Archive for the ‘Social Networking’ Category

Purple WiFi to Increase Leisure Footfall Through Social Networking

MANCHESTER, England--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Internet service provider, So Purple, has launched a revolutionary new service to enable companies within the leisure industry to capitalise on the benefits of social networking, while offering their customers a fast, free and secure social WiFi service.

Purple WiFi allows companies to build brand awareness, attracting new customers to their premises without the need for big marketing budgets or costly time investment. Designed to primarily provide businesses with the free WiFi service that is demanded by todays consumers, Purple WiFi ensures that anyone using the service within a social space such as a bar, cafe, restaurant or hotel, will be required to simply like the relevant Facebook page, tweet about their location or Google+ the company. Combined this means that any international business can receive constant promotional access to their customers friends, followers and circles.

So Purple works with businesses to design a targeted login page to welcome their customers and promote relevant offers, communicate news and generally engage with potential audiences.

The business is also given access to a secure customer portal with tools at their disposal to view their customers WiFi usage behaviour in addition to the number of new Facebook fans and Twitter followers that the business has achieved social exposure with. Depending on the age, gender and WiFi patterns of the users, offers and updates can be carefully targeted to attract new footfall as well as rewarding existing loyalty.

Commenting on the new service, Gavin Wheeldon, CEO at So Purple Group Ltd, said: The idea for Purple WiFi came about because everyone expects WiFi wherever they go but the business sharing the internet connection doesnt gain anything in return and, in many cases, ends up with a slower and unsecure internet connection for their own business needs. Businesses should benefit more from offering a WiFi service to customers and Purple WiFi allows them to gain an understanding of their consumer demographics and while building brand awareness through social networking.

Unlike most WiFi services, Purple WiFi addresses the obvious security risk that companies often leave themselves wide open to, when offering free WiFi to consumer. Rather than providing a completely open signal, with no login or validation requirements and no way of capturing consumer usage information, Purple WiFi end users are authenticated via their social networking account, broadband credentials or by a voucher provided by staff.

The business is meanwhile provided with a private channel so that commercially sensitive traffic is kept separate form social traffic. All public WiFi users are also in an isolated mode so they cannot see or connect any other devices attached to the WiFi service, thereby protecting any interception of data passing through the router that they should not be able to see.

ENDS

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Purple WiFi to Increase Leisure Footfall Through Social Networking

Start Me Up! A profile of IdeaPlane

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Posted 17 October 2012 14:32pm by Graham Charlton with 0 comments

IdeaPlane is a startup that brings enterprise social networking to companies in regulated industries, such as finance, that might otherwise have been reticent about embracing social technologies.

I caught up with CEO and founder James Fabricant, himself a former executive at MySpace, to find out more about his vision for the company and the future of the industry.

Built in partnership with one of the worlds biggest investment banks, IdeaPlane is an enterprise social network that provides the best of both worlds: easy-to-use social tools combined with enterprise-grade security, compliance and privacy controls.

I truly believe that enterprise social networking (ESN) can aid collaboration and knowledge sharing among employees in the financial sector and in regulated companies such as law firms.

While ESNs are catching on quickly in many kinds of businesses, improving internal collaboration, it has been difficult for companies in regulated industries to tap into this trend because of concerns over security, compliance and privacy controls. Until now.

We launched about two years ago. As a former MySpace International executive, I experienced first-hand the power of social networking. However, I was always intrigued to find out how this power could be harnessed in a business environment.

Nowadays most of us use social tools regularly, whether its LinkedIn for professional networking or Facebook for socialising with friends. But the use case for businesses has never been entirely clear.

The company is privately funded at the moment; we have a number of high profile investors such as Kevin Eyres and Clare Flynn Levy are currently looking to complete a first major funding round.

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Start Me Up! A profile of IdeaPlane

Facebook turns off automatic facial recognition feature for European users

London, Oct 17 (ANI): Social networking giant Facebook has turned off its controversial facial recognition feature for users across Europe.

The tool took biometric information provided when users tag friends' faces in photos to make suggestions on the correct tags for future images.

Facebook was criticised when it introduced the feature last June without formally announcing its arrival on the site.

Privacy campaigners were particularly disturbed since Facebook allows photographs to be published on its site without the express permission, or even knowledge of those pictured, the Daily Mail reports.

According to the paper, the removal of the feature and the forced deletion of all the biometric data will be a major blow to the company, which is facing demands to find new ways to convert its vast hoard users' personal information into cash.

Facebook announced last month that it would suspend the feature across Europe and erase all the biometric facial-recognition data it has collected thus far from users on the continent by October 15.

According to the paper, the move followed a review by Facebook Ireland of the degree to which the social networking site had implemented recommendations made in an audit of the social networking site by the Irish Data Protection Commission last December. (ANI)

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Facebook turns off automatic facial recognition feature for European users

Mother of Cyberbullied Child Speaks Out, Advocates Plan to Address Bullying

SocialScout, a social networking monitoring service, provides downloadable cyberbully action plan to celebrate National Bullying Prevention Month

Scottsdale, Ariz. (PRWEB) October 17, 2012

We discovered the perpetrator was using my sons name and photo and impersonating him on Facebook, said Taylor. From midnight to morning, the person would post on others pages, saying some pretty harsh things. We first thought his account had been hacked, but it wasnt long before we realized it was an acquaintance of his who had created a profile and acted on his behalf.

According to Aftab.com, a cyberbully and privacy website, 85 percent of middle school aged children have been cyberbullied, but only 5 percent would tell their parents if they were cyberbullied. Perhaps most shocking is that 70 percent of cyberbullying comes from friends or acquaintances.

