Journalists Loretta Chao and Amir Efrati inform us:

“Twitter Inc. says it can now make content selectively available to users based on geography, and plans to use that ability to enter countries with ‘different ideas’ about freedom of expression as a human right—reflecting the difficult ethical questions facing Internet companies.

“The effort underscores thorny issues for Internet companies as their websites become more global and interconnected among different countries, and as they must cooperate with diverse views on Internet content control. For websites like Twitter as well as social-networking site Facebook, this has meant being blocked in countries like China where controls are more aggressive.”

To be fair to Twitter, the issue of censorship in other countries is indeed a tricky one. Refuse to play ball at all, and you’re banned completely. Will that really help the end users, the citizens who struggle to obtain information? Perhaps a little censorship is a small price to pay for allowing them even limited access to the information superhighway. At least, that seems to be the tack Twitter has embraced.

The company is not caving completely, however. They have been blocked in China for over two years, and are unlikely to be allowed back in as a result of this announcement. Why? Because that government doesn’t even want its people to know that content has been blocked; Twitter insists on giving them at least that courtesy. It is interesting to note that the company is working with Chilling Effects, an Internet freedom advocacy group, to draft its take-down notices.

You’d have to live in a cave to not realize that right now, in our famously freedom-loving country, we are in the middle of our own Internet censorship battle. Here, money is at the center of the fight. Specifically, corporations want to stop the sale of pirated goods. Corporations are people too, don’t you know?

These companies do have a valid concern, but I don’t have to tell you that the wildly unpopular SOPA and PIPA Acts propose enforcement through ham-fisted tactics that leave no room for due process. (If you didn’t know that, do some research. Right now. I’ll wait.)

The article notes that Twitter has been a crucial facilitator of political protest and revolutionary action around the world. The company also has a history of supporting transparency and free expression. However, it must do what it has to do if it wants to keep expanding. At the least, it must protect its employees from prosecution for breaking the rules in foreign lands. Yes, that would be important.

Cynthia Murrell, February 02, 2012

In another article, a spokeswoman for NetCoalition states: SOPA and PIPA: What Went Wrong?

Everyone underestimated the Web, “which is sort of the beauty of it,” said Maura Corbett, president of the Glen Echo Group and spokeswoman for NetCoalition, a tech trade group opposed to the bills.

“This was Outside the Beltway descending on Inside the Beltway, and we all just bore witness to it,” she said. “People are fed up. Washington is broken, and now Washington wants to subject the Internet to it? The Internet said no.”

It appears that laws to stop web piracy, which is a very big problem, would do more harm than good, at least in ways that are being proposed currently. And, the good out way the bad, such as freedom of expression orally, in wiring or in print, which is a human right.

Sandy McIntosh

January 26, 2012

No More SOPA, a free Android application … allows users to scan any product’s barcode and determine if it was made by a company that officially supports SOPA, or even a parent company or subsidiary of a SOPA supporter. The app … uses a public UPC database to find a product’s manufacturer then queries a remote server to compare the manufacturer with a list of 800 firms with lobbying ties to the bill.” “As a Senate hearing on SOPA looms later this month, hackers and engineers have been busy building tools to cripple or defeat the bill, which many see as imposing widespread censorship on the Internet as well as potentially holding back advances in security.

Lucinda Lawson, an English teacher at Hartville High School in southern Missouri says this:

Private messages give “truly supportive teachers the chance to get help for them when they’re in dangerous or compromising situations,”

Another teacher in Joplin offers this:

“I am not a pervert and don’t wish to be treated as one,”

“I am very responsible with my Facebook pages and don’t appreciate being assumed to be a danger to my students.”

 Missouri Teachers Protest Facebook Ban, Argue Limits Education And Dialogue

Unfortunately, on this sensitive subject, if there’s one bad apple in the crate – there’s a disaster waiting to happen. Social media is here to stay and has many sides. However, when it comes to teachers and students communicating on-line, it is a good thing on so many levels, but also could potentially be very dark.

Sandy McIntosh, January 5, 2012

“Discussing mobile technology security threats, Kroll said mobile technologies ‘are changing so rapidly that in some organizations the demand and pressure to deploy new technologies (e.g. tablet computers) will outstrip the organization’s existing capabilities to secure them. This unfortunate dynamic is no secret to thieves who are ready and waiting with highly targeted malware and attacks employing mobile applications.’”

