Maryland is wrong.

Every employer should have the right to ask for your Facebook password. And they should fire (or not hire) you the second you agree to hand it over. That’s right: failure to give your boss Facebook access shouldn’t be grounds for termination; giving your boss Facebook access should get you canned. Why? Because any employee that’s desperate or gullible enough to hand over a personal password to his boss might as well tattoo SECURITY RISK on his forehead.

Social engineering attacks are based on one thing: the attacker convincing the victim she is entitled to legitimately access private information. If a potential employee is handing over private data in the interview, that’s a pretty fair indicator he has a poor grasp of what constitutes private information and/or legitimate access. That’s something an employer should know before hiring anyone. If a current employee does the same thing during a random supervisor sit-down, the boss should seriously reevaluate the employee’s security privileges, and possibly his employment.

By the same token, any job applicant asked to disclose her Facebook login should walk out of the interview. Unless you’re applying for a job requiring national security clearance levels, your employer has about as much right to your Facebook account as it does to read your private diary, search your medicine cabinet or rifle through your underwear drawer. Any place with that sense of entitlement or paranoia is not a place anyone should want to work.

(The issue of requiring students to hand over Facebook login details is separate; putting in legal protections for the privacy of minors is almost always a good idea. Kids don’t always have the resources or wherewithal to stand up to abusive authority figures.)

Maryland is trying to legislate common decency and common sense. While I applaud the instinct, the password handover issue is too convenient and powerful a signal to outlaw; it makes careless employees and clueless employers much easier to spot.

Okay, maybe not.

In all seriousness, Maryland is probably right to ban the practice of requesting employee and student social networking credentials — if only to save teachers and employers from themselves. Those levels of access are almost certain to be abused (or inadvertently exposed) by overzealous (or clumsy) supervisors and thereby open up companies, schools and states to all kinds of harassment lawsuits.

That such a ban is even necessary is proof enough that the general public has very untrustworthy instincts about proper password and access security. If you think your online data is safe, bear in mind you’re sharing systems with people who think nothing of asking for — or handing over — access with very little consideration of the long term consequences. You’re sharing the information superhighway with people who are not only careless drivers, but who will let almost anyone who asks borrow their car, too.

Hope you’ve got a good backup plan.

So Facebook bought photosharing mobile network Instagram for tidy $1 billion this week. In all the furor about whether Instagram is selling out or Facebook is frightened of mobile or if this is further proof Facebook’s IPO will break the NASDAQ, we are obliged to ask what this means for data ownership, particularly for Instagram users. The answers are thus:

1. Not much
2. That’s the wrong question

As to point one, Instagram already had a pretty solid lock on the use of any photos you put in their service, as their TOS makes clear with the beneficent caveat that “Content not shared publicly (“private”) will not be distributed outside the Instagram Services.” Whether Facebook constitues an “outside” now that they own Instagram is up for debate, but since the whole point of Instagram is to share photos on Facebook (and other social networks) — and those networks make similar claims to any content shared on their services — Facebook probably already owned distributive rights to your pics. All this buyout means is that Facebook is running the advertising side of Instagram, rather than Instagram keeping the monetizing in-house.

As to point two, let’s take a look at the mass firings, investor vs. executive sniping and near-wholesale management reorganization gripping Yahoo, which is still the fourth most visited website in the world. Do you send messages with Yahoo Mail, hold photographs in Flickr or play roto baseball over at Yahoo Fantasy Sports? Then the meltdown of one of the most popular web enterprises on the planet is of interest you — particularly from a data ownership perspective. Section 9 of the Yahoo TOS states that “with respect to Content you submit or make available for inclusion on publicly accessible areas of the Yahoo! Services, you grant Yahoo! … worldwide, royalty-free and non-exclusive license(s),” which is to say they can use your data for free forever, and make whatever money off of it they want, too. Section 14 of those same Terms of Service warns that “Yahoo! reserves the right at any time and from time to time to modify or discontinue, temporarily or permanently, the Yahoo! Services (or any part thereof) with or without notice.” In other words, Yahoo can shut down anything you’ve got your data in, at any time, for any reason, and they don’t owe you squat.

