Search results for: “facebook”

Like WhatsApp, Facebook Will Let Users ‘Unsend’ Messages

Over the past few weeks, Facebook has been under the cosh from the media and its users alike. Facebook was accused of leaking private data of over 50 million users which were used by Cambridge Analytica during the 2016 US Presidential Elections. However, the outrage around Facebook and callous handling of sensitive data have increased when it was learned that Facebook deleted messages sent out by Mark Zuckerberg from the recipients’ inbox. It now appears that Facebook is ready to share this luxury with all of its users in the coming months.

According to a report by TechCrunch, a Facebook spokesperson has confirmed that the social networking company is currently working on the ‘Unsend’ feature’s development. This feature will soon be available for everyone across the globe. A few months ago, WhatsApp also rolled out a similar message wherein users could delete a sent message before it was read by the recipient.

However, it is worth noting that this feature will work very differently from WhatsApp’s. Another spokesperson told TechCrunch that the only way to implement ‘Unsend’ on Messenger is to set an expiration date for the message. This will, in fact, work very similar to what Snapchat has with its personal messages. Essentially, a user can set a timer on the message before pressing send, once the timer runs out, the message gets deleted. It is like a self-destruct mode but, for messages. It is not yet clear if the recipient will be made aware of the self-destruct mode of the messages they receive.

While it is okay to delete messages on WhatsApp because of the times you are either sending to or receiving from people you know, the implications of the ‘Unsend’ feature on Facebook are far more severe. On Facebook, users get a lot of messages from strangers which, if taken to court, can be used as evidence. Now, with the new feature, users will have to take a screenshot of every message they feel is important or suspicious.

April 7, 2018
Facebook Won’t Unveil Its Smart Speaker Amid Data Leak Controversy

Facebook was going to unveil its smart speaker at its biggest developer conference in May this year. However, after the recent public outrage, the company has decided not to reveal any product right now. The report claims that Facebook will carefully examine the speakers and make sure it doesn’t violate any data privacy rules.

Recently, Facebook got pulled into a data leak scandal along with a British analytics firm for unlawfully sharing personal user data. Which in turn could have played a huge role in the US Presidential Elections. The controversy has sparked off a huge debate about social media and Facebook is at the helm of it. It makes sense for Facebook to not unveil a new product line at the point, as it may not be met with a lot of open minds and will be heavily scrutinised, irrespective of how secure it might be.

Amazon Echo Show

The report says:

Facebook’s hardware products are undergoing a deeper review to ensure that they make the right trade-offs regarding user data.

Even though the smart speaker was not going to be available for purchase before fall, it was planning to unveil the speaker in May. However, the company has now decided to lay off from any announcement until the public outrage cools off.

It is already a bit late in the smart speaker game, and delaying it further will not help its case. However, looking at the current situation and the kind of situation it is in, the decision might be essential, if not correct. Ever since the controversy, Facebook has lost over US$ 60 billion in market cap and many people have decided to delete their Facebook accounts. However, considering Facebook has an active monthly user base of 2.2 billion people, losing a few here and there won’t have a huge impact.

Amazon Echo Spot

The smart speaker will go by the moniker of Portal. A previous report claims that it would have a 13 to 15 inch display. The speaker will respond to voice commands and use facial recognition technology. This is something the company has been taking very seriously off-late. WIth voice and facial recognition, it can provide a personalized experience to different people in the house.

The Portal could also be a part of Facebook’s plan to become the largest video streaming service. With a huge display and the ease of voice commands, the Portal could become a primary source of video consumption. That, along with its own video streaming service could be a good combination. You could read everything about its new streaming service, Watch here.

March 28, 2018
Mark Zuckerberg Apologises For Facebook Data Scandal In Full-Page Newspaper Advertisements

Facebook, over the past few days, has been under tremendous scrutiny. Mark Zuckerberg first posted on Facebook addressing the whole issue. However, the Facebook post looked more like a recap of the controversy and less of an apology. He talked about steps that Facebook will take in order to curb this problem. But, never once said that he or the company was sorry for what had happened.

