Techdirt. Stories filed under "profiles" Easily digestible tech news... http://www.techdirt.com/ en-us Techdirt. Stories filed under "profiles"http://www.techdirt.com/images/td-88x31.gifhttp://www.techdirt.com/ Tue, 18 Jan 2011 05:53:39 PST Match.com Sued Over Dead/Fake Profiles Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110114/09203212668/matchcom-sued-over-deadfake-profiles.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110114/09203212668/matchcom-sued-over-deadfake-profiles.shtml threatened some rivals, saying that the numbers they put out concerning marketing probably couldn't be supported, and ordering them to cease and desist with misleading claims. Of course, all that really did was make a lot of people turn around and look more closely at Match.com's own claims, which seemed only fair. I have no idea if this latest story is a result of some of that scrutiny, but a class action lawsuit has been filed against Match.com by users of the service who claimed that the company was quite misleading with its own stats. Of specific concern is the actual number of users touted by Match, who (the plaintiffs claim) leaves "dead" accounts on the system just so it can boost its numbers. Also, there are claims that many of the profiles are fakes, using images of porn actresses, models, or people from other dating sites (though, if accurate, this could just be the work of spammers, rather than Match itself). Separately, there are claims that just as accounts are about to expire, members get a notice that someone wants to contact them -- but they have to renew their subscription to respond. Except, when they do renew, it turns out that the person who wanted to contact them has disappeared. All that does seem a bit sneaky, if true.

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]]> you-only-need-to-find-one http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20110114/09203212668 Wed, 10 Nov 2010 13:14:00 PST Facebook Files First Patent Lawsuit; Countersuing Alt Weekly Newspaper Company Who Sued First Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101110/01374011791/facebook-files-first-patent-lawsuit-countersuing-alt-weekly-newspaper-company-who-sued-first.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101110/01374011791/facebook-files-first-patent-lawsuit-countersuing-alt-weekly-newspaper-company-who-sued-first.shtml filed its first patent infringement lawsuit. However, this is really a defensive strike, as it's a countersuit against Phoenix Media, publisher of the Boston Phoenix, an alt-weekly publication. Apparently Phoenix sued Facebook last year over a patent (6,253,216) on "providing a personal profile page" (stop laughing -- it's really been patented).

As the article notes, Facebook has been sued about 15 times for patent infringement, and has (so far) refused to settle any cases. In most cases, the lawsuits are by patent holding companies, so there's nothing to sue them back over. However, since this is an actual operating company, Facebook has launched its countersuit, suing for patent infringement over two patents that it acquired from other companies recently. It's nice to see Facebook pushing back against those who sue it over silly patents. It will be worth watching to see if it continues to be aggressive against such bogus threats.

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]]> watch-who-you-sue http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20101110/01374011791 Wed, 10 Jun 2009 10:38:00 PDT Texas Politicians Want To Make It A Felony To Create Intimidating Fake Online Profiles Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090609/1826035182.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090609/1826035182.shtml make it a felony to create a fake social networking profile with intent to "harm, defraud, intimidate, or threaten" anyone. Of course, that seems rather broad. Oddly, the article doesn't mention the Lori Drew case (Update: actually, it does mention Lori Drew at the bottom... but says this law wouldn't apply, because it only applies to fake profiles of "real people"), though, it does mention the Tony La Russa/Twitter legal battle, even though it's difficult to think any court would rule a parody profile as being with intent to harm, defraud, intimidate or threaten. Of course, even if the bill is signed into law, Eric Goldman notes that it would likely have trouble surviving much of a challenge, pointing out the oddity of singling out "social networking sites" and (more importantly) the fact that any such law would likely ban all sorts of protected free speech. Still, "anti-cyberbullying" laws are all the rage these days, and politicians want to make sure they can tell constituents that they're out there "protecting the children," so expect to see plenty more of this type of legislation.

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]]> if-you-intimidate,-please-be-real http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20090609/1826035182 Thu, 19 Jun 2008 15:15:00 PDT How Does Taking Away A Popular Feature 'Improve Netflix'? Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080619/0915391456.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080619/0915391456.shtml Netflix is eliminating the feature, and doing so with the bizarre Orwellian explanation:
Why? While it may be disappointing to see this feature go away, this change will help us to continue to improve the Netflix website for all our customers.
Can someone explain how eliminating a feature that many people use improves the Netflix website? You see, Netflix, if you're going to remove a feature and say that the website is better because of it, it would actually help if you explained how or why it's better (i.e., you're replacing that feature with something better). To simply say that removing a well-liked feature makes the website better without any further explanation, you're basically calling your customers stupid because you think they'll believe what's clearly bogus.

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]]> please-explain http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20080619/0915391456 Fri, 22 Feb 2008 18:12:03 PST Your Dating Profile Not Exciting Enough? Just Borrow Someone Else's Dennis Yang http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080221/133302315.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080221/133302315.shtml just borrow the good bits of the exciting profiles that you find, and add them to your own. Apparently, these acts of profile plagiarism are fairly commonplace now amongst the online dating set. When people find well-written, exciting descriptions, they grab them for their own profiles. Unfortunately for the daters, eventually, a real-world meeting delivers a product that the marketing has misrepresented, and disappointment usually results. Although in some cases, it's possible to track down the "original" author, most origins are fairly difficult to trace -- surely more than one person enjoys "long walks on the beach."

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]]> nobody-knows-you're-a-dog http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20080221/133302315 Mon, 11 Feb 2008 16:27:25 PST Deleting Your Facebook Profile Isn't So Easy Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080211/024809220.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080211/024809220.shtml erasing his Facebook profile. However, the NY Times is now reporting on just how difficult it actually is to erase your profile on the site. Basically, you can "deactivate" it, but it still exists and can be found by users of the service. Of course, some might argue that it's rather silly to try to delete anything once you've put it online, and that counts for social networking profiles as well as other content.

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]]> they're-saving-it-for-when-you-realize-what-a-huge-mistake-you-made http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20080211/024809220