To be fair, these are standard clauses for almost any web application TOS, and Yahoo was actually pretty up-front when it came to shutting down Delicious (and then, due to outcry, selling it instead). What should worry the data-conscious among us is that Yahoo is in turmoil and its users’ data is its greatest asset. Desperate times call for desperate measures, and Yahoo may start shuttering services more forcefully and less carefully than in the past. Or, worse, Yahoo may be tempted to get into some very onerous data-mining and profile-scraping to keep the lights on and hold position as the number four game in town.

Facebook is making flashy moves to justify a $100 billion pre-IPO valuation, but they’re courting goodwill right now. Yahoo is fighting for its life. Which company would you more gladly trust with your data, and which should you be wary of? I know where my attention will be.

If you’re a user of Yahoo services, I hope you’ve got a good backup plan.

What is the value of a tweet? How much does Yelp value a review? As a participant in the social media economy, how much value does your participation create for companies like Facebook and LinkedIn?

These questions came to mind recently as we had a deep discussion at Backupify about the value of data in the cloud. Sometimes people ask me why they should backup their cloud data. The answer that I give comes from asking thousands of Backupify customers why they do it – because the data is valuable, and it is always important to protect valuable assets.

Quantifying the value of data to a business is relatively easy. For customers who use our Backup for Google Apps or Backup for Salesforce products to protect their corporate data, it boils down to three basic concerns:

1. How difficult it would be to recreate that data
2. How much revenue would be lost if the data was lost
3. How much productivity would be lost if important data could not be accessed

The value of social data (for both consumers and businesses) is a little bit harder to quantify. We decided to take a shot at it by building off some publicly available information to figure out what social data, which social media companies, and what social media actions are the most valuable. The results are in posted in the Backupify Social Data Value Infographic below.

We plotted the data in two different ways. The first is by average per-user value, which of course has Facebook as king of the hill. The second plot shows how many users a service would require to reach a $10 billion valuation. As you can see, most of the companies are unlikely to ever get that big.

So take a look, and let us know what you think. Are Yelp reviews really worth more than tweets? Who should we have put on the graph that didn’t make it? Which pieces of social media are over or under valued? Leave a comment, write a post, or just tweet @backupify with your thoughts.

Click for full size version

No mention, it seems, of what the IPO means for Facebook’s users. The smart money says privacy, security and data ownership are the big winners of the Facebook IPO. Why? Take a gander at Facebook’s actual SEC filing. This is a peek behind the curtain at Facebook’s financials that the company would never have allowed in the past. Yes, it’s trading that close-to-the-vest secrecy for an expected $5 billion cash infusion, but once you cross the threshold to publicly traded entity, that kind of secrecy is never coming back.

So what has this to do with privacy, security, and data ownership? Well, for starters, the SEC spotlight makes it possible for the data liberation movement to keep a much keener eye on Facebook’s inner workings. And where the SEC goes, the Federal Trade Commission often follows, and they have some rather strong feelings about consumer protections.

Now, being publicly traded isn’t a panacea. Facebook may remain an online dictatorship when it comes to user rights, and their culture of privacy indifference can’t change overnight, but there’s a rather powerful impetus to keep from playing fast and loose with user data: A public share price. Facebook will need to step lively to keep Uncle Sam happy, because nothing smacks a share price around like a federal investigation. Look no further than Google’s recent mini-dust-up over its unified privacy policy — and the Congressional oversight thereof — to see the level Facebook is playing at now.

Facebook is going public, in more ways than one. And they’ll have to work twice as hard to keep the public on their side. That can only be good for users, and thus good for data ownership.

Just make sure you have a good backup plan.

We’re contacting you to let you know that your Backupify account needs attention. Recent changes in Facebook’s API required us to alter our Facebook backup system. As a result, we need you to re-authorize your Facebook account to re-start your backups. Don’t worry, it’s easy. Here’s what you need to do:

Step 1. Login to Backupify.

Step 2. Select your Facebook account(s) listed in the Backup tab

Step 3. Click the Reauthorize button at the top of the page, then follow the instructions

That’s it. After these steps, Backupify will again be able to connect to your Facebook account and verify that all your Facebook data is safely backed up.

If you have any questions, or receive any email that takes you to a non-Backupify URL, please the Backupify Support Desk.

