Posts Tagged ‘ Facebook ’

What Happens When Facebook Face Scan Screws Up?

June 8th, 2011. By AbiK

Can you spell L-A-W-S-U-I-T?

As the adage goes, give them an inch, they’ll take a mile. And Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook are giving credence to the phrase with this whole face scanning bit. Internet privacy be damned is apparently the underlying mantra of all that Facebook is becoming.

The latest “isn’t technology great?!” app that Facebook will be deploying focuses on all those wonderful Kodak moments that you load onto your Facebook page. Facebook will launch the software that will scan the faces in all uploaded images—yes, yours too—on the site in a few weeks, according to CNN.com.

The face scanning app will “recognize” you (I love the innocuous feel to that—like I’ve just run into Facebook in the produce aisle at Winn-Dixie and they’ve “recognized” me with a “Hi! Great to see you again!”. Bullsh#t.) and your friends on any given picture. The face scanning program will then suggest the name of the person in the picture. Aww shucks, Facebook’s helping us all tag our friends in photos so we only have to check a box! Bullsh#t.

What’s wrong with having Facebook face scans? I’ll tell you:

1. Facebook Face Scan and Privacy are Like Oil and Water.

See, here’s the thing: all Facebook users have automatically been included in the database for the face scanning. Oh, sure, you can “opt out” but you shouldn’t have to opt out—you should have to opt IN. By going ahead and taking your image, face scanning you and letting you opt out, Facebook already has you in the database, they just won’t “suggest” your name in any photos if you opt out.

Did you agree to be in that database for that purpose? No. When you signed on to have a wall on Facebook, I’m betting that wasn’t part of what you agreed to. And this is yet one more time that users are being told to opt out of some new functionality on FB that they don’t want to be a part of. Remember the need to opt out of Instant Personalization? When folks have gone as far as to create a damn Wiki page to provide instruction on how to opt out of a Facebook app, things have gone too far. But Facebook missed that memo. On the other hand, Google recently chose to NOT release face scan technology it had developed—for privacy reasons. Kudos to Google.

Note to Facebook: when you want to flaunt new technology, capabilities, toys and tools—ask your constituents first whether they want to be a part of it at all before making them opt out of it.

2. What if Facebook Face Scan Identifies the Wrong Person?

I’m guessing that Facebook Face Scan will follow the 80/20 rule when it comes to accurately assigning an identity to a face scan. A number of reports currently on the web put in question its ability to be completely accurate. And it leaves you with this WWFD?—What Will Facebook Do?—with your face scan question. Will they get it right?

I think back to the poor girl whose picture was incorrectly blasted all over the internet in the famed Kobe Bryant case—remember the one in Colorado where Bryant had a little rendezvous? To quote that girl’s lawyer, Sienna LaRene, who at the time was interviewed by Anderson Cooper on CNN, “I think down the road when the dust settles, there is absolutely no question that libel—a libelous situation exists, based on the reckless dissemination of these photographs without any attempt to check if this, in fact, was the complainant in the case. Albeit that would have been bad enough….Reckless? Absolutely. Potential libel suit, absolutely.”

It’s like a bad “separated at birth” dream. And it’s bound to happen. With private investigators out there like Steven Rambam who references sites like Facebook with a “Thank you very much!” for supplying him with an all-access pass to an incredible amount of personal information—it’s easy to see how serious a misidentification can be. Mind you, Rambam would do his homework first and make sure he’s got his man.

But if you think that your “friends” are mini-Rambam’s who will only check off that image tag box if they have the right person, consider the high school kid with 700 images loaded from various parties. Hmm, is that Karen in that pic? Yeah—I think so… I don’t need to tell you what situations might arise for “Karen’s” image to be broadcast around the web.

And the general public is not as discerning with these things as you think. Case in point: I’ve had—seriously—several people ask me if I’m Nicole Brown Simpson. No kidding. To which I respond, “She’s dead.” Doesn’t matter. That actually reminds me of PCWorld’s headline about Facebook Face Scanning being “Creepy”. It is. (And I love their comical suggestion to start uploading “random pictures of trees and animals and stuffed toys and tag them as yourself.” Very funny @geeklil)

So welcome Facebook face scan, and welcome privacy lawsuits—they’re bound to happen. And potentially libel lawsuits, too. That’s my prediction. In the interim, get your mouse and click over to Facebook for..

