Despite complaints from some consumer advocates about the privacy measures in Facebook Places, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) called privacy controls for the location-based service a “substantial improvement” over those of earlier products.

That praise from the EFF comes with the caveat that Facebook Places settings are only good if users understand them and judiciously use them.

Facebook launched its Places location-based service Aug. 18. The service lets users “check in” to a location via their smartphone to share their locations with Facebook friends. read more »

The social networking site adds greater granularity to what viewers can share with their friends as the company closes on MySpace.

Facebook, stung last year by criticism after its Beacon ad program broadcasted online activities about users, has created new privacy controls to grant its 68 million users more authority over the information they share on the social site. read more »

One day after Google announced Apple’s iPhone was the most frequently searched word in 2007, Google Dec. 5 released an application that lets users access the company’s search, Gmail, Calendar and other applications on the popular device. read more »