We’re contacting you to let you know that your Backupify account needs attention. Recently Facebook made a change to its security model. As a result, we need you to re-authorize your Facebook account to re-start your backups. Don’t worry, it’s easy. Here’s what you need to do:

Step 1. Log in to Backupify.

Step 2. Click the “Reauthorize” link next to any Facebook account you have at Backupify.

That’s it. Backupify will then be able to connect to your Facebook account and verify that all your Facebook data is safely backed up.

If you have any questions, feel free to email us at support@backupify.com.

If you have any questions, or receive any email that takes you to a non-Backupify URL, please contact our support team.

Last week, fellow Bostonian and marketing thought-leader David Meerman Scott published a fantastic article interviewing a law professional who works with lawyers on the use of marketing and social media. The post was titled, f“Is social media worth the risk? A lawyer’s perspective” interviewing Vivienne Storey, General Manager of BlandsLaw, a small law firm specializing in Australian employment law.

As David explains of Storey, “In her role at a law firm, she advises global companies such as Deutsche Bank, ING Bank, Nestle, Phillip Morris and Deloitte about social media in the workplace.” Storey provided a very unique perspective on the use of social media for law firms in her video interview with Scott.

“There is no point trying to prevent people using social media because if they are not doing at work, they probably have smartphones and will be doing it under their desk if they’re not allowed to do it own their own computer and they definitely will be doing it at home.” Storey’s statement here could not be more true. With over 700 million people now on Facebook and tons more joining Twitter every day, it is almost inevitable that most of your employees will be using social network to some degree.

When asked how law firms should deal with social media, Storey pointed out that, “It’s better to train your employees to use social media appropriately, properly, responsibly, well-for-purposely for your organization rather than to pretend it doesn’t exist.” We agree completely. It’s a fact that social media is a pervasive technology and instead of ignoring it, why not embrace it? There are ways to use it in a safe manner just by creating a social media policy to guide employees.

“What do companies need to think about in terms of guidelines for social media?” asked Scott. “The basic principles to cover in guidelines are to cover your risk management issues. Things like confidentiality of company information and employee or supplier information or potential deals. Privacy issues with their employees, clients, IP issues. Brand protection is very important. Their image, company image is crucial and how that’s portrayed.” This is usually confidential information to a majority of companies, many of which like to keep it that way.

However, Scott asked if companies today should still keep this information 100% confidential. Storey responded, “Policies should absolutely be made public. It’s a great publicity tool which is what all of social media is about. it’s another way of saying ‘we are involved in social media’, ‘we want to engage with clients’ and its a great way to show the general public what you are actually trying to do on social media.”

Today, social media is all about transparency and trust. If a firm implements certain policies that pertain to their customers and clients, it is good business to share that information publicly with them, not in the tiny fine print at the bottom of a mailed document.

We at Backupify have spoken with many professional lawyers, specifically at LegalTechNY this past spring, and realized that almost all of them are experiencing this same dilemma: to get involved or not to get involved? After discussing the pros and cons, many realized that social media really is an impending technology to just about every business and they can  no longer ignore it.

The major drawback to the use of social media in law is the process of developing a social media policy to direct employees on how to use it appropriately for work. The other aspect is complying to the multitude of regulations, one of which is a records retention program. For law firms, government agencies, schools and non-profits alike who are looking to adhere to these regulations, many have found Backupify to be a great solution for archiving this data. Don’t take our word for it, though, see what others are saying about our archiving service here.

Do you know what are the best tools to identify brand evangelists and industry influencers? What if you lose important customer contact information from your Facebook fan page or Twitter account?

Tomorrow at 2pm ET, we are teaming up with two other Boston-based companies, Hubspot and oneforty, in a webinar to walk you through the process of generating customer leads and turning them into brand evangelists.

In this webinar, you will learn:

• How to generate leads in the first place
• How to efficiently monitor conversations and brand mentions
• What tools to use for rewarding advocates
• How to manage and document your conversations on social media

Sign up for the webinar now!

Bonus: All webinar attendees will automatically be entered in an iPad giveaway sponsored by Nimble, a social relationship management solution.

We hope to see you there!

Whether a Facebook user or not, you are probably aware of it’s increasing impact on the way we consume news, interact with old friends, and share information.