Now, the social media and giant has taken to print media to issue an apology. Facebook took out several full-page advertisements in newspapers like the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post and several UK papers. The ads take the form of an apology written by Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder and CEO of Facebook Inc.

Facebook took out full page ads in the NYT, WSJ, WashPost, and 6 UK papers today https://t.co/kMA822kTpU pic.twitter.com/CUEYwyWuTT

— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) March 25, 2018

The apology, again, talks a lot about the steps Facebook is taking or has taken already to curb data breaching. The apology reiterates that the company has limited the amount of data an app gets when a user signs up through their Facebook account. However, the tone of the ad certainly is a bit more remorseful than the Facebook post from last week. Zuckerberg writes, “This was a breach of trust and I’m sorry we didn’t do more at the time. I promise to do better for you.”.

A few days ago, a story broke out, exposing a British data analytics firm and its illegal acquisition of private data of about 50 million users. Cambridge Analytica, the firm in question performed work for the campaign of President Donald Trump and made ads for the Defeat Crooked Hillary page. Worth noting that that the page was run by the Make America Number One super PAC (Political Action Committee). Co-incidentally, both the Cambridge Analytica and Make America Number One financed by Robert and Rebekah Mercer, who backed Donald Trump in the general election.

POTUS Donal Trump

Ever since the story went public, the repercussions have been severe for the social media giant. Apart from a massive dent in its reputation, the company has been hit with several lawsuits. The hashtag #DeleteFacebook has been trending on social media as well. Moreover, the company has lost over US$ 60 billion in market cap since the controversy began.

March 26, 2018
Facebook CEO Zuckerberg Promises To Protect Personal Data
Facebook has been under the scanner for the past few days. The controversy of Cambridge Analytica has sparked a huge debate about Facebook and its data sharing practices. Apparently, Cambridge Analytica performed work for the campaign of President Donald Trump. It made ads for the Defeat Crooked Hillary Facebook page. Co-incidentally, both the Cambridge Analytica and Make America Number One financed by Robert and Rebekah Mercer, who backed Donald Trump in the general election.

Mark Zuckerberg’s Statement

Now, Facebook co-founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg has come out and addressed the issue. This post comes in a few hours after the #DeleteFacebook started trending across social media. The long post, in a nutshell, talks about the controversy and Facebook’s stance. While talking about the issue in hand, he also outlined a few steps Facebook will take.
- Facebook will investigate all apps that had access to user data before 2014. This is because it was in 2015 when Facebook changed its Privacy Policy to reduce data access. The company plans on banning any user that had misused the data. Every “thisisyourdigitallife” user will be informed about their data breach. Every user of an app will be informed about it when Facebook bans that app.
- If someone hasn’t used an app within the last three months, Facebook will turn off the app’s access to their information.
- From now on, every app that requires a Facebook Login will only have access to name, profile photo and email address.
The rest of the press release tells us what we have known already. While the steps mentioned by Zuckerberg do make a lot of sense, their implementation is what will matter. Facebook has already lost over US$ 60 million in market cap. Astonishingly, that is more than the entire market capitalisation of Tesla Inc.
March 22, 2018
#DeleteFacebook Is Trending: Here’s What Has Happened

On the 20th of January, Donal Trump was inaugurated as the United States’ 45th President. Leading up to that day was an excruciating Presidential campaign. Wherein Hillary Clinton lost to Trump on the basis of electoral votes. Even though Clinton was ahead by 2.1% in popular votes, she conceded the election on the 9th of November. Ever since his election, Donal Trump and his Presidential campaign have come under a lot of scrutinies.

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A few weeks ago, the Justice Department indicted 13 Russian nationals and 3 companies for interfering in the 2016 presidential election. The Russians stole the identities of American citizens and posed as political activists to deviate the public opinion against a certain Presidential candidate. However, there was no accusation that President Trump or his associates were knowingly part of the conspiracy.

