By Cynthia Herbert :: 8:51 PM
Two U.S. Congressmen, Edward Markey, a Democrat from Massachusetts, and Joe Barton, a Republican from Texas asked the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) today to investigate Facebook’s practice of tracking users even after they have logged out of the social networking site.
In a letter sent to the FTC, the Congressmen said, “When users log out of Facebook, they are under the expectation that Facebook is no longer monitoring their activities. We believe this impression should be the reality. Facebook users should not be tracked without their permission.”
“Facebook was able to obtain this information when users visited websites that connect with Facebook, including websites with ‘Like’ buttons,” the letter continued. “There are an estimated 905,000 sites that contain the ‘Like’ button.”
Facebook told The Wall Street Journal on Monday that their tracking cookies will remain on computers of logged-out users, at least for now. Arturo Bejar, Facebook’s director of engineering claims that making the changes to the tracking system could “take a while.”
Markey and Barton voiced concern over how quickly Facebook plans to react. “Facebook should consider this problem a top priority and should allocate the resources necessary to safeguard consumers in an expedited fashion,” they said in their joint letter.
The problem was first brought to light by Australian hacker Nik Cubrilovic who wrote a blog post about it on Sunday in the wake of growing privacy concerns related to the Facebook’s new features like the changes to newsfeeds and the Timeline feature. Cubrilovic said that he had discovered the problem about a year ago, but was unable to get Facebook to address the problem until he made a blog post about it.
By Gilbert Falso :: 10:07 PM
Amazon’s new Kindle is coming tomorrow, and according to many published reports, it will be in color.
The new iteration of the world’s most popular e-book device will be called the “Kindle Fire,” and will feature a 7-inch color screen, compared to the 6-inch screen on current Kindles.
Other specs include touch-screen navigation, an LED screen instead of the current Kindle’s paper-style e-ink, and it will run on a custom version of Google’s Android operating system.
If you think that the new Kindle resembles something from BlackBerry’s tablet lineup, there’s a reason for that – both were designed and built by the same manufacturing company. In fact, it is rumored that Amazon based the Fire’s design largely on BlackBerry’s tablets.
Three major magazine publishers have signed on with Amazon to provide content to the new tablet. Hearst, Conde Nast and Meredith will offer digital versions of their magazines for sale on the Fire. Missing from the magazine lineup, however, is Time, who has apparently not inked a deal with Amazon yet, although sources claim both sides are working on one.
The details will come to light on Wednesday morning at Amazon’s press conference, scheduled for 10 AM eastern time.
Not to be left behind, it is expected that Amazon competitor Barnes & Noble will also have a color e-reader on store shelves in time for the holiday season.
By Cynthia Herbert :: 3:46 AM
Spotify has been making headlines for its recent requirement that all users sign up via Facebook. If you do not have a Facebook account, there is no way to get a Spotify one now.
That decision doesn’t go over well with the more privacy-minded people, especially in light of recent changes to Facebook’s UI that stream all sorts of information, including the individual tracks that Spotify users are pumping through their headphones in real-time.
If you want to keep grooving to the tunes, but don’t feel like making your music selections public, there is a way to prevent Spotify from sharing your guilty Rick Astley obsession.
Here’s how you do it:
- In Spotify, find and open “Preferences.â€
- Look for the Facebook section.
- Uncheck the box marked “Get personal recommendations by sending music you play to Facebook’s Open Graph.â€
There, now your secret is safe. But, if you want to share with some of your friends, you can do that, too – it’s just slightly more complicated:
- Go to your privacy settings in Facebook
- Find “Apps and websites.â€
Now, you will see Spotify. Select “App activity privacy,†and you can choode how your listening history is shown on Facebook.
By Paul Thomson :: 10:32 PM
The long awaited Apple iPad App for Facebook is rumored to finally appear at next week’s iPhone 5 unveiling event, scheduled for October 4th.
Mashable’s Ben Parr claims that his sources have told him the social network’s iPad app will make its debut at Apple’s iPhone 5 launch, as well as a new app for the iPhone.
Both Apple and Facebook have declined to issue any public comment on this news.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg showed off how the network’s new Timeline profile pages would appear on an iPhone at the company’s F8 conference for developers last week. Although there is the possibility it was rendered from an HTML5 version of Facebook, tech-savvy attendees claim that functionality would most likely come from an updated app.
By Gilbert Falso :: 9:28 PM
The on-board vehicle tracking system OnStar is coming under congressional scrutiny and attracting attention from privacy advocates who say it is conducing surveillance on users vehicles without their permission.
OnStar’s location technology is marketed as a safety feature – it can help direct emergency roadside services, provide driving directions, and call 911 automatically in case of an emergency or when it detects a crash. The services are offered on a subscription basis, with users paying a monthly fee.
However, when users cancel their service, the OnStar vehicle computer is still running, recording their every move. And last week, the company announced that it will continue to track the movements and vehicle speed of users even after they have canceled the service.
U.S. senators, led by New York’s Charles Schumer are now asking the company to stop this practice, which he says is becoming pervasive. Schumer is also looking to the Federal Trade Commission to step in and launch an investigation on OnStar’s practices.