German Watchdog blocks Facebook from merging user data without consent

Facebook Smart Speaker

Germany’s competition watchdog; the Bundeskartellamt has imposed “far-reaching” restrictions on Facebook’s data collection and sharing. Facebook unsurprisingly plans to appeal. The watchdog said that Facebook should not combine or collect user data third-party websites and assign them to user accounts without users’ consent. Continue reading “German Watchdog blocks Facebook from merging user data without consent”

Facebook and Instagram to no longer allow graphic images that promote self-harm

Facebook

Facebook and Instagram have shared updates on how it enforces policies against self-harm or suicide on the platform. The company since 2016 has built its approach with experts in suicide prevention. These experts unanimously reaffirmed that Facebook should allow users to share admissions of self-harmed suicidal thoughts, but should not allow people to share content promoting it. Continue reading “Facebook and Instagram to no longer allow graphic images that promote self-harm”

Facebook said to be planning on cross-platform business messaging

Facebook Smart Speaker

Facebook is said to be building a unified messaging for a business feature that will let businesses access and manage Instagram Direct Messages alongside its Facebook Messenger messages. This would mark Facebook’s first step toward building a tool to manage  messaging across Facebook’s apps for businesses.

Continue reading “Facebook said to be planning on cross-platform business messaging”

Facebook Messenger ‘Unsend’ feature now available for everyone

Facebook Messenger Unsend

Facebook Messenger finally gets ‘delete message’ feature months after promising the rollout. You can easily remove your sent message on Messenger – whether it’s to one person or a group, similar to that on WhatsApp. Continue reading “Facebook Messenger ‘Unsend’ feature now available for everyone”

Apple restores Google’s internal iOS apps after certificate misuse

Apple has shut down Google’s ability to distribute its internal iOS apps, following a similar shutdown that was issued to Facebook earlier this week.  According to reports, the early versions of Google Maps, Hangouts, Gmail, and other pre-release beta apps stopped working alongside employee-only apps like a Gbus app for transportation and Google’s internal cafe app. Continue reading “Apple restores Google’s internal iOS apps after certificate misuse”

Facebook is shutting down Moments app on February 25th

Facebook has confirmed that it is shutting down Moments; its standalone private photo sharing app. The app’s services will be discontinued on Feb. 25th. The Moments app was first released in 2015 and had four long years of the run.  Continue reading “Facebook is shutting down Moments app on February 25th”

Facebook Quality tab will let page managers track which post violated guidelines

Page Quality

Facebook has announced that it is taking steps on how it handles Pages and the content that goes against its policies. This update will bring a new tab; Page Quality to the Pages which shows when Facebook removes certain content that goes against the Community Standards. This will reduce the distribution of posts that have been rated false by a third-party fact-checker. Continue reading “Facebook Quality tab will let page managers track which post violated guidelines”

Facebook Community Actions lets users file for petitions

Facebook Community Actions

Facebook is introducing new Community Actions; the News Feed petition feature this week. These Community Actions could unite neighbors to request a change from their local and national elected officials and government agencies. Continue reading “Facebook Community Actions lets users file for petitions”

US regulators said to impose a record-setting fine against Facebook for privacy violations

Facebook Smart Speaker

According to a new report from WSJ, U. S regulators have met to discuss imposing a record-setting fine against Facebook for violating a legally binding agreement with the government to protect the privacy of its users’ personal data. The fine under consideration at the Federal Trade Commission would mark the first action levied against Facebook in the United States since reports emerged in March about the Cambridge Analytica. Continue reading “US regulators said to impose a record-setting fine against Facebook for privacy violations”

Facebook said to be secretly working on LOL meme hub app

Facebook LOL

After Facebook Watch, Lasso, and IGTV, the company has been quietly developing another product targeted at the teens. According to a new report, the company has spent months building LOL which is a special feed of funny videos and GIF-like clips. Continue reading “Facebook said to be secretly working on LOL meme hub app”

Facebook Messenger dark mode public testing begins in selected countries

Facebook is testing dark mode on Messenger in selected countries, and the feature itself is incomplete for now. The company has been experimenting with various features and changes in the recent times and the dark mode are one among them. The feature was announced back in October last year. Continue reading “Facebook Messenger dark mode public testing begins in selected countries”

Facebook said to be developing cryptocurrency for WhatsApp Transfers

Facebook Smart Speaker

Facebook is said to be working on building a cryptocurrency that will let users transfer money on the company-owned WhatsApp messaging app, focusing first on the remittances market in India. It is said to be working on stablecoin which is a type of digital currency pegged to the U.S. dollar to minimize volatility. Continue reading “Facebook said to be developing cryptocurrency for WhatsApp Transfers”

Facebook details why third-party apps had access to messages

Facebook Smart Speaker

For the past few days, Facebook has been accused of disclosing people’s private messages to partners without their knowledge. Facebook clarified that it worked closely with four partners to integrate messaging capabilities into their products so people could message their Facebook friends only if they chose Facebook login.  Continue reading “Facebook details why third-party apps had access to messages”

Facebook Messenger gets native support for Boomerang videos, new selfie mode, AR stickers and more

Facebook Messenger

Facebook has added a hot of new features for its Messenger app including native support for looping Boomerang videos, there’s also a Selfie mode that automatically blurs out the background, and an augmented reality feature that lets you place Messenger’s stickers in your photos and videos. Continue reading “Facebook Messenger gets native support for Boomerang videos, new selfie mode, AR stickers and more”

Facebook API bug allowed apps to access unposted photos of up to 6.8 million users

Facebook bug

Facebook has clarified that its team has discovered a photo API bug that may have affected people who used Facebook Login and granted permission to third-party apps to access their photos. Though it fixed the bug, some third-party apps might have accessed to a broader set of photos than usual in the period between September 13th to September 25th.  Continue reading “Facebook API bug allowed apps to access unposted photos of up to 6.8 million users”