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Facebook rolls out secure browsing changes. Here is how to save your app

Luis Fernando Tinoco — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 05:01:09 +0000

It came with five days of delay, but today (05/10) Facebook has followed its roadmap announced last May and rolled out important changes to apps and brand pages tabs.

This set of modifications only affects apps’ background coding – there is no interface change (visual) or new user facing feature, and for this reason it is not getting much media attention.

But the Facebook changes are drastic and, in simple words, will make you app unusable if not followed through.

Just test it yourself.

This morning, a number of high profile pages were presented with the warning below instead of their glossy app tab.

Facebook Apps on non-secure server are now being blocked for a big number of users

The main breaking change is that all apps have to be stored on secure servers – those with a valid SSL certificate installed.

From now on, when a user with secure browsing (HTTPS) enabled, and that is the default setting affecting the majority of people on Facebook, lands on a tab stored on a non-secure server, the warning above is presented.

Even though savvy users may find a way around it, there is no easy link to proceed and access the app anyway.

More than that, Facebook hasn’t ruled out banning the app altogether, even for users not on secure browsing, as the safety of personal information is more and more sensitive to the social network.

“We may announce other steps in the near future that will limit the distribution of Apps on Facebook that do not support Secure Canvas or Page Tab URLs”, the company has announce on its Developers blog.

If your app has been impacted by the secure browsing issue, the solution is not too hard to implement.

The 2 steps – The Online Circle‘s suggestion to accomplish the fix:

Purchase of an SSL Certificate and installation on the server where the app is stored (or migration of the app to a secure server);
Update of the apps settings on Facebook to reflect the new secure URL.

The secure browsing change is not the only breaking modification introduced by Facebook today.

The other changes are more likely to impact only complex apps, but may still be causing your tab to malfunction or totally disappear.

The links below will provide plenty of resources and documentation to understand the issues and act on it when appropriate.

And this is not all.

A new 12 months schedule of major changes has also being announced. The mark-up coding language used by hundreds of thousands of apps around the world, FBML, will be no longer supported from 1st January 2012 and totally phased out by 1st June 2012. So if you want to keep your audience engaged and protect your investment on Facebook apps and landing tabs, go on and make sure your provider is up to date with the rapidly shifting platform changes happening on the world’s biggest social network. Or drop us an email at The Online Circle, we would love to help your page!

Beat the retail blues with Facebook Pop-up Shops

Luis Fernando Tinoco — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 03:01:25 +0000

2011 has brought the perfect storm for social commerce. Facebook brand fans and advocates are ready to join your sales force. With the right tools and the right strategy, your business can create the 21^st Century’s ‘Avon Ladies’ and ‘Tupperware Parties’

Facebook Pop-up Shops are a new form of C2C (Consumer-to-consumer) retailing

The first annual results are coming out and there is little doubt that the retail industry is doing it tough. People are spending less, being more selective and doing their share of bargain hunting. Not surprisingly, the internet economy is growing at double the rate of the broader economy and online shopping at almost four times the rate. The web offers convenience, choice and savings. Even better, the social web has evolved to the point where it can now offer what might be the drawcard to beat the retail blues: a little help from your friends.

“If I had to guess, I’d say social commerce is next to blow up”, predicts Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook.

Social commerce is any form of e-commerce that involves social media to assist in the buying process. Or, in other words, what some people call a C2C (Consumer-to-consumer) transaction. Great new social commerce strategies are already mainstream, such as group buying coupons. A new model that has a greater chance of success for many types of businesses is the creation of a Facebook Pop-up Shop.

A Facebook Pop-up Shop is a temporary shop owned and managed by a user. First, the brand elects a fan and grants him the right to setup its own pop-up store (or open the possibility to anyone). Secondly, the user chooses the brand products he wants to sell and has the option of writing commentaries or reviews about each product. Next, the store is created as a tab on the user’s profile and messages are published on their wall. Finally, his friends visit the store, read the recommendations, choose a product and click to buy. The transaction actually takes place directly on the brand’s original store and the pop-up store owner is rewarded with a commission.

Facebook Pop-up shops have been around for a while, but mainly as a property of the brand itself. Sony Pictures has a successful app allowing US movie goers to find session times, buy tickets and invite friends. Domino’s Pizza has an affiliate widget in the UK rewarding users with a commission for pizzas sold through it.

Retail fashion chain 7 For All Mankind has gone a step further and created a sophisticated hack to have little mini shops appearing on people’s Facebook feeds. But the recently announced and yet to be launched MyPopupShop app is the first turnkey solution to offer a pop-up shop on the user’s page, backed by a background retailer platform.

