A major insight into human behavior from pre-internet era studies of communication is the tendency of people not to speak up about policy issues in public—or among their family, friends, and work colleagues—when they believe their own point of view is not widely shared. This tendency is called the “spiral of silence”.
Some social media creators and supporters have hoped that social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter might produce different enough discussion venues that those with minority views might feel freer to express their opinions, thus broadening public discourse and adding new perspectives to everyday discussion of political issues.
Read moreFacebook went down briefly in the US Friday morning, but it faces a more lingering snafu in Europe.
An Austrian man is fronting a class action lawsuit against Facebook for violations of European privacy laws. Law student Max Schrems announced today that he is suing Facebook subsidiary Facebook Ireland in a commercial court in Vienna, Austria. Mr. Schrems is bringing the lawsuit against Facebook for violations regarding: “[t]he privacy policy, participation in the PRISM program, Facebook’s graph search, apps on Facebook, tracking on other web pages (e.g. via the “like buttons”), ‘big data’ systems that spy on users or the non-compliance with access requests,” according to the group’s website FBClaim.com.
Read moreThe Department of Defense of the USA makes experiments on social networks users. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency provides monitoring of microblog service and Internet users‘ posts on such large social networks as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Kickstarter.
The Pentagon invests large amount of money for carrying out experiments which are connected with users‘ mood and its manipulation. Technological Department of Defence and scientists of university hold the Pentagon project, called Social Media in Strategic Communication. It provides monitoring of Twitter microblog service and Internet users‘ posts on large social networks.
Read moreHackers apparently based in Iran have mounted a three-year campaign of cyberespionage against high-ranking U.S. and international officials, including a four-star admiral, to gather intelligence on economic sanctions, antinuclear proliferation efforts and other issues, according to cybersecurity investigators.
Using an elaborate ruse involving more than a dozen personas working for a fake U.S. news organization, the hackers developed connections to their targets through websites like Facebook and LinkedIn to trick them into giving up personal data and logon information, the investigators say. The alleged campaign, which dates back at least to 2011 and is still under way, principally has focused on U.S. and Israeli targets in public and private sectors.
Read moreFacebook’s mobile app just grew a keen sense of hearing. Starting Wednesday, the app has the ability to recognize music and television shows playing in the vicinity of users.
The feature is designed to make it easier for users to share. When users begin to write a post, the Facebook app will offer to include information about music or shows playing in the background. “We want to help people tell better stories,” said Aryeh Selekman, the product manager who led the development of the feature. “I hope there are people who love the feature and post more.” If Facebook users share more about themselves, that can boost the value of ads targeted at some of its 1.28 billion users.
Read moreThe British government claims that the purpose of surveillance is to display the online trends in cities around the world.
According to Edward Snowden British authorities spy on what people are doing on some of the world’s most popular social media sites, such as YouTube, Facebook, Twitter etc. Nevertheless, he denies spying on specific users. The latest information from the National Security Agency was obtained by NBC News with journalist Glenn Greenwald, who was the first to report on Snowden’s documents about NSA and United Kingdom espionage while on the staff of the Guardian. NBC doesn’t mention when the information was received.
Read moreGoogle Inc. and more than 100 other software, social-media and technology companies said they oppose a U.S. proposal to let Internet-service providers charge them extra for faster routes to Web users.
The rules may let telephone-service and cable providers “discriminate both technically and financially” and would be “a grave threat to the Internet,” the companies said yesterday in a letter to the Federal Communications Commission. Other signers included Facebook Inc. (FB), Netflix Inc. and Microsoft Corp. (MSFT). FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler has asked the agency to vote May 15 on whether to begin writing rules to let Internet-service providers such as AT&T Inc. and Comcast Corp. negotiate deals with content makers like Google for quicker and more reliable delivery of video and other fare.
Read moreViber, a mobile messenger app that allows users to make phone calls and send text messages and images for free, also gives up plenty of free user data to anyone who wants to listen.
According to researchers from the University of New Haven (UNH) in Connecticut, US, Viber's app sends user messages in unencrypted form - including photos, videos, doodles, and location images.
All of that rich data from users is also stored unencrypted on Viber's servers, rather than being deleted immediately, and is accessible without credentials, just a link, the UNH researchers said.
Read moreWhen couples find out they are expecting, they usually spread the news to family and friends as soon as possible.
When Janet Vertesi, an assistant professor of sociology at Princeton University, found out she was pregnant, she made a very similar call to family and friends, but with very different intentions.
Those close to Vertesi and her husband were told not to post anything on social media sites that would reveal the couples' pregnancy. Vertesi had decided to take her pregnancy off the grid, not because she wasn't overjoyed, but because marketing bots that figure out when a woman is pregnant become relentless in their targeted advertising.
Read moreRussia's parliament has passed a bill that could see Western technology firms barred from operating if they fail to store Russian data within the country.
The legislation would require Silicon Valley companies, such as Facebook, Google’s Gmail, and Microsoft-owned Skype, to relocate Russian customer data back onto Russian soil in order to allow authorities to legally acquire and inspect data at will. Currently, Russian authorities have no powers to acquire data outside its borders, unless they submit a lawful mutual legal assistance request, which can be denied by that nation.
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