The controversial Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act has passed the House, despite privacy concerns and a veto threat from the White House. CISPA, designed to make it easier for companies and the government to share information about cybersecurity threats, passed 248-168, which isn't a big enough margin to override a veto, Politico reports. Some 42 Democrats backed the bill, while 28 Republicans voted against it.

The bill—dubbed son of SOPA by critics—was backed by Internet firms, including Facebook and Microsoft, but firmly opposed by privacy groups. The co-chairs of the House privacy caucus called CISPA "unacceptable," and urged lawmakers to vote against it, reports the Washington Post. "In its current form, this legislation would allow companies to share personal information about consumers with other companies, even if that information has nothing to do with cybersecurity," they said in a statement. The measure would "also free companies from liability if they share this personal, sensitive information." ProPublica has more on the bill.

The Marine Corps announced Wednesday that the sergeant who superimposed President Obama’s face onto a poster for the movie Jackass and posted it on Facebook will receive an other-than-honorable-discharge and lose most of his benefits for violating military policy.

I recently did something I haven't done at all in 2012: browsed Google Chrome's selection of extensions to make my internet experience more enjoyable (as if it could get any better). Of the 20 or more extensions that I tried out, here are the ones that stood out to me:

1. Do Not Track Plus There's been a slight uproar recently with reports published that told of sites like Google and Facebook selling your data to third-party companies. DNTP takes care of your concerns, blocking internet tracking software and cookies.
2. WOT: WOT (short for "Web of Trust") allows internet users to rate websites, which can be used to warn other users when an internet site should be avoided. I have it set to only tell me about the bad eggs, which works for me because I can ignore its existence 99% of the time I spend on the internet.
3. Melanto Calculator: This takes your computer calculator and one-ups it. It has almost every function that a TI-84 contains, except the graphing capabilities. It doesn't even need the internet to run!
4. Graph.tk: While only a student may find this useful, it's still great. It's technically not an extension for chrome, this merely links to the site. This is what it appears to be: a very versatile graph that is simple to use and easily mastered. Awesome for quickly graphing pretty much every function when you are calculator-less. I love using this alongside the Melanto Calculator.
5. Facebook Photo Zoom: Who here hates the fact that you can't see a big picture without clicking on the icon? This takes all that clicking away (a relief for my finger). Simply hover over the photo, and a large version will appear. Takes some time to get used to but this is my favorite extension so far (besides Adblock).

You know that list of permissions you breeze by when downloading an app? The ones you likely don't read but that could contain all kinds of little things you might not want to put in the hands of say, Facebook? Yeah. You should probably be reading those, since Facebook permissions for its mobile app allows for it to read your text messages if they want to.

After a report in the Sunday Times in London said Facebook was secretly reading the text messages of users of the mobile app, they're responding to say that's all hogwash — they're not doing it now, but they technically could if they really wanted to. And you already gave them the go-ahead.

If you are reading this, then you probably have a problem - and perhaps one that you are not necessarily willing to admit.  Most folks have heard of mainstream addictions such as alcohol, drugs, smoking, gambling, sex, etc.  From my understanding,  an addiction is present when that activity adversely affects their life in such a way that their priorities begin to change dramatically.  But there is a new addiction that appears to be full blown - online status.  This online status is more than just social media outlets like facebook and twitter, but also the blogosphere (such as commenting on articles and forums) and gaming.  I'm sure that there are several folks on Newsvine that are addicted to this website as well.  Mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets are clearly enabling the cause.

There once was a time not too long ago when having a pager indicated that you were cool (or a drug dealer).  But having such a device was never vital to one's survival or well being.  When cell phones initially came along, they were viewed mostly as a business related tool rather than a social one.  As cell phones evolved, so did the desire for the masses to own one.  Soon enough, society went from viewing folks with cell phones as the minority to now gasping at those that do not.  In less than a year's time from now, we can replace "cell phones" in that prior statement to "smartphones" - and then eventually "tablets".

