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Athletic director David Brandon suggested Friday that the Michigan athletic department had catfished some of its own student-athletes to teach them a cautionary lesson on the possible perils of social networking, according to Kyle Rowland of ElevenWarriors.com.

While Brandon never actually used the word catfished in describing UMs actions, Rowland reports that the athletic department hired two outside consulting firms to track athletes use of social media. One of the firms used an attractive female to contact Michigan players on Facebook and some of the athletes reported responses were inappropriate.

However, associate athletic director Dave Ablauf denied to SI.com that Michigan catfished its athletes, claiming the university did not try to establish relationships between fake personalities and its athletes. Speaking with Bill Shea of Crains Detroit Business, Ablauf went on to say the female never actually made direct contact with the players.

Ablaufs account of what happened contradicts what Brandon and, more directly, head football coach Brady Hoke have said. According to Kyle Meinke of Annarbor.com, Hoke detailed UMs approach as follows:

Before he came in, we gave him 20 Facebook accounts of guys on our team, said Hoke, in a January speech to Michigan high school coaches. She tried to talk to our guys. Hey, what are ya doin? Whatever it might be.

Well, two months later were in a team meeting and were on the topic of what you put out there in the cyber universe you should have seen 115 guys when that young lady she was hot, now; a very, very nice looking young lady when she walked into that meeting room, and the guys looking at each other.

Because some of them didnt use their heads when communicating back and forth with that young lady.

Michigans first social media director, Jordan Miller, resigned in December after it was discovered that she wasnt exactly who she claimed to be. It turned out that Miller did not graduate from Columbia College in Chicago, as stated on her resume. The university hired Miller last February to oversee Michigans social media program at an annual salary of $100,000.

College athletic programs have been tasked with tutoring their athletes during the social media boom, and have also been affected by high school recruits making social media miscues.

This story has been updated from its original version.

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Michigan ‘catfished’ own athletes to teach social media dangers

WASHINGTON - The company behind the popular Path social networking service agreed to pay $800,000 to settle federal charges that it illegally collected personal information from cellphones without the knowledge or consent of its customers, the government said Friday.

Path Inc. of San Francisco collected names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses and usernames for Facebook and Twitter accounts from its customers' cellphones without permission, the Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission said.

These customers included roughly 3,000 children under 13 and occurred even in cases when a Path customer sought to block the service from collecting the information. The government said Path collected the information the first time a customer signed into the service and upon every subsequent sign-in.

"The user had no meaningful choice as to the collection and storage of personal information from the user's mobile device contacts, and the user interface options were illusory," according to the Justice Department's lawsuit against Path. The Justice Department filed the case against Path on Thursday in federal court in San Francisco at the FTC's request. Path acknowledged the legal settlement on Friday.

Path said in a statement that even before the FTC had contacted the company, it was made aware that its service was allowing children under 13 to register as customers. It said it has suspended all accounts for users under 13.

"There was a period of time where our system was not automatically rejecting people who indicated that they were under 13," the company said. "Before the FTC reached out to us, we discovered and fixed this sign-up process qualification, and took further action by suspending any underage accounts that had mistakenly been allowed to be created."

Path's statement on Friday did not respond to the government's charge that the company had violated privacy assurances that it made to adult customers whose personal information it collected without permission. But it had previously apologized, in February 2012, for what it described as the mistake of collecting that information from adults and said it had deleted its customers' uploaded contact information from its own computers.

Days earlier, the company's chief executive, Dave Morin, had defended the practice in a statement that said, "We believe this type of friend finding and matching is important to the industry and that it is important that users clearly understand it."

The Path fine comes as the FTC adopts new recommendations to make sure companies in the rapidly expanding mobile market are aware of privacy concerns and offer better information to consumers about data practices. The FTC wants app developers and operating system providers, including Apple and Google, to give consumers real-time disclosures and obtain their express consent before accessing sensitive content like geographic location, contact lists and photos.

"This settlement with Path shows that no matter what new technologies emerge, the agency will continue to safeguard the privacy of Americans," said outgoing FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz, who on Friday formally announced plans to leave the agency.

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Operator of 'Path' social networking app fined $800,000 for illegally collecting private info

SAN FRANCISCO -- Mobile social networking app Path has settled Federal Trade Commission charges that it deceived users by collecting personal information from their mobile address books without their knowledge or permission.

The San Francisco company will also pay $800,000 for illegally collecting kids personal information without parents consent, the FTC said Friday.

Path must also establish a privacy program and obtain independent privacy assessments every other year for the next 20 years, according to the settlement.

This settlement with Path shows that no matter what new technologies emerge, the agency will continue to safeguard the privacy of Americans, said outgoing FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz.

Path Chief Executive Dave Morin apologized last February for uploading iPhone address books to Path servers.

"We believe you should have control when it comes to sharing your personal information," Morin said at the time. "We also believe that actions speak louder than words. So, as a clear signal of our commitment to your privacy, weve deleted the entire collection of user-uploaded contact information from our servers. Your trust matters to us and we want you to feel completely in control of your information on Path."

Path is a mobile social networking app that lets users share moments in their lives with a social circle of up to 150 friends.

The FTC claimed that Paths iPhone app did not give consumers a choice of how their personal information was treated and then automatically collected and stored personal information from mobile address books including names, addresses, phone numbers, Facebook and Twitter user names and birthdates.

Paths privacy policy deceived consumers by saying that it only collected information such as IP address and browser type, the complaint said.

Further, Path collected personal information from about 3,000 children under the age of 13 without their parents permission, the FTC said. Federal law requires online services to notify parents and get their permission before collecting that information.

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Mobile social networking app Path settles with FTC for $800,000

The Convergent YouTube User Experience
When a consumer opens their web browser they have a billion sites to choose from. Many might think that these sites have to compete for the attention of the user, but the online world is becoming more convergent. This is especially true for social networking sites. In Convergence Culture, author Henry Jenkins states, "Convergence represents a paradigm shift mdash;a move from medium specific content toward content that flows across multiple media channels, toward the increased interdependence of communications systems, toward multiple ways of assessing media content, toward more complex relations." YouTube is at the center of this shift as it has embraced the convergence culture it exists in and used it to fuel its growth and success. The experience of a YouTube user crosses platforms and brands. Can the site be defined as a music library, a search engine, storage for movie trailers, an entertainment outlet, a news station, or a social network? YouTube is all of those things and more. YouTube is defined differently by each user because it serves several functions and plays different roles in people #39;s lives. The following video shows the daily typical convergent experience for a YouTube user.

By: 461IMC

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The Convergent YouTube User Experience - Video

UpperCup, an iPhone cup holder. No seriously
UpperCup, an iPhone cup holder. No seriously... No more one handed typing. No more spilling coffee on your lap. Have your hands free for your optimal texting, gaming and social networking pleasure. Ever since the 1st smartphone came to the market we all have been waiting for Uppercup

By: sanaent72

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UpperCup, an iPhone cup holder. No seriously - Video