Hello, we hereby announce that we have officially hijacked your Facebook group.

This means we control a certain part of the information about you on Facebook. If we wanted we could make you appear in a bad way which could damage your image severly.

For example we could rename your group and call it something very inappropriate and nasty, like “I support pedophile’s rights”. But have no fear - we won’t. We just renamed it Control Your Info. Because this is really all we want:

Think about the safety in your social media life to the same extent you do in your real life.

Watch the videoclip for more information or check out www.controlyour.info for more tips soon!

We promise to restore your group name and leave the group by the end of next week. Don’t worry - we won’t mess anything up.

Best regards

/controlyour.info

The loose wire blog which originally discovered the issue, is describing the individual or group as “hackers”. While this wasn’t necessarily a complex hack, it’s causing problems for those groups which no longer have an administrator. Then again, many of the groups which have been hijacked don’t appear to be extremely active so I’m not sure if the group members have even noticed.

What’s most significant about this hack is the amount of effort the individual or group put into creating a landing page which describes steps users can take to protect themselves online. While it doesn’t appear to be a branded campaign, it’s surely generating a lot of buzz around the web. I’ve reached out to Erik Hjort who is the registered owner of the site and will update this post if we hear back. You can check out the Control Your Info site for more information.

Most developers have already been forced to adjust to the stream changes as the default news feed is no longer unfiltered, which means today’s impact probably won’t be as significant as the recent homepage changes. Other things which developers should note about today’s changes is the deprecation of a number of methods, primarily those that dealt with the old “feed” object.

Developers should only interact with stream methods for publishing stories. That includes the option of using Stream Attachments which are essentially JSON-encoded key-value pairs. Enough technical speak though! If you are a developer and want to know more about today’s changes you can view Facebook’s blog post from last month.

• Facebook.dll: This is the main assembly that will be used by all applications. This has all the logic to handle communication with the Facebook application. This assembly also has specific support of XAML applications (Silverlight and WPF) to enhance the Facebook platform to make databinding and data caching easier.
• Facebook.Silverlight.dll: This is the Silverlight version of the main assembly that will be used by all Silverlight applications. This has all the logic to handle communication with the Facebook application. This assembly also has specific support of XAML applications to enhance the Facebook platform to make databinding and data caching easier. The REST API in this assembly is Asynchronous only.
  Facebook.Web.dll: This assembly should be used by Canvas applications. The main functionality supported in this assembly is to encapsulate the handshake between the Facebook application and a canvas application (both FBML and IFrame)
• Facebook.Web.Mvc.dll: Provide a support building canvas applications using ASP.NET MVC. Separated from Facebook.Web.dll to avoid all developers from needing to install the MVC bits.
  Facebook.Winforms.dll: This assembly provides support for writing Facebook applications using Winform technology. This provides a Component that wraps the API to make it easier to use from Winforms. This also contains some user controls to help display Facebook data easily.

If you happen to be a .NET developer and want to learn more, you can go check out the official Microsoft Facebook SDK page.

1. Facebook Users Visit Other Websites

Facebook is most definitely cracking down on these scams and Mike Arrington of Techcrunch appears to be closely monitoring Zynga applications. Other developers are also being affected as ad networks get shut down however the ad scams are prevalent around the web, not just on Facebook. Just visit weather.com to find out some Acai Berry ad scams or some great teeth whitening secrets that will solve all your tooth color problems.

2. Affiliate Marketers Aren’t Going Away

While there are plenty of legitimate affiliate marketers on the web, affiliate marketing is known as an extremely aggressive space where marketers will do anything to convert a lead. These affiliate marketers frequently battle to break even on conversions, generating their profits from cash back rewards from American Express and other credit card companies. In other words, they’ll do just about anything it takes to get a customer to make a purchase.

That started with completely misleading landing pages, as well as fraudulent activity among some of the ad networks, none of which have been held responsible, only have been shut down by Facebook. Many of those networks are still running on Facebook or at least powering the ads across many applications. Affiliate marketers are just part of the online marketing ecosystem but there are moral and ethical lines that some of them are willing to cross.

The most recent discussions about Facebook “scam ads” have been around the ethics of some of the ads. Some of them are actually legitimate offers that follow Facebook’s terms. Whether it’s the IQ Quizzes or Video Professor offers, many of them cross the line. They may be gone from Facebook for now, but they aren’t permanently going away.

