Facebook's new terms of service angers users

I seem to be blogging about Terms of Service changes lately (see LMT post below). This time it's Facebook that's drawing criticism for changing its TOS. Check out this post from the Consumerist for the full story (via das Textdepot). Here's an excerpt from a Facebook reps' interpretation of the new TOS:

That is, if you send a message to another user (or post to their wall, etc...), that content might not be removed by Facebook if you delete your account (but can be deleted by your friend).

Update (02/18): Facebook today announced that it will temporarily revert back to the old TOS while it is working out the kinks in the new one. Mark Zuckerberg also announced the creation of a Facebook Bill of Rights & Responsibilities in his blog post.

French Media create Portrait of Person from Info Gathered from Social Networking Sites

Just in time for our discussion on personal branding and online privacy issues, I stumbled upon this intriguing story: Earlier this month, a French magazine called Le Tigre, published an intimate portrait of a randomly chosen Internet user laced with private information the reporter garnered from social networking sites around the web. The idea was to pick a complete stranger and to tell his life story based on the digital footprint that person either voluntarily or involuntarily left behind on the Internet. The magazine thereby tried to call attention to the fact that most people don't think about the bits of private information they share online, but that these pieces of information, once aggregated, draw a cohesive and troublingly intimate picture of our lives.

The point here: when you share information online, you've left the private sphere and shouldn't expect to keep that info protected. A good lesson for us all to learn!

Since publishing the Google portrait of Marc L. (the person featured in this article), the magazine had to change all references to cities, places, etc. The original article only rendered the names of the characters anonymous.

The Internet & Social Networks: A museum of personal mistakes?

I came across this excellent video via the OpinionWatch blog. It's an hour long documentary on reputation management and personal branding in a hyper-connected world. The documentary is in French (hey, a good time to practice those French skills!) and was produced by 13ème Rue, a NBC Universal Global Networks channel.

The first part of the video focuses on the problems the net poses for public figures and celebrities who see their every move captured on video or in pictures and broadcast in near real-time to the whole world. When those moves include off-the-record remarks, revealing personal pictures, and troublesome video, the Net's promise of increased transparency suddenly turns into a grave danger to a person's reputation as illustrated by numerous examples. Any carelessly spoken word or inadvertent gesture has the potential to become a lasting liability. In the case of politicians, video that captures these "personal glitches" becomes a campaign weapon, used and released by enemies at an opportune moment.

Instead of 15 minutes of fame, the Internet now offers 15 minutes of shame to people who have to watch their mistakes broadcast to hundreds if not thousands (or sometimes even millions) of people. The documentary does a nice job showing how our digital footprint creates our personal brand and why this brand may need to be carefully watched and managed. It also introduces a powerful new idea with regards to social networks: that of the "droit à l'oubli" - the right to oblivion, or more specifically, the right to erasure of data. According to the documentary, our current society ignores that right by following people both in space (through videotaping) and in time (through social networks). Our lives are constantly recorded digitally and then shared online where the pictures and video may live on indefinitely. Hence the idea proposed at the end of the documentary: that the Internet has become a museum of human mistakes.

So what to do about all this? The documentary suggests that we need to set boundaries but stops short of offering a viable solution. Are there any?

Guide to blogging, commenting & managing your personal brand

Since we will start setting up blogs in class next week, it's time to address blogging etiquette, reputation management and personal branding. That's why I've put together a slideshow on the topic. Take a look:

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: blogging reputation)

Resources on blogging etiquette, personal branding, and online identity management

Today was the first day of the fall semester and soon the students in my social media class will begin blogging. For a lot of them, it will be their first time to do so. To help them get ready to enter the blogosphere, I have compiled a number of resources which I thought would be worth sharing here:

Blogging & Blogging Etiquette:
Guidelines for PR student blogs -- Richard Bailey
Etiquette in the Age of Social Media -- Chris Brogan
Call for a Blogger's Code of Conduct -- O'Reilly Radar
Bloggers' FAQ: legal issues arising from student blogging -- Electronic Frontier Foundation
Disclosure Best Practices Toolkit -- The Blog Council

1000 things I've learned about blogging -- Paul Bradshaw

Commenting on a Blog:
Comments about comments -- Karen Russell
Geek to Live: Lifehacker's guide to weblog comments -- Lifehacker

Promoting your Blog:
Tips for promoting PR student blogs - Karen Russell

Types of Blogs:
A compilation of 25 basic styles of blogging including tips on how -- Rohit Bhargava

Building your Personal Brand:
The Socialization of Your Personal Brand - Part I - Brian Solis
The Socialization of Your Personal Brand - Part II - Brian Solis

Managing your Online Reputation:

Putting your Best Cyberface Forward -- New York Times
How To Manage Your Online Reputation -- ReadWriteWeb

The College Student's Guide to Managing Online Reputation -- Tom Drugan

Managing your Online Identity:
Digital Footprints: Online identity management and search in the age of transparency -- Pew Internet Study
Kids, the Internet, and the End of Privacy: The Greatest Generation Gap Since Rock and Roll -- New York Magazine

Update 9/11: Chris Brogan just published a free e-book on personal branding that is worth checking out