How to Opt Out of Facebook Face Scan Sharing

1. Go to Account > Account Settings > Privacy

2. Click on the little link “Customize Settings”

3. Go to “Things Others Share” section

4. Go to “Suggest Photos of Me to Friends” and edit the settings to “Disable”

Do it—now!

Tags: Face Recognition, Face Scanning, Facebook, Facebook Friends, Internet Privacy, Libel Lawsuit, Photo Tagging, Privacy Lawsuit
Posted in Emerging Issues, Internet/E-commerce | 1 Comment »

Announcing LawyersandSettlements.com Settlements RSS Feed

May 13th, 2011. By AbiK

A lot of our readers have been asking for this, so we’ve gone ahead and added a Settlements-only feed to our main news RSS feeds.

If you’re looking for current news and info on lawsuits, class actions, settlements, emerging issues and more, we’ve put it all at your fingertips. Check here for what you’re looking for…

Legal News However You Want It

Free Weekly Legal News and Info Newsletter

LawyersandSettlements.com Main News Feed

LawyersandSettlements.com Hot Issues News Feed 

LawyersandSettlements.com Settlements News Feed

LawyersandSettlements.com Emerging Issues News Feed

Daily Legal News Updates on Twitter @OnlineLegalNews

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Oh, and of course, if you’ve got a complaint for a lawyer to review, simply fill out a claim form here. 

Tags: @OnlineLegalNews, Class Action, Emerging Issues, Facebook, Foursquare, lawsuits, LawyersandSettlements, Legal Issues, Legal News, LinkedIn, Settlements, Twitter
Posted in Class Action, Complaints/Comments, Emerging Issues, lawsuits | No Comments »

Facebook Made a Hero out of Adam Guerbuez

October 7th, 2010. By Hunter West

Okay, we’ve all heard about him by now. “The 873 Million Dollar Man,” otherwise known as Adam Guerbuez, the Montreal computer whiz and self-confessed internet marketer who was found to have sent millions of unwanted and uninvited solicitations to Facebook users for everything from erectile dysfunction and penis enlargements to marijuana products. 

Facebook took him to court, and two years ago a California court convicted Guerbuez of violating US anti-spam laws. He was fined a couple of hundred bucks for every spam (advertisement) he sent, which totals $873.3 million, when you add it all up. 

Last week the Quebec Superior Court upheld the US ruling, in theory requiring Guerbuez to pay the judgment. 

Give me a break. 

First of all, no one of Guerbuez’s financial stature and position has that kind of money lying around. This is just a guy and a laptop. And if you want to be really impressed, that $873.3 million when converted to Canadian funds at the 2008 exchange rate equates too more than a billion dollars Canadian. 

That’s like the US music publishing industry fining a single mom millions of dollars for allegedly pulling off music from peer Internet music sites without permission, violating copyright. Or fining some guy millions of dollars for pulling movies off the web before their theatrical release. 

Okay, if they re-sold this stuff and made millions, then such a fine would be appropriate. But they’re not. We’re talking a single mom pulling down tunes because her daughter is Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Adam Guerbuez, Facebook, Million Dollar Man
Posted in Intellectual Property, Internet/E-commerce | No Comments »

Facebook Can Take Instant Personalization and You-Know-What It

April 29th, 2010. By AbiK

We’re fans of Facebook. Or should I say “friends”. We like Facebook. And yes, LawyersAndSettlements.com also has a page on Facebook. But you won’t find what your BFF’s on Facebook “like” streaming on our site.

So why aren’t we embracing this Spirograph-like “open graph” concept? Five Reasons. Read on.

Reason One: Because we know you have a brain of your own. If you are interested in a certain legal topic or issue, you’ll go to it. Without your friend’s having to share the link on FB to prompt you. And hey, if they were really such good friends, wouldn’t they have sent you the link already if they thought you’d be interested?

Reason Two: We also know that you already have Google and Twitter and a whole bunch of other options out there that can tell you what’s popular or high-ranking in search. Oh, but as Mashable’s Pete Cashmore so aptly noted in a recent post at cnn.com, perhaps FB is jonesing to become the site “best positioned to rank the Web”.

Reason Three: It’s a privacy thing. We’re all on Facebook in our personal lives as well. We like to keep it intimate. Cozy. If we’ve shared it on Facebook, we’ve shared it on Facebook. Not on cnn.com’s homepage in some baton hand-off, website to website.

