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SAN FRANCISCO -- The Secret is out.

The anonymous social networking app that in less than four months has become the Silicon Valley sounding board for personal romances and rivalries, and one of the few unfiltered windows into the underbelly of the tech world, is launching worldwide Wednesday.

The Secret app, which allows users to post messages anonymously to friends on their social networks, and to their friends' friends, will be available everywhere users can download it, with the exception of China. It had previously been only in the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand.

The company is also releasing Wednesday an Android version of the app, which until now had been available only for iOS. The Android app will offer users two streams of anonymous messages: one that comes only from friends and friends of friends, a network that is pulled from your contacts and Facebook profile; and a second to show messages from users who are nearby, perhaps in the same neighborhood or city, but aren't in your network.

With the global launch, Secret is trying to distance itself from its reputation as a Silicon Valley gossip machine used only by engineers to rant about their manager at Facebook or the latest romance at Google, and show that the international smartphone-using community is also eager for a bit of anonymous social networking.

"It's spread pretty quickly and to a lot of pockets in the U.S.," co-founder David Byttow said in an interview with this newspaper. "You see people in London, England, and Australia and New Zealand using the product when we go to bed. And it's funny because they post a lot of the same things that we see here in the U.S. People come on the platform and talk about their love life or their aspirations or things they are thinking and feeling."

Secret is secretive about how many users it has, but says that while Silicon Valley and New York still make up the bulk of users, the app is growing in popularity in other parts of the U.S. and Europe.

The second stream, or the "explore" stream, as the founders are calling it, is only on Android and will give users insights into news, gossip or social quirks that are trending around them. Byttow said the company plans to build layers so you can customize the feed -- not unlike creating a Twitter feed around a topic, location or news story.

"You're walking down the street, you're standing at the bus stop, you're bored and you want to see what's going on around you," Byttow said.

Both the iOS and Android apps will be upgraded with features such as fill-in-the-blanks questions -- "Last night I lied about ..." -- to answer and share with friends. The founders call them "icebreakers"; teaching new Secret users how to begin telling secrets.

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Anonymous app Secret goes global, introduces Android version

5th position holder in HSSLC (Arts) exams, Aadrita Chakravorty.

SHILLONG: With the social networking sites gaining popularity, especially among student, the toppers of the Higher Secondary school leaving certificate (HSSLC) examination feel that excessive usage of the same may hamper students.

Banmankhraw Lyngdoh, the 6th position holder from St Anthonys Higher Secondary School said, Social networking site like Facebook has both pros and cons, it helps to reduce stress but at the same time it should be avoided during exam.

Today, the social networking sites and such as Facebook, Twitter and messaging platforms like Whatsapp and BBM have become a part and parcel of everyones life especially teens. Kritika Goenka, 3rd position holder in this HSSLC from St Marys College also says that she kept herself aloof from all these social sites during her preparations.

Another topper Keith Tennyson Nongsteng from St. Anthonys Higher Secondary School believes that it all depends on the user if he or she want to make social websites productive or not.

Pupils ranked social networking sites, blogs, general websites and magazines above books and this is one of the reason for the low pass percentage as claimed by some parents and teachers.

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Excessive use of social networking sites may hamper preparation

The terrible murder last Monday of the head of the Len Provincial Council, Isabel Carrasco, has given rise to a clear situation of abuse and excess on social networking sites. In the immediate wake of the shooting, messages were posted online that were in many cases insulting and denigrating to the victim, and in others, clearly in favor of the use of violence against politicians in particular, those of the ruling Popular Party

These excesses have led the interior minister, Jorge Fernndez Daz, to defend the need to go after those who justify crimes or incite hatred via the internet. He proposes that this be done through the use of additional legal instruments that allow for the compatibility of freedom of expression and the right to information, with a citizens right to honor and safety.

Thus far he has only issued a declaration of intentions, but it is regrettable that a minister should react to a situation that has caused legitimate unease with a proposal to toughen the law that has not been properly thought through, and comes in the heat of the moment. Legislation should never be created in the immediate wake of a scandal.

