The new Color photo-sharing app for iPhone and Android smartphones, is free, potentially fun, and has no age restrictions. And it will probably have a lot of appeal for our highly social, digital photography-loving kids who love to share and tag. It also has staying power. Color "has all-star founders who have an impressive track record," reports ReadWriteWeb, and they raised $41 million to get … [Read more...] about New phone app: Color me (& us) careful!
consumer privacy
Update: FB holds off on that last privacy change
Facebook temporarily reversed its decision to make users' address and phone numbers available to apps with users' permission. "Over the weekend, we got some useful feedback that we could make people more clearly aware of when they are granting access to this data," Douglas Purdy, Facebook's director of developer relations wrote in the site blog. "We agree, and we are making changes to help ensure … [Read more...] about Update: FB holds off on that last privacy change
Headsup, parents! New privacy change at FB
Parents, the best advice for Facebook users at your house is, "Leave the contact info in your profile blank." That's the quick, easy end run around the new change, which allows apps to use your address and phone numbers if you give them permission to do so. That's the good news: It's opt-in – you choose to provide the apps with that info. The problem is, once FB users decide to install an app, … [Read more...] about Headsup, parents! New privacy change at FB
From do-not-call to do-not-track? FTC says yes
In its just-released preliminary framework for protecting Internet users' privacy, the Federal Trade Commission "suggests implementation of a 'Do Not Track' mechanism" reminiscent of the very successful Do Not Call list it launched in 2003. The do-not-track mechanism, "likely a persistent setting on consumers’ [Web] browsers" would allow consumers to choose "whether to allow the collection of data … [Read more...] about From do-not-call to do-not-track? FTC says yes
Talking privacy at household & international levels
We – all of us (well, maybe all of us above the age of around 28) – are in a very uncomfortable place where personal privacy's concerned. It seems all of our children are social Web users and we all have growing digital footprints ourselves, whether we're on Facebook or not, and we're pretty uneasy about the implications of all this intentional and inadvertent sharing for us as well as our kids. … [Read more...] about Talking privacy at household & international levels