Tech Talk

Facebook has implemented several new changes to its network, leaving many users upset, and reminding others of Google Plus.

Among the changes:

• An automatically scrolling newsfeed on the upper right corner of the screen that can be extended down toward the chat window
• The ability to mark posts as a “top story” by clicking the top left corner of the post
• The ability to write posts as long as 5,000 characters
• A new management interface for friend lists
• The ability to send multiple friends birthday wishes from the top right corner of the screen
• The “poke” button has been moved to the drop-down menu to the right of the “message” button on friends’ pages
• Messages can no longer be included in friend requests

As one might expect, many users are upset with the changes — as is common whenever the social media giant makes any modifications.

However, if the past is any indication, life will go on and the network will continue to grow.

One thing is certain, the influence of Google Plus is evident in the changes — from the larger photos to the refined posting options. Now if only more users would utilize that network.

The Internet has been compared with an untamed wilderness because of its seeming ability to foster rebels wishing to strike against the world’s most powerful and then elude capture.

However, the world’s reaction to the WikiLeaks diplomatic cable leaks has shined a light on how even the Web could fall in line with the world’s standards, expecations and influences.

As documents continue to surface against the wishes of some of the world’s most powerful players, a noose continues to tighten around the resources and founder of WikiLeaks.

The site was banished from Amazon’s servers last week, as Tech Talk reported. Days later, PayPal followed suit. And most recently, MasterCard and Visa have cut payments to the organization.

As if Amazon’s blow was not difficult enough for the organization to overcome, the loss of income could be devastating to WikiLeaks’ very survival — particularly at a time when it needs liquid finances the most desperately.

Meanwhile, WikiLeaks founder and editor Julian Assange faces a potential extradition to face sexual assault allegations in Sweden.

The situation reminds us that no one could hide on the Internet from a determined world — and ultimately, cyberspace is not much different from our brick and mortar world.

Warning: Potentially offensive language is included in this Tech Talk post. Reader discretion is advised.

A 20-year-old University of Notre Dame junior tweeted his fears of dying minutes before suffering fatal injuries Wednesday when the camera tower he was in collapsed, numerous media outlets are reporting. The National Weather Service reported winds of 51 mph in the area.

In a message timestamped 3:22 p.m., Declan Sullivan wrote, “Gust of wind up to 60mph well today will be fun at work… I guess I’ve lived long enough. :-/.”

Less than an hour later, at 4:06 p.m., he tweeted, “Holy fuck holy fuck this is terrifying.”

Unfortunately no one at the university recognized the danger.

At 4:50, the camera tower collapsed.

Facebook users love to complain about their privacy — or lack thereof.

Countless pages and groups sprang up late last year in protest, for instance, when the social network made previously private information more easily accessible to users across the site.

The company is often blamed when less-than-flattering photos are discovered online.

But it’s time people stop complaining about the information posted online about them,  and start acting more in line with how they would like to be perceived.

The New York Times recently published a comprehensive article in its magazine about the work underway to try to make it easier to protect one’s digital record — and the extraordinary challenges the effort faces.

Much of the information folks complain about was posted by the very people doing the complaining. Perhaps having a cool persona conflicts with having a job — but life is about making priorities and perhaps if having a career is important, one ought to lay off the booze.

It seems almost comical at this point that people are still seemingly shocked to learn that employers consider the contents of potential employees’ social media assets during the hiring process. The Times article reports that 75 percent of U.S. recruiters and human-resource departments acknowledge that their companies require them to do online research about their candidates. This really should not surprise anyone.

In college classes your humble Tech Talk editor taught, professional development sessions he led and graduate courses in which he was enrolled, he has listened to how unfair it is for this information to be considered in employment situations — or really in any situation at all.

Of course, it’s not just information posted on Facebook that hurts people. It’s also the information disseminated on blogs, in tweets, through Foursquare and through the tens of thousands of other sites that share personal information.

However, there is really quite a simple solution that many people don’t seem to grasp: Refrain from posting and writing about your drunken, high and sexual conquests and you will be OK. Nobody wants to hear about them anyway. Of course, that won’t keep all embarrassing and potentially career-ending information offline — but there is even a simpler solution for that: Grow up and don’t put yourself in compromising situations.

The reality is nobody needs to get publicly drunk or high — or document their sexual escapades. It goes to reason that if one acts responsibly, they will have largely nothing to fear.

After all, even though people are saying the information infringes their privacy rights, what they really mean is it is hurting their reputations.

Social media is not going anywhere and will continue to spread and become increasingly ingrained within our society. There is no excuse for anyone — regardless of age — to be surprised that a photo, video or text of them could appear online.

However, perhaps the very social media that people have longed cited for ruining their lives will instead enhance the same folks’ existences by helping them to better evaluate their actions — before they embark in them.

