Facebook to launch child safety 'panic button'

Facebook has announced it is to launch a "panic button" application on its social networking site.

The button, aimed at children and teenagers, will report abuse to the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (Ceop) and Facebook.
The application will also appear on their homepage to say that "they are in control online".
The launch follows months of negotiation between Ceop and Facebook, which initially resisted the idea.
Ceop, the government law enforcement agency tasked with tracking down online sex offenders, called for a panic button to be installed on social networking sites last November.
Bebo became the first network to add the button with MySpace following suit, but Facebook resisted the change, saying its own reporting systems were sufficient.
Pressure mounted on Facebook following the rape and murder of 17-year-old Ashleigh Hall by a 33-year-old convicted sex offender, posing as a teenage boy, who she met on Facebook.
Forty-four police chiefs in England, Wales and Scotland, signed a letter backing Ceop's call for a panic button on every Facebook page.
'Reassurance for parents' The agreement to launch a child safety application is the culmination of months of negotiation between Ceop and Facebook.
Jim Gamble, Ceop's chief executive, said in a statement: "Our dialogue with Facebook about adopting the ClickCeop button is well documented - today however is a good day for child protection.
"By adding this application, Facebook users will have direct access to all the services that sit behind our ClickCeop button which should provide reassurance to every parent with teenagers on the site."
Facebook's head of communications in the UK, Sophy Silver, told BBC News that the new app would integrate reporting into both Facebook and Ceop's systems.
"Both sides are happy of where we have got to," she said.
"We still have the Facebook reporting system and by having a pre-packaged application that users play an active part in, you not only help keep them safe, it makes all of their friends aware too, and acts as a viral awareness campaign.
"Ultimately though, this makes for a safer environment for users and that's the most important part," she added.
In addition to the online reporting application, a new Facebook/Ceop page is being set up, with a range of topics that, it is hoped, will be of interest to teenagers - such as celebrities, music and exams - and will link these subjects to questions about online safety.

http://news.bbc.co.uk

Facebook ‘Cash Scam’ Continues to Grow Even Bigger

Over the past few years social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter have given unprecedented access to people’s private lives. More and more personal information is revealed through photos, status updates and conversations that are all being documented online. Last week, the Serious Fraud Office of London (SFO) warned that Facebook and Twitter are being used to harvest users’ personal financial details,

“The public should be aware of the predatory nature of fraudsters and be careful about revealing personal information on social-networking sites, as this has become a primary method of harvesting information and targeting victims,” SFO said.

In a joint venture between London police and Financial Services Authority, over 10,000 people were notified that their names were on a “master list” that contained a range of personal information, that might include: names, address, phone number, place of business, income and relationship status. While this is the only reported list, it’s quite possible thousands more were already victims of this latest cash scam.

Facebook users may not mention all that personal information on their Facebook page, however, they may have it listed on a combination of networking sites. For example, a Facebook user will list their name and location along with photos on Facebook. The scammer can take that information and then look you up on LinkedIn and Twitter to find out your personal website, job, position, average income, number of years employed, education level and parlay all that information into a “cash scam.”

Fraudsters are using this information to set up “boiler rooms” and contact people on this master list. Boilers rooms look to employ high pressure sales tactics to push unwanted, over priced, or sometimes non-existent stock to unsuspecting buyers. Boiler rooms are nothing new, but using Facebook to gather leads and target people is becoming a serious problem.

The FSA is clearly trying to stay ahead of the scam, “By writing to people now, we can raise awareness of this type of fraud and help protect people from losing money to these criminals,” FSA said. While multiple efforts are being taken to stop these criminals, these cash scam continue to grow and more boiler rooms continue to operate off shore. It’s up to the individual to be aware of such fraud and report any phone calls that you suspect could be criminal.

In the mean time, keep your friends close, your Facebook account closed to outsiders, and don’t allow just anyone to view your personal details on your Facebook page.

posted by Mr.404

Escaped prisoner taunts police on Facebook

An escaped prisoner, Craig Lynch, has set up a Facebook page and is using it to taunt police by posting messages about his whereabouts.

Craig "Lazie" Lynch vanished from Hollesley Bay Prison in Suffolk in September this year close to the end of a seven-year sentence for aggravated burglary.

Instead of hiding away from police Lynch has set up a Facebook account complete with a photograph sticking his middle finger up and boasts about eating 12lb steaks and his home being so warm it feels like the Caribbean.

The burglar has become prolific Facebooker with 199 friends and has even posted when he is going round to friend's homes and attending parties and events.

In a status update via mobile phone on Monday, Lynch said: "Craig 'Lazie' Lynch just had bundles of fun on the ice in me motor. Pure a--- out action, but well controlled."

