Minority Report?
Do you remember the scene in the Tom Cruise flick “Minority Report” where he has to gouge out his eyes and replace them avoid id recognition? The problem was that the world was equipped with iris scanners for identification all over town from advertisements to points of purchase and security.
Well, that future is not far off for the city of Leon, Mexico which is currently compiling a database of citizens’ irises. Currently only criminals are required to opt-in, but planners say that they expect most residents of the city of more than 1,000,000 to participate.
Frightening doesn’t even begin to describe how this makes me feel. And I thought Facebook knowing where I was was bad. I guess we are going to have to face this someday in the ongoing balance between privacy and convenience/security.
Consumer Reports gives you Facebook security tips
While the next generation may not be as concerned about online privacy as their parents, there are still some improvements we all can make. Consumer Reports offers up 7 things you should stop doing on Facebook.
Among the tips are no-brainers like not announcing when you will be on vacation, but also some you may not realize like turning off the public search feature to your page to avoid web browsers picking you up. Read the full list here.
How do you stay safe on Facebook and other social networks?
See also:
Protecting your children on social networking sites
Privacy is so old-school apparently
Consumer Reports gives you Facebook security tips is a post on Digital Landing.
BitMoms-a security resource for online moms
We’re moms. We want our kids to be safe. We want our kids to be happy. Sometimes it’s hard in this fast-moving online world to know everything we need to keep up. Here at Digital Landing we try to keep our readers in the loop with safety and security concerns like cyberbullying, privacy concerns and other 21st century issues.
BitMoms is another resource for moms (and dads) who want to stay-up-to-date on issues and topics related to internet safety for their children. Helpful blogs, member forums and other ways to connect with moms like you trying to figure it all out.
Found via Tech Savvy Mama
BitMoms-a security resource for online moms is post on Digital Landing
See also:
Baby Gaga
Have you seen this yet? The video of a 3-year-old performing a spoof of Lada Gaga’s Telephone, complete with back up dancers and costumes.
Baby Gaga Controversy–CBS Morning News
The mom Heidi Ladrow and the director of the video were recently on the CBS morning show and her comments were rather enlightening. She said the video was made for family and friends (although given its production values I may have to doubt that), but she said once they posted it on YouTube that it got out of hand.
“I had no idea this was going to get as large as it has”–Heidi Ladrow
The interviewers asked if she had considered taking it back, taking it down from YouTube. She said that it had gone beyond that now and was on too many sites, etc. (note-the video is now marked private on YouTube). This is definitely a wake-up call for parents. When we post our videos of our children doing things and then post them online, you never know what will catch on and who will see it–for better or worse. Also, you never know what sort of commentary you invite on your own parenting and home life.
YouTube does offer a variety of privacy options if you want to make your videos available to some people but not everyone. For example you can have private videos that are only available to up to 25 approved members or their new option of “unlisted videos” that let anyone (not just YouTube users) view it but only if they have the URL.
Facebook Fixes Made Easy
We all love Facebook. We wonder how we ever got along without it. But there are those few little quirks–like wanting to post some pictures but not wanting your mom to see them or everyone to know who you just friended. Also, that recent update really messed a lot of us up.
Fortunately, most of these issues have simple and easy solutions. CNN’s got a brief video tutorial to update you on tips and tricks like controlling your news feeds and photo access. It’s worth a look.
And, please, I’m begging you–edit your privacy settings to remove everytime you friend someone or post to someone’s wall. Seriously–it’s just too much information.
Guardians of Their Smiles
The NY Times article Guardians of Their Smiles looks into the debate of the pros and cons of posting photos of your children online. It begins with the story of a mom whose daughter’s picture was taken from Flickr and used on a Brazilian chat site.
It serves as a stark reminder to make sure that you are using privacy settings on social sites and blogs (just like you tell your kids too!) I go back and forth on using my kids names on sites like Facebook. I generally don’t on my personal blog. I don’t want some employer years from now looking them up and seeing their baby pics.
A grayer area is what about when someone else is posting a photograph of you or your child. What is the etiquette for this new social taboo?
Read the article. It is definitely worth thinking about.
Is Facebook a bad flashback to high school?
I read this article on Switched about how people are posting old school photos on Facebook and tagging their friends. I had to laugh because I know people who do this, and I’ve considered it myself before coming to my senses.
There is something fun about seeing the old pics and reminiscing but at the same time it is a little scary to think about what people may post about you from your past with no input from you.
This might be a good time to remind you that you can set your Facebook privacy options to know when people tag you in photos they post. It won’t stop them from being able to post some compromising or embarrassing photo, but at least you can remove your name from it. Currently there is no “confirm” capability before someone tags in you in a photo (although I think there should be!)
There are two places you can set this information. One place is under Privacy Settings> Applications>Settings. Here you can select various information in your profile that will be available to various applications. There is a box titled “Photos taken of you.” Uncheck this box to prevent third party applications from being able to access those images where you are tagged. The other place is under Privacy>Profile>Photos Tagged of You. You can change this setting to be viewable only by you. Also, you can change your Account Settings>Notifications to get an email whenever you are tagged by someone in a photo. You can then access the photo and remove your name from those that are tagged.
These are just the dangers of living in a hyper-connected world. Surf safe!
You Diligence
Finding it difficult to keep up with all of your child’s social networking pages–like MySpace and Facebook. Worried about what people might be discussing or posting on his page? Afraid your child may be being bullied but won’t talk to you about it?
YouDiligence is a new service that allows you to receive emails when pre-selected words are used on your child’s social network account page. For example, words referring to weapons/violence, drug use, bullying, obscenity, slurs, or sexually explicit languate can be screened for. You can also add personalized words or terms.The service is customizable to allow for differing levels of parental comfort.
When one of the terms appears on your child’s page, you recieve an email containing the word, the context in which is it used and a link to the page where it appears.
To use the service, you must know your child’s login information and have been friended by them on the applicable website. YouDiligence encourages parents to have open communication with their children and to set boundaries and discuss that you reserve the right to check their pages if you find something troubling.
Another service is the SlangSpotter e-newsletter which helps parents stay up on the latest slang terms to maintain your “POS” position (Parent-over-shoulder).
Of course, there will be parent who wonder if this is an invasion of their child’s privacy to which the site responds:
Q: Is this violating my child’s privacy?
A: All of this material is being posted on the internet by your child and his/her friends. Anyone can gain access to it. With incidents popping up weekly from bullying, to fighting, to sexual predators coming after unsuspecting tweens and teens, it only makes sense to review their internet activity, especially in a responsible way like this. YouDiligence is effective and efficient, and will alert you to when you need to go take a closer look at your child’s site
Remember that what you child posts on the Internet is out there forever, for everyone anyway. At least if they think you might be watching they will think twice about what they post.
The service runs $9.99/month or $14.99 for a family plan.
Could Facebook dash your child’s college dream?
If you needed another reason to help your kids monitor what they write and do on Facebook, MySpace and other networking sites, consider this: 10 percent of college admissions counselors at prestigious universities say they check out potential students pages and 38 percent say they have rejected a student based on what they found.
You should know some colleges do consider the pages off-limits in decision making and personal, but others are looking. Regardless of whether your child’s college admissions office views them, odds are good that future employers might.
With more and more of our lives being available on-line, personal privacy and restraint is more necessary than ever. Teach your children the importance of using privacy options on MySpace and Facebook and check to make sure they are. Remind them not to post anything they wouldn’t want their parents or their future teachers or employers looking at. It could save their education or their career.
