'Creepy' stalking app pulled from appstore

An iPhone application, which allowed users to stalk women nearby using location-based Facebook and Foursquare, has been pulled from the iTunes app store by its developer after an outcry of criticism.

The “Girls Around Me” app utilised publicly available data from the check-in service from the social networking sites to show where women had checked in nearby before Foursquare yanked the Girls Around Me app’s access to its data, which in turn led to the app’s developer removing it from iTunes as it didn’t work properly. 

“This is a violation of our API [application programming interface] policy, so we''ve reached out to the developer and shut off their API access,” the Sydney Morning Herald quoted Laura Covington, a Foursquare spokeswoman as telling the New York Times. 

In addition to showing on a map women who had checked-in to locations nearby using Foursquare, the app also let users view Facebook information of those ladies if they had tied their Facebook account to their Foursquare account and if their Facebook account privacy settings were lax enough to allow any user to access it. 

US technology blog Gizmodo labelled the “Girls Around Me” app the “world’s creepiest”, as did The New York Times Bits blog, which said it “definitely” won the prize for being “too creepy”. 

As far as Fairfax Media has been able to trace back, the app was first publicised in the technology space on March 30 this year by the Cult of Mac blog, whose news editor, John Brownlee, wrote that it was “as innocent as it is insidious”. 

“It is just as likely to be reacted to with laughter as it is with tears,” Brownlee wrote. 

“It is as much of a novelty as it has the potential to be used a tool for rapists and stalkers,” he said 

In a statement to the Wall Street Journal, the company behind the app, O.O.O. SMS Servicies, defended its creation, saying it was designed to make “geo-social exploration of popular venues easy and visual”. 

“We follow the geo-social trend for mobile devices that is supported by numerous location sharing services, networks and apps,” the company said. 

The company also pointed out that it was “impossible” to search for a particular person in the app or to track their movements. 

“The app just allows the user to browse the venues nearby, as if you passed by and looked in the window,” O.O.O. SMS Services said. 

It also added that the app had been available for “several months” and had been downloaded more than 70,000 times. 

“Since the app’s launch we’ve seen numerous positive comments from users who claimed that the app helped them to discover ‘hot spots’ – venues that are popular among girls or boys. 

“Since the app’s launch till last Friday nobody ever raised a privacy concern because, again, it is clearly stated that Girls Around Me cannot show the user more data than what Foursqure or Facebook already does,” it added.

-Agency

Facebook plans to add 'Hate' button: Report

People on Facebook generally hit the like button whenever they come across something of their interest, but what about posts and updates that turn them off? What actually they do in such cases?

Many a time, people simply ignore when they do not like something on Facebook. But what if you find a hate button next to the like button? Interesting.

According to a report from TechCrunch, a technology website, Facebook is considering a "Hate" button. It said, "According to Facebook’s S-1 filing, users are now generating 2.7 billion Likes and Comments per day. With the Hate button, Facebook expects to at least double that."

TechCrunch quotes their sources at Facebook saying that Mark Zuckerberg is estimating 2 billion Hates on the first day.

The new move is being planned because Facebook studies have shown the sad fact that people hate things more on the Internet than they like.

However, there is some internal debate on whether the new button be called "Hate" or "Dislike."

Other buttons under consideration are the "Meh", "Love" and "Who Cares," says the report.

As this story was posted on TechCrunch on April 1 and IBNLive couldn't independently verify the authenticity, there is a likelihood that it can very well be a April Fool's Day hoax. But the 'dislike' button is one of the most requested for Facebook features.

-TechCrunch

Facebook plans to create new 'search engine'

Social networking giant Facebook is reportedly planning to create a new search engine which would help people to navigate on the website better.

A Bloomberg Businessweek report said the firm has deployed two-dozen Facebook engineers onto the ambitious project, which aims to improve the search engine currently available on the social network.

According to the report, the project is led by former Google engineer Lars Rasmussen.

