Tag: facebook
Prison Officer sacked after friending prisoners on Facebook
There are several no-nos to avoid when you’re a prison officer. Letting the inmates out for a picnic is one. Swapping places with the prisoners and pretending you’re in some kind of Bizarro World is another. Befriending them on Facebook is another equally stupid sounding mistake, but one that a Leicestershire prison officer was sacked over.
An investigation into Nathan Singh was initiated when he was suspected of providing mobile phones and other such banned items to inmates. He was really caught bang to right when it was discovered that amongst his Facebook friends were 13 criminals, even though they didn’t find any evidence of his alleged smuggling. He was sacked for gross misconduct as a result.
Facebook updating homepage yet again
After the disastrous launch and eventual user acceptance of Facebook’s news feed and profile pages last year, you would have thought that the company wouldn’t mess with the site too much more for a while. But no – it doesn’t want users getting too comfortable, so next Wednesday there’ll be a new homepage.
It looks like Twitter. There’s no two ways about it. With the status box massive and front-and-centre, there’s a definite homage going on. The feed below is now real-time too, so you can see stories appear as they happen. That feature’s been around for a while but previously it wasn’t the default option.
But one feature that Facebook’s adding to the mix is filters. If you’ve got friend groups set up then you can choose to view the updates from just one group or another. That could definitely prove useful for power users, or those with very distinct friendship circles. You can also view feeds from your friends in specific Facebook groups that you’re a member of, which is quite nifty.
This is a definite improvement to the site, and should help it compete against the attention draw from Twitter, especially as Facebook’s biggest asset is that almost everyone you know is on it – something not true of its media-darling competitor.
It’s a bit of a blatant copy and should probably have been rolled into the previous update, but I suspect that many mainstream users will hardly notice the change and as a result, there won’t be the mass user revolts that have characterized previous changes to the world’s favourite social network.
(via Business Insider)
Facebook gets democratic – encourages voting on terms of service
Following last week’s kerfuffle involving Facebook, its terms of service update and the subsequent rolling back of said update, the site’s been very careful about how it communicates with the public. On CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s blog today, he’s announced a new approach to how the site is run.
First of all he’s published two documents. There’s a set of Facebook Principles, and a Statement of Rights and Responsibilities, the latter of which will replace the existing terms of service document. However, they’re not in force yet.
Zuckerberg wants you, if you’re a Facebook user, to go through and read both documents and comment on the changes. Any controversial sections will go up for a vote. It’s an interesting approach for the site, which has been stung by criticism in the past for not listening to its users.
Hopefully the community can come to some kind of agreement with the site’s lawyers, and a compromise can be found. The worst case scenario here is that no agreement gets reached, and the site is stuck with its existing ToS. That wouldn’t be good for anyone.
Thousands of MySpace sex offender "refugees" booted off Facebook
Since last May, Facebook has removed 5,500 registered sex offenders from its social network, many of whom are claimed to be ‘refugees’ from MySpace who themselves have booted 90,000 sex offenders in the last couple of years.
Last year, the Attorney General of the USA forced both sites to implement considerably more stringent safeguards – preventing older users searching profiles of sub-18-year-olds, and finding better ways of age verification.
Facebook relies on using people’s real names, and that helps, but the amount of people I know on Facebook who aren’t using their exact real names makes that reliance rather concerning. There’ll always be sex offenders on the sites, I suppose, and what’s most needed is a bit of common sense, and education, in kids of the dangers.
(via AP and TechCrunch)
Facebook rolls back terms of service change
Following massive user outcry over the changes to Facebook’s terms of service yesterday, the company is rolling back the alteration for the time being. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the update-to-the-update in a blog post on the Facebook website:
“A couple of weeks ago, we revised our terms of use hoping to clarify some parts for our users. Over the past couple of days, we received a lot of questions and comments about the changes and what they mean for people and their information. Based on this feedback, we have decided to return to our previous terms of use while we resolve the issues that people have raised.”
Facebook began by polling users over the changes, with 56 percent opposing, 6 percent supporting, and 38 percent clicking “I don’t know”, according to Mashable. Zuckerberg has now reverted the changes, and is inviting users to a group called Facebook Bill of Rights and Responsibilities to discuss how to take things forward. At the time of writing, 12,000 members have taken him up on the offer, but expect that to rise rapidly as the news spreads today.
(via Mashable)
Facebook changes terms of service, outcry ensues
A couple of weeks ago, Facebook changed its terms of service so that users won’t be able to delete their data if they leave the site. The blogosphere immediately erupted with criticism and it prompted a blog post from Mark Zuckerberg himself on who owns the data.
Facebook had been criticized for allowing a situation where someone could take a photo of you, upload it to the site, and then neither of you would be able to stop Facebook from using it for whatever purposes they like. You essentially waive all rights to the data.
Zuckerberg’s response to concerns is basically ‘chill out – we’re not going to take the piss here’. He doesn’t apologize, or even offer to soften the language – just asks users to trust the company. But how can users trust a company slowly eroding their rights?
Sure, odds are that Facebook isn’t going to suddenly abuse millions of people’s personal info, but if that’s the case, then why not retain the original language? Facebook has a history of communicating changes badly, and this is just another in a long line of screwups that include the profile redesign and the “Beacon” fiasco.
Suspected T-Mobile marketing stunt closes Liverpool Street station
If your journey home last Friday involved traversing Liverpool Street station, you might have had some trouble. The London station was forced to close for an hour and a half, from 7pm, due to an 11,000-strong flash mob mimicking T-Mobile’s recent adverts featuring silent dancers.
New INQ phone will have Twitter built in
The problem with building an entire device around one service is that when the service becomes obsolete, so does the device. Not that I’m saying Facebook, and therefore the INQ phone, is obsolete, but it’s important to keep things updated.
With that in mind, last night Electric Pig got a nugget of information out of INQ’s CEO, Frank Meehan, about the next device they’ll be releasing. When asked if Twitter would feature in the next INQ, Frank replied: “I think we’d be stupid if we didn’t”. So there you go.
(via Electric Pig)
More on the INQ: INQ1 heading to more networks | REVIEW: INQ1 Facebook phone from 3
Husband tells wife about divorce via change in Facebook relationship status
That happy couple over on the right are Emma & Neil Brady. They’ve been married for six years, but just before Christmas, after accusing her of liasing with another man, Neil threw Emma out of the house, injuring her wrist. He was brought to court for assault, and pleaded guilty. During the case, though, an interesting detail emerged.
Neil had announced his divorce to his wife via a change in his relationship status – “Neil Brady has ended his marriage to Emma Brady”. His wife only found out when her best friend, who lives in Denmark, saw it, complete with a comment from a girl in Canada which read “You are better off out of it”. Nice. Still, at least she didn’t kill him over it.
(via the Next Web)
More Facebook: PROFILE: Mark Zuckerberg | Will it still be around in five years?
PROFILE: Mark Zuckerberg – CEO of Facebook, bitch!
For a man in charge of the planet’s largest social network, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has his private life very much under wraps. Oh, he’s got an FB profile but you can’t even ask to be his friend. It seems the 706 he already has is quite enough.
My next port of call was Twitter. I wasn’t sure if he’d be fraternising with the enemy. I’m not even sure that Twitter is the enemy. I don’t even think either of the two companies know that. Anyway, I looked all the same and after a little bit of research and weeding out of the phonies…
