PSA: That Facebook quiz may be hackers mining your personal information.

Social media quizzes – especially popular on Facebook – seem innocent enough. But taking the quiz might mean you are giving away more about yourself than you originally thought, and may extend to your friends as well.

These quizzes ask seemingly silly or useless questions, but hackers can use that information to penetrate your social accounts and gain access to your personal information or the information of your friends and family.

Some quizzes are designed to steal your data in an outright scam. Once answered, hackers can easily hijack personal accounts and use them to lure in more victims. The hackers will include links embedded in the quiz that can cause a security breach of your personal accounts.

But the latest news shows that it isn’t just scammers who are interested in your quiz answers. It turns out, your personal information is big business.

Not all social media quizzes are about unprincipled data collection, but the Better Business Bureau cautions users to be careful about what they share online. Profile data, quiz answers, and more can be used to used to steal your money, or let a scammer pretend to be you in order to steal someone else’s money.

A warning to all the selfie queens out there: you can be hacked!

Next time someone poses for a selfie with their fingers held up in a peace sign, maybe tell them to leave it at a smile.

An ordinary photo of the universal sign of goodwill might be enough for a thief to copy a fingerprint, thanks to the high quality of digital photos these days. And since Touch ID and similar technologies turn fingerprints into keys that unlock our devices and the data we keep in them, that’s cause for concern.

Just by casually making a peace sign in front of a camera, fingerprints can become widely available.

A team at the NII’s Digital Content and Media Sciences Research Division, Japan was able to reconstruct fingerprints spotted in pictures taken from up to 3 meters away.

“Fingerprint data can be re-created if fingerprints are in focus with strong lighting in a picture.” - Isao Echizen, a professor at Japan’s National Institute of Informatics

The peace sign is a common expression in social media pictures, but this technique could conceivably be applied to other common gestures like waving or giving a thumbs up. Matched with a person’s face, that makes for a significant amount of biometric data that identity thieves could do real damage with.

How Thieves Could Get Fingerprints From Selfies

The technique described by Echizen uses no special software, but does require good lighting - so for the moment you can feel free to flash whatever signs you like when the light is low. As mobile cameras become more and more powerful, though, selfies will become a bigger security liability.

The better alternative might be to make sure you aren’t relying on fingerprint security measures whenever possible. Or just avoid selfies altogether.

Breakups are hard...Facebook wants to make it easier.

Today social media means that you are guaranteed to run into your ex, and he or she might very well be wrapped around a new partner. Research has shown that those who don't disconnect electronically have a harder time getting over a breakup. Facebook is ready to help by creating tools that will let people manage their post breakup life on its pages.

The tools, available only on mobile devices, are being tested with some users in the United States. Facebook will complete the US rollout and begin expanding the tools to other countries early next year.

What The Tools Do:

• One tool lets users restrict how much they see former significant others on Facebook.
• Another ensures that an ex's posts won't show up in a user's news need and Facebook prompts won't suggest that person's name when others write messages or tag friends in photos.
• A third tool restricts the photos, videos or status updates a user's ex-partner will see.
• A fourth tool lets users edit who can see past posts with their former partners and untag themselves from joint posts with ex-partners.

Facebook plans on tweaking these tools based on user feedback. Use of the tools will be optional and will be located in Facebook's help center after they're rolled out.

Using social media? Here's three tips to boost results by effectively using hashtags.

More than 27 million people have seen Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake join forces in the fight against #overzealous #hashtaggers.

Here's our top three tips for using hashtags:

1). Beware of hashtag overload: The use of excessive hashtags seems desperate and can even be perceived as spam. According to one study, the number of hashtags for optimal engagement is 7. Be strategic with the help of sites like Websta, Populagram, and TagsforLikes - they’ll tell you what’s trending at any given time to help you maximize your hashtag’s impact.

2). Consider color theory: Stay away from posting anything too dark. Light, bright images produce 24% more likes than dark photos. Photos that have blue as the dominant color also reportedly attract 24% more likes (when compared to images in red).

3). Offer a “behind the scenes” glimpse: People are inherently voyeuristic. Giving your customers a sneak peek into how the sausage gets made can be an effective social tool. If you’re a jewelry designer, post photos of your studio or a mood board that inspired your latest collection. You’ll make your customers feel like they have a closer relationship to your company.

Social media can be great for your company, as long as you know how to properly use it.

Every business should have a social media presence, and a professional that can manage their accounts. Just make sure your company doesn't end up in a situation like these ones...

Source: YouTube / CNN Money

Jack Vale perfectly demonstrates how nothing is really private with his social media experiment...

Jack Vale is a California comedian that has been on TV shows such as "Lopez Tonight" (TBS), "Most Outrageous Moments" (NBC), "The View" (ABC), "Pranked" (MTV), "World's Dumbest" (TruTV), and many more. In his most recent YouTube video, he shows how easy it is to find out someone's most personal details using social media.

Source: YouTube

A lesson in social media marketing, courtesy of Amazon's latest failure.

What's the first lesson of social media? Know what you're posting!

Amazon Student recently found themselves in a situation where a post about "manscaping" was created to promote a new grooming store. Probably unknown to Amazon at the time of the posting, the word manscape is defined as: "A term used to define male grooming below the belt". However, in the following 6 hours, nearly 70 people commented with a snarky response. (Some of which are below).

So, what's the lesson to be learned here? Be sure the person in charge of your social media is up to date with the latest slang of your target audience.