Legislation should never be created in the immediate wake of a scandal

But whats more, in this case, current laws provide sufficient instruments for the authorities to tackle behavior that is harmful to third parties or violates fundamental rights. All that is needed is for them to be applied. Spains penal code covers offenses such as slander, libel, threatening behavior, coercion, incitement to commit a crime, and justifying terrorism and violence. Whats more, these offenses carry punishments that are sufficiently dissuasive. The recent arrests of two youngsters for inciting violence via the social networking sites proves this to be true. The fact that such behavior has not, until now, been the target of the authorities, apart from on a few rare occasions, has created a perception of impunity, which, in large part, has contributed to the spiral of deterioration in which we find ourselves.

It is likely that the application of the law will have the effect of providing a warning to internet users, given that many of them are insufficiently aware that their online actions can have criminal consequences. In any case, the social networks should not be treated differently from any other form of media.

Aside from criminal proceedings, in the case that they are justified, there are other ways of fighting these excesses. In the first place, via the raising of civic awareness, in the form of moral reproaches. But there is also room for political reproaches when these excesses are carried out by those with public responsibilities. It would be welcomed if Spains political forces were to adopt a self-regulatory code aimed at ending insults and threats over the internet, with offenders forced to resign.

There is, then, no need to change the law, and an approach that leans toward criminalizing the use of the internet, or that threatens freedom of expression, should be avoided.

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The law is sufficient

HOW many social media platforms do you subscribe to? An easy bet would be saying that you are subscribed to 3-5 platforms. You are aware of the most popular ones in the region and in the rest of the world: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Path, and WhatsApp. However, you might be shocked over the actual number of social networking websites and applications available out there. It is a whole universe of them and the ones we are familiar with are like a couple of planets in a huge galaxy. Networks built around music, movies, languages, comics and books are just few examples. What I am trying to say here is that do not assume that you know everything about social media networks, actually, no one does! This fact is of great importance if you are using social media platforms in your business. Social media platforms are dynamic; not only they are evolving, but their users behavior is also continuously changing. From time to time, findings of various researches surprise us, requiring us to rethink, to re-examine our understanding of the networks we think we are so familiar with. One of the findings came about a year ago. Believe it or not, the fastest growing demographic on Twitter is not teenagers or young adults as you might assume, it is the adults between the ages of 55 to 64 years. This demographic has grown by 79 percent since 2012. That is true for Facebook as well, where the age group between 45-54 is emerging as the fastest growing demographic jumping about 46 percent since 2012. So the next time you are planning your social media network campaign, remember that they are other than teenagers on the watch. You could be missing a lot by not addressing this segment of mostly a reliable income. Saudi companies need to take notes about these statistics; they do not seem to go beyond the teenagers/young adults in most of their social media approaches. One of the other interesting findings about social networks is about LinkedIn. It claims that in every two seconds, a new member joins the network. LinkedIn might be the least active network among the big ones, but it should not be totally dismissed especially in Saudi Arabia; it is yet to realize its full potential. LinkedIn is used is to spot talents and identify potential job candidates. This requires local companies to invest more time in using the platform and updating their presence and job opportunities on it. The last interesting finding I want to mention might not come as a surprise. If you are a smartphone owner, then you are most probably among the 63 percent who keep their phones with them for all but an hour of their waking day. One in four of the owners between the ages of 18-44 cannot even recall a time when the phone was not with them. So it is no secret, we are attached to our phones; the question is what kind of opportunities service providers could provide to make our lives easier and more productive. Are we still sure we know everything about social media networks?

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Do you know everything about social media?

Central Otago police are cracking down on fights organised through social networking websites before they gain traction.

Senior Sergeant Ian Kerrisk said police would take a "hardline approach" to any such fights after an incident near Alexandra on Sunday.

At 12.20pm police had a tip-off that a fight had been arranged through Facebook to be held at a rural area near Alexandra between a 42-year-old man and a group of teenagers, he said.

"A 42-year-old Alexandra man was spoken to by police . . . and given advice about the consequences if he chose to continue with his intended actions. To his credit he took that advice on board and left the area."

Several cars containing young people were also stopped in the area and although they denied knowledge of the fight, they were given similar advice, he said.

"This is something that police will not tolerate. If we become aware of people trying to set up fights via Facebook we will investigate with the view of putting those involved before the courts.

"We will also look at whether we can request a review of their account by Facebook staff."

Fights organised through social media websites were unusual for Central Otago, Kerrisk said.

"We don't want it to become a usual event and are keen to ensure it's nipped in the bud, which is why we are taking a hardline approach."

Netsafe executive director Martin Cocker said it was not a surprise that fights were being organised through social media websites.

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Police get tough on Facebook clashes