After US regulators attacked Facebook for abusing its users’ data, the giant social network agreed that it would increase its privacy restrictions and control to protect its users. The Federal Trade Commission released a statement that said the company would tighten its privacy consent rules and close down access to any accounts that are deleted within thirty days at the max.

The decision and settlement has been a long time coming with the case starting officially in 2009 when Facebook altered its settings without formally clarifying the change to customers making it possible for many users private information to become public without their full knowledge. Mark Zuckerberg admitted that the company may not have been fully explanatory of their actions, writing in a blog post that the company had made many mistakes.

However, Zuckerberg stated that the lawsuit and the subsequent news of the errors that the social network has made along the way have often overshadowed the many good things and advances that the network has made. He also added that Facebook has already addressed and taken care of concerns voiced by the FTC and would continue to do so.

According to the FTC the social network has 800 million users and the company has agreed that they will get former approval from each of their consumers from now on before they make any changes to the way that data is shared to the public. The company was not fined or forced to plead guilty, but they were told they will not make any more ‘deceptive privacy claims.’

There was a time where you had only two choices–cash or credit. It was important to carry cash for those businesses or situations where a credit card was not accepted. Cash always makes the person using it aware that real money is being spent. There isn’t that same awareness when a credit card is used. Debit cards offer a third choice. Debit cards are tied to actual bank accounts, yet offer the convenience of a card. Today, most people carry both credit and debit cards with little or no cash. Cards are convenient to carry, but the two cards are not the same. There are pros and cons attached to the use of both credit and debit cards.

Convenience
Carrying cards is more convenient than carrying wads of cash. They are thin, easy to use and keep the wallet slender and easy to fit into a pocket or purse. That’s where the similarity ends. A debit card has the backing of a bank account. When you use a debit card, the amount is withdrawn from that account. Because of this tie, it is important to keep the receipts and make adjustment in a checkbook to be sure you do not accidentally overdraw your funds. On the other hand, whenever you use a credit card you are, in essence, agreeing to accept the terms from the credit card company for a loan. While you do not need to have the money to pay for the purchase at the time of purchase, you will have to repay the loan later. With a debit card, you use your own money so you don’t pay for the privilege. Because use of a credit card is really a loan, you’ll have to pay, sometimes, very high interest rates until the loan is paid off.

Rein in Spending
Since there is a real account behind a debit card, there is, at least, some awareness that real money is being spent and that, with the purchase, money will be deducted from an account. This serves as a check on unlimited spending. Credit cards do not offer that check to spending. When using a credit card, you already know you don’t have the money to purchase the item. The credit card almost seems like free money and spending goes unchecked.

Fees
Credit cards, because they signify a loan taken out, incur finance charges. For a new card, this might be as low as 0% for a few months, to 25% or more. Credit card debt, because of high interest rates, can be difficult to cut down to manageable levels, especially if the spending does not stop. If you do not pay the monthly bill, interest rates can soar. However, if your purchase with a debit card is more than what is in your account, you can incur fees that turn a $5 purchase into a $50 one, unless you also have a backup to the account in place at the bank.

Credit cards offer protections for purchases that debit cards do not. This makes using debit cards for online purchases more risky than using credit cards. Many business put holds on debit card purchases that can restrict your use of your funds. Purchases using credit cards do not have this draw back.

Returns & Rewards
Debit cards serve as convenient money and a spending check. Credit cards offer such things as theft protection on purchases, insurance or the right to return unsatisfactory merchandise. Many credit cards also offer rewards with points that can be collected and used for airfare, eating out or any number of things, depending upon the terms of a particular credit card.

There are pros and cons for the use of either a debit or credit card. Different situations call for different choices. Your ability to stick to a budget may dictate whether to use one card over another. Use the card that best fits each situation.

When trading closed on a Tuesday last December, shares for the United States American Airlines company fell by 81% as a result of the news that the parent company for the flight agency AMR Corporation had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Despite the bankruptcy process, the company maintains that the airline will operate normally continuing to serve its public and those who have already purchased flights.

Over the last few weeks there has been a great deal of speculation about the company when negotiations to cut costs failed. AMR stated that agreements that it made with its workforce made it spend an additional £384 in worker’s salary and benefits when compared to other airline companies.  At the moment the airline has about 78,000 employees and runs out of five major hubs in the United States.

Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the United States protects a company from being sued from its creditors allowing it some time to sell off portions of the business in order to reorganise and pay debtors properly without penalties.

The news is disheartening for the airline as it was one of the only major airlines in the US that was not forced to file for bankruptcy after the terrorist attacks on September 11^th. This has delayed its progress potentially as other major competitors have already completed their cost cutting measures and been able to restructure their labour contracts accordingly.

When you look back over how the FTSE 100 performed during 2011, one thing jumps out at you; that despite the economic chaos around the world that took place last year, the FTSE has effectively held its own better than anyone predicted at the end of 2010. Never mind bells, it was bulls that were ringing in the New Year of 2011 due to the large caps hitting the 6000 mark,  and momentum was high and hopes were that it would continue.

Barely had the popping of the champagne corks left our ears however, before the first crisis of the year hit. The first international crises struck in the early part of 2011 when the political turmoil in Libya and Egypt sent shockwaves through the world’s markets, closely followed by the Japanese earthquake. Throw the rumbling of sovereign debt into this cocktail of disaster and it was little wonder that investors were so unnerved.

The result was that the FTSE 100 dropped to its lowest point for a long while, but it battled on in the face of diversity and the benchmark index shrugged of the geopolitical anxiety and went back up to 6069.9, a rise of 169.69 points from the 5899.94 which it had ended the previous year at. Thus ended the first turbulent quarter and from then on it was mainly good news for the rest of the year.

It came as no surprise that many of the FTSE 100 companies issued profit warnings to try and avoid a huge slump in share prices when they announced their figures. This accomplished its aim to a certain extent as while the share prices did invariably drop, experts said their value hadn’t gone down to anywhere near where they would have been if those profit warnings hadn’t been made public.

Despite the overall, albeit modest, success of the FTSE 100, we still saw many more companies going into administration, but this was somewhat bolstered by the high performance of other, particularly in the blue-chip sector. ARM Holdings enjoyed the knock on success of Intel and Microsoft and saw its shares shoot up to 6201/2, a rise of 46.59pc.

On the whole, high street banks were also in the ascendancy, with Barclays and RBS also seeing a rise in their share prices. A notable exception, however, was Lloyds TSB, who dropped by 9.82pc. We will have to wait and see if 2012 proves to be as steady, or even, as some analysts are suggesting, improving further still.

The UK Digital Economy Act (DEA) was originally created with the intention of scaring pirates enough that they will not download, steal, or share any more files, but it seems that even with all its good intentions, the act has done little to stop pirates from doing what they want. Last week a group of policymakers, parliamentarians, and industry leaders all met in London to find out why.

However, it turns out the real problem is actually the DEA itself, given the fact that it is not actually law yet, but instead is still sitting in Brussels waiting to be approved by the European Commission before it is decided who should actually pay for putting the plan into action. At the same time, the code that was created by Ofcom to help direct how the new law would work is still sitting and gathering dust in someone’s desk at the Department of Culture.

Since its creation the DEA has always drawn a lot of debate given the fact that it is really just a warning letter system that begs the question of how effective it could be. It also has hit a lot of nerves in the communication sector because the providers are not willing to take on the costs of implementing it, and do not feel they should have to. However, for at least a few more months, if not more, it looks as if no one is going to have to stress out because for the moment the DEA is actually DOA.

If you own a startup business that utilises computers one of the first things that you should think about is purchasing some type of antivirus software to protect your business assets and your future profits. Many people do not realise the full effect that one virus can have on a business system until it is too late, but with proper education you can understand the risks of leaving your business unprotected and take steps to make sure that it is safe at all times.

You would not leave your business doors open after you have closed, so do not leave your virtual doors open and left unattended either. The easiest way to understand just how important antivirus software such as Norton Antivirus is for business is to understand the potential consequences of getting a virus on your business computers.

The most common problem that businesses suffer when their computer systems contract viruses is that their systems slow down, reducing the amount of work that can be accomplished in one business day. Sometimes a strong virus can also cause the system to crash, leaving you with a hefty repair bill and potentially a few computers that no longer work.

