Even Prince Harry can get Facebook slapped

January 28th, 2009

Chelsy Davy announced the end of her relationship with Prince Harry by changing her status on Facebook to: “Relationship: Not in One”, Britain’s News of the World says

The couple met in 2004 and their break-up marks the end of a five-year relationship.

The Prince is believed to have sought advice from his father, Prince Charles, and his uncle, Earl Spencer, in recent weeks. He has also discussed his relationship difficulties with his brother, Prince William.

Ms Davy, a party-loving blonde, had initially seemed an unlikely princess, particularly as her father, a safari operator in Zimbabwe, apparently had links with the Zimbabwean President, Robert Mugabe.

However, in recent months she started attending royal functions, and there had been speculation the couple might even marry.

In November she attended Prince Charles’s 60th birthday party for family and friends at Highgrove, his Gloucestershire home.

source

A man murdered his estranged wife after becoming “enraged” when she changed her marital status on Facebook to “single”.

January 23rd, 2009

Edward Richardson, 41, of Mayfield Road, Biddulph, was found guilty of stabbing Sarah Richardson to death.

He killed the 26-year-old hairdresser at her parents’ home in Brown Lees, Staffordshire, on 12 May, 2008, Stafford Crown Court heard.

Richardson tried to kill himself after the attack and was sentenced to life with a minimum of 17 years in prison.

Fiona Cortese, of the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “Richardson became enraged when Sarah changed her marital status on Facebook to single and decided to go and see her as she was not responding to his messages.

Source

Facebook posts get UK girls suspended

January 11th, 2009

More than two dozen British schoolgirls have been suspended for using the Facebook website to engage in a hate campaign against their teacher.

The 29 girls were suspended from the venerable Grey Coat Hospital School in London for persecuting a member of staff, principal Rachel Allard said on Friday.

It was not clear what the girls wrote on the website but The Telegraph newspaper said the targeted teacher was forced to seek counselling. The girls were suspended for up to 15 days and are due to return to class on Tuesday.

The Grey Coat Hospital School for girls aged between 11 and 18 was founded in 1698.

Facebook, a popular social networking site, has often landed pupils, and teachers, in trouble for posting unguarded or inappropriate comments.

Source

Virgin Atlantic sacks staff over Facebook comments

November 3rd, 2008

Virgin Atlantic has sacked 13 of its cabin staff after they criticised the airline and some of its passengers on social networking website Facebook.

The action follows an investigation into the remarks posted on Facebook, which concerned planes flying from London’s Gatwick airport and insulted passengers, as well as reportedly saying the planes were full of cockroaches.

The Independent reported that the airline’s passengers had been referred to as “chavs” – a British term similar in meaning to Australia’s “bogan”.

“Following a thorough investigation, it was found that all 13 staff participated in a discussion on the networking site Facebook, which brought the company into disrepute and insulted some of our passengers.”

It said cabin staff who held such views could not uphold the expected standard of customer service.

“There is a time and a place for Facebook. But there is no justification for it to be used as a sounding board for staff of any company to criticise the very passengers who ultimately pay their salaries,” a spokesman said.

Source

Massive Facebook fraud scare as website accidentally publishes dates of birth of millions of users

July 20th, 2008

Facebook was at the centre of a massive ID fraud scare yesterday after it accidentally published confidential information about its users.

In a huge breach of privacy, the social networking site disclosed the dates of birth of many of its 80 million active users – even if they had asked for the information to be kept secret.

Although the details have now been removed, there are concerns that internet fraudsters could use the information to commit identity theft.

source

Facebook, MySpace ‘reveal hidden messages’

May 24th, 2008

IF you’re changing your Facebook status every five minutes there is a good chance the only thing people will notice is that you’re an attention-seeking extrovert.

Social networking analyst Laurel Papworth says there are hidden messages behind the overt displays of self-promotion on websites like Facebook or MySpace.

Status updates can show if someone is an extrovert or fishing for sympathy, she claims.

“The extrovert, they are always going to be updating because the world revolves around them and one can assume that means the world needs to know how they are feeling from minute to minute,” Ms Papworth said.

“There’s a lot of passive-aggressive behaviour in social networks and some interesting statuses — I’m mad at my boss, I’m mad at my mum, my teacher.

“We’re expecting our good friends to come and commiserate and give presents on our page or leave comments on our page presumably in support of our emotional state.”

Conor Woods, a 32-year-old executive and Facebook fan, said he sometimes catches himself thinking in short, descriptive phrases for his next status update.

He said his updates were mostly attempts at humour but knew others who were trying to carve out a better image online than they enjoy in reality.

“We live in a time where everybody is really conscious of branding and advertising and everyone is really media literate… (people) know how to shape their identity online to give the best image of themselves,” Mr Woods said.

Ms Papworth claims people who think in terms of visuals will update their photographs more often because that is what appeals to them.

But Mr Woods has his own ideas on this.

“I don’t like it when people use a photo that’s not them, using something like a rock star. It seems to me like they’re hiding away, like they don’t want to face who they are,” he said.

“The ones where you see couples, just in case you didn’t see in the relationship status that they’re in a relationship with that person, that’s the person they have their arms around. Now I get it, it’s too much.”

And if that relationship breaks down then a “no longer in a relationship” update lets your friends, and sometimes your ex, know right away.

“I know one girl who found out her boyfriend had broken up with her because he changed his Facebook status update,” Ms Papworth said.

“She rang him and said ‘You’ve changed the update, what’s happened?’ And he said ‘Can’t you guess?’

source

BBC finds facebook private info easy to steal

April 30th, 2008

Personal details of Facebook users could potentially be stolen, the BBC technology programme Click has found.

