Someone has created a Google Plus Page for Bank of America, trashing the nation’s largest bank with a series of mocking photos, images and other posts,

Full Story: Bank of America’s Google Plus Page Appears ‘Brandjacked’

The Google + page is still visible here.

So, can just anyone setup a Google+ page for another business? For your business? The answer is yes. There is no checking done for permission!

Google’s response to this situation, according to the article, is : the company doesn’t comment on individual Plus pages, “we also rely on the community (as with a lot of our other products like Android Market and YouTube) to help report profiles they feel are violating our policies. You can see a ‘Report this Profile’ link on the left hand side of the page.”

My take: Social media. Sometimes a friend. Sometimes a foe. Always needs monitoring.

In an excellent piece entitled What journalists need to know about libelous tweets at journalism website Poynter.org, the author cites a legal expert who warns that tweets and other twitter postings are not being treated any differently under the law.

“Statements on Twitter can form the basis of a defamation lawsuit just as much as any form of publication,” explained David Ardia, an assistant professor of law at the University of North Carolina. “It’s just sometimes with new technology, it takes a little longer for people to start to take what they read seriously enough — and more importantly for lawyers — to pay enough attention to start to bring lawsuits based on it.”

Two follow-up articles at Mediabistro cite further examples of recent lawsuits and threats of lawsuits involving celebrities and others:

Can Tweets Be Libelous? A Warning To US Journalists

Twitter Defamation Cases Are Heating Up

In some of the cases described the issues are contractual and long-standing. Others are no more than an off-hand insult or a volley in a round of heated back-and-forth.

Human nature being what it is, coupled with the incredibly easy ability for anyone to “publish” using twitter, makes it inevitable that things will get tweeted that are both untrue and intended to harm.

For those who have a reputation or assets to protect, it might be a very good idea to step away from the keyboard, or put down the smartphone for a few minutes, when feeling that raging urge to “teach that ***hole on twitter a lesson.” Once posted a tweet is effectively forever, even if you delete it.

An attractive young lady going by the name of Jenn Collins is in the process of friending hundreds of people on Facebook, many of them members of the UK based business network, Ecademy.  A few days ago she had 488 friends, today 553. Jenn says she lives in Miami Florida and speaks multiple languages. She is also polite, friendly and likes the movies Spiderman and Braveheart.

Unfortunately the pictures, as seen above, are not hers. Nor is Jenn who “she” claims to be. It’s fake and the prelude to a probable scam or other misuse of trust. The person or persons operating the Facebook account are using social engineering to quickly build a pliable and trusting following. The use of provocative pictures has ensured that plenty of men accepted in a flash. No surprise there, just human nature at work.

It’s also the real-world manifestation of the occasional darker side of being “Open Random and Supportive”* (ORS*), a networking methodology frequently advocated on Ecademy and by its founders. So it should come as no surprise that Ecademy Chairman Thomas Power is one of Jenn’s friends!

If I’m wrong about this fine young lady I’ll happily travel to Miami to meet Jenn in person, confirm her identity and report back. Of course, I’ll also retract this blog.

I have a good idea who is behind this, but I’m not saying more at this time, other than to say there is a clue on Facebook that leads to the operator(s).

* Copyright © The Ecademy Ltd. 2009 – 2011

Image via Wikipedia

Did you know that your iPhone, Android phone, Blackberry or other smartphone records the exact location that each photograph was taken at? And stores that detailed info in the photograph?

It’s called Geo-Tagging and it’s a feature, not a deficiency or backdooor for spying or tracking. Geo-Tagging can be fun and can enhance the social aspects of photo sharing online. But it can also inadvertently reveal information that one might otherwise wish to remain private. Such as home addresses or the location of business trips and business partners.

A website called IcanstalkU.com covers this area quite well and, despite the name, does not stalk its visitors.

Of special interest are their simple instructions of how to disable Geo-Tagging on popular smartphones.

Disabling can be temporary or permanent and does not affect the photograph in any way.

Unless you implicitly want to share or track the location of your photographs we recommend disabling the function and leaving it that way.

Related articles by Zemanta

• I Can Stalk U site exposes danger of sharing photos online (sophos.com)
• I Can Stalk U – it’s a very scary thing: A warning about posting photos on Twitter (techvibes.com)
• Facebook Places a New Geo Location Feature Is Out (mwd.com)
• I Can Stalk U: New Site Posts Exact Locations of Twitter Users Posting Geotagged Photos (nytimes.com)

Microsoft recently commissioned a detailed study on the impact of and trends around online reputation.

The study was undertaken in part to contribute to “Data Privacy Day”, which falls on January 28, 2010. The survey results and conclusions available in a PowerPoint presentation.

Overview from the report summary:

This research examines the expanding role of online reputation in both professional and personal lives. It studies how recruiters and HR professionals use online reputational information in their candidate review processes, and how consumers feel about this use of their information. It investigates the steps consumers take to monitor and protect their online reputation.

We’ve uploaded the Powerpoint file to Slideshare.net and it’s viewable online here with a web browser.

[For a better viewing experience click the "full" button on the Slideshare toolbar to expand the presentation to full screen.]

An interesting blog this morning from the Washington Post. The added underlined emphasis is mine.

Celebrity Deaths — and the impact of an ‘overly Twittered culture’ by Adam Bernstein

Lisa France, a writer and producer at CNN.com, has this story today on celebrity death of 2009 and why it may appear to some that this year was different from the past.

Minor figures like Brittany Murphy and DJ AM get elevated to rock-star status for various reasons — the deaths come at a shockingly young age, for example — but mostly because those who care about their lives are young social networkers who drive tremendous traffic online.

Brittany Murphy had a devoted following but is vastly unknown to a great many film lovers. Which is not to say or imply she was without talent, but her performances drew mixed reviews, her promise was largely unfulfilled and she never said anything particularly memorable about her craft. Yet she gets outrageous attention because of online interest, whereas a proven and talented, Academy Award-winning actress like Jennifer Jones, who died days earlier, gets comparably little attention.

What do you think about the impact of social networking and what CNN’s France calls our “overly Twittered culture”?

If you’re one of the many who wonder where all this social networking interconnectedness is going, and why it HAS changed at least a part of the world, I suggest you watch an important video rebroadcast of an event that took place in London a couple of days ago.

I warn you it’s a lengthy video, over an hour, but in it you’ll hear the real, up-to-date mega-overview from three people who are actually at the controls at 10,000 feet.

The three are:

* Reid Hoffman, CEO of LinkedIn,

* Biz Stone, founder of Blogger and Twitter

* Stephen Fry, thespian and twitter celeb

The format is a panel discussion with audience questions, so you’ll need to listen and try to grab onto the many facts and memes.

My take is that only the most hardened nay-sayer could fail to be wowed by the enormity of how powerful this stuff is.

Powerful as in world and business changing.

Permanently.

No that doesn’t mean everyone has to use twitter, join or use any service or website or worship anyone. Like it or not the change is happening around you. If you want to stay on the sidelines, or keep your relationships close and personal that’s fine. Just don’t deny there is a wave, otherwise you might just drown

Video is here at the Nesta website. No registration required. The event was part of the “Silicon Valley comes to the UK” series.

P.S. I found a pointer to this on twitter, otherwise I probably wouldn’t have seen it.

The other face of social media and the price to be paid for speaking out against a government.

Bloggers Receive Prison Sentences