Tagg: Social networking

Facebook moves 1.5bn users out of reach of new European privacy law

Posted onAuthorRss .Lämna en kommentar

Company moves responsibility for users from Ireland to the US where privacy laws are less strict

Facebook has moved more than 1.5 billion users out of reach of European privacy law, despite a promise from Mark Zuckerberg to apply the “spirit” of the legislation globally.

In a tweak to its terms and conditions, Facebook is shifting the responsibility for all users outside the US, Canada and the EU from its international HQ in Ireland to its main offices in California. It means that those users will now be on a site governed by US law rather than Irish law.

Continue reading… Läs mer…

How Europe’s ‘breakthrough’ privacy law takes on Facebook and Google

Posted onAuthorRss .Lämna en kommentar

Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation is forcing big changes at tech’s biggest firms – even if the US isn’t likely to follow suit

Despite the political theatre of Mark Zuckerberg’s congressional interrogations last week, Facebook’s business model isn’t at any real risk from regulators in the US. In Europe, however, the looming General Data Protection Regulation will give people better privacy protections and force companies including Facebook to make sweeping changes to the way they collect data and consent from users – with huge fines for those who don’t comply.

“It’s changing the balance of power from the giant digital marketing companies to focus on the needs of individuals and democratic society,” said Jeffrey Chester, founder of the Center for Digital Democracy. “That’s an incredible breakthrough.”

Continue reading… Läs mer…

Tech firms including Facebook sign up to ‘digital Geneva convention’

Posted onAuthorRss .Lämna en kommentar

Signatories including Microsoft, Arm and Trend Micro agree not to take part in cyber-attacks

More than 30 global technology firms have signed up to a “digital Geneva convention”, committing never to partake in cyber-attacks against individuals or businesses.

The signatories to the “cybersecurity tech accord”, which include Facebook, Microsoft, Arm and Trend Micro, are largely from the US and western Europe, and do not include any companies from the countries perceived to be most responsible for the recent flaring up of digital hostilities, such as Russia, North Korea and Iran.

Continue reading… Läs mer…

Facebook to start asking permission for facial recognition in GDPR push

Posted onAuthorRss .Lämna en kommentar

Users will be asked to review information about targeted advertising but some say opting out is deliberately difficult

Facebook has started to seek explicit consent from users for targeted advertising, storage of sensitive information, and – for the first time in the EU – application of facial recognition technology as the European general data protection regulation is due to come into force in just over a month.

Although the company is only required to seek the new permissions in the European Union, it plans to roll them out to every Facebook user, no matter where they live. That follows chief executive Mark Zuckerberg’s stated goal to apply the “spirit” of GDPR to worldwide.

Continue reading… Läs mer…

Facebook is a tyranny – and our government isn’t built to stop it

Posted onAuthorRss .Lämna en kommentar

America’s founders didn’t envision the power of the corporation. We need a new structure for self-governance that can counter 21st-century monopolies

Last week, Senator Dick Durbin asked: “Mr Zuckerberg, would you be comfortable sharing with us the name of the hotel you stayed in last night?”

The Facebook CEO froze and then answered: “No.”

Continue reading… Läs mer…

Russia blocks millions of IP addresses in battle against Telegram app

Posted onAuthorRss .Lämna en kommentar

Detta inlägg post publicerades ursprungligen på denna sida this site ; News from, The guardian Edward Snowden voices support for founder as authorities try to shut down messaging service Russia’s internet watchdog has blocked an estimated 16m IP addresses in a massive operation against the banned Telegram messaging app that could set a new precedent Läs mer…

The Guardian view on Facebook’s business: a danger to democracy | Editorial

Posted onAuthorRss .Lämna en kommentar

Detta inlägg post publicerades ursprungligen på denna sida this site ; News from, The guardian The conceit of data mining firms is that they could win elections by moulding electorates based on new identities and value systems – a process accelerated by the echo chamber of social media Facebook sees itself as a commercial firm, Läs mer…

Number of Facebook users whose data was compromised ‘far more than 87m’, MPs told

Posted onAuthorRss .Lämna en kommentar

Former Cambridge Analytica employee gives evidence before parliamentary committee

Far more than 87 million people may have had their Facebook data harvested by Cambridge Analytica, according to evidence from former employee Brittany Kaiser.

Speaking to the Commons digital, culture, media and sport select committee, Kaiser said Cambridge Analytica had a suite of personality quizzes designed to extract personal data from the social network, of which Aleksandr Kogan’s This Is Your Digital Life app was just one example.

Continue reading… Läs mer…

Facebook admits tracking users and non-users off-site

Posted onAuthorRss .Lämna en kommentar

Statement comes as company faces US lawsuit over facial recognition feature launched in 2011 and planned to expand to EU

Facebook has released more information on the social media platform’s tracking of users off-site, after CEO Mark Zuckerberg failed to answer questions about the process from US politicians and as the company prepares to fight a lawsuit over facial recognition in California.

