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The @BarackObama account currently has 9,367,217 Twitter followers. Yesterday it may have had over 9.4 million, but 30K is a tiny fraction of that. As @MelindaByerley pointed out on Twitter, “33k @BarackObama followers lost out of ~9m followers = unsubscribe rate of <.4%. Don’t see what the fuss is about.”
Response matters to customers. 60 % Twitter users said more likely to follow a brand that answered them, 64% more likely to make a purchase from that brand. Effect not limited to Twitter
The Secret Service said Monday that it will investigate the recent hacking of the Fox News political Twitter account. Hackers took control of the account on Sunday and used it to tweet fake news of President Obama’s assassination.
The hacking of one of Fox News' Twitter accounts today, July 4th, was disturbing, given the messages posted proclaimed President Obama was dead, and raises the need for tighter security within social media.
Roberts said he doesn’t have Facebook and he believes his nine colleagues also do not have an account. He also said they don’t have a tweet, killing two birds with one stone: he managed to say that he does not have a Twitter account nor does he know what it is.
"Announced today at the Ad Age Digital Conference in New York, the new Twitter dashboard -- named aptly, the Follower Dashboard -- helps brands get to know their Twitter customers who, all told, send out 140 million tweets every single day on the 5-year-old platform. "
"A U.S. court has ordered Twitter to hand over details of the accounts of
WikiLeaks and several supporters as part of a criminal investigation into the
release of hundreds of thousands of confidential documents."
"From keeping the WikiLeaks site alive to helping British anti-austerity protesters outmaneuver riot police, Twitter is entering the Western political mainstream as a powerful tool for dissent.
The website where anyone can post 140-character messages with links to multimedia content was praised by the United States last year when Iranian protesters used it to organize and spread news after a disputed presidential election, until Tehran blocked the site as part of a wider clampdown."
Have stalkers found paradise at the "I Can Stalk U" site which reveals exact geotagged locations when people tweet their photos?
Imagine taking a break from your busy life and heading out for a little surfing excursion. When you reach the beach, you discover it's deserted except for you and your friend. Thrilled to find it so private, you snap a shot with your smartphone and post it on Twitpic. After all, a picture is worth a thousand words, certainly more than 140 characters that Twitter allows. You then tweet this message with a link to your photo, "Secluded Kinard beach. No one here except us 2 surfers."
"Financial institutions have become more careful about whom they loan money to and some are finding creative ways to take advantage of the growing popularity of social networking websites and the wealth of personal data they provide."
"The government is increasingly monitoring Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites for tax delinquents, copyright infringers and political protesters. A public interest group has filed a lawsuit to learn more about this monitoring, in the hope of starting a national discussion and modifying privacy laws as necessary for the online era. "
Law enforcement is not saying a lot about its social surveillance, but examples keep coming to light. The Wall Street Journal reported this summer that state revenue agents have been searching for tax scofflaws by mining information on MySpace and Facebook. In October, the F.B.I. searched the New York home of a man suspected of helping coordinate protests at the Group of 20 meeting in Pittsburgh by sending out messages over Twitter.
In some cases, the government appears to be engaged in deception. The Boston Globe recently quoted a Massachusetts district attorney as saying that some police officers were going undercover on Facebook as part of their investigations.
Wired magazine reported last month that In-Q-Tel, an investment arm of the Central Intelligence Agency, has put money into Visible Technologies, a software company that crawls across blogs, online forums, and open networks like Twitter and YouTube to monitor what is being said.
This month the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Samuelson Law, Technology and Public Policy Clinic at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law sued the Department of Defense, the C.I.A. and other federal agencies under the Freedom of Information Act to learn more about their use of social networking sites.
The suit seeks to uncover what guidelines these agencies have about this activity, including information about whether agents are permitted to use fake identities or to engage in subterfuge, such as tricking people into accepting Facebook friend requests.
Privacy law was largely created in the pre-Internet age, and new rules are needed to keep up with the ways people communicate today. Much of what occurs on
"A federal prosecutor tracked down a Seattle fraud suspect in Mexico this year through his Facebook posts.
A man's Twitter messages to fellow demonstrators at a recent protest in Pittsburgh led to an FBI search of his home and short-lived charges of interfering with police.
The CIA and other U.S. intelligence agencies reportedly are investing in a software firm that monitors half a million social networking Web sites each day.
There's nothing wrong with law enforcement agencies' using Internet technology to investigate crimes, Bay Area privacy advocates say. But they want the federal government to say how, when and why its agents look at Americans' social networking accounts."
"The Electronic Frontier Foundation said it sued the Justice Department and other U.S. agencies to get information about their policies for using social networks including Facebook and Twitter in investigations, data collection and surveillance.