The magazine's unnamed sources said that the project is "to help users better sift through the volume of content that members create on the site, such as status updates, and the articles, videos, and other information across the Web that people "like" using Facebook's omnipresent thumbs-up button".

According to The Telegraph, Facebook has done very little to improve its search engine, which currently lets people find other users, brands, status updates and some wider web results, through a long-standing partnership with Microsoft's search engine, Bing.

It has yet to properly focus its attention on the small search engine box situated at the top of each users' page.

Meanwhile, Facebook has declined to comment on the matter.

-ANI

Twitter hit by bug that 'unfollows' people

Micro-blogging site Twitter is affected by a bug, which has caused tweeters to ‘unfollow’ fellow users without their permission. The bug is causing Twitter users to randomly unfollow people without account holders’ prior consent or knowledge. The company has admitted that there is a problem and its spokesperson assured that their “team is working to fix it.”

The company has advised affected people to visit its support page and go to fellow tweeters’ profile pages to check whether they are still following them or not.

Thousands of users have been tweeting about their experiences of the unfollow bug and conveying their reaction to it.

“I wonder how many businesses, personal, and casual relationships are strained by the bug haphazardly unfollowing. It causes us to give pause and question the stability of the Twitter infrastructure, usage of my personal data and social network, and what important messages I may have missed from my trusted Twitter network,” The Telegraph quoted Labour MP and fanatic tweeter, Tom Watso, as saying.

-ANI

Girls Around Me: An App Takes Creepy to a New Level

Another day, another creepy mobile app. Here is one that allows you to find women in your area. It definitely wins the prize for too creepy.

Girls Around Me uses Foursquare, the location-based mobile service, to determine your location. It then scans for women in the area who have recently checked-in on the service. Once you identify a woman you’d like to talk to, one that inevitably has no idea you’re snooping on her, you can connect to her through Facebook, see her full name, profile photos and send her a message.

When you sign up for the Girls Around Me application, you are asked to log in to Facebook, giving the service your personal information, too. After connecting to Facebook, the app asks for everything, requiring people to share their basic information, profile information, photos, information people share with them and e-mail address. It will also ask permission to access your data when you are not using the app and post status updates, photos and more on your behalf.

“This would be a very different application if it didn’t link back to Facebook, which is the treasure trove of information. With that link, this app could easily be a “let’s stalk women” app,” said Elizabeth Stark, a lecturer in law at Stanford who teaches about privacy on the Internet.

Ms. Stark added that Foursquare has a responsibility to inform their users of the ramifications of linking accounts that are tied to location. “If users are given the clear choice to be on this app, then that should be their decision, but it seems that this is not the case,” she said. “In many cases there really is an education issue here, where users of these services don’t understand the ramifications. This is a perfect example of an easy way to stalk people.”

The app, which was first discovered by the blog, Cult of Mac, is built by a company called SMS Services O.o.o., which is based in Russia. Although the app maker knows a lot about its users, the company seems to have done a fairly good job of obscuring itself online.

After publication of this article, Laura Covington, a Foursquare spokeswoman, said in statement: “This is a violation of our API policy, so we’ve reached out to the developer and shut off their API access.” The application is still available for download in the Apple iTunes Store.

Facebook and Apple did not respond to my questions of whether the app is granted too much permission and if it goes too far in its data collection.

The app says it also allows you to search for men nearby, but by default, it searches for women as its name implies. Although the app is a free download, after a few searches it requires people to buy more “energy” to continue searching for people in the area.

SMS Services O.o.o. has built other apps in the past, including CoinKeeper, a finance management app.

-NyTimes

Facebook, lawmakers warn employers not to demand passwords

(Reuters) - Facebook and lawmakers have warned employers against requesting Facebook passwords while screening job applicants, a controversial practice that underscores the blurring distinction between personal and professional lives the era of social media.

The practice has reportedly grown more commonplace as companies increasingly regard profiles - or embarrassing photos from wild nights out - as windows into a prospective employee's character.

