Privacy: Facebook 'unintentionally' scraped and uploaded 1.5 million users' email contacts
It seems that barely a week passes without another Facebook scandal emerging, and this week is no different. The company has revealed that it accidentally uploaded the email contacts of up to 1.5 million users who signed up for the social network since 2016.
A glitch meant that new users who signed up for email password verification had their email contacts scraped and uploaded without consent. As of last month , Facebook stopped offering this verification option to first-time users, although it's not clear if this is because of the privacy issue.
UK recommends that Facebook and other social media sites disable 'like' option and data collection for minors
UK watchdog the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has put forward new proposals it believes will help to improve the safety of children online. Among the recommendations is the suggestion that Facebook and other social media sites should disable "like" functionality for minors.
The ICO's "Age Appropriate Design" consultation document is a code of practice for online services, and includes proposals such as minimum age checks and an increase in privacy settings for minors. Another suggestion in the 16-point set of proposals is that social media firms limit the collection of personal data about under-18s.
Forget Easter eggs, Facebook Messenger now officially has a dark mode
Following the popular trend, Facebook has now officially rolled out the much-requested dark mode option to Facebook Messenger on both iOS and Android.
The feature was available as a secret Easter egg from the start of last month, but now it is being rolled out on a global basis for everyone to enjoy. Dark mode can now be accessed as a regular setting without the need to jump through any special hoops.
Facebook suffers huge outage, along with WhatsApp and Instagram
If you've had trouble accessing Facebook today, you're not alone. Users in the US, Europe and Asia struggled to access not only Facebook, but also the WhatsApp and Instagram services owned by the social media giant.
Facebook has said little about this incident which comes just a month after it suffered its worst outage ever, causing problems for users for over 24 hours. This weekend's outage led to #FacebookDown, #instagramdown, and #whatsappdown hashtags trending on Twitter, and numerous reports of problems were posted to Downdetector.
Facebook updates its terms and conditions in Europe to clarify personal data usage
Facebook has faced numerous battles and controversies around the world, but the social networking giant has come under particular fire from Europe. Today, in response to concerns raised by the European Commission, Facebook has agreed to update its terms and conditions in the EU to make it clear to users how their personal data is used.
The new terms clarify how user data is shared with third parties, and how it can be used to target advertising. They also explain how users can close their accounts if they want, and detail reasons for which accounts can be disabled.
How I quit social media, but it didn't quit me
My name is Jason Kingdon, social media addict and Founder and CEO of BOLDFISH. I've been Facebook free for three years now, but I can't seem to separate it from my life. Wherever I go, there it is. Sign in with Facebook or follow us for more. At networking events, new contacts are incredulous and offended when I state my lack of social media. He lies, their eyes read.
Some of my friends have acclimated to just texting me, but others have fallen out of touch. I've become accustomed to the "OMG! How are you!? I haven't seen you in forever! Are you still in China?" It’s as though time had frozen since the last time we made contact. There are amazing memories from pictures and status updates, yet they assume that what they consume is all that there ever was or will be.
WhatsApp now lets you block people from adding you to a group chat
Facebook is hardly renowned for respecting privacy, but with WhatsApp the company is taking a small step to give users greater control.
A change to privacy settings for groups means that it is now possible -- at last -- to avoid being added to a group chat you don't to be involved in. WhatsApp has announced that "we're introducing a new privacy setting and invite system to help you decide who can add you to groups".
Data of 540 million Facebook users exposed in latest privacy cock-up
It is only a couple of weeks since we learned that Facebook has been storing user passwords in searchable plain text, and now there is -- yet another -- privacy scandal. This time, the private data of over half a billion Facebook users was left exposed on publicly-accessible Amazon servers.
Security firm UpGuard discovered that the private data of 540 million Facebook users was exposed in Amazon Web Services S3 buckets. Now removed, the data included identification numbers, comments, reactions and account names. In some instances, names, passwords and email addresses were also exposed.
