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31% UK users are fed up with Spam Marketing on Facebook

AZ — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 02:44:34 +0000

Around 58% UK people use Social Networking websites such as Facebook and myspace. However, According to a survey conducted by, Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), found that 31% of them are not happy with the barrage of notifications and requests to join various groups or try applications.

A survey of almost 2,000 U.K. adults aged 16 and over revealed that Only 5% had signed up for a social networking profile sponsored by a brand or product. Only 7% of survey respondents said they would sign up to sponsored sites.

The report also found that 12% of those surveyed do not like the fact that other people can monitor online activity on websites such as MySpace and Facebook. The survey concluded that this suggested that users were not particularly aware of the privacy functions that can be set to limit what can be seen.

“Regardless of what may be the hot social media property of any particular month or year, social networking has become a core part of our daily lives.” said Amy Kean, senior marketing manager at the IAB and head of the IAB social media council.

She added, “However, despite its popularity, this study shows that respect for the user is just as important in social media consumers will not respond to spam or irrelevant advertising.”

The IAB also found that the UK’s heaviest users of social networking sites were in Wales and the Midlands.

40% UK Teens are “Social Hackers”

AZ — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 08:37:23 +0000

A survey carried out by security firm Trend Micro has revealed that 40% of British teenager are “social hackers”. They have hacked into social networking sites such as Facebook for their own benefits.

The “new” idea of “social hacking” is that many social details are on view via social networking sites such as Facebook. A competent social hacker can find information which tends to give away security question answers. So that rather than rummaging through dustbins for passwords, social hackers simply rely on their Google-Fu.

In a survey of 500 children, between 12 and 18, and 500 parents the security company found 40% of teens had gained access to someone else’s social networking profile this way. A further 10% also said they thought it was “cool” or “funny” to impersonate them and 70% admitted they had done this.

Rik Ferguson, senior security adviser at Trend Micro, said children were finding it easy to do this because people are still too free with the personal information they post online.

“It’s not hard for a child to reset someone’s password and gain access to a social networking or Paypal account via Ebay because most of the information needed to do this is on a social networking profile,” he said.

He said there were many applications on social networking sites that could also be used to obtain the information required. One example includes a questionnaire that is sent out to friends on Facebook asking them to list 25 things about themselves. This includes their first kiss, the name of their first teacher and their first love.

“All these answers can then be used when resetting a password as these are normally the questions you are asked when you forget a password on these sites, ” Mr Ferguson said.

The Survey found out that boys are twice more likely to try their hands at breaking into someone else’s profile to impersonate them whereas girls are three times more likely than boys to try to access other people’s online shopping accounts and even bank accounts without permission to get access to money

Girls are More Practical than Boys…..

UK Universities are planning to clamp down on students use Facebook for cheat

AZ — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 06:07:04 +0000

Universities are reviewing their plagiarism policies to clamp down on students who use Facebook to cheat. Plagiarism experts have warned universities and colleges to be aware of students copying from each other when discussing coursework on social networking sites.

Gill Rowell, from the consultancy Plagiarism Advice, said universities needed to rework their plagiarism policies with “internet working in mind” but insisted institutions were taking cheating seriously enough.

The warning comes after almost one in two Cambridge University students in a poll of 1,000 admitted to cheating in their studies.

Student newspaper, Varsity, found 49% of undergraduates who anonymously took part in their poll confessed to passing off other people’s work as their own.

Law students were the most likely to plagiarise, with 62% saying they had broken university rules. Some 82% of those who admitted to plagiarising said they had taken sentences from online encyclopedia Wikipedia. Just 5% of the students admitted they had been caught.

“It is a depressing set of statistics,” Robert Foley, a professor in Biological Anthropology at King’s College, Cambridge, said.

University plagiarism experts will discuss cheating with Universities UK, the umbrella group for vice-chancellors, on November 19.

sickfacebook.com » uk

31% UK users are fed up with Spam Marketing on Facebook

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