Think social media isn't important to your business? Think again!

With over one billion users on Facebook alone, you're missing out on a large advertising opportunity if your business isn't present through social media. Check out this 4 minute video for some interesting facts:

New Web tool warns people if their tweet will get them fired.

Researchers from Hannover, Germany, have come up the FireMe! Web tool as a way of warning Twitter users if their tweets will get them fired.

Ever wondered if your tweets will get you fired?

A team from the University of Hannover in Germany has created a Web tool that warns people about their reckless tweets.

FireMe!'s goal is to raise awareness about the dangers and consequences of people being reckless online.

Kawase said he thought of the idea after attending a talk at his university about how the Web is influencing the work environment.

"After the talk I immediately started working on FireMe!," Kawase said, adding that he thought it would be a fun topic for research.

According to New Scientist, the team found that in a single week last June, nearly 22,000 people had tweeted about their boss or work in a negative way.

In order to illustrate just how extreme some tweets can get, FireMe! provides examples of actual tweets that got people fired.

Gilbert Gottfried was fired by Aflac for joking about the tsunami that hit Japan. New York University law fellow Nir Rosen resigned from his fellowship after his remarks about Lara Logan's sexual assault.

So how does FireMe! work?

According to Kawase, the system crawls Twitter with a set of predefined sentences that mention something negative about bosses or the workplace.

"Before it was an alert system — once we identified the user who had said something bad, a tweet was sent to warn them about the dangers of sharing such comments," Kawase said.

The alert system received a mixed response, Kawase said.

"Most people didn't care about getting fired," he said. "Still, 6 percent of users who got the alert actually deleted the tweets."

Twitter recently requested Kawaze to stop this alert system because it was violating the company's policy.

Today, Kawase's team has a website where people can see "bad tweets" via a live stream and check their own FireMe! score on the FireMeter.

Kawaze adds that the FireMeter is non-scientific. "It's goal is to improve engagement with the website," he said. "It's a mixed calculation considering the number of mentions to the boss, work and profanity in the users' timeline."

Source: MSN, New Scientist

To offset and prepare for the additional costs facing small businesses, start implementing these cost-saving tactics...

Saving money on business expenses is often less about doing one or two major things to slash your budget, and more about implementing a range of cost-cutting measures that together make a big difference. A significant part of the process is adjusting your outlook to find savings wherever and whenever you can. Within the current economic environment where many businesses are struggling, deals are to be had. It just takes a keen eye to not let any savings opportunity pass you by.

To offset and prepare for the additional costs facing small businesses, start implementing the following cost-saving tactics:

1. Save on Supplies
   Depending on the nature of your business, office supplies can be a major expense. If you aren't already, take a few minutes to shop online or in your hometown for deals on the items you use most. Or assign this task to one of your staff. Weigh the convenience factor against your cost-savings as some deals will be worth it and others won't. Also, consider your local office supply retailer - several times throughout the year many offer a range of supplies (including printer paper, batteries, and Post-it notes) essentially for free after a 100% cash back rebate. You need to sign up for that retailer's rewards program to be alerted to upcoming sales.
   
2. Save on Equipment
   When upgrading or replacing equipment, think used and think online. Amazon, eBay, and Craigslist are all great resources to buy gently used equipment at significant discounts. In fact, many items listed as "used" online are practically new.
   
3. Cut Advertising Costs
   Focus on your social media campaign to reduce advertising costs. Define your goals and measure the results on sites like Facebook and Twitter to make sure you're meeting those goals. Also, be sure to devote enough time to the effort - either your own or the time of one of your staff. Respond to questions quickly, and post engaging content to encourage feedback from your readers. It also helps to regularly hold promotions for free services or products as well.
   
4. Maximize Tax Deductions
   Work with a qualified accountant to make sure you don't miss any tax deductions for your small business. For example, if you employ fewer than 25 people and have wages of $50,000 or less, you can qualify for a payroll tax credit of up to 35% of the cost of health insurance for your staff. For a complete list of deductions and credits, consult the IRS website.
   
5. Go Paperless
   Receiving, sorting through, opening, and filing paper bills requires time that you could devote to money-making activities. Opt for online bill delivery to streamline the process. Also, by encouraging your customers to receive bills electronically, you'll save on the costs of paper and postage.

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About the author: Andrew Schrage is the co-owner of the financial resource, Money Crashers Personal Finance, which covers topics including money management, small business, taxes, investing, and more.

Are you Twitter addicted? Are you a shopaholic? You're life just got a whole lot easier!

Twitter and American Express have just announced their new partnership, Amex Sync, on Twitter. Here’s how it works:

• First, American Express cardholders sync their card with their Twitter account.
• Then, when they come across products or offers that are eligible in their Twitter feed, the social shopper needs only send out a tweet that includes a special hash tag, such as #AmexConcertTickets or #BuyDigitalCamera, and Amex will then send them an @-reply with a confirming hash tag.
• Lastly, the buyer sends out a second tweet with the special hash tag within 15 minutes of the first tweet.

This can be used prior to shopping in a physical store, where the user would not have to show their phone or a coupon, but would just need to use their Amex card to get the deal.

As a special introductory offer, American Express kicked off the new partnership with a $25 American Express gift card for $15 to those who signed up and tweeted #BuyAmexGiftCard25 as part of a limited deal that expires March 13.

View a video on how this works below:

Source: The Business Journals

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