On Friday, Facebook Inc's Chief Privacy Officer, Erin Egan, posted a note warning that the social networking company could "initiate legal action" against employers that demand Facebook passwords.

Also, lawmakers in several states and in Washington said they would introduce bills to prohibit companies from vetting employees by demanding access to private accounts.

Leland Yee, a California state senator, told Reuters on Friday he introduced legislation that would prohibit companies in the state from soliciting Facebook passwords from job applicants. The Associated Press reported that lawmakers in Illinois and Maryland were also considering similar moves.

"Employers can't ask in the course of an interview your sexual orientation, your age, and yet social media accounts may have that information," Yee said.

"Employers have legitimate questions about a person's job performance, but they can get that information the regular way, without cutting corners and violating people's privacy."

Egan said in a post on Facebook's website published on Friday that the social networking company has seen in recent months "a distressing increase in reports of employers or others seeking to gain inappropriate access to people's Facebook profiles.

"We don't think employers should be asking prospective employees to provide their passwords because we don't think it's the right thing to do.

"But it also may cause problems for the employers that they are not anticipating. For example, if an employer sees on Facebook that someone is a member of a protected group (e.g. over a certain age, etc.) that employer may open themselves up to claims of discrimination if they don't hire that person."

OPEN UP YOUR MAIL

The issue bubbled up this week after the Associated Press reported that employers are increasingly asking to look at content job applicants have uploaded to their digital accounts, regardless of whether that content is shared or not.

In the case of the Maryland Department of Corrections, job applicants were asked to browse through their own Facebook accounts with an interviewer present, the AP reported.

The ACLU, which previously criticized the Maryland state government's online vetting, called the practice "an invasion of privacy" in a statement this week.

"You'd be appalled if your employer insisted on opening up your postal mail to see if there was anything of interest inside," said ACLU attorney Catherine Crump.

"It's equally out of bounds for an employer to go on a fishing expedition through a person's private social media account."

Facebook's outspoken stance on the issue cast it in an unfamiliar but welcome role.

Hundreds of users cheered Egan, applauding a company that has been repeatedly criticized for bungling privacy issues over the years, especially when changing privacy settings without duly notifying users.

By Friday afternoon, close to a thousand users had "Liked" Egan's post and many users left positive comments.

Yet there were still a few cynics.

"FB you're talking out of both sides of your mouth," wrote Facebook user Ron Carrubba. "Now how about fixing your other privacy issues in the application itself?"

Harry Potter novels available in ebook format

British author JK Rowling, creator of the Harry Potter series of books, poses with 12 year olds Kent children Ivy Aris (R) of Marden and Simran Sethi from Maidstone during the launch of new online website Pottermore in London.

LONDON (Reuters) - J.K. Rowling's best-selling "Harry Potter" novels are available for the first time in ebook format on the new website dedicated to the boy wizard adventures.

The seven stories, which have sold an estimated 450 million copies worldwide and spawned a successful eight-film movie franchise, went on sale on Tuesday at the Pottermore site set up by Rowling.

The website's online store (shop.pottermore.com) is the exclusive retailer of Harry Potter ebooks and digital audio books, which have been launched in English only.

French, Italian, German and Spanish editions are expected in the coming weeks with further languages to follow.

The main Pottermore website is expected to be up and running in early April, several months later than initially anticipated owing to technical problems.

Designers hope to allow readers to explore elements of the Harry Potter world that have not appeared in the books and to interact with the stories and characters.

The free-to-use website, partnered by Sony, is one of several ventures launched by Rowling and her commercial partners to keep the magic of Harry Potter alive and the revenues rolling in.

Rowling, who recently announced she was turning to adult fiction, long resisted allowing the Harry Potter stories to be turned into digital format, but eventually decided that technological progress could not be stopped.

The ebook launch raises questions over copyright infringement for the jealously guarded Potter property, although organizers are using a combination of watermarking techniques to protect against illegal copying.

-Reuters