TOS

Google: We’ll Make Your Site Faster, Just Give Us Your Keys [UPDATED]

John Paczkowski in News on July 28, 2011 at 3:31 am PT

A new development in Google’s ongoing “Let’s Make the Web Faster” effort.

Kara Visits Facebook's Washington, D.C., Office and Talks Policy!

Kara Swisher in News on November 17, 2009 at 5:02 am PT

Yesterday, BoomTown paid a visit to the Washington, D.C., office of Facebook to meet its reps in the nation’s capital. Perhaps not surprisingly, the social networking site has a very small staff–for now, just a trio of on-the-young-side dudes–battening down the hatches from a funky office in a funky section of D.C., Dupont Circle, far from the tonier and lobbyist-rich K Street corridor.

Twitter Gives Spam Apps a Thumbs Down, Ads a “Maybe”

Peter Kafka in Media on September 11, 2009 at 3:00 am PT

It’s one of those mysteries that are so deep, so mysterious, they may never be solved: When Twitter co-founder Biz Stone says the company would “like to leave the door open for advertising,” what exactly does he mean? My guess: Twitter would like to leave the door open for advertising. Meanwhile, the company cracks down, a bit, on spammy apps.

BoomTown Decodes the Zuckerberg Terms of Service My-Bad Memo (Now With 10 Percent More "So Very Sorrys!")

Kara Swisher in News on February 18, 2009 at 2:21 am PT

Under cover of darkness last night, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced on the social-networking site’s blog that it would “return to our previous terms of use while we resolve the issues that people have raised.” Oh, this is just too good to resist. Therefore, BoomTown shall not tarry in our ongoing job of busting the chops of the young Facebook leader, whose minions have actually–and I am not joking here–given him the nickname: The Wizard. Well, the Wizard obviously had to pull back the curtain last night and show some serious mea culpa to the people, before they got out the pitchforks. Here’s a translation of Zuckerberg’s message.

Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg Cries Uncle on ToS Snafu: The Entire Backtracking Blog Post

Kara Swisher in News on February 17, 2009 at 11:07 pm PT

Late tonight, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg posted a blog entry, saying the popular social-networking site would “return to our previous terms of use while we resolve the issues that people have raised.” Facebook has been embroiled in a controversy this week about its Terms of Service–essentially, a Web site’s rules that users must abide by while using its online service–after changes gave it more sweeping rights over customers’ content and privacy. Now, in full backtrack mode, Zuckerberg said a new “Facebook Bill of Rights and Responsibilities” was on the way and asked for user input. Viva La Revolución! I vote for no more SuperPoking!

"You Have Zero Privacy Anyway. Get Over It"–That Goes Double on Social Networks

Kara Swisher in News on February 16, 2009 at 5:36 pm PT

When Sun Microsystems Gadfly-in-Chief Scott McNealy made his infamous statement about online privacy online in 1999, there was a horrified hubbub at the time that he had the audacity to say such a thing. You know, that he actually uttered such a terrible thing as the truth. What a shock then that everyone is now in yet another tizzy about Facebook changes to its Terms of Service, which pretty much state the obvious again by noting that Facebook archives info you posted, even if you quit the service. As in: You cannot take it back, if you have shared with 476 of your closest “friends,” your bikini shots from Cabo.