And now, a British analytics firm, Cambridge Analytica has come under the radar. It has been accused of illegally capturing data of 50 million Facebook users for target-based advertising during the Presidential campaign. Apparently, Cambridge Analytica performed work for the campaign of President Donald Trump and made ads for the Defeat Crooked Hillary Facebook page.

Worth noting that that the page was run by the Make America Number One super PAC (Political Action Committee). Co-incidentally, both the Cambridge Analytica and Make America Number One financed by Robert and Rebekah Mercer, who backed Donald Trump in the general election.

[section label=”Key Events”]

The question arises then, how did a company get hold of personal information of 50 million Facebook users? Illegally, for starters. Apparently, Aleksandr Kogan, a University of Cambridge psychology professor got permission from Facebook to harvest information from users who downloaded his app, thisisyourdigitallife. But, users who downloaded the app gave the professor the permission to collect data on their location, their friends and even the content they had liked. Krogan, then, passed on this data to Cambridge Analytica which violated Facebook’s rules.

A recent report on Alexander Nix, CEO of Cambridge Analytica has intensified the allegations on the firm.A British television channel aired a report where he is seen discussing potential bribery and entrapment of politicians. However, Cambridge Analytica has since stated that:

The report was edited and scripted to grossly misrepresent the nature of those conversations.

That stance did not stick for too long as Alexander was suspended by the company on 20th March 2018. It is worth noting that Christopher Wylie, a former contractor of Cambridge Analytica is the whistleblower. He shared this information with the New York Times and The Observer. Facebook has since suspended his account.

Suspended by @facebook. For blowing the whistle. On something they have known privately for 2 years. pic.twitter.com/iSu6VwqUdG

— Christopher Wylie ???? (@chrisinsilico) March 18, 2018

In a nutshell, all of this corruption was fueled by the availability of such damming data. After the recent accusations of Russian nationals using Facebook to sway voters, this new accusation is much bigger. It has been revealed that since the story broke, Facebook has lost about US$ 50 million in market cap. Also, the hashtag #DeleteFacebook has been trending elsewhere.

March 21, 2018
How To Delete Personal Data On Facebook Without Deleting Your Account

Facebook is getting a lot of undesired attention. The company is accused of harvesting millions of Facebook user’s personal information to Cambridge Analytica. Even WhatsApp co-founder has tweeted with a hashtag #DeleteFacebook, asking people to delete their Facebook accounts. However, deleting a Facebook account once in for all might not be a feasible solution, as most of the day to day activities are directly connected with it. Instead, remove the private data stored on Facebook.

Methods to delete personal data

There are two methods to remove already existing data on Facebook. The first method helps to prevent Facebook from collecting additional data from other platforms like Instagram. Go to Settings>Apps>Websites and plugins then click on disable platform. This action will prevent you from signing-in to other applications or platforms that use your Facebook details. After doing this, you might not be able to play games or access applications. However, the already signed-in applications will still collect your data, until you sign-out of that application individually.

The second method gives a more refined control over the information that you can share with other platforms. Go to Websites and plugins>Apps Others Use and undo the required checkboxes. The list includes options like your birthday, relation status, interests etc. However, this method might kill some of the app functionality to the third-party apps, which need this information. The page also lists the apps, that you have shared your information with. Remove the apps, that you feel insecure to share your personal data.

The last option is to go to Ads section in settings to turn-off data collection from other websites, that you visit on a daily basis. Edit your information section from to not to share your personal information with advertisers. If you want to be a pro-private person on Facebook, use a virtual proxy network (VPN) with an add-on which can block cookies.

March 21, 2018
Facebook Messenger Lite Gets Video Calling Feature
Facebook Messenger Lite now supports video chats. One has to update the app to version 27.1.0.6.185 to enable video chat. The update weights at 3MB and it is free to download. However, after the download, the app consumes around 35MB of storage space.

