Backing up Facebook and Twitter accounts

For many of us, Facebook and Twitter have become such an integral part of our lives that losing the digital memories posted on these two social media sites can be devastating.
To back up your photos, status updates, wall posts and profile information on Facebook, you can use an online service like Backupify (www.backupify.com).

Another good tool that can help you back up your Facebook data is the desktop program SocialSafe (www.socialsafe.net).

SocialSafe requires Adobe Air, a free program that you can download from get.adobe.com/air. After you have installed SocialSafe, grant it access to your Facebook and Twitter accounts.

The free version of SocialSafe backs up your Facebook photos, profile information, status updates and friend lists. Once your Facebook data has been archived, you will be able to browse your social history.

If you want to back up your Twitter data, you can upgrade to SocialSafe Pro, which costs US$6.99 (S$8.90). This version also lets you back up your Facebook wall posts and photos posted by your friends in which you have been tagged.

A free Twitter backup option to consider is Tweetbackup (tweetbackup.com), an online tool from the Backupify folks. To use the freebie, you are required to follow @tweetbackup and post a tweet to promote the service. You have to be patient when using this tool as it could take a while to archive your tweets. Also note that because Twitter allows you access to only your latest 3,200 tweets, you may not be able to back up every tweet, especially if you are a compulsive Twitter user.

Tweet Scan Backup (www.tweetscan.com/data.php) is another free service to try. It downloads your last 1,000 tweets and combines them with its database to improve the completeness of your backup. The service trawls the Twittersphere on its own to build up a vast database.

It will then generate an archive that comprises a CSV file and a report presented in the TiddlyWiki format.

Besides tweets, the archive includes data about your replies, friends, followers and direct messages.

For now, restoring data to Twitter from backup data is not possible, due to limitations in the software interface used by programmers to access Twitter data through third-party applications.

Facebook

Facebook to protect young users

THE social network Facebook has reached an agreement with 49 state attorneys general to institute a broad set of principles intended to protect young users from online predators and inappropriate material.

The company will require users under 18 to confirm they have read Facebook's safety tips when they sign up. The site will also display a prominent 'report abuse' icon devised by the New Jersey attorney general.

Facebook will also no longer let people significantly change their ages without review and has agreed to take down within 24 hours any material flagged as inappropriate.

To obtain proof that people are as old as they say they are on the service, the company is developing behavioural technology to weed out fibbers, said Chris Kelly who work on privacy matters for Facebook.

Such technology could, for example, identify when someone is friends with people of a significantly different age - an indication that perhaps an older person is trying to contact young people.

MySpace announced a similar settlement with state officials in January and joined a new Internet safety technical task force to develop age and identity verification tools for social networking sites. Facebook will now join that task force as well.

The North Carolina attorney general, Roy Cooper, and the Connecticut attorney general, Richard Blumenthal, led discussions over the last year.

Richard said in an interview that there were a smaller number of problems with privacy on Facebook than with the more open and widely used MySpace, but that Facebook might have more work to do.

'We envision this as an ongoing process. We purposely built into this agreement the opportunity to raise and address new issues,' Richard said. 'If we see a problem, they'll hear from us.'

The New York Times

Privacy on Facebook

This article is publish by Digital Life on 26 Feb 2008

Face up to privacy on Facebook

So you have been uploading wild photos on Facebook - until you realise everyone, including your boss, has seen them. LIM YEE HUNG shows you how to keep your private life private

UBER-POPULAR social networking site Facebook has long struggled to find the right balance between improving the site and safeguarding the privacy of its users.

Recently, the launch of its Beacon advertising platform in September was pummelled by severe criticism from users worried about privacy violations. This, after a security researcher revealed that it tracks user activities on external sites, captures data on what users do and buy on them, and sends it back to Facebook.

Currently, Facebook automatically assumes that you wish to share all your personal information with everyone on the Web.

The onus is on you, the user, to tweak the privacy settings in Facebook, and avoid any embarrassing situations.

Click on Privacy at the top-right hand corner of the screen. You will then be directed to the Privacy page of your account.

Here's a step-by-step guide on how to limit the sharing of your personal information.

Prevent your profile from being found by outsiders
Don't want your Facebook profile to be 'Googled'?
- Click Edit Settings under the Search heading on the Privacy page.
- Select 'Only my friends' in the drop-down menu so that only the friends whom you have added on Facebook will be able to find you using the Search function in Facebook.
- Uncheck the box beside this box - 'Create a public search listing for me' - and submit it for search engine indexing. This will stop your profile from showing up on Google when your name is searched.

-Stop Facebook from sharing information about your activities on other websites
The default setting allows external websites to send information about your actions on their site, such as the purchase of a DVD disc, to Facebook, where it will be displayed in your News Feed.
- Click Edit Settings under the External Websites heading.
- Check the box next to 'Don't allow any websites to send stories to my profile'.

-Hide sensitive portions of your Profile page
You may wish to hide certain portions of your Profile page, such as your contact information or the videos you upload.
- Click 'Edit Settings' under the Profile heading. You will then be able to customise the settings for different parts of your profile. You can also choose to limit the viewing of your entire profile to just your friends.
- For example, to prevent outsiders from viewing your photos, select 'Only my friends' or 'Only me' in the relevant drop-down menu.

- Prevent applications from sharing your data
If, like most Facebook users, you have added Facebook applications to your account, you can limit the information available to them.
- Under the Other Applications tab, choose which data - such as the groups you belong to and your relationship status - will be available to these applications by checking the boxes next to them.
- For maximum security, check the box next to 'Do not share any information about me'. Take note that you won't be able to select this if you have downloaded applications that are built on the Facebook platform - you will have to uninstall them first before you can check the box.

-Block specific people from accessing your Facebook profile
Are you the unfortunate victim of 'Facebook stalking'? People flooding you with unwanted and inappropriate messages? Put an end to the never-ending messages and comments on your photos by blocking the user directly.
- Under the Block People section at the bottom of the Privacy page, enter the person's name in the search box and then click 'Block Person'. He or she will now be unable to search for you, see your profile, or contact you on Facebook. Whew!