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Facebook apologized this week after it emerged an ad running on the social network was using a photo of a teenager who committed suicide.

Seventeen year old Rehtaeh Parsons took her own life after months of cyber bullying and an alleged sexual assault. A Facebook user noticed an ad for an online dating site was using the girl's picture and grabbed a screenshot of it. After tweeting the screenshot, outrage quickly ensued.

Facebook became aware of the issue and took prompt action to remove the ad and ban the advertiser.

"This is an extremely unfortunate example of an advertiser scraping an image from the Internet and using it in their ad campaign," a spokeswoman for Facebook said.

"This is a gross violation of our ad policies. We apologize for any harm this has caused."

LinkedIn, the world's most popular professional-networking site, was recently sued this week by customers who are accusing the site of "appropriating their identities for marketing purposes by hacking into their external e-mail accounts and downloading contacts' addresses."

While there have been hundreds of complaints, even on LinkedIn's own forums, the company had called the suit meritless, and written a large response via their blog.

The post:

As you may have read recently, a class action lawsuit was filed against LinkedIn last week. The lawsuit alleges that we "break into" the email accounts of our members who choose to upload their email address books to LinkedIn. Quite simply, this is not true, and with so much misinformation out there, we wanted to clear up a few things for our members.

We do not access your email account without your permission. Claims that we "hack" or "break into" members' accounts are false.
We never deceive you by "pretending to be you" in order to access your email account.
We never send messages or invitations to join LinkedIn on your behalf to anyone unless you have given us permission to do so.
We do give you the choice to share your email contacts, so you can connect on LinkedIn with other professionals that you know and trust. We will continue to do everything we can to make our communications about how to do this as clear as possible.

Mozilla, which has delayed the browser multiple times, has finally released a preview of the upcoming Firefox for touchscreen Windows 8 machines, including tablets.

The browser is now available in the "Aurora" release channel, after spending over a year in the more obscure (and highly unstable) Nightly dev channel.

As a stable release, Mozilla still has a January or February 2014 release timeframe.

Similar to Microsoft's Modern/Metro version of Internet Explorer, the new Firefox gets rid of most of the header and other interface elements that can clutter a browser window. In their place are swipe gestures and two buttons on the side of the screen, one for opening new tabs and the second for going back. That's it.

Under the hood is the same Gecko engine as the standard Firefox and there is support for WebGL and Mozilla's asm.js for high-performance JavaScript apps. There is also support for Windows 8 charms, accelerated HTML5 video and WebM and H.264.

A report this week from the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) blasted search engines for failing to fight copyright infringement.

The report, titled "Understanding the Role of Search in Online Piracy", claims that 58 percent of search queries people used before viewing copyright infringing content "contain generic of title-specific keywords only." What that means is people find infringing copies of content easily without specifically requesting them with keywords.

The results of a survey it conducted show that 74 percent of respondents admitted to using search engines as a means to find pirated content.

"Search engines bear responsibility for introducing people to infringing content - even people who aren't actively looking for it," said Chris Dodd, chairman of the MPAA.

"The television and movie community is working every day to develop new and innovative ways to watch content online, and as the internet's gatekeepers, search engines share a responsibility to play a constructive role in not directing audiences to illegitimate content."

However, Internet Association president and chief executive, Michael Beckerman, has rejected the MPAA's criticism, saying the trade group just blames the Internet and technology for all of its problems.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has said that revelations about U.S. spying programs hurt users' trust in U.S.-based Internet services.

He was in Washington to attend an event hosted by the Atlantic magazine and to lobby congressmen about immigration reform earlier this week, when he gave his take the NSA surveillance programs that dominated much of the news over the past few months.

"What I can tell from the data that I see at Facebook is that I think the more transparency and communication the government could do about how they're requesting the data from us, the better everyone would feel about it," he said.

"From reading in the media, you couldn't get a sense whether the number of requests that the government makes is closer to a thousand or closer to a 100 million. ... I think the more transparency the government has, the better folks would feel."

To services like Facebook, the media reports combined with government statements served to hurt trust of users outside the U.S. most of all.

