Facebook Privacy Settings Put Children at Risk

 A change in the way Facebook handles personal information privacy may have already placed your child’s personal information at risk. How did something like this happen? Facebook's new policy creates egregious privacy concerns. Facebook, who, ironically, does not verify or maintain detailed identification information for Application Developers, now allows any Developer to get mailing addresses, names, and phone numbers from users’ Facebook profiles. Facebook does require users to grant permission to these apps, but many of these apps require this permission to be granted in order to function at all or offer bonuses to users who share their information. Further, some apps are disguised as interesting links and are instantly installed on one’s facebook profile – where they access personal information – when that person clicks the link to read the article.

As such, developers have full access to minors’ profiles as if they were adults. Because Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) only protects users under 13, users over the age of 13 could be victimized by any predator capable of creating an app targeted at children that can scrape names, cell phone numbers, and addresses.

According to experts, “Anyone with ten minutes, $25, and a Facebook user's phone number and address and no other information can obtain a breathtaking amount of information about that Facebook user – and that Facebook user's family, friends, neighbors, and landlord. Combined with a targeted Google search, these two pieces of information can allow someone to obtain almost all of the information necessary to complete a loan or credit card application. It is hard to contemplate all of the different ways in which this information could be abused.”

Privacy specialists like myID are not convinced that Facebook offers adequate protection against identity theft. First, experience tells us that many twelve-year-olds claim to be old enough to use Facebook, often to access content blocked to underage users. Second, the 13-to-17 age bracket has little or no protection except that which is provided by external services like myID. The myID identity theft monitoring system scans Facebook for personally identifying information and alerts you when your information is leaked. Security experts urge you to consider the safety of your entire family by realizing that the only secure alternative to an identity theft monitoring service is preventing your family from using Facebook altogether.

Are YOU Social?

Are you tired of hearing about social media yet?

You can’t escape the internet void without being sucked into articles & top ten lists about social media. Luckily, there is a growing movement of people who are ready to stop talking about the medium and start talking about what it all means.
As an introvert, I approach social media in a measured & consistent way to connect with people I wouldn’t have the guts to connect with in traditional social situations. Instead of terror, I feel power.
But as I grow my social media acumen, I become ever more aware of its limited scope. I can connect with movers & shakers, answer customer questions, and monitor my reputation, but how can I translate those interactions to clients referred, dollars earned, or projects planned?
Naysayers would have you believe social media creates barriers to real relationships – those that will move your business forward. I would argue that it is ourselves who create the barriers when we fear turning connections into relationships.

So how can you become more social with your social media?

• Go deeper in each platform. Twitter has direct messages, Facebook has commenting & mail, Flickr even has a messaging system. Use them. Make a connection, allow yourself a few public interactions, and then start up a deeper conversation.
• Leave the platform. Make your Twitter relationships email buddies. Turn your Facebook conversations into Skype conversations. Things suddenly get more “real” when we connect with people in multiple ways.
• Take it offline. Make a concerted effort to meet as many social media friends as possible in the analog world. Set up coffee dates, pick up the phone, or use snail mail. Use social media to break the ice and use face-to-face situations to get things done.

Goldmines with Google Analytics Custom Reports

Here’s how you can build a custom report that shows you where your new subscribers are coming from:

1. Log into your Google Analytics account and go to your website profile.
2. Click on the custom reporting menu on the left and then click on the sub-menu link called manage custom reports.
3. Create a new custom report.
4. Once there, you’ll need to change your title to whatever you like. Since we’re tracking referrals for new subscribers, you might name it something like “newsletter subscriber referrals”.
5. From the left metrics menu, find the blue box called “total goal completions” (under goals) and drag that into the first blue metrics box on the right.
6. Now drag the green box called “source/medium” from the traffic sources to the first green box on the right.
7. Hit the preview report to make sure it looks like it’s supposed to.
8. Save and you are now on your way to becoming an analytics ninja!

Once you’ve gotten the hang of how to use custom reports, you can do custom reports for all kinds of different insights. For example you could:

• See which search keywords are performing better
• See where your advertising money was best spent
• See which sources are sending visitors that engage more on your site

And more! You just need to first identify what your goal is and then about how you can get the insight you’re looking for.

Need help or have questions about your goal? Let me know in the comments and I’ll be glad to help.