In another at the weekend he said: "Craig 'Lazie' Lynch just nearly wrote my motor off again. Ice everywhere I went round the corner and ended up halfway on someone's driveway!!"

While Lynch should be doing porridge he boasted about tucking into extravagant meals: "Craig 'Lazie' Lynch mmm I just had a 12lb venison steak. Roasted veg and chips, bangin meal."

And instead of languishing in a prison cell he taunted police by saying his home is so warm it is tropical.

He said: "That's on already if it gets any colder durin xmas we'll have to stick the sun bed on as an extra heater we did it the other night it felt like the Caribbean in the bedroom ha ha."

The 28-year-old, who has links to Edgware and north east London, escaped from the open prison on September 23 and has not been seen since although, according to his Facebook page, police could find him at a New Year's Eve party in Lowestoft or another event in Norwich in February.

In a section with information about him Lynch states: "Life is what you make it, live fast, die young!!!" The criminal is also thought to have posted messages on local newspaper websites asking if there is a reward for his recapture.

John Gummer, MP for Suffolk Coastal, criticised the Government for using the open prison as a dumping ground.

He added: "I think it's very dangerous to assume the police could easily locate someone through a social networking site. We all know that one of the problems of a virtual world is that people can be very difficult to track down in the real world.

"However once again it does show that Hollesley Bay is being used for detaining people who should not be in an open prison because of a shortness of prison places that the Government seems unwilling to admit."

A Prison Service spokesman said the search for Lynch is a police matter and added that only prisoners who are assessed to be a low risk to the public are given places in an open prison. He added that 96 per cent of prisoners who escape are recaptured.

The Metropolitan Police refused to comment about Lynch's Facebook account but a spokeswoman for Suffolk Constabulary said routine checks are carried out on addresses he is linked to and his details have been circulated on the Police National Computer.

She added: "Because he has no links to Suffolk, other than the fact that he was in prison here, then these checks may be carried out by colleagues in other parts of the country."

Anyone with information about Lynch's whereabouts can contact Suffolk Police on 01473 613500.

found on http://www.telegraph.co.uk/

Kid uses facebook to blackmail classmates into sex.

From a purely depraved perspective, Anthony R. Stancl's plot was simple and effective. He went on Facebook posing as a girl named "Kayla," then chatted up his male classmates at Eisenhower High School in New Berlin, Wisconsin. The fictitious "Kayla" had a way with the boys, convincing 31 to send Stancl pictures of themselves naked...

​But that's when "Kayla" would turn on her Facebook lovers. Once they sent the photos, she would threaten to send them to the rest of the school unless they had sex with fellow student Anthony R. Stancl.

It didn't work on all 31, but police believe at least seven boys fell for the ruse. They would meet for sex with Stancl in the high school bathroom, the school parking lot, the men's room at the public library, and various parks around town. The victims ranged in age from 13-19.

The scam might have continued if Stancl hadn't overplayed his cards. One 15-year-old boy repeatedly had sex with Stancl to avoid having his naked photos sent around the school. Stancl would then photograph the encounters to add to his leverage.

Then Stancl tried to push the envelope, asking for naked pictures of the boy's brother. The kid didn't want his brother involved, so he told his parents, who in turn called the cops. When detectives grabbed Stancl's computer, they found it loaded with evidence, containing more than 300 nude photos of classmates at Eisenhower High School.

Stancl originally faced 12 felonies that could have landed him nearly 300 years in prison. But yesterday, he pleaded no contest to lesser charges of sexual assault and repeated sexual assault of a minor. The 19-year-old still faces up to 50 years in the slam.

Detectives say the victims were more than happy with the plea, since it kept them from having to out themselves in court.

"I've never had a case where the victims and their families were more apprehensive about testifying," Waukesha County district attorney Brad Schimel told the Associated Press. "From the victims' perspective, they're relieved we're doing this."

By Pete Kotz

In Venezuela criminals use Facebook to research targets. Cops use it too — but not always for scrupulous purposes.

In Venezuela criminals use Facebook to research targets. Cops use it too — but not always for scrupulous purposes.

CARACAS, Venezuela — It has taken Venezuela by storm, but it seems that Facebook and other social networking sites also come with their perils.

Police here revealed that a pair of students at a private university in Caracas had been robbing their virtual friends’ homes using information they had compiled using Facebook.

Police raided the apartment of one of two students who, working in tandem with another couple, had been using Facebook to befriend classmates. They then used the information their new “friends” posted on their profiles to find out where they lived, what they owned and when they were not at home.

"They observe the families’ movements, they study the residencies — the comings and goings, the security measures," said Wilmer Flores Trosel, director of the CICPC, Venezuela’s eqivalent of the FBI.

