Who would have believed in 2002 when Reid Hoffman was mooting the idea of a professional social network – a kind of Facebook for suits – that it would prove to be an amazing success and grow to in excess of 400 million users?
I make extensive use of twitter and have amassed a considerable number of followers over the last 12 months or so, but lately I’m seeing more and more followers claiming they can get me thousands more (for a small price).
Just last week, Twitter became the latest casualty of poor Internet security when it fessed up to hackers having stolen account details for 250,000 of its users. As I’ve reported before, this type of activity seems set to rise, and you can be sure we will not be hearing of some of the more serious breaches.
The Crime Survey of England and Wales has shown that incidents of vandalism have fallen by 37% since March 2007, which may be a surprise to anyone who was caught up in any of the Summer 2011 riots. If you’ve been a recent victim of such anti-social behaviour, you might not believe your eyes that the situation appears to be improving. But why is it?
It seems the Iron Curtain may be re-emerging this week as Russian hackers first disclose 6.5m passwords from Linkedin, followed by 1.5m passwords from eHarmony, and then Last.fm with an undisclosed volume. Needless to say, there will be yet more sites added to this sorry list in the coming weeks.
The rise in text message (SMS) marketing by businesses is phenomenal, and the growth of this effective method of promotion shows no signs of stopping.
Well, probably not, but you never know! For a number of weeks now, rumours have been floating around in the ether that certain unscrupulous employers are asking job seekers in interviews to hand over their Facebook password, presumably so that they can further screen the candidate’s suitability for the job.
It seems unlikely to think that some of the more popular mobile apps would be taking personal and private data from your mobile and storing it on their own servers for whatever purpose they deem appropriate, but it appears that this is exactly what has been happening without either your permission or your knowledge.
The rise of the humble mobile phone is phenomenal. For most, they are never without their mobile, and when it beeps or vibrates, they check to see what it is. It is a marketers dream! We’ve all become annoyed at receiving unwanted text messages (which we very much disapprove of), but marketers are becoming more and more creative at getting their message in front of you.
I’ve had the Linkedin app installed on my BlackBerry for some time now, as I make extensive use of the social network for business. It has to be said though, considering that Blackberry has always been considered as ‘the phone of choice’ for business use, the Linkedin app is truly awful, and is a pale imitation of its iPhone and Android counterparts.