Some notable statistics pointed out in this videos are:

• 1 in every 13 people in the world use Facebook (whether active users or not is another statistic)
• 48% of 18-34 year olds check Facebook immediately after they wake up. That’s before they check their email
• When Facebook launched, it was geared towards college students. Now, people 35+ dominate 30% of the Facebook userbase
• 57% of people talk more online than they do in real life. That statistic alone shows the power and penetration of social media into our regular lives
• 48% of young Americans find out about news via Facebook over any other news medium

We’re pretty sure the very last slide of statistics will blow your mind – it sure took us by surprise.

See the video for yourself here:

The World Is Obsessed With Facebook from Alex Trimpe on Vimeo.

The bottom line answer is that Twitter and Facebook don’t allow us to truly restore data back into the service. This is due to the fact that we can’t ‘backdate’ content to the time it was originally posted. For example, if you lost tweets between October 22 and November 1 and want to input those tweets back to Twitter, there is no way to backdate the tweets to the time and day they were originally published. The only way they could be put back into the service is to have them posted to the current day and time.

We could retweet all your old tweets, but they would hit the Twitter stream today as a giant explosion of content. We really don’t think your followers would like this. We could import all your Facebook statuses back into Facebook, but your friends may think your account has been hacked if they see twenty updates all at once on their news feed — especially if those updates are repeats of posts you made weeks ago. You don’t want to lose a Facebook friend over self-inflicted echo-spam.

We wish this process was easier. As soon as Twitter and Facebook allow backdating of data, we’ll be able to perform a true restore of these services.

For the time being, you can use this data for:

• Assurance that it’s never truly gone
• To save links and photos you’ve shared regardless of if they’re not available on the actual service
• To have in the case of a needed restore when the APIs allow for backdating

Plenty of users just want their lost Facebook photos or misplaced Twitter links back, even if they can’t backdate them into Facebook or Twitter. For those users, Backupify has got your back.

Records Retention

All social media communications sent out from your firm to customers must be retained, as it relates to the business. If your firm utilizes Facebook, Twitter, Blogger, Flickr, etc., to post information to customers and clients, you are required to archive these. Backupify backs up all of these services in one platform, allowing quick and easy archiving and management of your social media accounts, something with which FINRA will be quite happy.

Suitable Communications

If a broker-dealer communication requires sensitive information to be discussed, you must conduct it over a secure platform so no confidential information is leaked. Some social media sites, such as Twitter and Facebook, have private messaging which allows for secure communications while others do not. Always consider the type of information you are discussing over a highly public social network before continuing the conversation. If it involves private information, carry on the conversation over a secure messaging platform, via email or offline.

Supervising Electronic Communications

FINRA Regulatory Notice 10-06 states, “Communications that recommend specific investment products often present greater challenges for a firm’s compliance program than other communications… They may trigger the FINRA suitability rule [above], thus creating possible substantive liability for the firm or a registered representative.” Due to the sensitive nature of investments and banking, firms today must be very careful with what they discuss online.

Blogs FINRA defines a static company blog as an advertisement for their offerings. If your firm has a blog, you must first obtain approval for each posting. Blogs that are interactive – that is, those that allow comments and replies – is considered a real-time interactive form of communication and does not require prior approval, but needs to be under supervision much like social media communications.

Social Media The same basic rules go for social media. Static content, including bios, profiles and wall information must be approved before posted. Real-time communications (i.e. Tweets) that occur on these platforms don’t need prior approval before posted, but are subject to supervision and regulation.

In order to supervise the real-time communications on social media, firms should adopt regulatory procedures. Regulatory Notice 10-06 explains, “Firms may employ risk-based principles to determine the extent to which the review of incoming, outgoing and internal electronic communications is necessary for the proper supervision of their business.” This means that some types of communications may need prior approval while others will just be reviewed on a case by case basis.

Account Restrictions

Wondering if employees should be restricted from having a social media profile? FINRA explains “persons who participate in social media sites for business purposes are appropriately supervised, have the necessary training and background to engage in such activities, and do not present undue risks to investors.” Essentially, only employees who have prior approval and training are allowed to create a social media profile and post information publicly. It is a good idea to first consider who in your firm is considered a compliance risk in the past and limit their access to a public social media site.