As for younger folks who are just beginning to explore the full power of social media, perhaps they will learn early the risks that come with drinking under age and otherwise engaging in illegal and immoral actions. Think of the long-reaching benefits, such as the potential for fewer drunken-driving related deaths, higher test scores and more meaningful relationships.

Have you ever wondered what Google knows about you — and makes available to others? Now you can develop a better idea.

The technology giant has made it easier than ever to understand what information is collected, who it is available to and enables users to change many of the corresponding settings.

“One of our goals at Google is to give users meaningful choices to protect your privacy,” Google states in its new privacy center, where links to some of the company’s most popular privacy settings are posted.

The search engine giant has been under fire for collecting personal information from insecure wireless networks, as Tech Talk has extensively reported.

Perhaps the most powerful tool is the Google Dashboard, which displays information stored for services like Alerts, Analytics, Blogger, Books, Buzz, Calendar, Checkout, Contacts, Docs, Gmail, iGoogle, Latitude, Maps, Picasa, Profiles, Talk, Voice, Web History and YouTube.

It contains fascinating details like how many contacts you have, stored credit card numbers, recent status messages, most commonly e-mailed individuals, most recent piece of spam received, most recent alerts, newest e-mails, number of conversations logged, number of docs trashed, number of gadgets installed and more.

It will also indicate most recent Web search, image search, news search, product search, video search, map search, blog and book search with the corresponding date and time. It also indicates how quickly information becomes irrelevant. For example, the most e-mailed person in your Tech Talk editor’s primary Gmail account is an ex — and has not been e-mailed in some time.

Users may change their account password and privacy, sharing and subscription settings from the Google Dashboard.

The Ads Preferences Manager allows users to view and edit the information Google uses to show users interest-based advertisements within Google’s advertising network. Folks can add or remove interest categories associated with one’s Web browser or opt out of viewing relevant advertising entirely. It’s fascinating to learn what categories the Internet search giant has associated with you. As for your humble editor, the search engine’s analysis of which advertisements would be most relevant was dead-on.

Additionally, Google’s privacy center allows users to:

• Learn how to move data in and out of Google products;
• Encrypt the search traffic between one’s computer and Google;
• Learn how to partake in incognito browsing and downloading;
• Get information how to request the removal of images with inappropriate content, or to remove a photo of yourself your family, your car, or your home;
• Learn how to share videos with a specific group of individuals;
• Learn how to manage the site’s Web History;
• Learn how to chat off the record in Talk;
• Learn how to opt out of Google Analytics and Search Personalization; and
• Control Google Latitude.

It’s a powerful dashboard that Tech Talk implores you to explore. Chances are you will even learn more about yourself in the process.

Craiglist’s decision to drop its adult services section is being hailed as a victory — but is it really?

The popular classifieds site replaced the link to its section with the word “censored” this weekend. The site has been facing mounting legal and public pressure to kill the section and has been the subject of wide-spread criticism for its promotion of prostitution, child trafficking and erotic massages. It was not immediately clear as to why it made the decision to pull the content when it did.

Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., scheduled a House Judiciary Committee hearing later this month to probe how sites like Craigslist are used to “facilitate criminal activity,” the San Francisco Chronicle, a sister publication of Tech Talk, reported.

“Craigslist’s decision demonstrates a commitment to seeing these horrific abuses end, and I commend them for taking this step,” she said in a statement released Saturday.

Perhaps the decision demonstrates a commitment to seeing the abuses end, Rep. Speier; but it also represents a great threat to our First Amendment rights and marks a dangerous precedent that the congresswoman seems too ignorant to recognize. However, Tech Talk does also commend Craigslist on one point – for choosing to state things as they really are. Craigslist was indeed censored. It must be a proud day for you, Congresswoman. You successfully limited free speech and commerce on a U.S.-based website. Bravo.

Jim Buckmaster, chief executive of Craigslist, defended the site last month in an interview with The Chronicle.

“Is moving advertising around our best hope for addressing these harms?” he asked the newspaper. “Then the ads fall under personals, and how long before the demand is that we shut down personals? And where do those ads go next? What other sections of our site would they like us to shut down?”

Buckmaster is correct. It’s clear that the problem will not go away with the death of a section. The individuals publishing the advertisements will simply go elsewhere to find what they are seeking — both on Craigslist and on other websites. Driving this problem underground will not help anyone, but will rather cause more problems.

HOW WE GOT HERE

When the attorneys general from more than 40 states demanded changes to the way Craigslist does business two years ago, the site began requiring posters to provide verification information in a good-faith effort to encourage compliance with its regulations. And for the past year, according to The Chronicle, Craigslist has manually screened every ad — yes, every single ad — submitted to the adult section prior to publication. Further, whenever advertisements indicating involvement of an underage person was detected, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children was notified, Buckmaster told the newspaper.