The civil rights group said in a complaint filed yesterday in federal court in San Francisco that the government has used social-networking sites in conducting investigations and hasn’t clarified the scope of that use or whether there are any restrictions or oversight to prevent abuses.
The EFF said in its complaint that it is seeking the information to “help inform Congress and the public about the effect of such uses and purposes on citizens’ privacy rights and associated legal protections.”
It cited news articles that reported police searching Facebook photos for evidence of underage drinking and an FBI search of an individual’s home after the person sent messages on Twitter during the G-20 Summit notifying protesters of police movements.
Facebook, based in Palo Alto, California, is the world’s largest social networking site with more than 300 million users who post photos, messages and other information on their own free Facebook pages. Twitter, based in San Francisco, is a free Web service with 58 million users that lets people send 140- character messages, called “tweets,” to multiple followers.
EFF, also based in San Francisco, filed Freedom of Information Act requests with federal agencies in October. None of the agencies had completed processing the requests by the applicable 20-day deadline, according to the complaint. The lawsuit seeks a court order for the government to process the requests and produce documents."
In a little more than three years, Twitter has become "the SMS of the Internet" for millions of people. Many find it a useful and productive form of communication, but recent attacks against the service and its users have highlighted the potential dangers of Twitter and other social networking sites. Enterprises have had to tackle not only the productivity and privacy issues associated with Twitter, but also a number of direct security threats.
Unfortunately, the success of microblogging sites like Twitter relies on the same elements of human nature as social engineering attacks, particularly a natural desire and willingness to share and engage with those we trust.
Most people have learned not to open attachments or links in emails from people they don't know. Yet because Twitter is seen as a friendly, group-based service, many will not hesitate to click on a shortened Twitter link, having no clue as to where it will take them.
A security researcher has found that hackers are using Twitter as a means to distribute instructions to a network of compromised computers, known as a botnet.
The traditional way of managing botnets is using IRC, but botnet owners are continuously working on finding new ways of keeping their networks up and running, and Twitter seems to be the latest trick.
The Pentagon has ordered a review of its use of social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook, citing concerns that security could be compromised, officials said on Tuesday.
Many branches of the military use the popular, public-access sites in an effort to connect with young people, as well as to counter the propaganda of the Taliban and al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Iraq.
William Lynn, the deputy defense secretary, ordered the department-wide review in a memo to military commanders and service branch chiefs.
"These tools are proving valuable in areas such as recruitment, public affairs, and quality of life for our military personnel, as well as sharing information with allies, coalition partners and military families," Lynn wrote.
"However, as with any Internet-based capabilities, there are implementation challenges and operational risks that must be understood and mitigated."
Revelations on Wednesday that a hacker was able to hijack sensitive Twitter company documents has spurned discussion around the potential security implications of on-demand computing.
As more organizations move toward cloud services, they must consider the possible data security consequences, Amrit Williams, CTO of security and systems management firm BigFix, told SCMagazineUS.com on Thursday.
In the case of Twitter, an intruder using the alias "Hacker Croll" was able to crack the password to a high-ranking employee's personal email account, which in turn, gave him access to that worker's Google Apps account, according to a blog post Wednesday written by Biz Stone, Twitter's co-founder.
You might think your password protects the confidential information stored on Web sites. But as Twitter executives discovered, that is a dangerous assumption.
How's this for a tweet? Twitter is coming to a television near you.
The social-networking and micro-blogging service is developing the first TV series that incorporates Twitter into the action of the show.
Created by novelist Amy Ephron, sister of Nora and Delia Ephron, the untitled show will feature ordinary people competing while on the trail of celebrities.
Twitter has partnered on the project with production companies Reveille ("The Office") and Brillstein Entertainment Partners ("Samantha Who?").
Facebook and Twitter have helped make social networking a household word. Now they need to make money.
Efforts to monetize the popular Internet services are increasingly a priority within the two companies, with Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter Co-founder Biz Stone outlining several initiatives at the Reuters Global Technology Summit in New York this week.
And analysts and investors, in search of the next Google-like hit, are paying close attention to the breakneck speed at which Facebook and Twitter are adding new users.
While the popularity of the two social media firms has yet to translate into the kind of revenue-generating machine that Google Inc developed with its search advertising business, some say Facebook and Twitter have become so central to the Internet experience that they are inherently valuable.
"Both are new ways of communicating. And when you have a new way of communicating ... you benefit people enough so that there is going to be value there," said Tim Draper, managing director of venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson, noting that he regretted not having invested in either firm.
In April, Twitter's website attracted 17 million unique visitors in the United States, up sharply from 9.3 million the month before. Facebook grew to 200 million active users in April, less than a year after hitting 100 million users.
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