Third-Party Posts

Regarding posts by customers or third parties on social media sites created by a firm, FINRA does not consider them subject to the same regulations. Thus, prior approval and regulations do not apply. The only two instances where a third-party post would be subject to regulations are: (1) The firm assisted with the content preparation or (2) The firm has explicitly or implicitly endorsed or approved the content.

Is your firm preparing for FINRA audits or have you already been audited? Leave your suggestions below for additional ways to be in compliance with Regulatory Notice 10-06.

I read a great article by The Financial Brand yesterday which outlined five ways financial institutions can best use social media:

1. Networking

As a banking professional, did you ever think you’d have the need to network with others outside of your company or branch? Many assume that social media’s main draw is its ability to draw buzz and build community, but in fact it’s a great resource for connecting people who share common interests.

You can find many like-minded banking professionals via Twitter, LinkedIn and blogs to share ideas and knowledge in just a few clicks. Once considered highly secretive and proprietary, banking knowledge is now more widely shared and discussed in this open knowledge era.

For example, say you have a question regarding a new law put in place. If you want to understand it better, what better way to quickly get an answer than to ask your community via a tweet, LinkedIn discussion, or blog post?

Just a few years ago, this concept was unheard of. Today, with a vast array of technologies available, you can leverage your online network to learn from and also teach others.

2. Listen

If you know even a few things about marketing, you probably know that listening is the #1 most important task to improve your marketing and product offering. There are some great conversations happening online regarding banking, you just need to be at the right place at the right time to hear them. Social media monitoring accomplishes this.

You have two choices to interact on social media: passively or proactively. When you are passive, you are simply reading and listening to the conversations, but not contributing in any way. When you are proactive, you will be joining the conversation with comments, questions, and feedback.

How it works:

You read a tweet saying, “I HATE XYZ bank because they have ridiculous interest rates and terrible customer support.” This would be an instance where you should proactively jump in and respond. That customer is probably not expecting a response from your company, so receiving one from your bank would be beneficial for both parties. From there, you can dive deeper into their problem and frustrations and hopefully solve it for them. The best way to do this is to continue the conversation offline Twitter via email or the phone.

Another example: You read a Facebook post that says a person is signing up for your bank for a particular purpose but with no negative or extremely positive comment included, you can take the passive approach and just take the feedback for what it is.

3. Customer Support

Many companies today are utilizing social media as a support channel. You will find that people use sites like Twitter to voice complaints, dissatisfaction, usability questions, etc. If people are voicing their opinions here, consider yourself lucky. This means your customers are actively looking for a solution, leaving you the great opportunity to respond. Reach out to those with a problem or issue to reason with them and solve their conundrum. Every time you respond and solve a problem, you are retaining and enhancing your customer relationships and business in general. If you solve a tricky or very important question, you may even generate a brand evangelist.

Check out Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Wachovia for their awesome use of social media customer support.

4. Social Responsibility

Social media is a great outlet to forge important community relations. If you’re a local bank, why not interact with a local cause and get others involved via Twitter or Facebook?

You could also develop creative challenges for which your online community can participate and donate. This will not only engage them with your brand, but it will help them feel good about their actions while also helping out a cause in need.

These charitable donations will help you with online community building and business partnerships, building awareness, and developing relationships with top-level executives in the area.

5. Public Relations

Social media can be used to promote new product releases, events, programs, etc. Chances are, reporters and bloggers are on the look out for these activities. By making this information publicly available for them, their job is now that much easier.

You should also make available on your website a press kit which includes programs with which you’re involved, charities to which you donate, annual reports, quarterly statements, contact information, and links to your social media profiles.

Social media can also help calm the waters of an online PR crisis. If a major controversy, CEO scandal, or unfavorable policy goes viral online, your social media outlets area there for you to release statements and respond to people.

It is important to develop an online crisis management plan in the case of any major issue. That way, when or if one does occur, you’ll be ready and armed to respond.

While there are generally “more important things to do” than sitting on social networks on a daily basis monitoring your brand, don’t use this as an excuse to not get involved at all. At the least, you should set up Twitter and Facebook fan page accounts for your brand as a placeholder to share news occasionally and be ready to interact if needed.