Originally, the Messenger Lite application was launched to serve users with slow internet connectivity in the countries like India and Sri Lanka. However, later on, the app was made available Globally.

Usually, video chat applications require a lot of high-speed data. However, the Messenger Lite application works even with slow internet connectivity. Facebook claims that 17 million video chats have been made on Messenger. In fact, the number has been doubled compared to the 2016 statistics.

The original launch didn’t have either voice or video calling feature, which was later added with the updates. In fact, it has all the features like stickers, group chat and Find People like the standard version.

How to use video chat on Facebook Messenger Lite
- Open the messenger
- Click on the user
- Click on the video button to start the conversation
Note:

Both the parties should be running on the latest version of either the regular or the Lite app to make video calls.
March 9, 2018
BlackBerry Sues Facebook For Patent Infringement
Once considered to be one of the biggest mobile makers in the world, BlackBerry has gone through its fair share of dip. Ever since the rise of iOS and Android OS platforms, BlackBerry and its popularity has been on a decline. The BlackBerry Messenger used to be one of the most popular messaging services and has since been replaced by the likes of WhatsApp. However, it appears that BlackBerry feels undone by Facebook as it has sued the social networking company for patent infringement.

In a Los Angeles Federal Court, BlackBerry, Ltd. filed a lawsuit against Facebook, Inc. for infringing a patent on its messaging technology. The lawsuit focuses on Facebook Messenger and Facebook-owned properties like WhatsApp, Instagram. BlackBerry claims that for several years, it has attempted to have a dialogue with Facebook over the infringed patents.

Facebook Messenger

A few things that have been noted in the lawsuit include showing an unread message indicator on top of an icon. Something that WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger introduced a while ago. Here are a few other features noted in the lawsuit:
- Showing multiple incoming messages in the inbox
- Not showing timestamps of every message in a thread
- Selecting a Photo Tag
The lawsuit appears to be related to BBM, once highly popular and now, obsolete. Using BBM, users could send unlimited messages to each other, a lot like iMessage. However, as the popularity of Blackberry devices dwindled, the company made the messaging service available for iOS and Android.

Considering companies like Apple, Google have similar messaging apps, it is surprising that they weren’t in the firing line as well. Facebook, on the other hand, has come out with a harsh response to the lawsuit:

BlackBerry’s suit sadly reflects the current state of its messaging business. Having abandoned its efforts to innovate, BlackBerry is now looking to tax the innovation of others. We intend to fight.

Conclusion

If past lawsuits are anything to go by, this legal battle will be on for a while.
March 7, 2018
JioPhone Gets Official Facebook App Support

JioPhone has received a much-needed feature. The JioPhone users can now enjoy fully fledged Facebook natively. The app includes features like push notification, videos, and an optimised news feed. The app has been specially designed by the Facebook team for the KaiOS (special OS based on Firefox OS). The JioPhone will also receive its own version of Google Assistant in the coming months.

JioPhone is one of the cheapest feature phones that supports 4G LTE with VoLte. The smartphone literally costs nothing (with refundable security deposit), which make sense in the booming market like India. Though the phone supports universal GSM network, the company has locked it to Jio-network only to reduce the misuse. Users can recharge their number for as low as INR 49, which includes unlimited calling and data for 28 days. The company has sold more than 5 million phones, and it is still hard to get a JioPhone without pre-ordering it.

Specifications:

For a phone of this calibre, the phone packs decent hardware. The 2.4-inch non-touch panel runs on 1.2 GHz SoC paired with 512 MB RAM and 4 GB storage.

The phone packs a 2 MP main camera and a VGA selfie camera, which aids in video calling. The 2500 mAh Li-ion battery is user replaceable and will last for an entire day. The phone does offer screen mirroring via a proprietary cable that connects via micro USB port.

The built-in KaiOS offers exclusive Jio apps like Jio Music, Jio Tv, Jio Magazine, and My Jio. Users can also access Youtube and other streaming services via the web browser.