3. Nobody’s Monitoring The Long Tail

Calling attention to the scams is something the press should be doing a better job at. We spend so much time promoting those that are making millions of dollars that we don’t stop to think about how they’re generating that money. Unfortunately none of the press take the time to monitor the ads across smaller applications. While Facebook is now going after multiple developers, most mainstream journalists (and even many bloggers) don’t have the time to analyze the long tail for scams.

The long tail is present though and it will continue to be a source of scams.

4. Phone Companies Aren’t Doing A Damn Thing

What’s going on with Verizon, AT&T Wireless or any of the other companies responsible for allowing millions of dollars a day in questionable transactions take place? They currently take a hands off approach, allowing people to sell whatever they’d like for the most part through their systems. Reverse mobile billing is a multi-billion dollar industry and the mobile companies aren’t going to shut off this source of revenue anytime soon.

Many of these products use questionable marketing tactics however but the phone companies don’t really care as they keep taking their 50 percent cut every month.

5. Lots Of Finger Pointing

“‘Scam?’ Hardly.” Those are the words of the company behind Video Professor. Video Professor is one of the services that have come under fire as affiliates have set up extremely aggressive marketing channels. However the Video Professor company claims that there’s no way for them to possibly monitor all of the people promoting their service. It’s the customer who’s responsible, they say!

However there has now been hundreds of millions if not billions in fraud over the past two years, thanks to the lack of advertisement monitoring. Fortunately for those who participated, they get to go home, write a blog post about it, and move on with with life. The mother of some kid in middle America who purchased a bunch of stupid IQ quizzes just to get more virtual currency in some online game however may not have been able to pay their rent this month though (a bit extreme but it’s a story that I’ve heard from at least one source).

Conclusion

It’s great to see all the coverage surrounding aggressive advertising on Facebook applications but it only begs the question: where does the discussion end? If it happens off of Facebook does that mean it’s fine? Perhaps nobody really cares and ultimately it’s the uninformed consumer who ends up paying the cost. That would definitely be a free market solution to the problem!

At this point a large percentage of the top performing iPhone games have already implemented Facebook Connect to enable users to share their scores with their friends. Playfish, who was acquired by Electronic Arts today, has an iPhone version of their popular game “Who Has The Biggest Brain?”

Zynga has also released an iPhone version of their popular Texas Hold’em game, however neither company has been heavily focused on the iPhone as they both continue to experience impressive growth on the Facebook Platform. For those of you looking to play Bejeweled Blitz on the iPhone you can grab the Bejeweled 2 application and wait for the free update to go live soon.

Changes To The Area Where Promotions May Be Displayed

Facebook has updated their promotions guidelines to limit all promotions to two places: application canvas pages and the application box in a tab on Facebook Pages. In other words applications must occur outside of the Facebook stream. While it may not be the end of the world for marketers, it places more restrictions on those companies which help brands build their Facebook presence.

Facebook wants to make sure that the user experience is free from spam. These updates to the Facebook promotions guidelines also make it clear that Facebook wants to ensure brands don’t take advantage of user profiles for their own benefit. Facebook also wants stricter control how companies use the Facebook name. Here are the two areas where Facebook highlights how their name will be used in promotions:

3.3 You will include the following language in a clear and conspicuous manner adjacent to any promotion entry field: “This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook. You understand that you are providing your information to [recipient(s) of information] and not to Facebook. The information you provide will only be used for [disclose any way that you plan to use the user's information].”

3.4 You will not mention “Facebook” in the promotion’s rules except in the following ways: (i) “You can enter the Promotion through the [application name] application on the Facebook Platform. You can also find the application on the [tab name] tab on the [Page name] Page on Facebook.”; (ii) to fulfill your obligations under Section 3.7.

What Can’t Be Done?

Of most significance is information about what Facebook is no longer allowing. While Facebook has not publicly stated their rationale behind this new decision, we believe there are two primary reasons behind this crackdown: Facebook wants to limit their liability and they want more control over marketing campaigns on their site. This includes control over all pay per fan campaigns.