As cyberbullying continues to grow, it becomes more difficult for children to avoid it, said Betsy Landers, president, National Parent Teacher Association (PTA). Our children cant leave the classroom or playground to shut out cyberbullying; with technology, it follows them everywhere.

This was the first of Taylors four children that used social networking sites, so the landscape was totally new. And, she didnt know what action to take to monitor her children, or how to react to any problems on the networks.

When I was in middle school, the bullying stopped once you left school, said Taylor. Back then we could rumor-monger, but the whole idea of someone copying a photo, creating a new profile, acting as somehow else its just totally new to me. In fact, it was very scary figuring out how to appropriately respond to my son being cyberbullied.

Parents are digital immigrants when it comes to sites like Facebook and Twitter, so its not obvious what risks social media networks can present, explained Matt Cullina, CEO of IDentity Theft 911. We strongly advocate that before parents permit their child to sign-up for a social networking site, they educate themselves on the dangers, and provide some ground rules before establishing an account like permission to monitor accounts and activities.

SocialScout, a parental intelligence tool for parents to monitor their childs social networking habits, is a key product offering by IDentity Theft 911, the nations premier consultative provider of identity and data risk management resolution and education services. Currently offered to PTA members through a partnership with the National PTA, SocialScout offers a quick and easy way to analyze a childs social networking and mobile phone activity while safeguarding their privacy and reputation on sites such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace.

"My kids say I'm not a helicopter mom. I'm more of a B-52 bomber mom. But even so, I didn't notice there was a problem right away, said Taylor. A monitoring tool like SocialScout could have helped address my sons cyberbullying issue before it got out of hand.

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Mother of Cyberbullied Child Speaks Out, Advocates Plan to Address Bullying

Kaspersky Lab and Facebook Partner to Make Social Networking Safer

WOBURN, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Kaspersky Lab, a leading developer of security and threat management solutions, today announced a partnership with Facebook (FB), with the goal of enhancing the security of social networking both online and offline. Kaspersky Lab is now supplying Facebook with up-to-the-minute data about the latest malicious software threats worldwide, which will be used to protect Facebook users from inadvertently visiting malicious web pages.

People are more likely to click on a link shared by a friend, and this inherent trust is something cyber-criminals prey upon. Malicious URLs can automatically share themselves with a victims personal contacts without the users knowledge, making the links appear legitimate. Now, when Facebook users share or click a link shared by their friends, the link will instantly be compared against Kaspersky Labs database of malicious web pages. If the link matches Facebooks list of known-bad URLs which are supplied to Facebook by Kaspersky Lab and other security vendors the user will be immediately notified and blocked from visiting the web page. This not only prevents the users personal information and computer from being put at risk, but stops the malicious links from spreading further.

At Kaspersky Lab, more than 800 anti-malware experts work around the globe and around the clock to combat cybercrime, analyzing more than 125,000 threats daily. Using the information from the Kaspersky Security Network a cloud-based repository from Kaspersky Lab customers who voluntarily share real-time data on attempted infections and malware activity Kaspersky Lab experts can analyze data and produce up-to-the-second protection for its 300 million users protected by Kaspersky Lab products and technologies around the globe.

Keeping Facebook Users Informed and Protected

Kaspersky Lab believes that informed computer users are the first line of defense against cyber-crime. In addition to supplying Facebook with threat information, Kaspersky Lab will also contribute expert advice, tips and informative articles to the Facebook Security page. This resource center keeps the online community informed about the latest cyber-threats and provides regular reminders of safe online browsing habits. For more information on this Facebook service, please visit http://www.facebook.com/security.

In addition to timely advice, Kaspersky Lab is also supplying Facebook users with an exclusive free six-month subscription for its popular consumer security products. This six-month offer allows users to download Kaspersky PURE Total Security and Kaspersky Security for Mac, ensuring they have the best protection on their machines. Kaspersky PURE is the companys flagship consumer suite, providing critical tools including a password manager, data encryption, and file backup manager to protect users digital assets. Kaspersky Security for Mac protects Mac owners from the growing threat of malware that targets OS X, and prevents Windows-based malware from becoming a hidden infection waiting to transfer to the PCs of friends and family via USB sticks and file sharing. These offers can be accessed through the AV Marketplace tab on Facebook Security page.

QUOTES: Steve Orenberg, President Kaspersky Lab North America When Kaspersky Lab was founded 15 years ago, we could only imagine the ways technology would interconnect the citizens of the Internet and what a huge impact this would have on individuals and society as a whole. The mission of Kaspersky Lab has always been to protect people and businesses as they connect online, and there is no network that is leading the future of online connections like Facebook. Both companies are the best at what we do, so it makes sense to work together toward a safer Internet for all.

Costin Raiu, Director of Global Research and Analysis Team (GReAT) Kaspersky Lab Over the past 10 years, weve seen incredible growth in the amount of personal information people will voluntarily share, and cybercriminals have naturally followed the money by creating scams and malicious programs specifically targeting social networks. It takes a blend of online awareness and top-notch security technology to be protected online one cannot take the place of the other and by partnering with Facebook, Kaspersky Lab intends to provide both.

Joe Sullivan, Chief Security Officer Facebook "Starting today, the people who use Facebook will be able to benefit from Kaspersky's industry-leading intelligence and technology with their malicious URL data and inclusion in the AV Marketplace. We look forward to the combined work of our companies to help keep people safe both on and off of Facebook."

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Kaspersky Lab and Facebook Partner to Make Social Networking Safer