"Response to the NSA issues that have blown up are a big deal for the Internet as a global platform. And some of the government statements I think have been profoundly unhelpful," he said.

Prosecutors in the United States joined with the mayor of London in recommending that iPhone owners upgrade to iOS 7.

The issue of smartphone theft in urban areas has prompted politicians and prosecutors around the world to push manufacturers to build more anti-theft systems into their devices. On top of the agenda is the "Kill Switch" that would render a device useless remotely in the event that it is stolen.

Manufacturers are reluctant to make such features available, due to the potential for abuse. Still, there are other measures that can be taken that could discourage the theft of devices.

One such feature is the Activation Lock in iOS 7, present on the new iPhone 5c and iPhone 5s. Users of iPhones from iPhone 4 onwards can upgrade to iOS 7.

Prosecutors in New York and San Francisco joined with London mayor, Boris Johnson in urging iPhone owners in their cities to upgrade to iOS 7, earlier this week.

Still, the presence of activation lock in iOS 7 is not likely to bring down the number of smartphone thefts. There will likely need to be an industry-wide effort to tackle the problem.

Last week, after Apple officially unveiled the iPhone 5C, Nokia's marketing team headed to Twitter to seemingly mock the company for its latest product, which features multiple colors.

The tweet read, "thanks, Apple" and included an image of the Lumia family (in all its colorful varieties) with the text "imitation is the best form of flattery."

It was a small poke at Apple, but fans seem to have responded in force to the tweet. The tweet has 39,600 retweets and counting and Twitter admitted it was one of the top corporate tweets in history.

Apple is expected to sell over 3 million iPhone 5C this weekend, a figure similar to what Nokia sells in Lumia devices per month.

Thanks, #Apple ;) pic.twitter.com/x4w3r8Ghcy

-- Nokia UK (@nokia_uk) September 10, 2013

LinkedIn, the world's most popular professional-networking site, has been sued this week by customers who are accusing the site of "appropriating their identities for marketing purposes by hacking into their external e-mail accounts and downloading contacts' addresses."

The customers hope to make the suit into a group class action, and have asked a federal judge to ban the company from repeating the same alleged violations. Additionally, they are demanding that LinkedIn return "any revenue stemming from its use of their identities to promote the site to non-members" and they are seeking additional damages.

As part of their complaint, the customers cite that even "LinkedIn's own website contains hundreds of complaints regarding this practice." LinkedIn has over 230 million users and has seen rapid growth in recent years.

"LinkedIn is committed to putting our members first, which includes being transparent about how we protect and utilize our members' data," says LinkedIn, which has vowed to fight the 'meritless' suit.

The complaint says that LinkedIn required all members to provide an email address as their username on the site, and then used that information to access those email accounts, in an effort to steal contacts. "LinkedIn pretends to be that user and downloads the e-mail addresses contained anywhere in that account to LinkedIn's servers," they added. "LinkedIn is able to download these addresses without requesting the password for the external e-mail accounts or obtaining users' consent."

BlackBerry Messenger (BBM), which was expected to go live for Android this morning, has still not made its way to the Google Play Store.

The iOS app has begun its rollout in some nations, but has not hit North America, either.

The app is free on both platforms. Android users will need to be running 4.0 or higher to get the app, and iPhone users will need iOS 6 or higher.

BBM for Android and iPhone features:

• BBM Chat – Enjoy real, immediate conversations with friends on Android, iPhone and BlackBerry smartphones. Not only does BBM let you know that your message has been delivered and read, it also shows you that your friend is responding to the message.
• More than chat – With BBM you can share files on your phone such as photos and voice notes, all in an instant.
• Keep your group in the loop – Multi-person chats are a great way to invite contacts to chat together. BBM Groups lets you invite up to 30 friends to chat together, and go a step further than multi-chat by sharing photos and schedules. And, with Broadcast Message, you can send a message out to all your BBM contacts at once.
• Post Updates and stay in the know – BBM lets you post a personal message, profile picture and your current status, and lets your contacts know instantly in Updates.
• Your unique PIN – Every BBM user has a unique PIN that maintains your privacy, so you don't have to give out your phone number or email address to a new or casual contact.

