Additional reliance on social network platforms and social communication channels creates regulatory issues for enterprises.

This means that social media and communications content are becoming an increasingly popular target of opposing counsel in legal issues involving eDiscovery.

Continue reading →

The Internet.org project from Facebook has not been without controversy. Created with the aim of getting everyone in the world online, the program has been widely criticized and many partners pulled out. Now a rebranding has been unveiled for the mobile app and website.

With the launch of the Internet.org Platform, Facebook has taken the opportunity to rename the portal through which people can access a range of free services. Changing the name to Free Basics by Facebook is described as a way "to better distinguish the Internet.org initiative from the programs and services we’re providing", but it's hard not to think that it is also an attempt to move away from the controversy of Internet.org, and it comes ahead of serious push into India.

Continue reading →

Heard of Facebook Notes? No? It's something that has been around for a while, and provides away to write longer posts, but for some reason it has been largely ignored by Facebook users. The latest update could mean that's about to change.

Seemingly looking to take on the likes of Medium and Blogger, Facebook Notes has been treated to a facelift that makes posts more attractive and introduces new customization options. While Notes used to be (understandably, to some extent) all about the text, now graphics and formatting are given greater prominence.

Continue reading →

Photo sharing app Instagram has reached another milestone earlier this week, 400 million active monthly users.

That is 100 million more since the last update a few months ago, when Instagram surpassed Twitter. In the same time, Twitter has managed to add 25 million new users. The photo sharing app is growing at a faster rate than Facebook, but slower than Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp.

Continue reading →

Visit just about any website and you’re pretty much guaranteed to see a Twitter button of some sort. Just as here at BetaNews, you’ll be offered the chance to follow the author of the article you’re reading (or the site’s Twitter feed), as well as being given the opportunity to tweet about the page you’re looking at.

Now this familiar page furniture is about to get a new look. From next month, a new set of buttons is rolling out with a fresh, flat, modern look. It’s a redesign that will please minimalists, but there are important API changes coming that will annoy some developers.

Continue reading →

Belgian Privacy Commission (BPC) said during a court hearing earlier this week that Facebook is spying on its users in Europe. The American social media company is allegedly violating privacy laws, monitors information of non-users and logged-out users, all for the purpose of placing ads, IB Times just wrote in a report.

This is a developing story which started in April this year, when the Centre of Interdisciplinary Law and ICT at the University of Leuven in Belgium claimed the social network’s privacy policy violates European Union laws.

Continue reading →

Government snooping into online activity is something that has long appalled privacy groups around the world. In something of a victory for those concerned about privacy and government meddling, the US Senate has killed plans that would have required social networks to tell the government about any users talking about terrorism-related topics.

The change of heart is a win not only for social network users, but also the social networks themselves who will no longer be required to police content more than they already do. The policy had been criticized for being vague, placing undue pressure on companies, and limiting freedom of speech.

Continue reading →

Professional social networking site LinkedIn has proven to be a valuable business tool, bringing together professionals from all over the world.

But few corporations grasp the security risk injudicious use of LinkedIn represents. The main problem is not with the LinkedIn website’s own digital security but with a widespread corporate ignorance of the way the organized criminal gangs (OCGs) who make billions, sometimes tens of billions, of dollars from cyber crime.

Continue reading →

You've probably heard talk recently of Facebook adding a Dislike button or an 'empathize' button. While this is certainly something that has been in the news, it is not yet a reality -- and it has created a great opportunity for scammers to cash in on people's impatience.

We don’t get know exactly what form the Dislike button will take, or when it will appear, but there are now several scams in operation that lure in victims with the promise of instant access to the yet-to-be-released feature. A variety of techniques are employed by scammers to encourage victim to "Download the official DISLIKE button now". It is, of course, a fake, and there are a number of things to look out for.

Continue reading →

We all know that Facebook has a lot of information about us, but what exactly can it learn from all that data?

Aside from the most obvious -- the things you give it, such as gender, date of birth, place of living, education, work, your favorite sports clubs, music and movies -- it can also conclude a lot of things on its own.

Continue reading →

There is no connection between levels of education and whether or not someone uses social media because, as it turns out, everyone uses social media.

However, there is a correlation between a person’s education, income and gender and which social media it uses. According to a fairly extensive research paper by the Business Insider, women are more likely to use Pinterest, while men are more likely to use Twitter.

Continue reading →

The Virginia shootings in which two journalists were killed on live TV by Vester Flanagan highlighted one of the problems of social media: it can be used for terrible things. If the news of two needless deaths was not enough, countless Facebook and Twitter users were upset by footage of the killings that quickly spread around the social networks, automatically playing for many people.

This is not the first time that autoplay videos have been in the news, and it certainly won’t be the last. Now politicians in the UK are calling for Facebook and Twitter to better police content that is uploaded by users to avoid a repeat incident in which people are unwitting viewers of horrific scenes.

Continue reading →

Despite being thought of as the generation that organizes pretty much everything in their lives through social media, new research from call center specialist Mattersight reveals that when it comes to service issues millennials prefer to speak to a human being.

Only one percent of millennials want to use social media to contact a brand when they have a product question or problem. Of those surveyed, 76 percent say they prefer to call (56 percent) or email (25 percent) brands for customer service issues.

Continue reading →

Think of video piracy, and talk of BitTorrent probably isn’t far away. While torrented movies and TV shows account for a large proportion of pirated material, it is far from being the end of the story. Even sites as seemingly innocuous as Facebook can be part of the problem.

The social network is not really used as a way to share the latest blockbuster movies, but it is home to a lot of 'recycled' content, the rights for which are not necessarily owned by the uploader. Responding to growing complaints from video publishers, Facebook is ramping up its fight against piracy, boosting the existing Audible Magic audio fingerprinting tool, introducing a video fingerprinting utility, and ensuring that repeat offenders are kept off the site.

Continue reading →

The aim of Mark Zuckerberg, through Facebook, has been to connect the world. On Monday this week, the social network saw one billion people logging on to send messages, post photos, write status updates, and generally be social. One billion people in a single day.

Or to put it another way -- as Zuckerberg does -- "1 in 7 people on Earth used Facebook to connect with their friends and family". There aren’t many companies or services that can claim to have such a wide reach, so the palpable pride is entirely understandable.

Continue reading →