But just as each of these devices are bringing folks closer together via the world wide web, their hunger and lust for gaining such access has grown exponentially.  So much so to the point where they feel like checking e-mails, updating status', and tweeting are required for them to function throughout the day.  I even heard a poll that some folks would rather post their status online than have sex.  Which to me, sounds conter-productive, as the whole point of posting such information is to make yourself look good to others so that you will have a better chance at getting some.

There have even been reports of where a mom was too busy making sure that she was socially connected that she forgot about her toddler in the bathtub:
http://thestir.cafemom.com/baby/115106/Toddler_Drowns_While_Mom_Plays

In another report, a mom felt that she needed to tweet that her son drowned just after the indicident occurred - would not be surprised that she was tweeting while he was swimming - hence the drowning. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/17/shellie-ross-moms-tweets_n_395833.html

I recall back in the 1980's during the video game boom, many kids became addicted to them.  Eventually, every kid had to have a video game console (some more than just one) - and would spend countless hours fighting dragons, shooting fireballs, and racing around.  All the while, grades and socialization began to suffer.  Kids would rather spend time in front of a television screen playing some fantasy game rather than going outside and playing with their friends.  I see this pattern of behavior repeating today.  For the older population, this addiction is also impacted their job performance and relationships.

As for me, my online addiction is playing scrabble.  Earlier, I would play the actual board game with my wife and friends.  Once the game became available online, I would play against other random folks around the globe.  Once the game became available for mobile devices, I could play on the go.  Quite often, my wife and I would spend a Saturday night playing scrabble against each other on our smartphones (but we would do while having a glass wine too).  The game has even brought me closer to mom and other family members that leave far away, as we play against one another as well.

Despite my addiction, I refuse to let the game - or my smartphone - control my life.  There have been times where I felt the urge to take my scrabble turn even while I was playing with my kids.  However, I simply rationalized with myself and concluded that the other players can wait, as my kids are far more important to me than a silly little game.  I still play scrabble while at work - just be sure to do so during my lunch break, on my own time.

After all, nobody is paying us to do this stuff (and nobody is going to die if we stop), so why should these acts be our top priority?

The small print included with many mobile phone apps is giving their developers the right to rifle through users' phone books, text messages and emails.

By agreeing to little-read terms and conditions documents, phone users are giving developers the right to inspect their personal information and even find out who they are talking to.

In many shocking cases, users are even giving apps the right to collect whatever images the camera happens to be seeing, as well as the phone's location.

Facebook, Yahoo!, Flickr and Badoo all admitted to reading users' text messages through their Android smartphone apps, the Sunday Times reported.

And many other apps from less well-known developers, many of them available for free, are also including the rights to access your personal data in their terms and conditions.

Academics are now warning the many apps are little more than 'fronts' to allow companies to hoover up personal data and pass them on to advertisers for a fee.

But the revelations also make clear that the wealth of data collected by the new generation of smartphones could pose a serious risk to users' privacy.

Facebook now offers 'suggested guests' to invite along for nights out and other events planned through the site.

The uninvited guests pop up in a window saying 'Suggested Guests'.

By Rob Waugh

It started with a tweet. And in the end, that’s what won the war.

On Tuesday, Planned Parenthood sent out a pull-no-punches Twitter alert reading that “Susan G. Komen caves under anti-choice pressure, ends funding for breast cancer screenings at PP health centers.” And this morning, Komen for the Cure said it was sorry, and reversed its decision.

Within minutes of that Tuesday bombshell, the tale became not just a news story but a social media explosion, with a flurry of responses pouring out across Facebook, Twitter and Komen’s own message boards – all of it overwhelmingly disapproving of Komen decision to sever ties to Planned Parenthood. And in the process, it became an object lesson in how to handle a crisis, how to make it worse — and then how to fix it.

NEW YORK (AP) — Google, Facebook and other big tech companies are jointly designing a system for combating email scams known as phishing.

A partnership between Facebook and Politico announced today is one of the more far-reaching efforts. It will consist of sentiment analysis reports and voting-age user surveys, accompanied by stories by Politico reporters.