Writer Judy Greenwald notes some other important points from the forecast. For example, corporate use of social media will bring small businesses under increased cyber-attack, and the growth of cloud services will bring its own risks. Also, cooperation between business and government will be crucial; other countries are expected to be more nimble than the US in their response. Furthermore, the forecast predicts that privacy concerns about geolocation tech will become more of an issue. Yes, I imagine so.

It’s true that mobile security is a big concern. Keep your social networking safe.

Cynthia Murrell, December 27, 2011

Although the Federal Trade Commission and several consumer watchdog groups have put a nix to several Big-Brother-esque programs put in place by malls and large retailers to monitor shopper activity and behavior due to privacy violations, some programs are alive and thriving. Many complain that the programs are all one sided, in favor of the retailer, but that is not necessarily the case. In most instances consumers receive a nice reward for their privacy being violated.

As the article explains of the relationship between retailer and consumer,

“With traditional retailers fighting online competition from companies from Amazon to Zappos.com, the retail industry must give consumers a reason to choose brick-and-mortar. Online retailers collect data about shoppers and use that information to tailor advertising and suggest purchases. Now stores and shopping-center landlords see cell phones as a path to influencing what people buy, how long they shop and how much they spend.”

Before condemning retailers for utilizing scores of data mines waltzing in and out of their stores every day, consumers should examine their habits and devotion to mobile apps. Without consumer usage these app-utilizing marketing campaigns would be a waste of time. If one doesn’t want to be exploited by a retailer, turn off the phone.

Catherine Lamsfuss, December 20, 2011

A recent Technology Review article, “Spammers Turn to Social Networks,” focused on the increasing threat of spam in the world of social media. The reason for the threat is an aura of trust, which makes people more apt to click on a strange link or befriend someone they don’t know. While it’s disappointing to see spam ruin the social media fun, it should also put honest social media marketers on alert. There is a thin line between you encouraging legitimate business through honest means and spammers using that mentality for bad.

The SSN Take: Build your marketing network slowly and avoid blindly attracting customers because you could be viewed as spam.

Patrick Roland, April 19, 2010

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Mashable’s article, “Chatroulette Founder Working to Preserve User Privacy,” recently detailed how this online phenomenon may be putting its users at risk. The site works to randomly connect two unknown people with audio and video chat. But a recent addition, blending the site with Google Maps and showing where each chatter is located, may have crossed a line. Without a way of opting out of the map, users clearly could be putting themselves at risk for stalking, identity theft or worse. Remember, this danger is not simply limited to Chatroulette.

The SSN Take: Do your research on privacy settings and don’t be in such a huge hurry to reap the benefits of social media that you get into unsafe situations.

Patrick Roland, March 29, 2010

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“Social Networks, Criminal Networks?” describes the story of the Italian gangster, charged in over 20 crimes and a number of killings, who was traced to his hideout from a log-on to the popular social networking site. Moreover, the Justice Department now trolls sites like Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter, looking for clues criminals may inadvertently drop. It’s worked: in 2007 a man was arrested after putting “rest in peace” pictures of a man on MySpace – before the man was reported dead. Graffiti artist Cyrus “Buket” Yazdani gained such a huge following from his “tagging” feats on YouTube that it drew the attention of the authorities (as well as thousands of fans). And lastly, a man wanted for drunk driving plainly listed his city of residence on Facebook and MySpace. Police quickly tracked him down and arrested him.

The SSN Take: What’s worse than being a criminal? Bragging about it on the Internet.

Samuel Hartman, March 27, 2010

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While also applicable to the most-powerful governing bodies in the land, it’s a Minnesota school board that’s putting the subject on its agenda. Veronica Walter raised the issue during a discussion by the Farmington School Board, reports Nathan Hansen in “School board ponders social media blackout” in the Farmington Independent.

“I just want to be careful as board members that we aren’t overstepping our bounds,” said Walter. “We dance very dangerously on the edge of being inappropriate with comments. That things can be misread.”

Most of the board members apparently agreed with Walter, but member Tim Burke called using social media “the price of doing business” in the modern world. “You can’t put the genie back in the bottle,” he said. Burke is probably the board’s most active social networker. His Twitter account, on which he mixes personal and professional messages with comments about school district issues, has 2,829 followers.

The SSN take: It will be interesting is to see what information makes its way out of governing body and/or business meetings via social media.

John Sniffen, March 26, 2010

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