Archive for the ‘Privacy’ Category

LikeALittle.com allows users to post tweet-like flirtatious updates about nearby people. The site is already posting updates from users at over 450 college campuses, has over 25,000 Facebook “Likes,” and has brought in millions of page views.

LikeALittle only allows the posting of positive messages to keep the positive karma going on. It’s a flirting site, not a bashing site. The site is also anonymous and every user is assigned a fruit name. If the user leaves then returns, they are assigned a new fruit username.

Here are real examples of recent posts from the Stanford University area (I’m using Stanford in this example especially because the co-founder, Evan Reas, is a Stanford grad):

At Stanford University: Female, Black hair
What to do when you like a girl, and you’re pretty sure she feels something too, but she recently started going out with someone else?

That post received 10 comments including this one:

Apple says: Or just wait a bit…things around here don’t last long… Unless they do.

I was curious to see what the buzz was on LikeALittle so I did a search over “LikeALittle” on Twitter and found seemingly mixed opinions such as:

“#likealittle website gives me the creeps…yet somehow i’m addicted?”

“Okay so this whole likealittle website thing literally FREAKS me out. SO weird and freaky and desparate…”

“LikeALittle is the greatest thing to ever happen to this campus. I’m in heaven.”

“someone wrote a likealittle about me #flattered”

The Future of LikeALittle.com

LikeALittle is still ramping up in terms of its userbase. If you visit a campus page and scroll down a bit, you’ll see items that are several days or weeks old. It reminds me of Foursquare in its early days.

Like Facebook, keeping activity on a campus by campus basis will be difficult as the number of users increase. People who are not in college will want to use the service to get flirty with folks at their local cafes and libraries.

Right now, the site has a “Keep your posts complimentary and positive” policy. As more users find LikeALittle, it will be more difficult to manage the tone of the posted comments.

Flirty vs. Creepy

What do you think, is the LikeALittle.com concept fun and flirty or creepy? Drop a comment and share with the other readers.

I received two security-related emails in the last 24 hours. One email was from Gawker Media, stating that there was a breach via its commenting system. The second email arrived this morning from LinkedIn, asking me to reset my password because my account was disabled for “security reasons.”

According to this Gawker blog post, Lifehacker, Gizmodo, Gawker, Jezebel, io9, Jalopnik, Kotaku, Deadspin, and Fleshbot were all affected by the security breach.

This Lifehacker blog post has more details on the compromised accounts.

When I saw the LinkedIn email, I thought it might be a phishing attempt so I double checked the the URL in the “From” then did a Twitter search to see if there was chatter on the password check. As expected, Twitter was buzzing with early morning complaints about having to reset passwords. This is also where I saw the Gawker connection (the Gawker Media email was still unread in my Inbox).

This is the email I received from LinkedIn, early this morning:

I still wasn’t clear on the LinkedIn/Gawker tie in until I saw this tweet from the official LinkedIn Twitter account (@linkedin).

What should you do?

• If you have a Gawker login account, change your password and don’t use the same password on other sites.
• If you have a LinkedIn account, reset your password following the instructions in the email (go to Linkedin site, click “Sign In” then click on “Forgot Password” linke and follow directions.

Even though changing passwords is inconvenient, I’m glad the news is spreading quickly to help us protect our social Web accounts.

This is the news article that prompted the creation of this poll:

LAUSD to use fingerprint scans for school lunches

This issue is of interest to me for several reasons:

• I used to work for a company that sold fingerprint recognition components
• I taught for eight years
• And, I’m fascinated by the overlap of technology and culture

Like this poll? Share it and feel free to discuss in the Comments section.

Photo Credit: lobstar28 on Flickr – License

I don’t usually do “reblogs” but the Matt McKeon blog post, “The Evolution of Privacy on Facebook“, is so striking and timely that I had to comment on it. The post is a visual chronicle of Facebook’s privacy changes since 2005. In 2005, content was only visible to limited circle of friends and their immediate network. Fast-forward to today and almost all of a Facebook user’s activity is available on the Web.

I think users are getting the short end of the stick on this deal and this type of privacy erosion will eventually lead to a mass exodus from Facebook. What? It’s already happening?

Publishers, on the other hand, are writing about the privacy issues but aren’t ready to put the kibosh on their Facebook strategies.

This privacy leakage ties into my post on the Geolocation Privacy Proposition. McKeon’s infographic doesn’t include “Location” but that could be just around the corner.

Click here to view the full McKeon blog post.