Social Networking - Tips & Facebook Privacy

So I’m told, the Forces teach alpine skiing to novices by taking them to the top of a black run and letting them compete to make their own way to the bottom. True or not, they wouldn’t let them try without some form of briefing on how to ski and on safety.

The same is true for social networking. The best way is to just have a go, but you need to know some basics to “keep safe”. Here's just a few tips to get you started ...

Twitter

For Twitter it’s worth knowing that “Usernames” are case sensitive. So set yourself up as camWElls and that’s what will appear on each of your tweets for ever. Maybe you want to set up SafeSaaS, so do it like that (and I just have!). But having registered SafeSaaS, no-one else can register variants such as safesaas or SAFESAAS.

It’s also worth knowing you can delete tweets, if there’s a mistake,. But if they feed automatically into another system such as LinkedIn, it’s best to assume that it won’t be deleted there.

Facebook

For Facebook, you can have as many "walls" as you like, all called "camwells" - here is a "product/service" & this is a "local business". But so can anyone else add a wall with your business name (go on try another camwells!) . So worth checking periodically for pass-offs, "fakes" and any other problems.

Blogging and Forums

In blogging and forums, some let you edit/delete a post once you’ve made it, some let you edit/delete comments, but few do both. So worth knowing which is which, and being extra careful with those that don’t allow edits. [Note to self, I can edit this post but can’t edit any comments I add later]

There’s 1001 other tips for each of these systems you’ll find by doing a few searches.

Keeping Mum

Some years ago I heard a talk on ethics. The speaker asked how we would feel if an "indiscretion" were to appear on the front page of the Times. You’ve no doubt seen stories in the papers about “inappropriate” private emails going global electronically, and which have really bitten the originator (and others) in the backside.

It’s worth assuming that any electronic communication could be passed on and seen by anyone - I've certainly seen this happen accidentally - such as forwarded emails including an earlier private email conversation with someone else.

Social networking takes this to a new level. Do a Google search on your child, your employee or indeed yourself and see what comes up. Photos legless at the office party? Slagging off their boss? Children giving away details you’d rather they kept secret?

MORE ON FACEBOOK PRIVACY

A week ago we looked at Facebook privacy, which is an important “safety” issue if you, your business and/or your family are going to use it. After all “With the popularity of Facebook, it is becoming hard to keep your personal life personal”. At that time, I looked at the official announcements by Facebook.

I also promised to look closer at what the rest of the world is saying, around three key elements:

1. What can people see and do on your "wall"?
2. What can computers & "bots" see?
3. What information is Facebook is actively giving or selling to advertisers and other people?

Unfortunately, Facebook can change the rules whenever it wants, as it has done recently. Let’s look at the aspects In reverse order:

What information is Facebook actively giving or selling to advertisers and other people?

In the early days, Facebook reckoned it “owned” the data, photos etc loaded onto its website. This is not the case with the current Ts&Cs, which state:

• “You own all of the content and information you post on Facebook, and you can control how it is shared through your privacy and application settings.”
• “…subject to your privacy and application settings: you grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any IP content that you post on or in connection with Facebook ("IP License")”……
• “When you publish content or information using the "everyone" setting, it means that you are allowing everyone, including people off of Facebook, to access and use that information, and to associate it with you (i.e., your name and profile picture”
• Re ShareLinks: “You give us permission to use and allow others to use such links and content on Facebook”

You have to appreciate that Facebook is a free service, paid for principally by advertisers. Facebook can and does use and “sell”information, subject to your privacy settings, as stated above. This is set out in some detail in their privacy policy section 5 “How We Use Your Information”

What can computers & "bots" see?

According to the Irish Times “It’s not so much that this data is being sold to companies as being handed out willy-nilly to the wider internet. Anyone can interrogate and add to Facebook’s databases now with its “Graph API” feature. The escalation in the amount of data Facebook is making public largely comes from its attempts to feed this open interface more useful information.”

According to the Independent Mail “Websites and applications can get data about you through your friends, your profile will show up in Google searches and your info pre-populates into certain websites.”

What can people see and do on your "wall"?

As Facebook evolved from being a small group of friends at Harvard to some 400 million users, the concept of "friends" was developed. The privacy settings allow 4 options

1. Friends – these are people you have individually allowed to access and/or post information
2. Friends of friends – you can let certain information be seen not only by your friends but by their friends also
3. Everyone – the whole world
4. Customise - where you can allow access by (and/or hide from) specific people if you require

How can this all be controlled?