This is not the worst case scenario however, because there is also the risk that a virus can allow a hacker access to your sensitive business files. If you regularly have business transactions they can access credit card numbers or at the very least gain access to your banking information and possibly hack into your business accounts.

At the very least, stealing your customer’s email and physical addresses can cause you to have to notify customers of a security breach, which can ruin your reputation and hurt your potential business future. With all of these factors considered it is easy to see why installing excellent antivirus software is a must for any business.

France and Germany have come to an agreement before the weekend EU summit that allows the countries to boost the rescue fund of the Eurozone up to £1.75tn as part of a new plan to help calm the sovereign debt crisis and will be introduced to other leaders at the summit. The news came after severe market pressure was placed on France following a warning that Moody’s could remove the AA rating because of how much it costs to bail out the Eurozone members and the banks.

As part of the new deal France would be forced to pay a percentage point over the price that Germany pays in order to borrow any money over the next ten years to help close the gap between the two countries’ bond yields which are now the widest they have been since 1992.

The news was good for US investors as the stock markets kicked back after it was announced with the Dow Jones increasing by about 2.2% helping to recover from its 1% fall earlier in the day. This is one of the first times that the US markets have been joyful about news in the EU as they have been uneasy about the state of the EU and most news has caused the market to actually fall.

According to diplomats from the EU, the new Franco-German arrangement will help to create firewalls for the Eurozone members to help reduce the threat of a major credit or debt crisis in the smaller and weaker countries.

Groupon has finally set a price tag on its public offering valuing its total worth at £7.2bn making it the largest social media debut on the public stock market since LinkedIn debuted back in May of this year. A prospectus placed with the exchange and securities commission revealed that the company that is based in Chicago will place 30m shares up for grabs on Nasdaq which will total up to about  4.7% of its equity valued at share prices of $16-$18.

The total amount of profit from the sale of shares should amount in about $540 million in revenues for Groupon if investors are keen to pick up the shares. Next week Groupon has plans to meet with investors to determine what demand there is for its shares and will finalize its final offer price by the first week of November. Underwriters of the public offering will be Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and credit Suisse.

The price tag is much lower than the original $750m that Groupon wrote up in a prospectus in June as they postponed plans to enter the stock market over the summer due to the European debt crisis causing the stock market to crash.

Over the last three months ending in September the internet coupon company reported revenues that totalled up to be $430.3m with a total quarter growth of 9.6% which is down from the previous quarter’s high growth rate of 33%. Despite this fact, operating costs for the company have decreased opening the door for increased profits in the future.

Lord Turner, the Chairman of the Financial Services Authority, has publicly stated that he may have been wrong about pushing the UK to adopt the Euro stating that he did not predict the sovereign debts of the EU and the Euro bank failures that occurred this year. In fact, known as being one of the largest advocates of the Euro, Turner bluntly stated in an interview he gave this month that he was wrong.

Turner originally believed that by taking the Euro the standard of living in the UK would be increased and would help to balance out the exchange rates that have dropped hurting export based businesses within the country. However, a decade later as the sovereign debt crisis has left the EU on the brink of dissolution and failure Turner has now fostered the nerve to state that he was wrong and that more coordination and work needed to be done before the Eurozone is a practical investment for the UK.

He added that over time he has come to see that he was too focused on the idea to see its faults and that the single market did not actually increase the productivity of the nations involved. He added that he now can see that there are some aspects of the Eurozone that could cause stability dangers on a larger level when not properly taken care of and that this enlightenment has changed the way that he now views economic policy.

As rumours have floated around the technology world about HP’s future in the world of hardware, the company has confirmed that it will stop making phones, tablets, and PCs and instead refocus its development on software. It has also emerged that HP has already made plans to purchase the autonomy software firm for an estimated £7.1bn. HP is also thinking about selling off its personal systems group which would be huge given the fact this includes its large PC business and will make its webOS devices obsolete.

The announcements are a shock to the industry as HP has been a large hardware company within the technology sector known for its reduced prices and reliability for quite some time. Although its Pre smartphone was met with good reviews, its WebOS has failed to get anywhere among the general public and with technology critics. The Pre and TouchPad tablets will both be ditched even though the company spent £727m last year to purchase Palm for the rights to the products. The move is quite similar to the move by IBM this decade as they shifted from hardware to software as well given the fact that software has a larger role in business growth.