Conclusion:

At the time of launch, the company announced that the phone will feature necessary apps like WhatsApp and Facebook. This looks like a right move in right direction. However, the company haven’t shed any light on the availability of WhatsApp which is the most requested app from the user.

February 15, 2018
Facebook Testing A ‘Downvote’ Button

Ever since Facebook gained the kind of popularity it possesses right now, the call for a ‘dislike’ button was the loudest. Initially, Facebook said that it would steer clear of a ‘dislike’ button as it could add negativity. However, the company went ahead and added various reactions. One of them is an “angry” reaction which could be substituted as ‘dislike’ button.

The social networking site is now testing a downvote button that would work similarly to how downvotes are on Reddit and other sites. So far, only a few users in the United States can use this feature. And right now it is in a testing phase for now. However, the downvote button works differently than the dislike button.

While a dislike button is used to express displeasure or anger towards a post or comment, the downvote button will be different. The downvote button won’t be available for every post, it is designed for comments on posts from public pages. The downvote button would help hide offensive, abusive, or inappropriate comments. Using the downvote button won’t affect the entire post.

On a lot of websites, a number of downvotes make that particular comment hidden or deleted. Something similar will be implemented on Facebook.

A Facebook spokesperson has stated that the social network is simply testing this downvote feature so that users can provide feedback about comments on various posts from public pages.

February 10, 2018
Facebook Is Working On An Amazon Echo Show Competitor

Facebook is more than just a social networking service and has been constantly expanding its business. From buying Instagram to acquiring WhatsApp, the most popular instant messaging service, the company is widening its reach every acquisition. One thing that Facebook has so far failed impress in, is its hardware capabilities. Back in 2013, Facebook launched an HTC-made smartphone that revolved around its social networking services. The smartphone failed to impress the consumers and disappeared in a few months.

For a few months, there have been rumours of Facebook working on a smart speaker with a display, much like the Amazon Echo Show, which will have Facebook and its other social networking services at its heart. The device will reportedly be called Portal and is expected to be priced at US $499, which is more than double of what an Alexa-powered Amazon Echo Show costs.

Facebook is planning to unveil the device in May 2018 at its developer’s conference and start shipping it by the end of the year. It will be interesting to see how Facebook Portal will compete with other smart speakers with a display as Google also announced a slew of companies that will be manufacturing Assistant-powered speakers with a display.

JBL Link View Powered By Google Assistant

A previous report claims that it would have a display of between 13 to 15 inches, almost double of what is found on the Echo Show. The tablet-like device will respond to voice commands and use facial recognition technology, something Facebook has been taking very seriously off-late will provide a personalised experience to different people in the house.

The Facebook Portal could also be a part of Facebook’s plan to become the largest video streaming service in the world. With a huge display and the ease of voice commands, the Portal could become a primary source of video consumption for people active on social media and the company could launch its streaming service with the new smart speaker. You could read everything about Facebook’s new streaming service, Watch here.

January 10, 2018
Facebook And Universal Music Group Deal Will Allow Users To Upload Songs In Videos

Facebook has announced a new multi-year deal with Universal Music Group. The agreement, which also covers Instagram and Oculus, will allow content creators to upload songs by UMG artists in their videos without worrying copyright violations.

The deal will help address the major copyright infringement issues around music on the social media platform. Facebook says this is the first step in addressing the issue but, noted that it would work with the label to introduce “music-based products” on its platforms as well. UMG is not the last label to sign a licensing deal as multiple reports have claimed that social media platform is in talks with Warner Music Group and Sony Music Group as well.

Facebook is also creating its own version of Content ID, YouTube’s service to identify rights holders’ content across its network, which would allow music labels and other major rights holders to manage their content on the platform.

The efforts to integrate music into its services began back in 2015 for Facebook. Facebook did not want to go the traditional route and create an on-demand streaming service. In turn, it has kept pushing for it and with UMG on board, it has addressed the copyright infringement issue on its platform which seems ideal for both creators and the music industry.