Just over a week ago, a group of state attorneys general said there were not enough protections against blocking potentially illegal ads promoting prostitution, the Connecticut Post reported.

LOCAL TIES

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal is one of 18 misguided attorneys general who pressed for the change.

“I’m very pleased that Craigslist has taken this significant step toward eliminating … ads for prostitution that were so flagrant and blatant, and my hope is that it will set a model for other sites,” he said. “Craigslist is voluntarily doing the right thing.”

Does Blumenthal really believe that will solve the problem? At least Craigslist was doing something about the disheartening posts.

Now, the ads will be posted without any regulation elsewhere on the site. Tech Talk hopes Blumenthal can sleep tonight knowing that he just accomplished the complete opposite of what he vowed to do. Doubt that? Don’t. He acknowledges it.

“These ads will migrate elsewhere and we’re going to continue to monitor and scrutinize this site and others to pursue similar prostitution ads,” he said.

Good luck with that, Mr. Blumenthal. And sleep tight.

And what model is the attorney general hoping other sites will follow? One that restricts user freedoms?

CREATING A GREATER PROBLEM

Now the posters will likely simply post their advertisements elsewhere on Craigslist — or on other sites — as Connecticut’s attorney general predicted. Looking for a new apartment, home or blender? Here’s hoping there aren’t any impressionable young children around.

All of the progress Craigslist has made in screening the advertisements in the adult section will be impossible to duplicate throughout its expansive site — and you may never know for sure what will pop up. Be sure to send Mr. Blumenthal and Congresswoman Speier notes of appreciation when you get the not-so-pleasant surprise.

Just because a few people do not want to see something does mean it should removed from an entire site — or the entire Internet.

BRAVE NEW WORLD

In terms of civil liberties, it is always better to air on allowing a few potentially inappropriate things to be said or posted than cut speech to everyone — which is exactly what this ruling does. Tech Talk hopes Rep. Speier and Mr. Blumenthal is happy.

Tech Talk hopes they don’t have any young relatives who post inappropriate photos to Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Flickr or the pleathora of other sites out there — because their freedoms to do so may be cut. Do yhry really believe other sites will want to face the backlash Craigslist did? And who gets to determine what is inappropriate anyway? Perhaps it’s a minor with alcohol? Perhaps it’s one’s belly button? Perhaps it’s cleavage? Perhaps it’s any skin on any female? Perhaps one’s arms are too risque. We’re entering very dangerous territory.

Craigslist demonstrated that they were working to solve the problem, and should have been commended for that. Sure the system was not perfect, but most are not. Have you ever surfed through the comments section of many websites? Bad stuff appears, it’s a problem but certainly not a reason to censor.

A relatively unknown website has released what is comparable in size to the 1971 publication of the Pentagon Papers relating to the Vietnam War.

WikiLeaks, a three-year-old small nonprofit website, has posted more than 90,000 secret documents related to the American war in Afghanistan.

The documents include information about deals, armed conflicts, strategies, politics, intelligence operations and some casualties over the past six years, Mashable reports.

The Afghan War Diary, as the documents are collectively known, does not go into future military endeavors, Mashable reports — but rather contains old reports.

Not surprisingly, the White House, which reportedly learned of the postings from the news media, has condemned the release in a statement attributed to national security adviser James Jones:

“The United States strongly condemns the disclosure of classified information by individuals and organizations which could put the lives of Americans and our partners at risk, and threaten our national security.”

While it remains uncertain how the leak might affect the future course of the war, benefit America’s enemies or influence the public’s opinion of the bloody conflict, one thing is certain: The site has demonstrated to the world’s governments that no information is safe from widespread dissemination. While in the past, government officials would simply have to convince a handful of news executives to hold a story, now anyone could post information for the masses — and encourage commenting.

“We believe that transparency in government activities leads to reduced corruption, better government and stronger democracies,” a statement on WikiLeaks asserts.

If transparency is what the site’s volunteer staff was hoping for, it appears to have received it. The site was slow and difficult to access — likely indicating a large influx in visitors as news of the documents raced around the world.

WikiLeaks made the news in the past for releasing videos of a helicopter attack called “Collateral Murder.” The site was criticized for not making clear that one of the men targeted was carrying a rocket-propelled grenade.

Tech Talk strongly supports protecting the public’s right to know, but only to the extent that the risk to human life is evaluated when weighing the decision to publish information. Sites like WikiLeaks have little incentive to do this — and are difficult to hold accountable.

While numerous media organizations have quoted WikiLeaks founder Julian Assage as saying that the documents’ “usefulness to NATO’s enemies in the battlefield should be limited” because of the documents’ age, only time will tell if his assertions are accurate.