Facebook is warning its users to be wary of “liking” post supposedly suggested by friends. Facebook, together with the Washington state attorney general, are suing online marketing company Adscend Media for “like-jacking.”

“This company is misleading you, the user, the consumer, into thinking that you are getting a message from a friend. And in fact, that is an advertisement,” said Assistant Attorney General Paula Selis.

The messages look legit but it actually leads you to online surveys or ad sites that would steal your identity and/or credit card information.

Attorney General Bob McKenna warns Facebook users, “Trust your instincts before you click. If it doesn’t really look like something that your friend would send to you, it doesn’t contain any introductory language, you might want to check with them before clicking.”

Timeline Dilemma, IPO, War

Some Facebook users aren’t happy with the mandatory rollout of Timeline in their profiles, which starts this week, and users will have seven days to “clean” their profiles if they don’t want their dirty little secrets exposed.

They had a three-day trading suspension, which ends today, in preparation for their IPO.
Along with other social networking sites, they launched the Don’t Be Evil bookmarklet in response to the Google+ monopoly in social search results.

Twitter

Censorship

Twitter announced that in some countries, tweets will be censored to comply with laws.  Tweets will not be totally erased but will be censored in some countries, and Twitter will post a censorship notice for tweets removed.

Twitter announced the censorship in their blog post.

“As we continue to grow internationally, we will enter countries that have different ideas about the contours of freedom of expression. Some differ so much from our ideas that we will not be able to exist there. Others are similar but, for historical or cultural reasons, restrict certain types of content, such as France or Germany, which ban pro-Nazi content.”
“Until now, the only way we could take account of those countries’ limits was to remove content globally. Starting today, we give ourselves the ability to reactively withhold content from users in a specific country – while keeping it available in the rest of the world. We have also built in a way to communicate transparently to users when content is withheld, and why.”

“One of our core values as a company is to defend and respect each user’s voice.  We try to keep content up wherever and whenever we can, and we will be transparent with users when we can’t. The tweets must continue to flow.”

On a related note, the Federal Bureau of Investigation is asking companies to develop a software that would allow them to easily scan social networking content so they can prevent crimes from being committed.  But this effort is being questioned, as this could curtail internet freedom.

Earlier this week, Twitter acquired Dasient, the leader in anti-malware technology to beef-up their security portfolio.

Google+

Google+ Vice President of Product Bradley Horowitz announced in his G+ account that 13-year olds can now have a G+ account.

“With Google+, we want to help teens build meaningful connections online. We also want to provide features that foster safety alongside self-expression. Today we’re doing both, for everyone who’s old enough for a Google Account (13+ in most countries [2]),” wrote Horowitz.

But this announcement, along with Google’s new privacy policy, is met with raised eyebrows as it render Google users’ data vulnerable and exposed.  Legislators are now arguing that users should have more control in data being collected by Google.

Aside from opening their doors to teenagers, G+ also welcomed Google Earth as it now has it’s own official page, and Google in Education, a page made for educator and their supporters.