Articles about Facebook

We knew that Facebook was going to announce a name change today, but what we didn’t know for certain was what that name would be. The smart money was on something to do with the metaverse, which many firms -- Facebook especially -- believe could be the future of the internet.

Much as Google rebranded its parent company Alphabet back in 2015, so Facebook’s parent company is now called Meta, and gains a new blue infinity symbol for a logo. This change only affects the parent company -- the names of the apps everyone knows and uses -- Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp will stay the same, although the Oculus VR brand will be phased out.

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Over the years, Mark Zuckerberg has shared various visions for the future including getting the entire world online. His latest idea is that of the metaverse, a far more immersive, connected experience that blends the realms of virtual reality and the internet.

While details of quite what Facebook's plans for the metaverse might be currently remain vague and ethereal, it seems that Zuckerberg could be on the verge of announcing a rebranding and a new name for Facebook.

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The other day I was chatting with a friend and she mentioned how Facebook was listening into personal conversations via her phone. It was the only possible explanation, she said, for how it could know she was in the market for a new sofa. Her husband was the only person (other than me) she’d mentioned this to and although she hadn’t yet got around to looking for a sofa online, her Facebook feed was full of ads for upholstered seating. I’ve heard this conspiracy theory before, of course, we all have. If it’s not Facebook listening in, it’s Google. But it made me smile.

When I go into Facebook (or Instagram), which is several times every day, I see stories from my friends and family, interspersed with 'targeted' adverts for products and services that I have no interest in -- such as the advert I saw today for a train company whose trains I’ve never been on because they don’t run anywhere near where I live or travel to. Judging by all the food ads Facebook shows me, it thinks I’m a staunch (and very hungry) vegan. This couldn’t be further from the truth.

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History will treat Monday and Tuesday as days the tech world would love to forget. 

Monday was Black Monday for those who rely on Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. All of these Facebook-owned properties went down for around eight hours, leaving a lot of people confused and services such as Twitter booming with the extra traffic. This was a critical outage that even affected Facebook employees and their internal systems, making it impossible for many people at Facebook to use anything they needed to get their jobs done. 

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Data combined from the July 24 Clubhouse breach and Facebook user profiles has been used to compile a database of 3.8 billion entries and it could be yours for $100,000 -- though the seller is willing to split it up if you're strapped for cash.

The CyberNews research team uncovered a hacker forum posting from September 4 offering the data for sale. The poster claims the records include names, phone numbers, Clubhouse ranks, and Facebook profile links.

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It’s been over a decade since Finnish game maker Rovio hit the big time with Angry Birds. New levels were periodically added to keep players interested and, capitalizing on that success, the company followed it up with other games such as Angry Birds Seasons and Angry Birds 2. They also released a tournament-based version called Angry Birds Friends. 

Rovio has kept the tournament version fresh and exciting by releasing loads of new levels every week. The goal of the game is to beat the people you're playing against and after completing each level you will see where you rank amongst those ahead and behind you  -- both places and points. 

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As instant messaging platform have become such a common means of communication, users have become increasingly demanding. Of course, this means that people want an ever-growing list of features and tools to play with, but also that security and privacy have become priorities.

Neither "security" nor "privacy" are words that one would immediately associate with Facebook, but the company is keen to change this. Having held a workshop about the hopes and expections users have about private messaging platform, the company has presented its finding. And although it has noted a demand for end-to-end encryption, it's not something that is going to be coming to Messenger this year.

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Data breaches have almost become a fact of everyday life, but there are still some that have greater impact than others.

Software company Intact has carried out an analysis of publicly available data to see which companies have suffered the most large-scale data breaches (involving more than 30,000 records or more) over the last 16 years.

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I’ve long been a big fan of virtual reality and have been playing more VR games than ever this past year thanks to lockdown and the arrival of the Oculus Quest 2.

The best thing about this VR headset is it’s wireless, so you have the freedom of movement you don’t get with other devices. There’s a good selection of games available to buy and install on the headset too, with personal favorites being Climb 2, Pistol Whip, Superhot VR, and Arizona Sunshine. You can also play games installed on your PC, like Half Life: Alyx, via either a compatible USB-C cable or the recently updated Virtual Desktop app.

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Facebook is expanding support for physical security keys to mobile devices in order to help users secure their accounts.

The site already offers multi-factor authentication via SMS or authenticator apps, but adding support for hardware keys offers users another means of supplementing their passwords and keeping their accounts more secure.

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During 2020 Microsoft maintained its position as the brand most often found in phishing emails, followed by Facebook and PayPal.

Email defense specialist Vade Secure has released its 2020 Phishers' Favorites report which also shows that cloud services overtook financial services to become the most impersonated industry, whilst cynical hackers have been quick to exploit the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Facebook has issued an apology after posts relating to Plymouth Hoe were erroneously flagged up for containing offensive language.

Plymouth Hoe is an area of the South Western English city of Plymouth, and it caused the same problems as places such as Cockermouth, Scunthorpe and Devil's Dyke for obscenity filters. The social network not only removed posts for using the word 'Hoe', but also closed down groups relating to the area.

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If 2020 was a Trump- and Covid-inspired year of social media excess, 2021 can’t help but see some reversion. But it’s more than that, with big Internet companies coming under greater regulatory scrutiny worldwide, especially Facebook and Google. This year is going to be a tough one for Mark Zuckerberg, especially. And while I don’t expect Zuckerberg to abandon his CEO job this year, he eventually will, simply because it isn’t as much fun as it used to be and there will come a point (maybe in 2022) when leaving the top job will help Facebook’s stock.

At this moment there’s reportedly a bot operating on Telegram selling for $20 or less the personal info including phone numbers of 500 million individual Facebook users. What’s the logical corporate response to a gambit like that? Nobody knows because nobody has been in Facebook’s particular position before.

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I’m no Trumper. This prediction has nothing to do with politics and everything to do with how social media actually works. Following the U.S. Capitol riot of January 6th, President Trump was bumped from nearly all social media, even YouTube, with many of those changes subsequently made permanent. These moves led to speculation that Trump would be hobbled without his beloved accounts, his immediate impact on public discourse muted without the ability to tweet. While this may be true in the very immediate sense, it won’t last. Even Trump, the technical luddite, will figure it out and roar back shortly with or without those accounts.

This prediction is very similar in thinking to a column I wrote last August -- President Trump thinks he can shut down WeChat: It won’t work. That column made the simple point that such bans are hard to make stick, even for a U.S. President, simply because of the international nature and foreign hosting of the WeChat service.

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The fallout from Donald Trump's ban from Twitter and suspension from Facebook, and Amazon's de-platforming of Parler continues as large numbers of users have been signing up to alternative social networks.

Many of these like Gab and Mastodon are decentralized in that they run on their own servers rather than relying on the public cloud so they are not at the mercy of larger businesses.

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