UmeNow calls Facebook a predator (video)

As part of its “Facebook is Trash, National Privacy Celebration” marketing campaign, UmeNow, a new social network that wants to kill Facebook, is calling the social network a predator. As you can see above, the latest video released by the company implies that an innocent picture posted on Facebook can spread around the globe into the hands of people never meant to see it.

Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg believes the minimum age limit should be removed eventually, allowing those under 13-years-old to create an account on the social network. UmeNow argues that since your photos shared on Facebook are sometimes seen by people who are not your friends online, this could one day happen with photos of your child.

“My biggest concern is that not only does Mark Zuckerberg and his company want to seize all the information it can on adults like you and me so he can make money selling ads, but Facebook also wants to snatch away the precious privacy of your kids,” UmeNow founder Evelyn Castillo-Bach said in a statement. “I believe Facebook wants to grab as much personal information as it can about our children, so they can track their habits, stalk their thoughts, and target their friends, compiling everything into giant databases to profit from a child’s innocence. When will Facebook stop? It stops right here and right now. They’ll stop because of UmeNow.”

“We don’t ‘like’ Facebook,” Castillo-Bach continued. “Where’s the button for that? Who really likes Facebook? People use it by default. Who ‘likes’ seeing ads all the time? Who ‘likes’ being watched, analyzed and tracked? And now they want to add children into the mix? I don’t think so. Not if I have anything to do with it. It takes a mother to finally put this arrogant know-it-all billionaire and his company in its place. Enough! Don’t touch our kids.”

UmeNow has a $6.00 monthly subscription fee (you can sign up for a one-month free trial), which gives you the following features:

• No ads.
• No tracking and No data mining.
• No selling of personal information.
• All third party apps banned.
• Anonymous posting allowed.
• Protection from privacy violations by “free” sites.

Last month, Facebook announced a major revamp of its privacy settings (Photo Gallery). Although security experts still see room for improvement, the overall consensus is that this is a step forward.

The changes make it very clear who you are sharing something with on Facebook: you can choose public, just your friends, just a group of friends, or hand-pick specific friends. Of course, it’s possible that one or more of your Facebook friends will then share your status update, link, photo, or video with someone else, but that’s how the Web works (and this can easily happen on UmeNow as well). The bottom line is this: if you don’t want to risk a piece of content from being shared with others online, don’t upload it to the Internet.

See also:

• UmeNow vows to kill Facebook, dismisses Google+
• Mark Zuckerberg: Facebook minimum age limit should be removed
• Facebook starts rolling out facial recognition feature worldwide
• EU to probe Facebook over facial recognition feature
• Germany: Facebook facial recognition feature violates privacy laws
• Germany: Facebook Like button violates privacy laws

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Thai man arrested for royal ‘insult’ on Facebook

Bangkok:  Thai police today said they had arrested a 40-year-old man for allegedly posting pictures, audio clips and messages deemed insulting to the royal family on the social networking site Facebook.

Surapak Phuchaisaeng was arrested in Bangkok on Friday, said a senior police officer at the Technology Crime Suppression Division.

Under Thailand’s controversial lese majeste legislation, anybody convicted of insulting the king, queen, heir or regent faces up to 15 years in prison on each count.

Surapak, who also faces related charges under the Computer Crime Act, is one of the first people arrested for insulting the monarchy since a new government took power last month.

Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said after her July 3 election win that the rules should not be misused, following several high-profile cases against supporters of her brother Thaksin, Thailand’s fugitive former leader.

But in a sign she did not want a direct confrontation with the country’s powerful elites, her government has since vowed to set up a “war room” to crack down on alleged online royal insults.

Earlier this month more than 100 international academics called on Thailand to review the tough laws, saying political abuse of the legislation is undermining human rights.

The laws have come under heavy criticism from rights groups, which have expressed concern that they have been used to suppress freedom of expression under the last government, considered close to the establishment.

In March, a webmaster was jailed for 13 years after the Internet site he ran, linked to the opposition movement, allegedly published comments insulting the monarchy.

Another website editor currently on trial faces decades in prison if convicted — for failing to remove reader comments quickly enough.

Discussion of the royal family’s role is a long-standing taboo in politically divided Thailand.

King Bhumibol Adulyadej, 83, the world’s longest-reigning monarch and revered as a demi-god by many Thais, has been in hospital since September 2009.

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