Incentives and scarcity

Apart from tapping into the social validation and from converting your brand advocates into your actual sales people, a good pop-up store should also offer incentives to the buyer. These could be anything from direct discounts to access products before the official launch. Even simple tokens of recognition such as a nice wall post from a friend who you helped to find an invaluable offer goes a long way.

In Brazil, one of the fastest growing Facebook user bases in the world, a leading retail chain is aiming to reach 1 million new consumers within the first nine months of its launch of its Facebook social commerce app. It offers each user the ability to create its own shop, with selected products, and promotion to friends. The sales commission range from 2.5% to 4.5% depending on the product. To get the initial push, a few of the company’s employees were selected to choose one relative each to have the rights to open up their own shops. After the initial trial, anyone will be able to join in, setup their little interactive catalogue and start door knocking their friends, as the good old Avon Lady would do, but from the comfort of their own homes and mobile phones.

Want to discuss your idea to join the social commerce bandwagon and beat the retail blues? Talk to us.

7 Tips to help prevent your Facebook from being Hacked!

Michael Woldhuis — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 05:30:34 +0000

In Jaymee’s last article about Facebook hacking, she discussed the plans of the hacking group Anonymous to hack Facebook, in this article I present 7 tips to protect yourself from being Facebook hacked.

Facebook is now one of, if not the most trolled and targeted websites for hackers and cyber crooks in the world, and with most of us being too trustful for our own good we are easy targets. All it takes is for one ill-informed or misguided decision to occur, and a hacker not only has access to all your personal information, but you have also exposed your friends to the same fate.

I don’t know about you, but over the last few months I have noticed a clear increase in the number of spam or malicious looking posts appearing within my Facebook News Feed and on my Wall. It is rare that a week goes by where I do not encounter at least one suspicious looking link, which has supposably been sent to me from one of my “Facebook friends”.

That fact is though, that these links claiming to have come from one of my trusted friends have more than likely originated from a hacker, or some form of hacking software.

The hacker has gained unauthorised accessed to my friends Facebook account through the very same or very similar link that they are now “sharing” with me.

When a person’s Facebook account is hacked, it is not just the hackee who should be concerned, but their Facebook friends should also be alarmed as they are now more at risk of being hacked themselves. Once an account has been hacked, the hacker will begin sending out fake Facebook posts containing malicious links, while making it appear as though the victims themselves have posted them. Hackers may also choose to send a Facebook message to the user’s friends via Facebook’s message service or chat feature, suggesting users check out a malicious link. If a friend is fooled into clicking on one of these malicious links, they are now at risk of not only having their personal Facebook account information stolen, but also any personal, financial or private information they have stored on their personal or work computer.

The dangers also extends to the pages that the user is an admin of. It’s easier to hack into an admins account, than it is the actual Facebook Fan page. Once you’ve hacked into an admins account, you get access to the Facebook Fan Pages he or she admins!

How your account can be hacked?

There are many different ways your Facebook account can be “Hacked”. The most malicious and damaging form of hacking occurs through phishing, or when a hacker gains unauthorised access to an account after the user has clicked through to a fake app or link. Once the user has clicked through to the link or app the user will be redirected to a page that looks almost identical to that of Facebook’s login screen. If the user then enters in their username and password without identifying the page as a fake, the hacker will then have complete access to their account. The hacker is now able to utilise the users account to spread the infection further via their newly acquired friends.

Listed below are 7 simple tips to help prevent you from being Facebook hacked:

1. If it looks suspicious, it’s probably is

If you don’t like the look of a post, link or App, do not click on in it. Obvious right? Yet people continue to fall into the trap. Most malicious links or Apps will offer you something too good to be true or use statements like “Shocking”, “Embarrassing”, “Unbelievable” or “Check This Out” in an attempt to draw users in to clicking through. If you are in any doubt as to the nature of any posts from a “Friend” do not click on it, there is no point risking being hacked for a cheap thrill.

2. Don’t be a Friend whore

We all love logging into our Facebook accounts and seeing that we have a new Friend request waiting for our approval. It‘s in our nature to want to make friends, but it’s also in our nature to want to compete with others and to have more Facebook friends than what our real life friends have. It is this need to make as many friends as possible, and to one up our friends that makes many of us willing to accept any friend request, even when we don’t know whom the request is coming from.

Hackers, understanding that it’s in our nature and take advantage of a Facebook user’s eagerness to grow their Facebook friends list by sending out a countless number of fake friend requests. They hope to fool the user into accepting at least three of these fake requests. Why three you ask? Facebook has measures in place to allow users who lose or forget their Password and secret answer to recover there account with the help of three of their “trusted friends”.

