What's in Your Will about Your Digital Assets?

Posted on May 10, 2013 by Peter S. Vogel

Pew Research has reported that since 2002 about 92% of adults in the US use email everyday but how many people include in their wills what happens to the email and Social Media accounts? The answer is - not many.

Dallas lawyer Ira Silverman, who specializes in wills, trusts and probate, offers this advice:

  • Include language in your will to authorize access to and to transfer ownership of all your digital assets, data, media and information.
  • Also, keep a list of all such information for your survivors -- and include applicable passwords for -- social media, email accounts... any site where you have to log in with a user ID and password."

To read more about these issues please read my May column in eCommerce Times entitled “Where Your Social Media Accounts Go When You Die?”
 

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75% of Women Use Social Media, However Only 10% of Women Post on Wikipedia

Posted on February 8, 2013 by Peter S. Vogel

Gender statistics on the Internet are thought provoking, including Pew Research’s report that 75% of women and 63% of men use Social Media. Also Pew reported 67% of “online American adults are Facebook users, making Facebook the dominant social networking site” in the US. Likely no surprise to anyone.

Even though women predominate in Social Media, in 2012 Wikipedia estimated that about 10% of postings were made by women. It seems odd that only 10% of posting on Wikipedia are made by women considering the size and scope of Wikipedia, which as of February 2013 “accounts for 24 million articles, over 4.1 million in the English Wikipedia, …written collaboratively by volunteers around the world.”

After conducting a survey in 2011 about Wikipedia posting, Wikipedia express a desire to have more women to post:

Our editing community continues to suffer from a lack of women editors… It is a strategic priority to address this imbalance. The survey did find that the total percent of women Wikipedia editors has increased somewhat in the last few years, but we still have a lot of ground to over. We can attract women editors partly by introducing tools and features that make editing simple for everyone.

There must be a reason that only 10% of women post on Wikipedia, and determining why will likely provide interesting social information.
 

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Privacy Update - Cell Users Don't Install Apps and Turn Off GPS

Posted on October 19, 2012 by Peter S. Vogel

Pew Research reported that cell users are very concerned about their privacy and including the fact that about one third reported that their cells have been lost or stolen which obviously increases awareness of loss of privacy. Since Pew reported earlier this year that 88% of US adults have cell devices this updated report on cell privacy helps explain how users are acting to protect themselves.

The September 2012 Pew report includes these important findings:

  • 54% of app users have decided to not install a cell phone app when they discovered how much personal information they would need to share in order to use it
  • 30% of app users have uninstalled an app that was already on their cell phone because they learned it was collecting personal information that they didn’t wish to share

Also the Pew report included these details regarding these steps that cell users take to protect their privacy:

  • 41% of cell owners back up the photos, contacts, and other files on their phone so they have a copy in case their phone is ever broken or lost
  • 32% of cell owners have cleared the browsing history or search history on their phone
  • 19% of cell owners have turned off the location tracking feature on their cell phone because they were concerned that other individuals or companies could access that information

Given all of the concerns around BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) this Pew report should help companies be more informed about cell usage.
 

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Should Anyone Expect Privacy on Google?

Posted on March 15, 2012 by Peter S. Vogel

Since 92% of adults use search engines every day means that they share volumes of information with Google, who dominates searching, 66.4% in the US and 80% in the EU. No one was surprised when Pew Research reported that 92% of adults search daily, but what Google does with our personal information changed on March 1, 2012 when Google simplified its Privacy Policy.

To learn more about challenges to Google’s new Privacy Policies, I encourage you to read my column in eCommerce Times entitled “Google's New Privacy Policy vs. the World.” 

Let me know what you think about your privacy when you use Google!
 

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Internet Privacy Bill of Rights

Posted on February 28, 2012 by Peter S. Vogel

Privacy is a hot topic for users of Facebook, Google, and other Social Media sites, so the White House has proposed the following Bill of Rights for legislative consideration:

1. INDIVIDUAL CONTROL: Consumers have a right to exercise control over what personal
data companies collect from them and how they use it.

2. TRANSPARENCY: Consumers have a right to easily understandable and accessible information about privacy and security practices.

3. RESPECT FOR CONTEXT: Consumers have a right to expect that companies will collect,
use, and disclose personal data in ways that are consistent with the context in which
consumers provide the data.

4. SECURITY: Consumers have a right to secure and responsible handling of personal data.

5. ACCESS AND ACCURACY: Consumers have a right to access and correct personal data in usable formats, in a manner that is appropriate to the sensitivity of the data and the risk of adverse consequences to consumers if the data is inaccurate.

6. FOCUSED COLLECTION: Consumers have a right to reasonable limits on the personal data that companies collect and retain.

7. ACCOUNTABILITY: Consumers have a right to have personal data handled by companies with appropriate measures in place to assure they adhere to the Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights.

In 2011 more adult Social Media users were proactive in protecting their privacy by deleting people from as friends, deleting comments from their profiles, and removing their names from photos tagged to identify them as reported from a recent Pew Research Report entitled “Privacy management on social media.”

Internet Privacy will continue to great interest and concern, but since this is an election year it’s difficult to know how the proposed Bill of Rights will fare on the political arena.
 

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Only 80% of US teens on Social Media

Posted on November 15, 2011 by Peter S. Vogel

Pew’s recent report came as no surprise that 95% of teens (12-17) are on the Internet. But why are only 80% using Social Media? Amazingly 55% of online teens “have decided not to post something online because they were concerned that it might reflect badly on them in the future.”

Hopefully the reason for teenagers' concern about their future is that parents are really taking the time to educate their children. Pew reported the following statistics:

  • 94% of parents of online teens say they have talked with their teen about what kinds of things should and should not be shared online.
  • 93% have talked with their child about ways to use the internet and cell phones safely.
  • 87% have suggested ways to behave toward other people online.
  • 87% of parents have talked with their child about what he or she does on the internet.

Since Pew recently reported that 65% of adults are using Social Media daily (up from 5% in 2005) the new Pew report that 80% of teens use Social Media certain means the age gap on Social Media is closing.

The 80% of teens using Social Media seems to reinforce the Consumer Reports article that 7.5 million children under 13 are on Facebook (in violation of the 1998 Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act).

As Social Media evolves it will be interesting to watch these trends for teens and adults.
 

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