From Facebook to Blog in One Easy Click

A new software application allows users to export information from their Facebook  social networking account directly to their personal blog. Six Apart, steward of the TypePad blog publishing system, released Blog It, a software application that enables users to cross-post information on Facebook to blogs using software from most of the major blog hosting companies, such as WordPress, Blogger, Twitter, Vox and Movable Type. The Blog It application -- which must first be added to a user's Facebook site -- also allows users to instantly notify people in their social network about the post using Twitter and Pownce, text messaging services that send updates to buddy lists.

Of course this raises some digital permanence issues.  As content travels from social networking site to blog it may lose whatever privacy controls protect it from outsiders. Both adults and kids seem to forget that once info is online you lose all control over where goes and what it comes to look like.

Even With New Security Features in Place Personal Pictures in Peril

No matter what security features are promised, it's still important to remind kids that such features can be circumvented as a recent Facebook incident points out. In late March a security lapse made it possible for unwelcome strangers to peruse personal photos posted on Facebook Inc.'s popular online hangout, circumventing a recent upgrade to the Web site's privacy controls. Despite the risks, more people than ever - especially teenagers and young adults - are publishing personal photos and other intimate details about their lives on the Internet. MySpace.com, the only online social network larger than Facebook, suffered a security breach that exposed its members' private photos earlier this year. (The link from this article is to the Washington Post that you can read for free, but you'll have to register.)

How Private is Your Online Photo Service?

A recent article in the Washington Post entitled Online Photos Not as Private As District Mother Assumed revealed that a mother who had put pictures of her small children skinny dipping up on the online service Flikr, and marked them "private" so she could share them with her parents, suddenly discovered they had been accessed by someone else at least 20 times. Flickr is investigating how this could have happened. While one should have a reasonable expectation that when a service like this makes a "privacy" service an option they should be able to enforce it, there is always the danger that someone else might take a digital peek. Just as you warn your kids to be careful what they put up online, make sure you also heed your own advice avoiding the possible snare of digital permanence. (The link from this article is to the Washington Post that you can read for free, but you'll have to register.)

YouTube Reaches Out …Oh My!

So hear this parents and kids of the world. If it wasn't bad enough that every stupid thing ever done can end up filmed and on YouTube these days, now YouTube is pushing out for replay these little vignettes on every mobile phone in existence. Starting with the iPhone and continuing into the Helio Ocean, YouTube has been making a consistent push into being played over and over again most anytime and anywhere. Now it's taken another big step by opening its mobile utility to a wide range of 3G-enabled phones from makers like LG, Nokia and Motorola. It's also pumped up its library of videos available for viewing on the mobile platform. Of course, users of these phones can also instantly upload videos from the phone to YouTube on the go. So remember this. Unless you're in your own home with the blinds drawn and the power shut off, anything you do can appear on the Web in an instant for all the world to see and stay there forever or make the rounds in ways you don't even want to think about. Please remember that next time you try to have any fun.