Please read comments 2.0 1,2,3,and 4 first. That will explain how this article got clipped to the metavine group and categorized as "not news."

Everybody seems to expect Facebook to die in the next few years. But there's a good chance it could outlast you.

Could your "Facebook timeline" one day include decades of status updates, and love letters from the boyfriend you dumped 20 years ago? We asked some futurists and experts to speculate on the future of what could become the oldest social network ever.

It's become a familiar ritual: Joining a new network. You start over from scratch, adding the same friends that you added last time, plus a random new assortment. Your friend list takes a new shape each time, as you find a different set of connections. And maybe you quietly drop some friends you're tired of. Most of us have done this over and over again.

WICHITA, KS—A Kansas man has been charged with devising a scheme to sell phony investments in Facebook, U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom said today.

Ronald D. Catrell, 45, Overland Park, Kan., is charged with three counts of bank fraud, one count of money laundering, one count of wire fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft. Federal criminal charges were filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Kan.

Facebook is settling with the Federal Trade Commission over charges it deceived consumers when it changed its privacy settings in 2009, agreeing to get permission from users before changing the way it shares data and submitting to independent third-party audits of its privacy practices every two years for the next 20 years.

The list is one of those things that’s fun to poke through, but security people remind us that we’re more vulnerable online than we like to think, and sometimes we make it easy for the bad guys. Take a look, and if you use one of these, SplashData says it’s probably a good idea to change it.

1. password 2. 123456 3.12345678 4. qwerty 5. abc123 6. monkey 7. 1234567 8. letmein 9. trustno1 10. dragon 11. baseball 12. 111111 13. iloveyou 14. master 15. sunshine 16. ashley 17. bailey 18. passw0rd 19. shadow 20. 123123 21. 654321 22. superman 23. qazwsx 24. michael 25. football

We’ve seen things like this before; back in June, a New York app developer named Daniel Amitay found that of the 10,000 possible numeric pass codes on the iPhone, there were just 10 that represented 15 percent of all the codes he found to be in use. Like the list above, it was predictable: 1234 was the runaway leader, followed by 0000, 2580 (the center column on any phone keypad), 1111, 5555 and so forth.

Citing security reasons, Facebook expects to continue monitoring Web pages that nonmembers and members visit after signing off, despite concerns raised by lawmakers Wednesday following reports of persistent tracking of personal information.

Porn, violent images and other graphic pieces of content are spreading across Facebook in what appears to be a widespread and ugly spam attack.
Graham Cluley, a consultant with Web security firm Sophos, said Tuesday that "explicit and violent" images had been flooding the News Feeds of Facebook users for the past 24 hours or so.
Cluley wrote on the Sophos blog that the images have included hardcore porn; photoshopped images of celebrities, including teen pop star Justin Bieber, in sexual positions; "extreme violence;" and at least one image of an abused dog.

The rumors were true: The new Blacklist Bill could effectively destroy YouTube, Twitter, and other sites that rely on user-generated content by making the sites' owners legally responsible for content their users post.

It also includes provisions that would make it a felony to stream unlicensed content -- including cover band performances, karaoke videos, video game play-throughs, and more.

It's a grab-bag of Halloween goodies for a handful of big corporations -- but for us it's Frankenstein's monster, cobbled together from half-born bills, set to suffocate free speech and innovation and terrorize consumers and Internet users.

Call it "Occupy Facebook." Or, perhaps, "UnOccupy Facebook."

Hoping to capitalize on frustrations with the social networking giant, not to mention some of the anti-corporate sentiment bubbling up on Wall Street and beyond, entrepreneurs have launched an upstart site called Unthink.

The Tampa, Florida-based startup wants to be everything that Facebook and rival Google+ are not -- and it has the manifesto and sassy YouTube video to prove it.

The point of Facebook has always been to make friends. Now it wants to buy some more – so long as they are American politicians – thanks to a new political action committee (Pac) the company has established.

The Google Plus Social Network is now open to everyone. While in it's Beta stage it was only open to a limited few and by invite only. I've already created my profile and was wondering how many of my Newsvine friends are already signed up or are planning to.

