Part II: Measuring SocialShield Against Its Most Critical Users: Parents

A few weeks ago, Buzzword Chasers ran a post about SocialShield, the software that helps parents monitor their children’s social networking site activity. Now it’s time to measure the initial success of the software.

The Good News

Not only has SocialShield been supported by the PTA, but several big-name investors have backed it as well. Playdom founder Rick Thompson, Comscore chairman Gian Fulgoni, Offerpal CEO George Garrick and Adify CEO Russell Fradin have all given SocialShield their stamp of approval.

Playdom founder Rick Thompson is one of the investors behind SocialShield.

SocialShield itself has promised an exclusive guarantee for its users. As the program grows, its creators have vowed to spend up to $1,000,000 to identify cyber bullies, to document problems and report them to schools, parents and police.

The main site, where parents go to download the software, continues to house advice for kids about cyber bullying.

Again, this site is very easy for parents to set up – they register, input the child’s password information into the software, and it will find and “connect” the parents with relevant social networking accounts. From there, the software will regularly update parents on their child’s social networking use and whether it pertains to cyber bullying or generally inappropriate actions.

From the Parents: Needs a ‘Bit of Work’

Irene Koehler, a blogger for “Almost Savvy,” a site for helping people transition into the world of social media, reviewed SocialShield – as a parent – for Almost Savvy. Her conclusion was “While the concept may be solid, SocialShield’s execution needs quite a bit of work.”

Her main complaints pertained to small details, but they are things that SocialShield should consider in the next update of their software. The main area that should be improved is the FAQ sections, Koehler said. Triggers and definitions need to be defined in more parent-friendly terms. Basically, she believes that SocialShield is a little too technical for most parents.

“While the concept may be solid, SocialShield’s execution needs quite a bit of work.”

Koehler also felt that the reports SocialShield yields were not as accurate as they are advertised to be. The best approach is to use the reports as guidelines but to check your child’s account yourself if you suspect inappropriate behavior or bullying.

Read Part I: Social Shield Provides Online Protection for Children for a practical overview of SocialShield and the issues of online privacy and child safety.

Geo-Location: Twitter and Facebook… A Promising but Murky Future- Part 2

To Tell-All or Not to Tell-All, That is the Question

In part I, the great marketing and business potential of geo-location was discussed. However, this promise hinges largely on the willingness of people to continue to broadcast their lives in great detail on social networking sites. We have all heard the cautionary tales of people losing their jobs over a post on their profile and the questionable online privacy practices of Facebook have been grabbing a lot of headlines lately.

“The marketing and business potential of geo-location hinges largely on the willingness of people to continue to broadcast their lives in great detail on social networking sites.”

Even though geo-location has the benefit of adding location-based context to people’s updates, will people feel comfortable letting a network of others (many of whom they may not know very well) know exactly where they are? There have been indications of user dissatisfaction with social networking sites’ privacy policies and greater discretion being taken by people with regards to their personal information.

These events clearly signal barriers that geo-location applications will have to overcome. Adoption of geo-location by the public will largely be a result of whether people will really want to share their location with others. Though people may see the merits of using geo-location features, the issues of privacy and personal information may be hard to surmount.

Sharing Useful Information, Not Just Location

Despite the threat that privacy and security issues pose to the success of geo-location in social media, the ability of this feature to let people share useful information may help it overcome hurdles to adoption. From citizen journalism to letting friends know about good deals, people appear to want to tell others about useful public information. Whether it be witnessing a public event or participating in a public happening like shopping, people may be more willing to share their locations with others.

In the end, the success of geo-location in social media may rely heavily on whether or not people start to rethink how much they reveal about themselves online and whether any possible uneasiness can be alleviated. The groundwork for businesses to leverage geo-location as a sales tool is being laid as it makes its way into social media, but will the people follow?

]]> http://www.buzzwordchasers.com/uncategorized/twitter-and-facebook-geolocation-issues-2/feed/ http://www.buzzwordchasers.com/uncategorized/privacy-predators-and-bullies/ http://www.buzzwordchasers.com/uncategorized/privacy-predators-and-bullies/#comments Tue, 22 Jun 2010 19:39:14 +0000 Caitlin http://www.buzzwordchasers.com/?p=1381

Part I: Social Shield Provides Online Protection for Children

A few years ago, Sun Microsystem’s CEO Scott McNealy sparked the online privacy debate with the statement: “You have no privacy. Get over it.”