There are important conversations happening online, don’t get left in the dust and make a major mistake like Motrin did.

Due to FINRA compliance rules, many financial institutions are now required to archive their online accounts. Sign up for a social media backup plan today to ensure you are compliant with their regulations and archiving all communications.

Wilson is a regular Facebook user who started a fan page for his car sales business, but instead of driving leads and sales from his page, someone hacked into it and sent all his contacts a defamatory message. The unsuspecting Wilson was left with furious friends, some whom even left threats. “I started thinking, ‘Wow, somebody could just walk up here on my job, stick a gun to my head and blow my head off because they think I am sending these messages to their wives or their girlfriends,’” he said.

Wilson was just like any other guy out there on Facebook – looking to network with old and new friends and also market his business. What he didn’t expect was to be hacked and lose his valued reputation which took hard work to establish.

“I can’t think of anyone that I have wronged anywhere in our society that would want to maliciously crucify me, my name, my character, my reputation,” he said. “It’s an absolutely scary situation … knowing you are totally helpless and you can do nothing about it.”

It’s true. When the data is not truly yours and vulnerable to an attack, this is scary.

Here’s how you can protect against a hack:

1. Create a secure and complex password (i.e. not your name, cat’s name, month, etc.).

2. Watch what you post about yourself on Facebook. Whatever you post is more or less permanent so anyone can find your profile. If you give away certain personal pieces of data, hackers could piece the clues together and find a way into your account.

3. Beware of which friend requests you accept. If you receive a friend request from someone you don’t know, you probably shouldn’t accept.

4. Regularly monitor account activity to check if anything unusual occurs.

While a backup can’t protect against a Facebook hack, it can assist you with archiving data if ever deleted by a hacker, social media compliance requirements for your company, and some types of restorations after the hack is found and damaged is removed.

For a limited time, Backupify is offering a free trial of our Facebook fan page backup and as always, we have a free personal plan of a social media backup, including Facebook profiles, Twitter, Flickr, Picasa, WordPress and more.

Take back control of your online life.

Has your Fan page or profile ever been hacked? If so, was there a way to remedy it after the damage was done? Do you still use Facebook?

Has anyone stopped to consider what this means for your data? Essentially, Google and Facebook are warring over YOUR data. Each wants more user information, but apparently for their own good, not yours. Is your data really safe within Google and Facebook when battles like this occur? You would hope so, but who knows what the next move will be? It is unsure who will and won’t forgo your data in the end, but make sure you have control of it in the meantime.

While your data is being fought over throughout the inter-webs, take control of it with your own online archive. On the Google side, we have a Google Apps backup service, and on the Facebook side we just launched a Facebook fan page backup. We also have an entire suite of social media backups, including Twitter, Flickr, Picasa, WordPress and more.

While Facebook’s potential move to file sharing is a interesting idea, what is more interesting to us is that on December 15th, Drop.io will delete all user data from their database. This means that everyone who had an account will need to download their files manually to their computer if they want to save it. What a hassle for someone who has no say in this acquisition!

This stands to remind all of us that any cloud-based provider can and will shut down at any point, taking all user data with them (or deleting them all together). You’ve probably heard many instances of this happening in the past, including Yahoo! shutting down Geocities and deleting decades worth of data, Libya shutting down many bit.ly websites because the content of the sites, in their opinion, fell outside of Libyan Islamic/Sharia Law, and small-scale website hosting providers shutting down, leaving users with no cause or recourse.

As we move more to the cloud and store important data on these cloud providers, remember that no one really cares more about our own data than we do. It’s critical for you to take control of your online data in any and every way possible. Having a backup of all this data is becoming crucial, especially as we are hearing about sites like Drop.io deleting users’ data with little to no notice, leaving your data to the perils of the web’s vast abyss (something our tweets are quite familiar with these days).

While we’re glad Drop.io is giving users some notice about this and a way to download data so they can store it locally, it’s important to remember that not all sites do this. Some simply shut down one day with no warning or resolution. While Backupify does not backup all online sites like Drop.io and bit.ly, we do backup many popular services including Twitter, Facebook, WordPress, Flickr, Picasa and Google Apps. Start taking control of your online life with a social media and/or Google Apps backup plan, with hopes that there will be options to backup any and all online sites in the near future.