December 22, 2017
Facebook To Launch Standalone Video Streaming App Called ‘Watch’

Most people’s answer to ‘Where do you watch videos on the internet?’ would ‘YouTube, of course!’. Over the years, it has dominated the video consumption space on the internet because it has artists who create content that is only accessible on YouTube and nowhere else. The visual format of content consumption has become so huge that even Apple is planning to launch a subscription-based video streaming service in the coming years. Thanks to the increased accessibility and relatively cheaper fare of the internet over the world, services like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video have become successful as well.

If you are an avid Facebook user, you come across all kinds of videos on your timeline every few seconds. It can be a funny 15-second 9GAG video or a VICE clip about cooking Christmas dinner in a dumpster. For several years, videos have been a focus for Facebook and the company might be taking an important step towards making videos its one of the most important business aspects.

Facebook will be launching Watch, a standalone video streaming app which will compete with the likes of YouTube and Netflix.

What is Watch?

Facebook Watch is already available as a beta version within the Facebook app in the US and will soon make its global debut. It is a video streaming app which will blend in Facebook’s other services like Messenger and WhatsApp.

According to our sources, Facebook is working on making Watch a standalone app to launch in Q1-Q2 2018

Watch includes features like a “discovery” page that recommends new content, a dedicated feed for comments and reactions to videos, show-specific Facebook groups, and new Watch pages. For creators and publishers, Watch is presented as a platform to help them build an audience of passionate fans and make money from their work.

Any creator that is a part of Facebook Mentions, will be automatically eligible to use the app. Facebook Mentions is a platform that lets all sorts of public personalities to engage with their fans.

The Facebook Watch app will have a new set of tools which is called Live Creative Kit. These tools will essentially help creators produce more professional streams. To create more fun and engaging content, the Watch app will let users add custom video intros and outros to broadcasts. Even the viewers can feel like a part of fandom by using custom stickers.

One-fifth of videos on Facebook are live videos, which is one of the important statistics and around which, a lot of the features of Facebook Watch are created. For example, users can add frames to their broadcasts in order to create a thematic experience that’s consistent with their brand perception.

Why Watch Has The Potential To Surpass YouTube

As of now, YouTube is the largest video streaming platform in the world and has been for a long time. Many services came and couldn’t survive the magnitude of competition that is required the ruffle the feathers of YouTube. Facebook Watch, however, will be different. It is a common term to hear that ‘Facebook is crushing Snapchat by copying features that Snapchat brought to the fore’. It is true, Snapchat has not been able to deal with Facebook’s constant adaption of Snapchat’s own features because at any given point, Facebook has much more active users than Snapchat. Also, Facebook adapts and responds quickly.

Making speed a priority has allowed Facebook to build products and features that allow it to outpace competitors and perfect user experiences. This is part of the reason why Facebook-owned properties like Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp account for 21.8% of the total time that the average consumer spends on their mobile phones.

To become the biggest video content consumption platform, Facebook needs video content, and reports claim that it has taken a drastic step to ensure that creators jump on board as soon as possible and has started paying for original content. According to The Wall Street Journal, Facebook “is taking the risk out of the content-creation endeavour for many publishers, either by paying to offset their production costs or offering to license or buy their content outright.”

This means that Facebook will be able to generate exclusive content quicker by allowing creators to work freely without thinking of the monetary repercussions of content creation. Already, many creators on YouTube have had a fall-out with YouTube due to the monetization guidelines and with the lucrative offer from Facebook, famous content creators might be persuaded into changing their allegiance. Evidently, all the famous creators on YouTube have a strong presence on other social media platforms hence, the transition might not be as hard as people might imagine.

Furthermore, with the creators on board, Facebook will need advertisers to generate the revenue. While Facebook is becoming increasingly profitable, speculators believe YouTube is now barely breaking even on ad revenue. Facebook has even started monetizing videos that are directly uploaded to its platform.

