved an inch. You can move one if you like, but it might be even better if you visited your technophobe parent's house and helped them move the furniture-and, yes, I am still talking about Facebook. Is Facebook taking the right approach or should it just take the leap and turn Timeline on for everyone--right now? Let us know your opinion in the comments. |
| LinkedIn Unveils Dashboard for Groups Statistics | | Thursday, November 10, 2011 9:34 PM | Ben Parr |
|  LinkedIn has unveiled a new Group Statistics dashboard that allows group admins to drill down into the demographics and growth of their groups. The new dashboard, as CEO Jeff Weiner describes it on Twitter, turns relevant information about each group into an infographic-style display. This information is summarized on a dashboard, but can also be broken down in three areas: "Demographics", "Growth" and "Activity". "We've designed each infographic view to highlight the most important signals you'll need to help you understand your group better," LinkedIn Data Visualization Designer Anita Lillie noted in a post on the LinkedIn blog. Let's use the Fans of Mashable group as an example. The Dashboard summary shows Mashable with slightly more than 24,000 members, garnering 59 comments last week with 9% of its members located in the New York City area. Diving deeper using the "Demographics" tab, we can see that 4% of the group's members come from the San Francisco Bay Area, Greater Los Angeles and London. The Group Statistics dashboard also illustrates the group's growth, displays how many new members the group has gained in the last week and shows a graph of the group's week-over-week growth. The "Activity" tab highlights how many discussions occurred within the group. It even lets you know how many group members received a promotion or changed jobs. The business-oriented social network has been placing a greater emphasis on its Groups feature in recent months. Last week, the company announced its members have created more than 1 million groups. |
| Like Social Profile Photo Hacks? Create One for Mashable's Google+ Page | | Thursday, November 10, 2011 5:08 PM | Stephanie Haberman |
| 
When Google+ launched brand pages earlier this week, Mashable was quick to join the social network. We've been jumping into our page by talking about social media and technology as well as hanging out with our community to hear more about what you want from us on the network. As another way to bring our community into the creation of Mashable's Google+ Page, we decided to crowdsource its design. We think Google+ profile photo hacks are extremely cool, so we're hosting the first Mashable Photo Hackathon! We're asking you to create a Google+ profile hack that we can post on our page. Send us a photo or description of what you think our Google+ page should look like. The entry that showcases Mashable culture in the most unique, fun and creative way will be featured on our Google+ page! We're provided a template above, which you're welcome to use to create your entry. You can submit by dragging your art into the widget below. If you aren't artisically inclined, please tell us your ideas in the comments. Loading ... |
| Facebook Readying FTC Settlement Over Privacy [REPORT] | | Thursday, November 10, 2011 4:47 PM | Todd Wasserman |
|  Facebook is getting ready to propose a settlement to the Federal Trade Commission over charges the company was deceptive when it changed privacy settings in 2009, according to a report. The proposed settlement would require Facebook to get "express affirmative consent" if it makes "material retroactive changes," according to The Wall Street Journal, which cites "people familiar with the situation." The settlement is still awaiting final approval from the FTC commissioners. Representatives from Facebook could not be reached for comment. Under the agreement, Facebook would need to submit to independent privacy audits for 20 years, according to the report. Google agreed to similar terms in March, when it settled with the FTC. The FTC's probe began in 2009, when it asked its then-350 million users to update their privacy settings. The investigation came after some consumer groups charged that Facebook didn't provide enough safeguards for users' privacy with the update. |
| Twitter Rules the Photo-Sharing Roost ... on Twitter [STATS] | | Thursday, November 10, 2011 4:41 PM | Zachary Sniderman |
|  New stats show that Twitter has taken over the picture-sharing market from third-party apps such as TwitPic and Yfrog. Third-party apps used to be the only way users could share images through the social network, however, Twitter jumped into the arena late this summer with its own uploader baked into the standard tweet box. The official Twitter app has quickly climbed to the top. According to Skylines, a social image search site, 36.1% of photos shared on Twitter come through the official image uploader. TwitPic is in second place with 30.3% and Yfrog is in third with 21.1%. Instagram is in fourth place with just 12.5%. Its low ranking is both surprising and impressive. Instagram has quickly shot up in popularity as a premiere photo app for iOS devices. This means that while 12.5% may seem low, it's coming only from people using iPhones or iPads. Not bad considering the three leaders work with web images and most major mobile carriers. The stats are bad news for TwitPic, which previously held 45.7% of the picture-sharing market just five months previous. While some sites are already ringing the death knell for third-party photo apps, the stats shows that TwitPic and Yfrog are hanging in there. It is clear, however, that these apps will need to do something to differentiate their services from Twitter's uploader if they want to survive. Twitter's photo-sharing win brings up the question of whether official apps and services risk killing competition and third-party innovation. This is becoming ever-more clear as Twitter ramps up its features such as URL shortening. BONUS: Meet the Top 15 Photographers on Instagram Image courtesy of Flickr, netzkobold |
| Ashton Kutcher Is Making a Big Twitter Mistake | | Thursday, November 10, 2011 3:56 PM | Lance Ulanoff |
