Facebook apologizes for privacy snafu; Higher ed in Second Life
NEW YORK -- Among the top stories in the Tech world this week came Wednesday when Facebook said it will allow members to turn off a controversial feature that monitors the Web sites they visit.
Facebook's chief executive apologized for not responding sooner to privacy complaints.
In a note in his blog, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the online social network took too long to react to users' concerns about the "Facebook Beacon" feature, which notifies a user's friends of visits to affiliated Web sites.
"We've made a lot of mistakes building this feature, but we've made even more with how we've handled them. We simply did a bad job with this release, and I apologize for it," he said.
The Palo Alto, Calif.-based company had last week made several changes to Beacon in the wake of a petition signed by 50,000 Facebook users to scale back the feature.
Facebook recently introduced Beacon as a way to keep one's network of friends on Facebook informed about one's Web surfing habits. Critics argued this transformed it from a members-only site known for privacy protections into a diary of one's wider Web activities.
PC security experts warn of holiday scams
SAN FRANCISCO -- Online shopping scams could become a major security threat in the weeks leading up to Christmas as consumers eagerly type in credit card numbers, click on discount coupons and participate in online promotions, security experts worry.
Instead of moneysaving deals, e-mailed coupons could lead recipients into "phishing" schemes where potential buyers are redirected to a copycat site, IBM Corp. security executive Christopher Rouland warned.
The real purpose of phishing sites is to siphon the user's credit card information, passwords and other financial data, he said.
Rouland is chief technology officer for Internet security systems at Big Blue, which controls more than 1 million "phish trap" e-mail addresses that discovered 867,000 scams in the third quarter. "The quality of malware is very high," he said.
IBM is urging online shoppers not to click on links within e-mails that appear to come from an online retailer. Instead, open a new Web browser, go to the retailer's site, navigate to special coupons or promotions and see if it's there.
College launches Second Life island
ATLANTA -- It's tough to teach a college class when your students are constantly flying around the room.
Just ask any professor who has opened a classroom in the online world of Second Life.
Soon, though, college faculty members needing help with the Internet universe of more than 10 million registered users can tap a Second Life "island" Georgia State University is starting.
The island -- a plot of land like others available in Second Life -- will offer free instruction on setting up a classroom and will showcase best practices and offer tips on other ways to use Second Life.
For example, architecture students can build a virtual house instead of simply designing one on paper. Clothing design students can hold a virtual fashion show. Business students can start a company and see how it does without risking startup capital. And other students can see the impact of a tsunami or hurricane coming ashore.
"By teaching in Second Life, you're able to give your students an experience that might be too expensive or dangerous in the real world," said Paula Christopher, a technology project manager at Georgia State.
The island is in the development stages and should be open by summer, Christopher said.
It's only one in a long list of ways universities and companies are using Second Life, which was launched in 2003 by San Francisco-based Linden Labs. Users' avatars can tour the Louvre museum, Yankee Stadium and numerous schools, for instance. And Comcast Corp., IBM Corp., Dell Inc., Cisco Systems Inc. and many other companies have islands like Georgia State's.