In a blog post, Facebook product management director David Baser wrote that the company tracks users and non-users across websites and apps for three main reasons: providing services directly, securing the company’s own site, and “improving our products and services”.

Continue reading… Läs mer…

I was one of the first people on Facebook. I shouldn’t have trusted Mark Zuckerberg

Posted onAuthorRss .Lämna en kommentar

I remember when, at Harvard, my friends and I heard about a new website that promised to enhance our lives. Fourteen years later I see how wrong we were

Fourteen years, two months, and eight days ago, I made a mistake. Like a lot of mistakes made at the age of 20 inside a college dorm room, it involved trusting a man I shouldn’t have, and it still affects me to this day.

No, Mark Zuckerberg didn’t give me herpes. But in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica revelations, I have been thinking back to my decision to sign up for thefacebook.com on the site’s fifth day in existence, and I am struck by the parallels between Zuckerberg’s creation and a pesky (if generally benign) virus. Facebook isn’t going to kill me, but it has wormed its way into all of my relationships, caused me to infect other people, and I will never, ever be fully rid of it.

Continue reading… Läs mer…

Twitter handles are big business, even if the owner doesn’t want to sell

Posted onAuthorRss .Lämna en kommentar

The perfect @ identity is a must-have accessory for big companies and brand-conscious celebrities – at any cost

Everything has a price, even the top Twitter handles, and if somebody does not want to sell then they may be forced to relinquish their account.

“We have a marketplace which allows the sale of Twitter handles,” says Philly, a subversive marketer who founded ForumKorner, an online gaming forum. “Unlike some websites, however, we do not allow the sales of stolen accounts that some people phish, or hack, to obtain before reselling them.”

Continue reading… Läs mer…

Facebook ad feature claims to predict user’s future behaviour

Posted onAuthorRss .Lämna en kommentar

Social network criticised over feature that targets users who are likely to switch to an advertiser’s rival’s product

Facebook has been criticised for hiding an advertising product that claims to be able to predict users’ future behaviours and target messages at them in an attempt to alter those behaviours.

The product, named “loyalty prediction” by Facebook, is part of a suite of capabilities enabled by a machine learning-powered tool called FBLearner Flow. That tool was publicly introduced in 2016, but the advertising techniques it enables were only revealed in a pitch document leaked to the Intercept.

Continue reading… Läs mer…

Facebook paid $7.3m for Mark Zuckerberg’s security last year

Posted onAuthorRss .Lämna en kommentar

In all the company has spent about $20m on security and private planes for Zuckerberg since 2015. The security funds were required ‘due to specific threats to his safety’

Facebook increased its spending on security for Mark Zuckerberg by 50% last year, the company has disclosed, paying more than $7.3m (£5.1m) to protect its top executive.

The security funds were required “due to specific threats to his safety arising directly as a result of his position as our founder, chairman, and CEO,” the under-fire social media company said in a new filing to US regulators.

Continue reading… Läs mer…

Facebook says its ‘voter button’ is good for turnout. But should the tech giant be nudging us at all?

Posted onAuthorRss .Lämna en kommentar

What do we really know about the influence of the ‘voter button’? One Icelandic media lawyer decided to find out

n the morning of 28 October last year, the day of Iceland’s parliamentary elections, Heiðdís Lilja Magnúsdóttir, a lawyer living in a small town in the north of the country, opened Facebook on her laptop. At the top of her newsfeed, where friends’ recent posts would usually appear, was a box highlighted in light blue. On the left of the box was a button, similar in style to the familiar thumb of the “like” button, but here it was a hand putting a ballot in a slot. “Today is Election Day!” was the accompanying exclamation, in English. And underneath: “Find out where to vote, and share that you voted.” Under that was smaller print saying that 61 people had already voted. Heiðdís took a screenshot and posted it on her own Facebook profile feed, asking: “I’m a little curious! Did everyone get this message in their newsfeed this morning?”

In Reykjavik, 120 miles south, Elfa Ýr Gylfadóttir glanced at her phone and saw Heiðdís’s post. Elfa is director of the Icelandic Media Commission, and Heiðdís’s boss. The Media Commission regulates, for example, age ratings for movies and video games, and is a part of Iceland’s Ministry of Education. Elfa wondered why she hadn’t received the same voting message. She asked her husband to check his feed, and there was the button. Elfa was alarmed. Why wasn’t it being shown to everyone? Might it have something to do with different users’ political attitudes? Was everything right and proper with this election?

Continue reading… Läs mer…

How Mark Zuckerberg’s testimony lurched from easy ride to privacy headache

Posted onAuthorRss .Lämna en kommentar

Detta inlägg post publicerades ursprungligen på denna sida this site ; News from, The Guardian tech Facebook founder was lost for words, as Representatives asked questions about user tracking around the net As Mark Zuckerberg left Congress on Tuesday after testifying to the Senate, he may have felt relieved. The four-hour Q&A session had been Läs mer…