Facebook Ads Overhaul?

Last November, when powerhouse social networking site Facebook unveiled its new “Facebook Ads” programs, company founder Mark Zuckerberg declared, “Once every hundred years, media changes.” (This absurd hyperbole immediately became a punch line, as in the hilarious response from Nicholas Carr at the time.) I have criticized these programs before from a privacy […]

Challenge to Facebook’s Trademark

Most readers probably know about the bitter lawsuit against Mark Zuckerburg, the controversial founder of Facebook, alleging that he stole the idea for the wildly successful social-networking site from other Harvard students who had hired the young geek to write code for a similar site, eventually unveiled as ConnectU. I never knew whom to […]

Ninth Circuit Rules Roommates.com May Be Unlawful Host

The Ninth Circuit has just ruled (en banc) that the Roommates.com Web site is not entitled to immunity under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. (Props to Eric Goldman for the link!) The opinion, by Chief Judge Alex Kozinski, is typically lucid and holds, essentially, that Roommates falls outside the safe harbor because it […]

Facebook Retreats Somewhat on Beacon Privacy

In response to a growing revolt by its members, and particularly an online protest organized by MoveOn.org, on Friday Facebook quietly retreated somewhat in implementation of some of its new privacy-invasive advertising plans.
Apparently the “Beacon” feature, which tells your Facebook “friends” when you buy something from a participating retailer, will shift from an opt-out (and […]

More Thoughts on Facebook’s “Social Ads”

My post from yesterday on Facebook’s Social Ads program got picked up by bloggers at the New York Times and CNet, so I’ve heard some more feedback than usual. Here’s a few more thoughts on the issue in response to themes emerging from the conversation:

Facebook Inserting Users Into Ads

Dan Solove at Concurring Opinions has some quite sensible concerns about Facebook’s new advertising program — specifically, that it may violate privacy law. I think he’s right, and then some…
In short, the new program allows corporations to set up Facebook pages where visitors who take certain actions can thereby trigger the sending of a […]

Reputation Economies Symposium at Yale

On December 8th I’ll have the privilege of speaking alongside many smart people at a symposium put on by the Information Society Project at Yale Law School. The title is Reputation Economies in Cyberspace. The topic could hardly be more timely. Admission to the day-long event, sponsored by Microsoft, is available to […]

Facebook, Context, and Privacy

By now it’s basic knowledge — and grist for funny mainstream humor — that young people put overly personal stuff into their social networking pages with abandon, and that schools are flailing around trying ever harder to dissuade them.
But I think one Florida State law professor went too far, if this comment on a […]

Finnish Employers Cannot Google Applicants

There has been tons of discussion, on this blog and more generally, about the great degree to which our private information is now available on the internet to anyone who cares to look (on our blog alone, see e.g. Tim’s thoughts here and here, mine here, and Derek’s here). As a result of […]

Protected by AkismetBlog with WordPress