To gain access to your account, all a hacker needs to do is pretend that they are you and that they have forgotten your account password and secret answer. Once they have been directed to the Facebook password recovery page they are able to, with the help of the three fake friends you have previously approved, reset your accounts password. After a 24 hour freeze out period following the password reset, the hacker is able to have full access to your account.

This method of hacking is especially concerning to businesses that may be operating a Facebook account for marketing purposes, as they are more likely to blindly accept Facebook Friend requests in an attempt to increase their reach. This is one reason why businesses should only set-up Facebook fan pages and not personal profiles to promote a business.

3. “Password” is not an acceptable Password

Having a strong password will not prevent your Facebook from being hacked if you have fallen victim to one of the many phishing swindles hackers attempt. It will however make it incredibly difficult for hackers to gain direct access to your account through less extensive and more primitive hacking techniques. The most primitive technique is simply making a calculated guess of a person password. The users; name, their wife, boyfriend, sibling, pet, birthday or the word password are examples of passwords hackers expect people to use, due to their easy to remember nature.

It is recommended that your password contain a mixture of letters, digits, punctuation and both capital and lowercase letters. It is also recommended that your password be at least 6 characters long, however the more characters in your password the belter. If you are afraid that you may forget your password, write it down and hide it in a safe place. I would also suggest that you change your password on a regular basis.

4. Always check the URL

The aim of phishing is to get the user to unknowingly share their Facebook login details with the hacker. The most common way hackers achieve this is, is by tricking the user into entering their Facebook details into a fake Facebook login page. These fake login pages are usually a near perfect copy of Facebook’s actual login page. A fake login page will usually appear after you have already logged into Facebook via the real login screen, and are usually prompted after you have clicked on a malicious link or application. A clear indication of a fake login page is found within the URL of the page. Although hackers can make exact copies of the actual login page, they are unable to use the same URL. Whenever you login too, or are asked to re-login to Facebook, you should always make sure that the URL is www.Facebook.com. A common way hackers deceive people is by having a URL that may appear to be the same but is in fact slightly different. For Example: www.Faccbook.com or www.FBook.com.

5. Don’t grant permission to unknown or suspicious Applications

One of the most popular features within Facebook is Applications. To be able to use, or access most applications you are required to grant access to the application to use some of your personal information and to promote the group via your wall. Most applications that ask for access are trustworthy and genuinely need access to your information, but there are some Apps out there that are designed specifically to exploit the access you give them. If you receive a “Request for Permission” from a Facebook App you should always ensure that the page asking for access is reputable, and is coming for a person or company you trust. Much like my first tip, if it looks suspicious, just don’t risk it.

6. Beware the “Smart Phone”

It is becoming increasingly more popular for Facebook users to access their accounts via their mobile phones, with many mobile phone service providers even offering free access to Facebook as part of their service. Although smart phones and free access makes it easier for users to check their Facebook accounts it may also be making it easier for hackers to hack their accounts. In many countries, the network signal provided by service providers is not encrypted, so hackers have the ability to access the data that flows between the mobile and mobile operator with relative ease. They can gain access to all of the information that the user is sending out and is receiving.

My tip is to always check to see if you service provider offers an encrypted network signal.

7. Enable Secure Browsing

In my final tip, Facebook now allows its users to put their Facebook Profile in a type of safe mode. Putting your Facebook in to this safe mode means that the information that is transferred between you and Facebook is now encrypted, meaning hackers are unable to easily intercept the information being sent and received. The safe mode is a HTTPS Secure Connection, a type of connection financial, ecommerce, banking etc sites use to protect their most sensitive information.

Secure browsing is not a default setting, so users have to enable it themselves. To enable secure browsing on your Facebook account follow these steps:

Log into your Facebook account > Choose “Account Settings” from the “Account” menu> Select “Account Security” and select “change”> Ensure there is a tick next to the “Browse Facebook on a secure connection (https) whenever possible” option > Click “Save”.

I would also recommend that while enabling Secure browsing you select “Send me an Email” under “When a new computer or mobile logs into this account”. This means that whenever someone logs into your account from an unknown access point, you will be sent an email.

Have you ever had your Facebook Account Hacked? Let us know how they did it, and what you have done to prevent it from happening again.

Facebook next on the hit list

Lucio Dias Ribeiro — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 05:36:29 +0000

THEY are at it again, fresh from attacking the Syrian’s Ministry of Defence website the notorious hacking group Anonymous has announced that their next target will be the social networking giant, Facebook on the 5th of November.

The group of hackers has claimed participation in nearly every recent prominent hacking attack of this year. They have successfully executed attacks on 70 law enforcement websites and the Sony Playstation Network.