Mark Zuckerberg's calls for internet regulation are just an attempt to shift the blame from Facebook
Over the weekend, Mark Zuckerberg set out what he described as "four ideas to regulate the internet". Were these ideas put forth by someone else, it might be possible to refer to this as an impassioned plea -- but this is Zuckerberg we're talking about.
He suggests GDPR-style privacy regulation in the US. He wants more control of hate speech. He believes more needs to be done about political advertising, particularly around the time of elections. And he likes the idea of data portability. These are reasonable ideas and -- importantly -- there is nothing to stop Facebook from implementing them now. To lead the way. There is no need to call for, or wait for, legislation.
How to delete your social media accounts: Benefits, alternatives, and why you should do it
Often, our social media engagements seem like little more than momentary diversions. Someone might scroll through Twitter when sitting in a waiting room or browse Facebook over breakfast. These time commitments feel small in the moment, to the point of being insubstantial -- but over time, these "insubstantial" moments on social media add up. The average person spends almost two hours on social media every day, while the average teenager spends up to nine hours. One study suggests that most people will end up spending more than five years of their lives on sites like YouTube, Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, and Twitter.
Social media is eating up a lot of your time. While not all of that time is "wasted" -- it’s possible to learn things on social media, network with valuable connections, catch up with friends, and follow important news stories -- five years of your life is a big ask. Have you ever considered deleting your social media accounts? In this article, we’ll explore how to delete your accounts, whether going dark can affect your job prospects, and what you can do instead to limit your social media usage or online exposure.
Facebook explicitly bans white nationalism and white separatism
The "praise, support and representation" of both white nationalism and white separatism are to be explicitly banned on Facebook and Instagram. The new policies will be enforced as of next week.
Facebook announced the change in policy as it and other social networks face increasing pressure to do more to counter hate speech. It also comes in the wake of the Christchurch, New Zealand mosque shooting, footage of which was shared on the platform.
Facebook stored millions of users' passwords in searchable plain text for years
Just when you think things couldn't get any worse with Facebook, something else comes along to lower your opinion of the social network even further. The latest security slip-up relates to passwords: it turns out that for up to six years, millions of user passwords were stored in plain text.
As well as being stored in plain text, passwords were searchable by thousands of Facebook employees. An investigation by Facebook suggests that somewhere between 200 million and 600 million user accounts were affected, some as far back as 2012.
Pahahaha! Zuckerberg outlines his, *snort*, privacy-focused vision for Facebook and social networking hahahaha!
Social networking in general, and Facebook in particular, is far from synonymous with the notion of privacy. Facebook makes occasional nods to granting users greater control over their privacy, but at the end of the day, data about users is what makes Mark Zuckerberg's company tick.
But setting out his vision for the future in a blog post, the Facebook founder has set out his "vision and principles around building a privacy-focused messaging and social networking platform". We'd already heard about plans to merge the messaging platforms WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook Messenger, this is central to his vision of the future. He has bold ideas of encryption and ephemerality playing a large part in increasing privacy, but Facebook will still have to overcome the issue of user trust.
Facebook is adding a Tributes section to memorialized accounts of deceased users
When a Facebook user dies, it is possible to transform their profile into a memorialized account. Facebook describes this as a "place for friends and family to gather and share memories after a person has passed away".
Now the social network is rolling out a new feature for memorialized profiles: Tributes. This is essentially a new section that appears on the page of deceased users where friends and family can post new content about their loved ones.
If you've added your phone number to Facebook for 2FA security, it can be used to search for you
Facebook has been encouraging users to enable two-factor authentication to boost the security of their accounts, but it turns out that there's a slightly sinister side to this feature.
You may well have opted to maintain an element of privacy by omitting personal information such as your address and phone number from your profile. But if you've used your mobile number to secure your account with 2FA, even if it is not visible to others, it can still be used to search for you -- and there is no way to opt out of this.
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