FTC Puts Social Nets on Notice With Twitter Smackdown

Categories Information Technology, Security, Social Media, Twitter

via E-Commerce News

The FTC has settled its beef with Twitter over the service’s security practices. Twitter will go on a probation of sorts, and some conditions of the arrangement will remain in effect for 20 years. The charges originated when hackers took advantage of weak passwords the site had been using and gained administrative privileges that enabled them to control accounts and read private messages.

Twitter has agreed to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that it deceived consumers and put their privacy at risk by failing to safeguard users’ personal information, the FTC announced Thursday.

In what was the agency’s first such case against a social networking service, the FTC charged that serious lapses in Twitter’s data security Planning for the next peak season? Ensure your website is fast, secure and available 24/7. Click here to learn how. practices allowed hackers to obtain unauthorized administrative control of Twitter, including access to nonpublic user information, tweets that users had designated as private, and the ability to send out phony message from any account — including one belonging to Barack Obama, who at the time was the U.S. President-Elect…

Twitter Gets One Step Closer to Google

Categories Google, Information Technology, Social Media, Twitter, Web Development

via Website Magazine

It’s no secret that Twitter has been mostly centered on a “push” mentality – throw enough out there and something will stick, and you’ll gain followers in the mean time. Of course, the more followers you have the better chance of something sticking, or being shared. And, the cycle goes on. But things are about to change. Twitter is on its way to becoming a “pull” interaction – just like another world-famous website, Google.

If you think about Google like a social network, the similarities are clear. As a Google “publisher” your goal is to be listed and get the attention of others. When successful, your content is shared via syndication and links. As a Google “user” you’re there to find information, through search. When you find something you like, you might link to that website, bookmark the page or subscribe to the site’s RSS feed or e-mail newsletter. In other words, you become a “follower” of that website. But imagine if you were to “friend” every website as the result of a search … you would quickly become overwhelmed. Now take all of that and apply it to Twitter. It’s not much different….