Reason Four: There’s something out-of-body about seeing your high school buddy’s name flashing before your eyes on the right side bar of cnn.com. It’s like some weird Warholian 15-minutes-of-fame thing—but isn’t in reality as you’re the only viewer seeing it. And it somehow stabs at the integrity of what you’re looking at…cheapens it a bit. It’s as though rather than having CNN on a wide-screen tv behind the bar you’re at, suddenly, cnn has pulled up a bar stool next to you. A little too…chummy. (Note, of the “50,000”+ sites who’ve adopted the new FB app, apparently news stalwarts NYT and WSJ have not…)

Reason Five: We’re finding—for ourselves—that most of the “friends” whose opinions we’d actually give a rat’s -ss about have opted out of Facebook’s new attempt at web domination. The mere fact that they had to dive into the depths of the veritable snake pit that the Facebook Privacy Settings are shows the lengths they went to—a sure sign that they did not “like” sharing their “likes”. Food for thought.

By the way, if you’re thinking that “opting out” of FB’s instant personalization option is a no-brainer, guess again. Intuitive it is not. Here’s how you do it. Go to your FB profile. Click on Account in the upper right. In the drop-down, go to Privacy Settings. From there, click on Applications and Websites. From there, uncheck the “Allow” box next to where it says, “Instant Personalization Pilot Program” (which FB had so graciously checked for you to begin with). Voila!

Oh, and hey—don’t forget to “like” us on Facebook!

Tags: Facebook, Internet Privacy, Privacy
Posted in Emerging Issues, Internet/E-commerce | No Comments »

Watch Your P’s and Q’s on Facebook and Twitter

March 16th, 2010. By janem

If you have a potential personal injury suit, the first thing a lawyer will tell you is to “Keep your mouth shut”. They should also add -and many already do– “Stay off Facebook, Twitter, and any other social networking sites, including your own blog.”

Not only are more people than ever turning to Internet sources for news, a recent study from the Pew Internet and American Life Project show that, of people who do get their news online, 75 percent of them have links sent via email or social media. And that percentage includes private investigators, insurers, defense lawyers and judges.

Insurance companies see social media as a monitor or search for information about claimants. They are looking for information a claimant has posted regarding an accident, such as how it happened, who caused it, or even the claimant saying it was their fault.

They also look for information which might contradict what the injured person says about their injury.

Here are a few examples:

• In Ontario a woman who claimed she was disabled had Facebook photos of her dancing. The judge allowed the photos to be admitted as evidence in her personal injury case.

• A Florida woman claimed a back injury and couldn’t work. She went on a cruise with friends and they videotaped her whooping it up, including a videotape of her doing the limbo. The insurance company had been on her Facebook site, downloaded the video and was ready to show it to the jury. The case didn’t turn out to her liking.

• A Supreme Court judge ordered the production of records showing how often a plaintiff claiming a brain injury uses Facebook.

• In a Twitter libel case, you would need to choose 140 characters-at the most–very, very carefully. The promoters of “the Cookie Diet” allegedly claimed that celebutant Kim Kardashian is a fan But Kardashian disdainfully tweeted she would never be on such an “unhealthy diet.” The Cookies filed a defamation case against Kardashian.

And insurance companies look for general information to profile what kind of a person you are. So if you have photos posted on FaceBook or MySpace in a bar or doing something arguably illegal, judgment evidence will be made against you–more negative fodder that a jury might frown on. Value judgments will be made about you–and even a lawyer you hire might decide not to take your case.

It has long been established that electronic documents can be relevant. In one Ontario case, a judge scolded the insurer’s lawyer for failing to ask the plaintiff to produce her Facebook page as part of a sworn affidavit, or to bring up Facebook in cross-examination.  In another case, a judge ordered up the release of Facebook. So now some lawyers are demanding Facebook photos in every suit.

Typically, courts in civil cases can only demand private Facebook pages, or a twitter here and there if the material is directly related to the case. But just to be on the safe side, take Everything Down! Especially photographs and videos. The e-trail doesn’t stop there so be diligent: it’s also important that all your online friends purge you from their accounts. If a photo is tagged by someone else, it is still accessible by searching.  And strengthen your privacy settings. It’s BIG BROTHER on the Social Media Highway!

Tags: Facebook, personal injury litigation, Twitter
Posted in Personal Injury | No Comments »