Security analysts in Venezuela say it is becoming increasingly frequent for criminals to use social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Sonico and Hi5 as a source of information for house robberies, fraud and kidnappings.

And it's not just the criminals capitalizing on this online data source, the police too are using it, to go after both hard-core criminals and political protesters. In a country with little tolerance for dissent, many fear the government has designs on controlling these sites. And the crimes aided by Facebook, might give them cause to do just that.

“There's a certain amount of intelligence work involved in kidnapping that Facebook makes easier,” said Roberto Briceno Leon, director of the Venezuelan Observatory of Violence. “Before, what did kidnappers do? They could spend months checking accounts, studying a person's daily movements in order to be able to plan the kidnapping. That implies an investment. Now, Facebook makes that easier.”

Briceno Leon said that even an innocent photograph of a user’s home could reveal valuable information about security systems that could be used to plan robberies or kidnappings.

Leon's Venezuelan Observatory of Violence did a survey and they estimate that there were between 8,000 and 9,000 kidnappings in Venezuela in 2008. The official figure for last year was 554 but most kidnappings go unreported because victims' families prefer not to involve the police as they are often involved in the kidnappings.

Venezuelans are no strangers to crime. Murder rates have reached record highs in recent years and they have been a part of daily life since the late 1980s. Banks take elaborate precautions to avoid fraud. Making a simple withdrawal can involve heavy scrutiny and a customer often has to be photographed and fingerprinted before the money is released.

But Venezuelans are not similarly cautious when it comes to the personal details they publicize on social networks. There are 435,992 users signed up to three "Venezuela" pages on Facebook, and Facebook is used widely in the country for party invitations and political protests.

Briceno Leon said that social networking sites offer the illusion of safety but what may seem like an innocent confession often opens up a window into the private life of an individual.

“People feel intimate and safe, they don't feel like they are on the street,” he said. “That's why people cease to take precautions.”

Facebook is also a tool used by Venezuelan police — though not always effectively. Carlos Graffe, a student from Valencia, a city 75 miles west of Caracas, said the prosecutor’s office put out a warrant for his arrest after he was identified through a photo on Facebook as one of several protesters who are accused of inciting violence during a protest march in Caracas in August.

Graffe and his lawyer claim it’s a case of mistaken identity: The television footage that shows protesters dismantling police barriers during the march shows a different person than the one identified in the Facebook photograph. What’s more, the person in the Facebook photograph is in fact his cousin, also called Carlos Graffe.

Opposition figures claim the Venezuelan government ultimately wants to control social networking sites, which have become an important tool for organizing protests and marches.

Thousands of Venezuelans protested the closing down of local radio station CNB by posting messages on the Twitter account #freemediave. An editorial piece in the state-run Bolivarian News Agency then accused Twitter of becoming a “new channel for creating terror” by spreading disinformation in a campaign orchestrated by the Venezuelan ultra-right.

Government critics claim the government is pushing its own forms of disinformation. In July, Diosdado Cabello, the minister for public works, aired the idea of passing all of Venezuela’s internet traffic through the servers of Cantv, the state-run telecommunications company. Critics say the move would allow the government to control communication on social networking sites during protests.

Social networking sites are a threat to the government that fears that it cannot control the partisanship of sites such as Facebook, said Carlos Delgado, a media analyst at the Andres Bello Catholic University in Caracas. He said the government’s move to control Venezuela’s servers is an attempt to “consolidate its communicational hegemony.”

Criminal Charges

This is Rodney Bradford. A few days ago, Facebook saved his 19-yo life. Facebook, and his status plea demanding the immediate consumption of one of the basic food groups every human being needs to properly function in the morning: Pancakes. [via gizmodo]

Rodney was arrested on October 18 as a suspect in two crimes. He declared himself innocent and Robert Reuland—his defense lawyer—found the key to free him: "Where's my pancakes?"

That seemingly inconsequential Facebook status update proved crucial when the Californian company confirmed that someone wrote it from his father's Harlem apartment computer, using Rodney's user and password at around the time of the alleged crime: Saturday October 17, 11:49am.

Of course, you can argue that anyone with Rodney's password could have written the status update, while the 19-yo went on to commit two crimes, but his defense lawyer and the district attorney disagree:

A spokesman for Brooklyn's District Attorney said the Facebook update served as the confirmation of the other alibis, namely Rodney's father and stepmother, who declared he was at their Harlem home at the time.
The most interesting thing in this case, however, is that this seems to be the first time in which social networking has been used to save the ass of someone, rather than nailing a really stupid thief.

Facebook Beacon shines for last time as part of settlement

Facebook's Beacon has been nothing but trouble since it launched in 2007, spurring numerous user complaints and a class-action privacy suit. The company has apparently learned its lesson, as it has now proposed a lawsuit settlement that involves shutting down Beacon and paying out $9.5 million to a settlement fund.