Mike Lazaridis, one of the co-founders of BlackBerry, has been speaking to private equity firms about a potential bid for the failing company.

Lazaridis stepped down as co-CEO in 2012, as the company searched for a new direction.

The former exec has had conversations with the Blackstone Group and the Carlyle Group about an offer, but the talks are preliminary and could lead to nothing.

As the company continues to search for a buyer, or other 'strategic alternatives,' its shares continue to collapse and reached $8.73 per share on Friday. At its peak in 2008, shares traded at $144, meaning it has seen a 94 percent drop in five years.

Lazaridis co-founded the company in 1985 and is one of its largest shareholders.

It appears that Apple fans around North America are updating their devices to the latest iOS 7, at a record pace.

According to Chitika, in the first two days of availability (Wed-Fri), nearly 32 percent of North American iOS web-based traffic has come from the new operating system.

iOS 6, released last September, took three days to reach the 30 percent mark.

The latest operating system is one of Apple's biggest design changes since the launch of the iPhone in 2007, changing to a "flatter," more professional design, with more built-in features than before.

Spain, infamous for being a hotbed of piracy, has increased the jail time admins of piracy sites can face for their crimes.

The country, facing trade sanctions from the U.S. and strong criticism from Hollywood, appears to be at least trying to move away from its title as one of the kings of piracy.

As part of the new law, site owners who are making money "from linking to copyrighted material provided illegally by third parties, whether it be 'direct or indirect profit,'" can face up to six years of jail time along with fines.

The law goes into effect early next year.

Until this new law, Spanish authorities could only prosecute uploaders and sharers of the illegal content. Now, downloaders and other users will not face any punishment and P2P platforms and search engines are excluded, as well.

Google has announced that their mobile payment app Google Wallet is now available for iOS devices.

The app will bring over most of the features known to Android users, including transfers to friends and family, loyalty card tracking and local offers.

iOS does not support NFC yet, however, so tap-to-pay will obviously not work, and that feature is one of the main points of using Wallet (or rival payment services).

On the security side, the app is locked by PIN and if your device gets lost, the app can be disabled and wiped remotely via Google's site.

Check the app here, if you are running iOS 6.0 or higher.

The RIAA and MPAA have begun distributing new research about the perils of piracy on the entertainment industry, trying to get Congress to take a second look into potential legislation on the matter.

Additionally, the trade groups are once again accusing search engines of not doing enough to direct traffic away from well-known pirate file sharing sites.

"We invite Google and the other major search engines to sit down with us to formulate a plan that goes beyond promises of action and actually serves its intended purpose of deterring piracy and giving the legitimate marketplace an environment to thrive," RIAA Chairman Cary Sherman told a House panel (via 3N).

MPAA boss Christopher Dodd added, "as the internet's gatekeepers, search engines share a responsibility to play a constructive role in not directing audiences to illegitimate content".

Legislators have shied away from sweeping legislation following last year's try at CISPA, which was met with massive criticism from the general public and from major corporations. Smaller measures have been taken, such as credit card processors like Visa and Mastercard blocking access to businesses that thrive off piracy, and ad networks have also pulled business from warez sites. Google also tweaked its algorithms to give 'less visibility' to certain sites.

Terry Myerson, Microsoft's former Windows Phone boss and now head of Microsoft's mobile operating systems group, has detailed the company's plans for the future of Windows RT and the company's longstanding promise of a common app and developer tool between the different Windows platforms.

Myerson says the company has organized its new OS groups around three key points; commonality, the cloud, and tailored experiences for devices.

"The first of those is that we really should have one silicon interface for all of our devices," says the exec (via Verge). "We should have one set of developer APIs on all of our devices. And all of the apps we bring to end users should be available on all of our devices."

Microsoft is finally working on multi-platform compatibility, meaning a Windows phone app will work on a Windows 8 tablet, just like how Android and iOS operate.