Congratulations, Facebook. You're the new Rock 'n' Roll: Corruptor of America's Youth.
According to the latest back-to-school survey by The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University (CASA Columbia), American teens who spend any time on social networking sites are more likely to drink, smoke, and take drugs.

Social networking giant Facebook has released a plugin that allows a users of the social networking site to like, share or recommend any page from anywhere in Google’s Chrome browser.

The plugin, once installed, appears as a thumbs-up icon in the top right corner of the Chrome browser.

SAN JOSE, CA—Sanford Wallace, 43, of Las Vegas, today self-surrendered to agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation. United States Attorney Melinda Haag announced. On July 6, a federal grand jury in San Jose indicted Wallace with multiple counts of fraud and related activity in connection with electronic mail. Wallace was also charged with three counts of intentional damage to a protected computer and two counts of criminal contempt

At least 19 women were victimized by a computer hacker who broke into their email accounts, captured risqué photographs of the women and then swapped them for the women's Facebook profile pictures, authorities say.

By Elaine Silvestrini

Google Faces Up to Facebook with 'Plus' Social Sharing Site

Google just threw down the digital gauntlet, right in front of Facebook's feet, with the announcement of a new social sharing site called Google+.

The site is invite-only at the moment (cue hundreds of "Can anyone spare me a Plus invite?" requests on Twitter), so for those who can't get inside, the basic premise is this: Plus lets you create groups of people called "Circles", and you can share stuff among those groups in a more focused way than you might using Facebook.

So while you might share the news that you've got engaged with everyone in all your Circles, the other news - about how your engagement party ended up with three hospitalized casualties, your car painted bright pink, and your purchase of 20 square miles of prime Los Angeles real estate for just $20 and a can of Coke - might just be shared with your BFFs. Or maybe the subset of your BFFs who were invited to the party.

Meanwhile: Myspace to Be Sold to Specific Media for $35 Million

The price is well below the $100 million that News Corp. had been hoping for and a chasm away from Myspace’s one-time billion valuation.

The deal includes a halfing of Myspace’s staff of 400, as well as other cost cuts. It’s likely Myspace CEO Mike Jones and other top staff will remain only for an interim period.

News Corp. bought Myspace for $580 million in 2005, and made that back via a lucrative advertising deal with Google when the social networking site was flying high.

But that was another time–the media giant has been trying to sell the site before the end of its fiscal year, which falls on Thursday, in order to get it off the books.

I saw an interesting article today about how many more kids under the required age of 14 are using Facebook- almost 46% of 12 year olds use social networks, as a matter of fact.

I have known about this since I was able to use the site myself at the legal high school age. A simple search of "Class of 2018" will yield a group with many thousands of members, most of them not talking about college graduation. 

I am personally against using the site until you're supposed to. My friends and I (all 600 of them, at least) waited until we had graduated from 8th grade to register for an account. Most of the time, we don't let an underage user "friend" us until they are also in high school. I am against underage use simply because there's an age restriction for a reason, and if one person has to wait, the others should wait as well. Facebook was not designed for use by kids.

Mark Z himself, the creator of Facebook, chimed in on the issue, stating that he would like to get rid of the restriction. He believes that FB has many benefits for kids who use it and that they are "working toward" as solution.

So, would you let your 10 year old use Facebook? Are you for or against underage registration?

Three hours after I gave my name and e-mail address to Michael Fertik, the CEO of Reputation.com, he called me back and read my Social Security number to me. "We had it a couple of hours ago," he said. "I was just too busy to call."

In the past few months, I have been told many more-interesting facts about myself than my Social Security number. I've gathered a bit of the vast amount of data that's being collected both online and off by companies in stealth — taken from the websites I look at, the stuff I buy, my Facebook photos, my warranty cards, my customer-reward cards, the songs I listen to online, surveys I was guilted into filling out and magazines I subscribe to.

I want my Facebook page to be a place for straightforward debate and discussion on various mainstream issues by my 5000 friends, but I get incensed when I think someone is attempting to exploit it to promote pornography.