|  Ashton Kutcher decided to hand over the management of his Twitter feed to Katalyst Group, a company he co-founded, because "a collection of over 8 million followers is not to be taken for granted." The implication is if he had fewer followers, it might be something he could take for granted or, perhaps, more lightly. I guess that's fair. Eight million is a number I can comprehend, but cannot imagine on my own Twitter feed, which hovers at 35,000. On the other hand, I do not take my 35K followers for granted. In fact, I doubt even those with 2,000, 200 or 15 followers take them for granted. The audience, no matter what the size, matters. For those of you who don't already know, Kutcher's actions, which he explained in a post called "Twitter Management," came after he tweeted a defense of fired Penn State football coach Joe Paterno. Paterno's assistant coach has been caught up in an intense child sexual abuse scandal. Kutcher somehow missed the entire controversy and posted a knee-jerk response that was not, to put it lightly, well-received. Now Kutcher has decided that he can't be trusted with his own feed. It's too precious. There are too many people watching and he doesn't want to massively fail in front of them. "While I will continue to express myself through @Aplusk I'm going to turn the management of the feed over to my team at Katalyst Media to ensure the quality of it'scontent." In other words, from now on, you @APLUSK followers will never know if it's Ashton tweeting or a Twitter account handler. There's also a chance that all future tweets be run through a "PC" (Politically Correct" filter). This is a shame. The best accounts on Twitter, and I think Ashton's has been one of them, are those that are managed by the account holders. Obviously, there are situations where the Twitter account is for a brand or product and it's impossible to know who is tweeting what. However, when the account is for a celebrity or other notable person, there's a certain excitement and entertainment value in knowing that they really thought and said that tweet. Look, I am not defending what Kutcher said. I am astounded that he seemed totally unaware of this huge, national story. Yet, while some people don't believe his defense, I'm willing to cut Kutcher some slack. Sometimes, we're busy, not looking at the TV or our social feeds and miss something big. In our always connected world, it doesn't happen often anymore, but it does happen. I've made my share of mistakes online and on Twitter. It's not fun. In reality, everyone makes mistakes. Owning up to them, as Ashton did is a good thing. I'm also all-too-familiar with the feeling you get when you first realize that you've messed up. Queasy is the word that comes to mind. And when the negative response starts flowing in, the natural reaction is to want to run away. That said, while I have considered closing my Twitter account on one or two occasions, I can't imagine someone else tweeting for me. Over the years I have seen many celebrities run away in horror from their Twitter accounts. The celebrity makes a flippant comment or criticism in Twitter, the audience reacts and then the celebrity makes the mistake of answering for it on Twitter. It almost inevitably ends in said celeb taking a "Twitter break." Most of them slowly creep back to their accounts by the time all has been forgotten or forgiven. It's true, anonymous individuals can be merciless on the service, especially when you've inadvertently picked one of their favorite scabs-they cry out in pain and then complain about the blood. It's always dramatic and angry and the celebrities are usually stunned. Kutcher, though, is supposed to be different. He understands social media. He invests in it. I think he loves it. And he has to know that by handing any part of his Twitter feed over to handlers he is destroying it. |
| Top 10 Features Users Want From Google+ Brand Pages | | Thursday, November 10, 2011 12:15 PM | Christine Erickson |
|  It's still too early to tell what will come from the recently launched Google+ brand pages. We asked our followers what they hope to see added in the future, and after reading hundreds of comments, the key things appear to be multiple administrators, app integration and more customization. SEE ALSO: 10 Tips and Tricks for Better Google+ Brand Pages These are the top ten functionalities users want from Google+ company pages. What's on your wish list? |
| Ashton Kutcher: I'm Taking a Break From Twitter | | Thursday, November 10, 2011 10:12 AM | Todd Wasserman |
|  Ashton Kutcher, one of the most popular celebrities on Twitter, says he's taking a break from the social network for the time being. "As of immediately I will stop tweeting until I find a way to properly manage this feed," Kutcher wrote Wednesday night. "I feel awful about this error. Won't happen again." The impetus for Kutcher's sudden hiatus was an earlier tweet that defended Penn State coach Joe Paterno, who was fired Wednesday after being implicated in a scandal related to assistant coach Jerry Sandusky's alleged history of sexually molesting children. "How do you fire Jo Pa? #insult #noclass as a hawkeye fan I find it in poor taste," the tweet said. Later on, Kutcher tweeted, "Heard Joe was fired, fully recant previous tweet!" and "Didn't have full story. #admitwhenYoumakemistakes." Those two tweets have been subsequently removed, but Kutcher has left another apology: "As an advocate in the fight against child sexual exploitation, I could not be more remorseful for all involved in the Penn St. case." Update: Kutcher further explained his gaffe in a blog post on Thursday. "Last night after returning home from work I walked by the television and simply saw a headline that Joe Paterno had been fired. Having no more information than that, I assumed that he had been fired due to poor performance as an aging coach," Kutcher wrote. "As a football fan and someone who had watched Joe's career move from that of legend/innovator to a head coach that fullfilled his duty in the booth, I assumed that the university had let him go due to football related issues." Kutcher went on to say that "while I will continue to express myself through @Aplusk I'm going to turn the management of the feed over to my team at Katalyst Media to ensure the quality of it's content." Katalyst is a company founded by Kutcher and Jason Goldberg that has a development deal with AOL. Kutcher is also hardly the first celeb to put his foot in his mouth on Twitter. Comedian Gilbert Gottfried lost his job as an Aflac spokesman in March after airing some tasteless jokes about the Japanese earthquake, and designer Kenneth Cole drew ire in February for making light of the uprising in Egypt with a tweet that included a link to his collection: "Millions are in an uproar in #Cairo. Rumor is, they heard our new spring collection is online at" Was Ashton Kutcher right to give up control of his Twitter feed? |
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