Since then, social networking sites like Facebook have come under fire for disregarding users’ privacy concerns. Recently, both Facebook and Google were under intense scrutiny from the public over privacy issues and the use of unsecured Wi-Fi networks to collect data. Both sites have changed their privacy policies to prevent future indiscretions.

Online Privacy and Children

Many adult users are tired of the great privacy debates and thankful that they’ve cooled down in recent months. While the crusade for stricter privacy regulations raises red flags, it seems many have forgotten those most vulnerable to online predators and bullies: our children.

Children as young as 13 can create Facebook profiles – though it’s easy enough for any child to create a page, as long as they’re sly enough to get away with lying about their age. According to Facebook, 50 million teens aged 13 to 17 have Facebook pages, and many of them also have accounts on other social networking sites, like Twitter and MySpace.

“50 million teens aged 13 to 17 have Facebook pages.”

What’s alarming is how high the statistics are for cyber bullying – which is defined as “when the Internet, cell phones or other devices are used to send or post text or images intended to hurt or embarrass another person,” according to the National Crime Prevention Council. Unlike regular bullying, which ends once the victims reaches the comfort of home, cyber bullying is an endless cycle of 24 hour-a-day, seven-days-a-week taunting via electronic devices. Facebook and MySpace accounts, where young users can express themselves for others, including bullies or predators to see, have become synonymous with cyber bullying.

ISafe, an organization dedicated to promoting awareness and prevention of cyberbullying, reported that 42 percent of children have been bullied online, and 58 percent of those children have not told their parents about it. There have been cases in the past of children who were bullied to the point of suicide – and no one saw it coming because it all happened virtually.

“42 percent of children have been bullied online; 58 percent of those children have not told their parents about it.”

Let’s not forget the endless possibilities of cyberstalking or cyberharrassment, when adults harass each other or prey on children who may unknowingly be giving out identifying information about themselves and their whereabouts.

SocialShield and Parental Intervention

SocialShield, which launched on June 16, is a new online software program to help parents keep track of their children’s accounts on social networking sites. For just $10 a month or $99 for a year’s subscription, parents can get regular reports on their children’s account activities on sites like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter. The alternative – parents creating their own accounts, adding their children as friends and then monitoring every detail themselves – can be time-consuming and painstaking, especially for parents who are not tech-savvy.

How It Works

After registering both the parents and the children in question on SocialShield, the tool will scan the child’s accounts for inappropriate or disturbing content – like talk of sex, drugs, violence or suicide, or questionable photos. SocialShield then e-mails a summary report to the parents’ registered e-mail.

The summary report alerts the parent of the alarming content while preserving some of the child’s privacy. While the software does not give parents word-for-word descriptions of what was said, it alerts them that such content was present in the profile.

Reputation Management and Cyberbullying

While scanning for aforementioned topics, SocialShield also sets up a Reputation Management report. The software will e-mail parents whenever photos are posted – regardless of whether they are inappropriate or not. It is up to parents to look at the photos and deem what should stay up or be taken down. The intent is to prevent children, who may not be thinking too far into the future, from posting anything they may regret when the time comes to apply to college or for a job.

SocialShield also remains on the lookout for signs of cyberbullying. Whether the child is the victim or the bully, SocialShield will e-mail parents of cyberbullying evidence and keep it documented. In severe cases, the program will send the evidence to school or law enforcement officials.

Friends Engine and Knowledge Center

Another of SocialShield’s features is its Friends Engine. The program will check a child’s friends list on any social networking site against LinkedIn’s list of users, Costco.com’s list of customers, registered sex offender lists and other sites. This is a way to find out if all of his or her friends are who they say they are, and are actually the age they state in their profiles. If there is a 13 year-old boy on Facebook whose identification matches someone on LinkedIn, a site for networking adults, then you know that Facebook profile is probably not legitimate.