When you add an application, unless you say otherwise, it is given access to most of the information in your profile. That includes information you have on your friends even if they think they have tight security settings. Who’s to say the coder who created that application is not going to abuse the data they access? Since anyone can create an application, this is yet another major problem with Facebook. source

More problems with the book of faces

April 25th, 2008

In March 2005, the United States Secret Service met with a University of Oklahoma freshman for a message he posted to his profile on the social networking web site, Facebook: “We could all donate a dollar and raise millions to hire an assassin to kill the president and replace him with a monkey.”

Two Louisiana State swimmers were kicked off the team for criticizing their coaches on Facebook.(source) In October 2005, Penn State University police used Facebook to track down students who rushed the field after the October 8 Ohio State game. By November, two students had been charged with criminal trespass for their involvement. (source)

The same month, sophomore Cameron Walker was expelled from Fisher College in Boston for comments about a campus police officer made on Facebook. These included that the officer “loves to antagonize students …. and needs to be eliminated.” The comments were judged to be in violation of the college’s code of conduct. (source)

Was Walker’s suggestion a violent threat, or simply a statement that the students should make a formal complaint to protect their rights?

In February 2007, eleven students at Robert F. Hall Catholic Secondary School in Caledon, Ontario, were suspended after posting comments about their principal on Facebook. (source)

Admissions dean Paul Marthers, at Reed College in Portland, Ore., said in 2006 the school denied admission to one applicant in part because entries on the blogging site LiveJournal included disparaging comments about him.

In October 2006, a male Southern Illinois University student faced expulsion for creating a Facebook page detailing his sexual relationship with a 19-year-old female he’d been involved with in the past. Other male students added to the page with their own experiences with the woman, until she brought it to the attention of Facebook, who permanently removed the page. The female cited slander; while the young man claimed it was an inside joke and he assumed she would understand the humor. In an interview, he stated, “I never thought something on Facebook would get me into trouble out in the real world.” Showing just how far social networking has come, fellow students created yet another Facebook page with updates as the scandal developed.(source: Jadhav, Adam, Shane Graber. “Students learning dangers of Web ‘confession’; Sophomore may be expelled for Facebook page,” The Record, October 5, 2006. )


Employers using facebook to learn about applicants

April 25th, 2008

Millions of young people could damage their future careers with the details about themselves they post on social networking websites, a watchdog warns.

The Information Commissioner’s Office found more than half of those asked made most of their information public.

Some 71% of 2,000 14 to 21-year-olds said they would not want colleges or employers to do a web search on them before they had removed some material.

The commission said the young needed to be aware of their electronic footprint.

Vetting tool

The ICO also said young people could be putting themselves at risk of identity fraud because of the material they post on social networks such as Facebook and MySpace.

The cost to a person’s future can be very high if something undesirable is found
David Smith
Information Commissioner’s Office

The data regulator’s survey found that two thirds of those questioned accepted as friends on such websites people they did not even know.

Some 60% posted their date of birth, a quarter put their job title and almost one in 10 gave their home address.

ICO deputy commissioner David Smith said: “Many young people are posting content online without thinking about the electronic footprint they leave behind.

“The cost to a person’s future can be very high if something undesirable is found by the increasing number of education institutions and employers using the internet as a tool to vet potential students or employees.”

Source

Court of Law finds Facebook friends are not real friends

March 27th, 2008

A British judge has made official what many of us have long suspected – that being “Facebook friends” with someone doesn’t necessarily make you their friend.

The magistrate was presiding over a harassment case in which a woman accused her former boyfriend of hounding her by sending her a “friend request” on the popular social networking site on January 21.

The ex-boyfriend, Michael Hurst, 34, was cleared of the charge after the magistrate accepted his argument that the contact was highly innocuous because being “Facebook friends” could not be defined as “friendship in the traditional sense”.

“[Popular British radio DJ Chris Moyles] has 1 million Facebook friends. Do you think he knows them all intimately?” Mr Hurst said.

 More

Tell us your experience with the facebook webmasters

January 17th, 2008

Post your experiences with the book of faces in the comments of this post.

Facebook members have forced changes to a controversial ad system

December 2nd, 2007

More than 50,000 Facebook users signed a petition calling on the company to alter or abandon its Beacon advertising technology. When Facebook users shopped online, Beacon told friends and businesses what they looked at or bought.

Many considered the data sharing to be an intrusion that exposed them to more scrutiny than was comfortable.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7120916.stm

Well done people!!

Facebook addicts admit their addiction and get help

November 13th, 2007

Welcome To This Safe Harbor

November 12th, 2007

Facebook “people” are everywhere. They harass you to join, post embarrassing photos about you on their profiles and even set up fake ones pretending to be you. What can we do? They are an army of mindless slaves walking to the beat of the facebook corporate drummer. They say they enjoy it, and have “so many friends”. But we know the truth. The cold, dark truth about the menace that is the book of faces. Yet there is hope. You have found a sanctuary, a garden of Eden where you can kick back, vent and laugh at the face book inbred family. We prefer privacy over telling the world our latest and dumbest thought. Ooh look at me “Bill is currently wondering what to have for lunch” Fascinating! So glad you posted that on your profile… seriously… facebook is for retard pack followers.

Add your own reasons why you hate facebook in the comments of this post, and together we can all spread the word via the old fashioned way, talking, that facebook sucks and it’s time for them all to get a REAL life… down with the book of faces!

Facebook off (funny)

November 12th, 2007

Why facebook is evil

November 12th, 2007