Promotions on Facebook cannot use any of the following any longer:

• Photo contests which require profile photo manipulation
• Status update contests which require posting status updates for entry
• Contest entries once a user has become a fan

The main goal is to avoid companies from manipulating users in an insincere way. While it’s interesting to have a profile photo contest, users’ friends may not understand why a user modified their profile photo, only that they have. The result is unsolicited brand placement. While it’s not the most aggressive model we’ve seen, it is still a somewhat questionable practice which is why Facebook is modifying these terms.

Facebook Must Approve Campaigns

The most significant change is that all promotions require Facebook approval. This is a substantial change to say the least. With hundreds of thousands of businesses likely to promote on Facebook, this will require a substantial amount of overhead on Facebook’s end. Here is what the updated guidelines state:

You may not administer any promotion through Facebook, except that you may administer a promotion through the Facebook Platform with our prior written approval. Such written approval may be obtained only through an account representative at Facebook. If you are already working with an account representative, please contact that representative to begin the approval process. If you do not work with an account representative, you can use this contact form to inquire about working with an account representative.

The result is that you must work with qualified Facebook promotional partners who have access to account representatives or attempt to get a representative yourself. Also requiring that promotions take place within applications requires more resources from a company to be dedicated toward any given promotion. Rather than taking advantage of existing channels (like the stream), companies must use the tools available to create promotions or develop their own on the Facebook Platform.

Alternatively, companies can create the promotion off of the Facebook Platform on their own site where Facebook can’t place any restrictions (aside from how the Facebook name is used).

Facebook Surpasses 325 Million Users

Last week Facebook’s advertising platform began reporting that the site had surpassed 325 million users. Just a month and a half ago Facebook reported that they had surpassed 300 million. It appears that the company continues to add around 5 million users a week and if the growth continues, Facebook should come close to hitting 375 million users by the end of the year.

Facebook Turns Up Heat On Aggressive Advertisers

Last weekend Mike Arrington began his fight against aggressive Facebook advertising which resulted in a week with many changes. Offerpal (one of our sponsors) got a new CEO, Mark Pincus apologized for spam ads on Zynga, and Facebook said that they would be continuing their pursuit of aggressive advertisers, even shutting down two ad networks.

Zynga Launches FishVille

On Friday Zynga launched FishVille, their newest game which essentially duplicates the functionality of “Happy Aquarium”, one of the most popular games on Facebook currently. Unfortunately for Zynga, FishVille has since been shut down temporarily by Facebook due to aggressive advertisements which supposedly violate Facebook’s terms. The result was that Zynga is now removing all in game offers until they can monitor all advertisements.

Facebook Launches New Bookmark Features For Devs

For those developers concerned about the impending removal of notifications, Facebook is providing new features to help developers retain new visitors. The first of these offerings is a new “Add Bookmark” button as well as FBJS methods to get users to bookmark applications. Facebook has said that they are working on other features including counters for “non-bookmarked” applications.

In this game you simply grow fish, feed them, and then purchase items for your fish tank. Then come back once in a while to see how your tank is doing. Just like all the other games on Facebook, this one is passive so that you can check in a couple times a day rather than sit and play it non-stop. While I haven’t spent a lot of time playing this game, I’m sure that Zynga is actively tracking user metrics to ensure that this game is just as sticky as their other ones.

If it turns out to be a hit (which it probably will be), Zynga should blow past 200 million monthly active users, far outstripping any of the other competition on the Facebook Platform. If you want to spend your time building a virtual fish tank, go check out FishVille. Also check out Inside Social Games who first broke the news of this application.

However Facebook’s model is a smart one as they are going after high profile sites which end up generating more press coverage, building buzz for Facebook Connect. In addition to ABC’s FastForward trailer, ABC will also be launching a new video player tomorrow which leverages Facebook Connect to created a social experience as visitors watch full episodes of ABC content from the ABC website.

This sounds somewhat similar to Hulu’s integration, however it appears that this may be more integrated with the actual video player. We won’t know for sure until tomorrow, but this definitely sounds like what we would expect out of a truly interactive social viewing experience. Facebook is also highlighting a number of their other television integrations in today’s blog post.

Facebook has been able to pull this off through the use of granular privacy settings and increasingly strict limitations which let you connect to only those people you actually know. The result is that Facebook has the most accurate data about user relationships and is increasingly likely to become the default online identity provider. While I’d be willing to throw some water on the flames, it’s hard to find a negative statistic about Facebook at this point.

The only thing we can say at this point is that Facebook is smoking hot and doesn’t appear to be cooling anytime soon.