January 25, 2011 New Germany Gets Facebook To Cut Down Spam
German government officials have pressured Facebook to stop spamming people to join the social network after a contact uses the Friend Finder feature; apparently these messages went out even to people that hadn’t been expressly invited by a human.
The company agreed to change this after the city of Hamburg’s data protection office made official complaints to Facebook, according toDer Spiegel. The officials had responded to gripes from people who got emails that included images from profiles of contacts from messaging address books.
The spam had showed signs that Facebook retained the contents of users’ address books from third-party applications well after said users had sent out invitations, and messages went out to people who hadn’t specifically been invited by the person who’d used the Friend Finder feature.
“For many, it wasn’t clear at all how Facebook could know that they knew certain members of the social network in real life,” says Johannes Caspar, who handles data protection issues for the city-state of Hamburg. “Facebook will be required to alert users that they should only send invitations to those contacts who they know personally and who, in their opinion, want to receive such an invitation.”
Now the Friend Finder will make a disclosure to the user whenever that individual loads an address book and ask permission before sending any invitations. Recipients of these messages will also see an explanation of why they received an invitation and have the option to block future mail from Facebook.
We’ve asked Facebook to clarify whether the improved transparency in the Friend Finder will become available only in Germany or worldwide. So far, the social network hasn’t answered that same question when posed by Der Spiegel.
Tags: Facebook Spam, Germany Facebook
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January 24, 2011 Lush’s UK Website Hacked, Credit Card Numbers Used
Hackers are cashing out after stealing credit card numbers from Lush’s UK website, which was shut down on Friday and replaced with a message that warns customers that their account information may have been compromised.
According to the message, anyone who made online purchases on the handmade cosmetic company’s UK site between October 4th and January 20th is at risk of having their credit cards used fraudulently.
Lush also left a message for the hacker:
“If you are reading this, our web team would like to say that your talents are formidable. We would like to offer you a job – were it not for the fact that your morals are clearly not compatible with ours or our customers.”
We’re sure that the hackers are absolutely broken up about the scolding — especially since comments on the cosmetic company’s Facebook profile make it clear that they have started a shopping spree on Lush customers’ dime.
Several customers detail purchases made using their stolen credit card information. Others express anger over the length of time that Lush waited after discovering that hackers had penetrated the site on Christmas Day.
Hilary Jones, ethical director at Lush, told the BBC that the company used the time between Christmas and Friday to investigate what the hacker’s intentions were (perhaps they were just looking for information on bath soaps?). When it became obvious that the hackers had started to make small test purchases using Lush customers’ credit cards, Lush shut down its site.
Other companies like Trapster-maker Reach Unlimited and Gawker Media, on the other hand, notified customers almost immediately when their sites were compromised recently.
A temporary Lush UK website, which prudently will only accept PayPal payments, is scheduled to be launched in a few days. But it might be a while before its customers muster enough forgiveness to shop there.
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Noman Ali: Gadgets, Websites, Google, Social Media and SEO 