Big Brother Is Reading Your Blog

(page 2 of 2)

people are starting to get them more aggressively recently," says Chris Kelly, Facebook.com's chief privacy officer. Kelly was hired for this newly created position last fall.

Entrepreneurs are hoping the backlash will encourage users to leave Facebook.com or MySpace.com for new sites marketed as safer and more private. One such hopeful is YFly.com, a site for teens that opened its virtual doors on Feb. 3. "The response has been overwhelming," says co-founder Drew Levin. "The time couldn't be better, as parents are looking for a better place for their kids to go" (see BW, 12/26/05, "Move Over, MySpace").

"REPORT THE CREEP."

The site has backing from Tom Petters, whose company owns Polaroid, and celebrity support from none other than Nick Lachey, formerly of boy band 98 Degrees and the Newlyweds TV show. The site features a "report the creep" button on every page, which can be used to report a user who appears to be an adult (adults aren't allowed on the site, except by special permission).

Complaints are referred to a team of teen volunteers from each high school represented on the site. The team confirms -- or refutes -- that the person who has been reported is actually enrolled at its school. All violators are immediately reported to the police. Sullivan, who left MySpace.com, has a page on YFly.com now. Over one week of use, she got 24 of her friends to join the site, she says.

Another teenage social network, Tagged.com, is planning to go one step further. It's assembling a teen site squad that will answer newbies' questions about safety. It's also putting together an adult advisory board consisting of law-enforcement officials and educators who will help come up with more safety-related features.

CREATING NEW TOOLS.

In the next few months, Tagged.com will also launch an automatic scanner of information being posted to the site. If the scanner software detects that users are trying to post a phone number, for instance, it will conjure up a pop-up, asking posters if they really want -- and should -- post this information. "We do need a balance between allowing teens to be teens and overprotecting them," says CEO Greg Tseng.

The desire for beefed-up Net armor is giving rise to new social-networking software products and services. Roger Sullivan, vice-president of the Liberty Alliance Management Board, a digital-identity industry consortium of 150 companies including Oracle (ORCL) and Time Warner's (TWX) America Online, says some member companies plan to use software that enables users' personal Web pages to display different information depending on who is viewing them.

Another effort focuses on authentication services. The idea is to create a service that would help people you contact online know you are who you say you are, says Sullivan. Social-networking sites "open us up to identity theft and privacy issues like never before," he observes. Fortunately, there's a host of solutions to help the growing ranks of social networkers cope with the risks.

Kharif is a reporter for BusinessWeek Online in Portland, Ore.