As quickly as it swooped into Facebook users' lives and revealed their secret purchasing habits to the world, Beacon has now been shut down as part of a lawsuit settlement. Facebook revealed late Friday that its controversial "advertising" feature would be shuttered, saying that the company had "learned a great deal from the experience." Facebook also plans to donate $9.5 million to an organization that fights for online privacy, though the settlement proposal still awaits approval by a judge.

Facebook's Director of Policy Communications Barry Schnitt said in a statement that the whole Beacon ordeal "underscored how critical it is to provide extensive user control over how information is shared." He said the company also learned how to communicate changes to users (you know, instead of just dumping things like Beacon on them without a peep), and that the introduction of Facebook Connect allows for much greater user control over how their Web antics get shared back to friends on Facebook.

"We look forward to the creation of the foundation and its work to educate Internet users on how best to control their privacy; engage in safe social networking practices; and, generally, enjoy themselves more online by having knowledge that gives them a greater sense of control," Schnitt said. "We fully expect the foundation to team with other leading online safety and privacy experts and organizations that have been working diligently in these fields."

Facebook first launched Beacon in November of 2007 as part of a new marketing strategy intended to benefit both advertisers and and Facebook users (more of the former than the latter). A number of companies signed up to be part of the program, meaning that any user activity that took place on their respective websites would be reported back to Facebook and published to users' timelines. Because Beacon was originally set up as an opt-out service instead of opt-in, many users were horrified to find their off-Facebook activities being published to their profiles automatically. Not only did users feel that their privacy was being violated, a number of users complained loudly that Beacon had ruined numerous surprise holiday gifts.

A few weeks after the initial backlash, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg posted an apology. He admitted that the company should have handled Beacon differently and said that the default settings had been changed so that publishing off-Facebook activities to users' news feeds would now be off. Instead, users could now opt in on a per-incident or per-site basis.

That didn't stop a class-action lawsuit from being filed in April 2008, alleging that Beacon and Blockbuster (one of Facebook's marketing partners) were in violation of numerous privacy laws by reporting user activity back to Facebook. The complaint said that off-Facebook activities were still being reported back to Facebook (even if users choose not to publish the info), and that Blockbuster's participation constituted a violation of the Video Privacy Protection Act—a law that prohibits video providers from allowing third parties to access identifiable information about someone's renting or buying habits without their express, written consent.

That lawsuit has been making its way through the court system for more than a year and Facebook apparently realized that it wasn't going to win anytime soon. As a result, the company decided to settle, proposing the $9.5 million settlement fund go towards the creation of an independent foundation that would "fund projects and initiatives that promote the cause of online privacy, safety, and security."

Despite Facebook's positively spun PR speak, it's clear that the company has learned a lesson from the calamity that was the Beacon experience. Everything about Beacon's rollout was done poorly, which then tainted the service forever despite Facebook's desperate attempt to right its wrongs. It took a major class-action lawsuit and the launch of an entirely new service (Facebook Connect) for the company to pull the plug on Beacon, but Facebook has learned the hard way that it earned its users by being conscious of privacy (at least compared to MySpace), and that it needs to continue giving users control if it wants to continue growing.

By Jacqui Cheng

Data Hiding in Facebook through flash games

Facebook blocks private messages

PHOTO: AFP
SYDNEY - AN AUSTRALIAN news website reported on Friday that Facebook has begun blocking private messages.

The technology blog written by News Limited journalist Andrew Ramadge stated that Facebook 'has started censoring private messages sent between users to block out internet nasties'.

According to the blog on news.com.au, if links to certain websites are detected in a private message, the user is shown a warning.

The message says 'Warning: This message contains blocked content. Some content in this message has been reported as abusive by Facebook users.'

The message is then deleted automatically.

Mr Ramadge writes that the first block to be reported was applied to The Pirate Bay; one of the world's largest file-sharing websites. The Pirate Bay recently lost a legal battle against a number of music and film industry groups.

'Links to The Pirate Bay's homepage were reportedly accepted, but links to specific pages within the site were blocked,' wrote Mr Ramadge.

'When we tested it today, that was still happening. However links to other file-sharing sites were fine:

The Pirate Bay - BLOCKED

Mininova - OK

Demonoid - OK

BTJunkie - OK

'Links to at least one major pornography site were also blocked.'

The internet industry website, Wired, also reported that this censorship could lead to Facebook breaching United States wire-tapping laws.

Chris Kelly, Facebook's chief privacy officer, said the website had a legal right to censor messages, reported Mr Ramadge.

'Because users had agreed not to send 'spammy, illegal, threatening or harassing' content in accepting the site's terms of use,' wrote Mr Ramadge, quoting Facebook's officer.