Street Fight Daily: Path Privacy Flaw, Facebook’s Offline Payments
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.
Privacy Flaw in Path’s iPhone App Shares Location Data (New York Times)
Path, a social media start-up company, has to pay $800,000 in damages for privacy violations, the Federal Trade Commission said on Friday. But this may not be the end of Path’s troubles with privacy. A security researcher has pointed out a loophole that allows Path to share location data even when a user has turned off location sharing.
FTC Pushes Privacy Guidelines for Mobile: What It Means for Hyperlocals (Street Fight)
Brian Dengler: Hyperlocal businesses that rely on location-based services to reach customers must consider new safeguards — such as “up-front” disclosures and “do not track” mechanisms — to stay in line with new mobile guidelines issued Friday by the Federal Trade Commission
Facebook Offers Physical Gift Cards for Selected Retail Stores (PC World)
Facebook users can now say “charge it,” with a new physical gift card the social network is rolling out, which people can use to make purchases in brick-and-mortar retail stores. The product, called the “Facebook Card,” is a plastic, reusable card that users can give their friends to redeem at four different partner companies: Jamba Juice, Olive Garden, Sephora, and Target.
Yodle CEO: Nearly 40% of the Leads We Generate Come From Mobile (Street Fight)
In the fast-churning world of small-business-focused digital start-ups, Yodle’s nearly eight years in the business already make it a bit of a veteran player. Street Fight recently caught up with the company’s CEO, Court Cunningham, to talk about the future of mobile advertising and why small business websites are still so important as marketing channels.
A Local Community Meets to Save Hyperlocal Digital Journalism (Chicago Reader)
Mike Fourcher, a new-media trailblazer in Chicago who’s still looking for a formula for success, established a couple of hyperlocal news sites, centersquarejournal.com and roscoeviewjournal.com, that he’d decided to stop maintaining because he couldn’t figure out how to support himself by running them. Late Thursday, Fourcher called a community meeting to discuss the future of the sites.
7 Cloud-Based POS Systems for SMBs (Street Fight)
Cloud-based POS platforms differentiate themselves from one another with advanced integrations with digital loyalty programs, accounting tools, and mechanisms for creating gift cards and coupons, in addition to varying price structures. Here are seven POS systems, each with its own features for merchants.
The Next Frontier For Google Maps Is Personalization (TechCrunch)
“There is a lot more you can do with a map. If you look at a map and if I look at a map, should it always be the same for you and me,” Daniel Graf, Google’s director of Google Maps for mobile, said in an interview. The next frontier for maps, he said, will be about personalization.
The Living Isn’t Easy at LivingSocial (Wall Street Journal)
Even as LivingSocial’s cash balance has shrunk, liabilities have continued to rise along with revenues. According to the figures published by Amazon, LivingSocial’s current assets—which are mostly cash—shrank to $76 million at year-end 2012 from $176 million at year-end 2011.
Tagwhat Aims To Become The Go-To App For Local Deals With Social Media Aggregation And A New Design (TechCrunch)
Tagwhat is a mobile startup trying to present users with content that’s relevant to their location — descriptions of nearby points of interest, social network messages related to those locations, and now, with the latest app update, with local deals and events.
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