This focus on video has already resulted in native Facebook video uploads getting 10 times more shares than YouTube uploads. Following Facebook’s initial emphasis on video, there has been a 50 percent increase in uploads to Facebook by brands over the past three years.

Lastly, there is no denying that Facebook has the audience for pulling off the unthinkable and surpass YouTube as the biggest video streaming platform. In 2016, Zuckerberg disclosed that the average person spent 50 minutes a day on Facebook’s platforms (not counting WhatsApp). Users in the U.S. spent an average of 35 minutes per day on Facebook, compared to YouTube with 17 minutes. In addition to higher time on site, Facebook has more users than YouTube, with more than two billion users vs YouTube’s 1.5 billion.

Conclusion

Facebook owns entities like Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger. Integrating a video streaming platform with other popular social media outlets would mean that a consumer would never leave the ecosystem created by Facebook. After dominating the social media sphere for so many years, Facebook, an internet organisation, has the resources to replicate the same success in the world of video streaming as well. To believe that YouTube will disappear is incredibly naive. Instead, it will likely become marginalised, much in the same way Snapchat and Twitter now have to deal with the popularity of Facebook and survive in its shadow.

With increasing disdain among creators on YouTube and a lucrative offer from Facebook to all the popular content creators, Facebook has the perfect product to be the biggest video consumption platform in the world.

December 21, 2017
Facebook Will Notify Users if Someone Else Uploads Their Photo

Facial recognition is a software that Facebook uses to some extent. Now, the social networking company is taking facial recognition to another level with its new feature. Using facial recognition, Facebook will notify a user if someone else uploads of that user.

According to Facebook’s blog post, the idea behind Photo Review is to give users more control over their online identity by giving them more privacy settings to work with. For the time being, those settings are the only means to work around facial recognition, with users being asked to grant Facebook permission to use facial recognition across the service.

Powered by the same technology we’ve used to suggest friends you may want to tag in photos or videos, these new features help you find photos that you’re not tagged in and help you detect when others might be attempting to use your image as their profile picture.

This would allow Facebook to implement more features that use facial recognition, such as account recovery. Facebook has conceded that there will be an easier on-off switch if you find facial recognition to be more trouble than it’s worth.

Photo Review is powered by the same AI technology that suggests friends you might want to tag in your pictures. The good news here is that the user does not have to be friends with someone for Photo Review to work, as long as the user has friends in common, they will be notified. When you are notified, you then have the choice to add your tag to the photo, leave yourself untagged, or report the photo as inappropriate.

Facebook says Photo Review is rolling out to most regions, though users in Canada and the EU will not get to use it due to data laws that restrict the use of facial recognition.

December 20, 2017
WhatsApp Ordered To Stop Sharing User Data With Facebook

Back in 2014, Facebook bought one of the most famous instant messaging apps in the world, WhatsApp. Over the course of three years, there have been many Facebook features which have trickled down to WhatsApp as well, WhatsApp Status being one of them. Being the parent company, Facebook started using the user data from WhatsApp to develop targeted advertising, security measures, and to gather business intelligence.

To tackle the free-sharing of personal user data among the two firms, France’s ultra-strict privacy watchdog CNIL has ordered WhatsApp to stop sharing user data with parent company Facebook. WhatsApp has a month to comply with the order, according to a public notice posted to the French website. CNIL ruled that while WhatsApp’s intention of improving security measures was valid, the sharing of data for business intelligence purpose was not acceptable.

CNIL believes that since WhatsApp never told its users that it was collecting data for business intelligence and there’s no way to opt out without uninstalling the app, it violates the fundamental freedom of users.

This is a yet another step from European regulators to crack down on the freewheeling data sharing between the two social networking entities. Germany ordered Facebook to stop collecting data from WhatsApp users in September 2016, and in the UK, Facebook agreed to stop collecting WhatsApp user data in November 2016.

Do you find it uncomfortable that Facebook can use your data to create specific advertisements for you while it claims that the data-sharing is for security purposes only? Let us know in the comments below!

December 19, 2017

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