Parents who are having trouble negotiating both SocialShield and the networking sites it works with can visit SocialShield’s Knowledge Center, which will connect them with chats and contact information for experts, psychologists and law enforcement officials.

This concludes Part I of this blog series. Be on the lookout for Part II, when consumers take a better look at the usability of SocialShield.

Outlook Social Connector: What You Need to Know

What is the key to organizing social networking? Microsoft believes it’s about bringing all online networking activities into your email inbox.

Outlook Social Connector aggregates all of your social networking pursuits and makes them accessible through one program – and more specifically, one interface.

A Wealth of Information in Your Personal Inbox

At the bottom of the Outlook screen, the People Pane displays information about a given contact. The pane presents you with all relevant information for a particular person without having to dig through several different social networking sites.

Outlook Social Connector displays the following information for each contact:

• Communication history (email and messages)
• Calendar events and meetings
• Attachments
• Activity feeds
• Images

All of the information above is listed in one feed for each individual contact. An icon is displayed to the left of each item to help users determine which connector is responsible for each piece of information in the feed.

Microsoft’s Partnerships

Currently, the beta for Outlook Social Connector only provides a tie with LinkedIn and MySpace. The Linked In connector brings together your professional networking and your professional communicating by providing you with relevant information on various colleagues. MySpace status updates will also appear in the feed.

Facebook will be added as social connector in the coming months.

The Benefits

The Outlook Social Connector is the perfect tool for busy business professionals who do not have time to sift through seas of social networking sites. Irrelevant information is filtered out, eliminating extraneous sacrifices of time and effort.

Outlook Social Connector will also save you time by syncing your contact information with changes on social networking sites. For example, if a colleague changes his or her phone number on LinkedIn, the number will automatically be changed in your Outlook account. If you have your mobile device synced to your Outlook account, the number will be changed there as well.

Outshining its Competitors

Although the final version has yet to be released, business writers at PCWorld.com believe Outlook Social Connector is already surpassing the capabilities of Google Buzz. Buzz works less as a social networking hub and more as an additional site to keep track of.

Previous attempts at a social networking interface have been made, including TweetDeck and AOL’s Lifestream. Unlike these interfaces, the Microsoft aggregator does not require an additional program to be installed and does a better job of filtering out social networking “noise.”

The Future of Outlook Social Connector

While some individuals feel that Microsoft cannot compete with the social networking advances of the day, the advent of Outlook Social Connector has already turned some heads.

“Fundamentally, we believe that to empower our users, the existing members of Linked In, we need to bring their professional network to where they’re working right now… Microsoft with Microsoft Outlook empowers the professional inbox, the tool you use everyday at work to communicate with your existing colleagues. So, the match is actually very clear,” Elliot Shmukler, Director of Product Management at Linked In, said.

In addition to Linked In, Facebook and MySpace, Microsoft plans to add additional social connectors, which will further develop the intricacies and organization of this already complex interface.

As the user base has expanded to young children and the elderly alike (not only college students as it first started out), privacy is among the top of many weary parents’ concerns.

What ever happened to ‘Don’t talk to Strangers’?

A recent study conducted by IT security firm Sophos revealed startling details about current Facebook users. Two fictitious accounts were created with profile pictures of a rubber duck and another with two cats on a rug.

Each ‘user’ sent out 100 friend requests in the same age group. Surprisingly, 95 people confirmed, and 8 others added the profile containing two cats as ‘her’ main photo.

With the many users across the world providing date of birth, town or suburb, IM screen name, college or workplace, and even their phone number, it is no wonder identity theft has increased. Users are willing to connect with strangers despite warnings of this occurrence.

Hence the creation of the Safety Advisory Board.

Made up of five Internet safety organizations, WiredSafety, ConnectSafely, Common Sense Media, Childnet International and The Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI), the board joins MTV in its campaign to protect social media users from online predators.

First, the Safety Advisory Board plans to revise the safety information offered through the online help center. This will provide more safety information for parents, children and teachers.

In another attempt at tightening safety in May 2008, Facebook signed a deal with the attorneys general of 49 states to enhance protection of minors through measures such as automatically warning them when too much personal information is given out about themselves.