Under the “Account” menu in the top right hand corner of the Facebook screens, once you have logged in there are two sections :

1. Application settings
2. Privacy settings

Unfortunately the default in many cases is “Everyone”. Before you use Facebook, either for the first time or any further, it’s worth reviewing the advice in this article “Keep Out: Getting your privacy back on Facebook“ posted yes

PostScript 17th June: An open letter to the CEO of Facebook has been sent, highlighting remaining privacy issues.

Happy socializing! But do be careful!!

We'll look at privacy for businesses and organisations, which is important but somewhat different, in a separate article.

.

Escaping Excel Hell – Forecasting and Budgeting

Budgeting and forecasting in the mid-market is an oddity. Corporate systems exist, such as Cognos Planning (formerly Adaytum), but these are often too expensive for mid-sized organisations.

At the lower end there is the likes of Sage Forecasting. But in the mid-market?

Microsoft bought ProClarity, which was transformed into PerformancePoint. Moments later it was morphed into SharePoint, but the budgeting was dropped: As announced by a firm who had built their business on it: “The major shakeup of PerformancePoint announced on 23rd January 2009, sees the Monitoring and Analytics arm of the product being re-branded ‘PerformancePoint Services’, while the Planning element is being discontinued. PerformancePoint Services will become a feature of the much larger Microsoft Office SharePoint Server. This has taken the Microsoft BI market completely by surprise and has affected both suppliers and customers alike.” Thanks Microsoft!

That brings us back to that good old workhorse, Excel (also from Microsoft). But we’ve looked previously at the significant drawbacks of using Excel for budgeting, especially when multi-user collaboration is needed.

Surely the cloud can bring us something powerful yet affordable? Yes, but little as yet. Leading the marketing battle is Adaptive Planning . To follow....
(see the subsequent article)

Performance Management - Dashboards

CIMA, the management accountants, have produced a useful paper that sets out the role of management dashboards within the overall topic of performance management – “Improving decision making in organisations - Unlocking business intelligence” . This was published in September 2008, so some of the details are a little out of date - for example Microsoft PerformancePoint has now been incorporated into SharePoint, but dropping the budgeting functionality.

CIMA also run a series of public Masterclasses that cover dashboards. Discounts are available for CIMA & ICAEW members and some other people - see details for each course, pages 10-13.

A lot of people like speedometer “gauges”, as in the graphic above. Here is an example that can be incorporated into Excel.

Cloud Computing – Hot Air or Business Reality?

Thanks to Microsoft for reminding me of a paper by Ted Schadler of Forrester Research. He advised CFOs to take a close look at cloud computing for email, collaboration and enterprise applications.

The points are equally valid today, though Ted focused principally on benefits. So let’s look at both the pros and cons

Key Benefits

Ted mentioned three key benefits:

1. Speed: Accelerate a project roll-out

Cloud services (SaaS, PaaS & IaaS) are hosted remotely. Typically quicker to get through budget approval, and no need to wait for delivery of hardware etc. But for SaaS, which involves packaged software, don’t be fooled by statements that all you need to do is pay monthly fee and forget about help with set-up, project management, change management, training etc. These need to match those of an equivalent on-premise solution, whether you start with a pilot or a full-scale implementation. A requirements specification is also recommended, at least to establish which SaaS system(s) should be trialed.

2. Focus: Outsource non-core competencies to a service provider

Let the “specialists worry about the nuts and bolts so that you don’t have to” is a compelling argument, especially for small and medium-sized businesses that often struggle to do the basics in back-up, disaster recovery and general systems administration. It can help release IT staff for better things in larger organisations.

3. Funding: Pay as you go rather than pay up front.

This is also compelling for any application, but especially when the services offered would be completely unaffordable to run in-house. However less money up-front to the supplier reduces what they can spend on quality pre-sales work, and raises the risk of suppliers going out of business (compared to traditional package software houses) unless they are well funded.

Further benefits for Software as a Service (SaaS cloud)

Continuing this article focusing on SaaS cloud, various other useful papers have been published. These take a more balanced view of pros and cons. These include “The business case for Software as a Service” by Intellect (representing UK IT vendors) and “Cloud Computing – a guide for business managers” by the IT faculty of the ICAEW (representing users). From these documents and my own experience I’d like to add five more principal benefits to those highlighted by Forrester:

1. Functionality can be shared from any location with an internet connection, from any device with a compatible internet browser. This allows remote access from multiple sites, by mobile workers, and collaboration with third parties (including customers and suppliers)
2. Regular upgrades provide new functionality more quickly, without the hassle of installing them. However there are issues with upgrades in multi-tenant systems (see below).
3. Easy to increase usage when needed (but not so easy to reduce it)
4. Easier to pilot an application, and withdraw quickly if necessary at lower cost and embarrassment!
5. Better backup and disaster recovery than a typical on-premise installation, certainly for smaller  businesses