This recent interest in Facebook may be a result of the organisation’s recent announcement that it plans to create its own social network site called AnonPlus. After the group’s Google+ account called “Your Anon News” was taken down, they began fleshing out AnonPlus.com that has been described as a “new social network where there is no fear…of censorship…of blackout…nor of holding back.”

But an Anonymous spokesman said that even heads of the group were unsure how seriously to take the threat since the organisation doesn’t have a strict command structure and members usually mask their identities. “I found groups of people who say we absolutely are and have a trick up our sleeves, and others that say it isn’t us and that this is stupid.” said the spokesman.

But, as with all Anonymous messages only time will tell if this announcement is real, fake, just a message made by a single member to rally the rest of the real Anonymous troops or just a “keyboard hero” that claims to be from the infamous organisation.

Lots of friends on Facebook? Think again.

Lucio Dias Ribeiro — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 02:43:15 +0000

Having friends only brings benefits.

The more the best!

However there is a limit.

A study at Oxford University compared the size of the human brain, specifically the Neocortex, the area responsible for conscious thought, with other primates. Researchers crossed this information with data about the social organisation of each species over time, and have come to the conclusion that 150 is the maximum of friends a person can have.

For you to maintain a friendship with someone, you need to memorise information about that person (e.g.name and details of her character), which are triggered when you interact. For some reason, the brain does not contain data on more than 150 people. The relationships that go beyond this number will inevitably be more casual rather than friendship.
Other researchers went further and found that, within this group of 150, there are a series of concentric circles of friendship: 5, 15, 50 and 150 people, each with different characteristics.

Finite Circle
The brain contains no more than 150 friends, divided into groups.

Intimate group
5 friends – is the intimate, with whom you speak more – and would not hesitate to call at dawn or call to borrow money. For Aristotle, 5 was the maximum number of true friends.

Group of empathy
15 friends – people are very important to you – if any of them died tomorrow, you’d be very upset. This group may include people from work or friends of friends.

Typical number
50 friends – is the number of friendships maintained by most people, and also the average size of early human groups .

Limit
150 friends – Maximum that the brain can handle at once. These are the people whose names, faces and features you can memorise and trigger if necessary. The curious thing is that these circles had been mentioned by philosophers such as Confucius, Plato and Aristotle – and are also present in various forms of human organisation. In classical philosophy, 5 were already considered the maximum number of close friends that anyone could have.

Apart from football and footy (here in Australia) , 12 to 15 people is the amount of players in most sports. Fifty was the average number of people hunting in primitive communities (as the Aborigines here).

But even with so many practical examples, no one can explain why our friendships limit is 150 people.

So, next time you find someone with more than 150 “friends” on Facebook or Google+, think again.

Cheers

Lucio

Cadbury Dairy Milk Australia hits 100,000 fans!

James Coleman — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 03:09:15 +0000

Congratulations Cadbury and The Online Circle team

This week at the agency we are celebrating a big milestone. The Cadbury Dairy Milk Australia Facebook fan page we manage has reached 100,000 fans making it the 7th largest Australian food/beverage Facebook fan page.

Cadbury are celebrating this milestone by giving away 10 ‘thank you’ packs, click here to enter.

The Online Circle has been managing this page since its inception in early 2010. Well done to all the team who have worked hard on this account. Click on the link for other articles relating to Cadbury celebrates Facebook success

The new and improved Facebook

Lucio Dias Ribeiro — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 04:51:13 +0000

Mark Zuckerberg revealing the new Facebook and Skype features

FACEBOOK has just received a facelift thanks to Skype, allowing users to make free video calls to their friends through the site.

The social networking giant announced a partnership with the web video call service, Skype shortly after Google launched its own social networking site Google+, which also features video calling.

Set out to be made available globally in the next few weeks, the widely anticipated feature brings two of the web’s most popular consumer services together and offers face to face video chat; users who don’t already have the Skype feature installed can instantly download it when a friend calls them.

The partnership makes use of Facebook‘s connections with Microsoft which invested $240 million in the firm back in 2007, and also acquired Skype in May this year for an estimated $8.5 billion. Skype’s chief executive, Tony Bates, said that the company had put a major effort into making sure that its own infrastructure would be able to support Facebook’s immense client base, which will help Skype meet its own goal of reaching 1 billion users.

Founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg announced that the site had reached 750 million members, though he further added that the company doesn’t measure success by user numbers anymore, but rather using the volume of shared content as the main measure for activity.

With the news coming out a week after the launch of Google+, permitting groups of people to engage with each other by video calling in ‘Hangouts’, Facebook’s video does not yet have the capability of Google+’s system. But when Zuckerberg was asked if Facebook will be rolling out group video calling, he said not to rule anything out.

He also added that one-to-one calling makes up the vast majority of video calling.

Well, let’s see how it goes,