Frowning On Facebook

Sorry you can't see me, readers. This blog is simply about providing information for educational purposes.

"Facebook to go public, files for $5 billion IPO" by Michael B. Farrell  |  Globe Staff, February 01, 2012

The massive social network Facebook, founded eight years ago in a Harvard dorm, filed papers yesterday for a stock offering expected to raise at least $5 billion in the biggest Wall Street debut for a tech company since Google.

The filing is the first public record of Facebook’s financial performance, revealing that the company made more than $1 billion in profits on revenues of $3.7 billion last year.

When Google Inc. went public in 2004, it raised $1.9 billion and soon became one of the most dominant forces on the Web. If Facebook’s offering is as successful as many expect, it could value the company as high as $100 billion, cementing its place among the largest corporations in the world and redefining the social media sector for investors.

Thanks to Facebook, “social media is a permanent part of the Internet,’’ said Andrew McAfee, a researcher at MIT’s Center for Digital Business. “It should put to rest any notion that this phenomenon of using digital tools to connect with others is a fad.’’

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The filing also revealed that chief executive Mark Zuckerberg, 27, who dropped out of Harvard University after cofounding Facebook, owns 28.4 percent of the company’s shares, a stake that will be worth $28 billion if Facebook becomes a $100 billion company.

Zuckerberg, known for his casual attire and modest lifestyle among Silicon Valley’s wealthy technology set, received nearly $1.5 million in compensation in 2011, including a salary of $483,333 and a bonus of $220,500. He was also paid $783,529 in other compensation last year, mostly for personal use of aircraft chartered by the company.

He asked Facebook’s board to lower his base pay to $1 in 2013, according to yesterday’s filing.

The company makes money by selling ads that appear on its pages, which have become a magnet for advertisers looking to reach Facebook users. It handles more than one-third of all online display advertising that appears on the Web. But some investors question whether Facebook can continue to increase its revenues....

The use of such personal data is a minefield for Facebook, as both consumers and regulators have reacted negatively to changes in Facebook’s policies regarding user privacy.

The company will have to strike a careful balance between user privacy and the use of personal information to place advertising, according to MIT’s McAfee. “If they violate the trust that they have with 800 million people around the world, they could get into real trouble,’’ he said.

In fact, Facebook, which has a mission “to make the world more open and connected,’’ has already run into trouble with regulators. Last year, it settled with the Federal Trade Commission over complaints about policy changes that altered the way user information was being shared, agreeing to, among other things, improve its notification process when it changes user privacy practices.

Another challenge for Facebook: tough competition from the likes of Google, Microsoft, Twitter, and from fast-growing social media sites in overseas markets like Renren, which is based in China. Facebook, already available in 70 different languages, said it is looking at expansion opportunities, including into China.

“If they are going to get user growth, it’s going to come from emerging and growing markets,’’ said Elliott.

Facebook is also at the heart of an Internet ecosystem, spawning companies that have built success by exploiting its network of online friends....

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Related: Facebook could offer fund firms big payday

"Calif. housing market girds for newly minted Facebook millionaires" February 09, 2012|Michael Cooper, New York Times

PALO ALTO, Calif. - It will be some time before the first Facebook shares are sold to the public, and even longer before Facebook’s employees are able to turn their paper wealth into cash and take their places as the newest members of the 1 percent....

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Have you found a friend yet?

"Pa. man’s Facebook ‘surfer’ page lured teens" Associated Press, February 11, 2012

PITTSBURGH - A married father used phony Facebook profiles to pose as two different Florida surfers to solicit sexually graphic messages and photos from seven teenage girls in western Pennsylvania, and two of the girls eventually agreed to meet for sex with the surfers’ middle-aged “friend’’ - yet another fake persona he used, the state attorney general said yesterday. 

I'm sorry, folks, but I'm all too real. What you see is what you get.

Also see: The Facebook Age

Sorry you can't see my ugly face.

William R. Ainsworth, 53, of Mars, was charged Thursday with 68 counts, including involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and multiple counts of charges that include attempted unlawful contact with a minor, possession of child pornography, and criminal use of a computer.

Ainsworth is already in jail in Butler County after he was arrested on similar charges in September, when authorities say he traveled to the home of a 14-year-old girl for sex.

“We quickly discovered that there was much more to this case than the sexual solicitation of one girl,’’ Attorney General Linda Kelly said in a statement before a news conference yesterday. “What we found was an intricate web of false Facebook identities that were used to establish online relationships with vulnerable girls, who were then manipulated into sending nude photos to Ainsworth.’’

Related: Around AmeriKa: Child Porn Expanding

Did you see who is at the bottom of it?

Also related:

"Leaked emails from data security firm HBGary show the federal government is offering private intelligence companies contracts to create software to manage “fake people” on social media sites, possibly to manipulate public opinion or create the illusion of consensus on controversial issues."

Or to act as bait for perverts?

Authorities said the psychological manipulation included messages indicating that the first surfer was killed, so the girls would be more sympathetic and likely to comply with requests from the second “surfer,’’ who typically introduced the girls to a friend named “Glenn Keefer.’’  

Sort of looks like an AmeriKan War Paper, doesn't it?

“Keefer’’ was essentially Ainsworth’s alter-ego, a 50-something man from Pennsylvania who would offer the girls money for pictures or sex so they could run away to join the surfers, investigators said.

The phony Facebook pages have been taken down, and the girls are not identified in the 68-page criminal complaint. The alleged victims were 13 to 15 years old....

“Given the nature and extent of the psychological manipulation, we’re being extremely careful not to re-victimize these girls,’’ said Nils Frederiksen, a spokesman for Kelly. He confirmed that Ainsworth is married with children, but would not provide other details.

Ainsworth allegedly posed as surfer “Bill Cano,’’ claimed to be a runaway from the area, and sometimes claimed to have attended their school. Cano was also contacted by girls he didn’t solicit but who saw his profile on their friends’ pages. Prosecutors said Ainsworth’s phony profiles garnered him more than 600 Facebook friends.

And I don't even have one.

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And now that your entire life and information has been supplied to the site:

"US seeks social media monitoring tool" Associated Press, February 13, 2012

SAN FRANCISCO - The US government is seeking software that can mine social media to predict everything from future terrorist attacks to foreign uprisings, according to requests posted online by federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies.

Hundreds of intelligence analysts already sift overseas Twitter and Facebook posts to track events such as the Arab Spring. But in a formal notice to potential contractors, the FBI recently outlined its desire for a digital tool to scan the entire universe of social media - more data than humans could ever crunch.

The Department of Defense and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence also have solicited the private sector for ways to automate the process of identifying emerging threats and upheavals using the billions of posts people around the world share every day.  

So WHO is going to be getting the CONTRACT$?!?!

“Social media has emerged to be the first instance of communication about a crisis, trumping traditional first responders that included police, firefighters, EMT, and journalists,’’ the FBI wrote in its request. “Social media is rivaling 911 services in crisis response and reporting.’’  

Meaning the LYING GOVERNMENT and MOUTHPIECE MEDIA are LOSING the INFORMATION WAR!!

The proposals already have raised privacy concerns among advocates who worry that such monitoring efforts could have a chilling effect on users. Ginger McCall, director of the open government project at the Electronic Privacy Information Center In Washington, D.C., said the FBI has no business monitoring legitimate free speech without a narrow, targeted law enforcement purpose.

“Any time that you have to worry about the federal government following you around peering over your shoulder listening to what you’re saying, it’s going to affect the way you speak and the way that you act,’’ McCall said.

Not here:

DECODE THIS

That clear enough for you?

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Why is it a frown hits my face whenever I see a Boston Globe?