I will scan through the News Feeds to see what people are saying. I ran across this one feed that seemed out of place. I clicked on the link, and then I got floored by the hardcore pornographic pictures that popped up.

I clicked through a few of these pictures. I could not believe my eyes at the explicit sex scenes depicted. My dander rose very quickly because I felt that the responsible person was showing something that was beyond my standards of acceptability in a public forum. In the movies or Home Box Office this material may be acceptable where there is controlled access.

I immediately unfriended the person responsible for the news feed. However, I needed to wait a day or two to calm down, so I could write with a rational mindset versus merely ranting. I conclude that in the future I would purge pornographic material and people when I see them on my page.

The Android gains matter because technology platform markets tend to standardize around a single dominant platform (see Windows in PCs, Facebook in social, Google in search).

No they @!$%#ing don't. PC's were an anomaly. I don't see every TV being made by Sony, or every handheld console being made by Nintendo, or every TV games console being made by Microsoft.

There's also a big difference between standardisation and dominance. Facebook is certainly not the 'standard' of social networking—it's just the current one everyone's in love with. But we've been there before and web users are fickle. Maybe Facebook will be our overlords in a decade, but it's just as likely to be Friends Reunited 2 and we'll all be using WeldedToYourBrain.com, or something. Ditto search and Google.

With a wave of pro-democracy fervor sweeping the Middle East, could the region's richest powerhouse, Saudi Arabia, be next to fall? This would be far more dangerous for the US, because who knows what group would take power?

Imagine the cops rifling through your mail, your calendar, your receipts. All your private information, available for them to look through. To do this offline, they'd have to get a warrant from a judge and break into your house. But every day the cops -- and anyone else with a good lawyer -- get access to your online email and calendar just by asking.

Major online service providers like Gmail and Facebook just hand over your personal data to the police when they get a legal request -- usually without even telling you they've done so! And since you never know about the request, you never get a day in court to challenge it. Your privacy is gone before you even know it.

Spammers aren't the only ones who have figured out that social networks like Twitter and Facebook are good for business. Sophisticated hackers conducting targeted attacks are also using the networks as a tool to manage malware installations on victims' networks, according to a new report from Mandiant.

Mandiant's latest "M-Trends" report, released on Thursday, says that the company has observed an increasing number of so-called "Advanced Persistent Threats" that are hijacking legitimate social networks and Web based services, including Facebook, Google Chat and MSN as command and control networks for malware installations. The revelation is part of a larger trend that saw sophisticated attacks on commercial entities outstrip attacks on the networks of government agencies and defense industry players, Mandiant reported.

The OpenNet Initiative has outlined two methods by which most nations could enact such shutdowns. Essentially, officials can either close down the routers which direct traffic over the border — hermetically sealing the country from outsiders — or go further down the chain and switch off routers at individual ISPs to prevent access for most users inside.

[...]

Analysis by Renesys, an Internet monitoring body, indicates the shutdown across the nation's major Internet service providers was at precisely the same time, 12:34 a.m. EET (22:34 UTC):

Renesys observed the virtually simultaneous withdrawal of all routes to Egyptian networks in the Internet's global routing table … The Egyptian government's actions tonight have essentially wiped their country from the global map.

Instead, the signs are that the Egyptian authorities have taken a very careful and well-planned method to screen off Internet addresses at every level, from users inside the country trying to get out and from the rest of the world trying to get in.

"It looks like they're taking action at two levels," Rik Ferguson of Trend Micro told me. "First at the DNS level, so any attempt to resolve any address in .eg will fail — but also, in case you're trying to get directly to an address, they are also using the Border Gateway Protocol, the system through which ISPs advertise their Internet protocol addresses to the network. Many ISPs have basically stopped advertising any internet addresses at all."

Essentially, we're talking about a system that no longer knows where anything is. Outsiders can't find Egyptian websites, and insiders can't find anything at all. It's as if the postal system suddenly erased every address inside America — and forgot that it was even called America in the first place.