Cons, Pitfalls & Risks

Turning to the “cons”, this is my take from 10 years using SaaS systems for ecommerce, email, ebanking and other purposes. As Intellect says “While the SaaS model offers significant advantages over on-premise, it does carry potential risks that must also be considered”:

1. Top of my list is reliance on an internet connection. As Andy Scott says “Loss of Internet = loss of information systems. PERIOD.” At each place of use, it is a must to have at least two totally independent reasonably high-speed internet connections, either broadband + 4G, 2 different 4G services, or some other combination.
2. Top of most people’s concerns is security. "Security" covers a multitude of sins, from internet reliance (as above), user access, encryption, vendor staff, leavers/transferees, to back-up and disaster recovery. This all needs to be within compliance with the relevant Data Protection legislation (e.g. for FCA). There may in fact be an improvement using SaaS by comparison to your existing on-premise solution, but needs a careful look.
   
3. Security is closely related to data ownership. What’s in the vendor’s contract? Do you have (or can you quickly get) your own data back-ups, and the ability to move to another service if and when you need to?
4. As mentioned above, upgrades are both an advantage and potentially a critical issue, depending on the SaaS vendor and how it operates. Issues exist around timing, testing, user procedures, training, etc
5. SaaS solutions can usually be configured, can often be integrated with other systems, but can rarely be customised as easily as on-premise solutions. What you see is what you get!
6. Contingency planning is vital. Any lack of a credible contingency plan for a business critical application needs careful consideration, depending on the circumstances.

Ever "positive but cautious"

The quality (and indeed acceptability) of a specific supplier and its offering for a specific application is fundamental to the success of your cloud adventure. There’s no escaping proper due diligence! Assuming the cloud is an acceptable approach for the specific application, given the available offerings, it’s a question of which cloud.

Weekly review - Broadband risks / Smartphone vulnerability / iPad

There’s two important pieces of news this week, plus an update on the Apple iPad:

(1) BT workers are to be balloted on strike action.

If you are reliant on the internet for cloud computing applications, accessing other websites or just for email, would the loss of your internet connection be a body blow?

Here in Maidenhead a couple of years ago, someone vandalized a section of BT cabling serving several hundred homes and businesses. For several days no-one in the area could make land-line phone calls, automatically authorize card payments, or access the internet through BT. A strike may have the same effects.

Fortunately I have a 3G dongle which I use when away from base, and BT diverted incoming calls to my mobile, so the landline loss was little more than a nuisance. But what about all the internet-enabled devices in your business or home?

Larger organisations will have their own redundancy solutions (though I’ve seen several go without internet access for hours if not days). For smaller installations it is worth considering broadband routers that have a 3G service in-built. Here’s an example from Billion where they say “The auto fail-over feature ensures maximum connectivity and minimum interruption by quickly and smoothly connecting to a 3G network in the event that your ADSL line fails.” It’s available from places like Maplins. Not cheap, but worth it?

(2) Viruses for Smartphones?

PCW recently reported that a few of the new Samsung Wave smartphones had been shipped with a computer trojan virus pre-loaded onto the microSD card. Connecting the phone to a PC using auto-run would allow the trojan to attempt to infect the PC. Copying the file would potentially pass it on to other PCs.

It’s a stark reminder that it’s not only PCs that are vulnerable, even if the devices only act as a carrier, as with the Wave.

It’s also worth remembering that the Apple Mac is virtually immune from viruses and other threats (though can never protect from phishing and other threats that don’t take place on the device itself). Apple says "The Mac is designed with built-in technologies that provide protection against malicious software and security threats right out of the box". Norton onetheless sell an anti-virus solution for the Mac, principally to avoid passing on infected files to PC users like with the Wave (the term "dual protection" only refers to getting a copy of the Windows version in case you are running both Windows and Apple OS X on the same machine ). Other companies also provide Mac anti-virus, and here's a useful round-up of Mac security risks and protection.

With strong security solutions readily available, could someone tell me why the world puts up with Windows vulnerability?

(3) A little more on the iPad

By the way, when the iPad was first announced, the Apple website said that the "mobileme" service would allow you to remotely wipe everything from your iPad instantly in the event of theft or loss (provided presumably it’s switched on and accessing the internet). This is similar to the "mobileme" service for iPhone.