If I had a pizza for every time I had a conversation about pizza, no one would see me again because I’d be buried under a pile of pizzas. To capture the essence of that experience, sans pizza burial, Pizza Hut is launching a chatbot that will allow customers to order food in a “conversational” way. [More]
Data & Privacy
Facebook Testing Self-Destructing Messages With End-To-End Encryption
By 7.8.16
Facebook is joining the list of apps that allow users to send messages that only exist for a certain amount of time: after testing a self-destructing function late last year, the social media company has announced an official test of “Secret Conversations” in Messenger that also features end-to-end encryption. [More]
Facebook Would Like To Know If An Advertiser Scammed You
By 6.30.16
It’s one thing if an online ad is misleading or misrepresents the site that you click on, but what happens when you order an item that isn’t as promised? As overseas clothing companies that market solely through Facebook have proliferated, some customers blame Facebook, even though the site doesn’t vet the products and services of every advertiser. Now, at least, Facebook wants to listen if you’re scammed or misled by an ad on the site. [More]
[UPDATE] Facebook Thinks You Should Get To Know The People Near You Better
By 6.28.16
Update: In a second statement to Fusion, Facebook retracted its original statement that location is one of the ways in which it suggests who you may wish to follow, and now says, “We’re not using location data, such as device location and location information you add to your profile, to suggest people you may know. We may show you people based on mutual friends, work and education information, networks you are part of, contacts you’ve imported and other factors.” [More]
Senator Holds Up Intelligence Authorization Bill Over FBI Digital Surveillance Provisions
By 6.28.16
Two kinds of bills run the world, or at least the American slice of it: appropriations acts, which give agencies their budgets, and authorization acts, which tell them how to use them and what they are allowed to do. The bill that authorizes all of the United States’ intelligence activities has been making its way through Congress all year, but now has hit a major roadblock in the Senate, as one Senator has taken a stand against some of its surveillance provisions. [More]
Senate Fails To Approve Bill Allowing FBI Searches Of Web, Phone Records Without Court Order
By 6.22.16
Earlier this week, in response to the recent massacre of 49 people at Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Senators John McCain of Arizona and Richard Burr of North Carolina introduced a controversial piece of legislation that, if approved, would allow federal law enforcement to perform searches of suspects’ electronic and online records without a traditional court order. However, this morning the Senate narrowly failed to approve the bill. [More]
“Spam King” Gets 30 Months In Jail For Sending More Than 27M Unsolicited Facebook Messages
By 6.16.16
Though it may seem like spam messages are the stuff of giant networks of evilly cackling robots who are hell bent on beleaguering innocent people with offers for cheap erectile dysfunction medications, sometimes it’s just a human hacker. One of those humans now has more than two years of jail time to look forward to after sending more than 27 million spam messages through Facebook. [More]
Facebook Now Has An Internal Panel Reviewing Research On You To See If It’s Ethical
By 6.15.16
Odds are very, very good that you’ve been part of a scientific research experiment in the past few years. Probably more than 70% likely if you’re on the internet at all, and approaching 100% if you’re under 30. Why? Because those are the percentages of Americans who use Facebook… which is constantly conducting some of the largest-scale behavioral research ever done. [More]
Facebook Pushing Users Toward “Moments” Photo-Sharing App By Deleting Synced Photos
By 6.13.16
If you’ve been syncing your phone’s photos to your Facebook account but don’t want to download the social media’s “Moments” picture app, prepare to back that stuff up soon. [More]
Even Mark Zuckerberg Isn’t Impervious To Recycling Passwords, Having Accounts Hacked
By 6.6.16
Here’s why you should keep track of hacks and breaches and not re-use passwords: because even the king of the modern internet isn’t immune from account takeovers… and if he’s not, you’re not either. [More]
Non-Chronological Instagram Feeds Are Coming Whether You Like It Or Not
By 6.3.16
It doesn’t matter whether you’re happy about it or not: Instagram is switching your feed to an algorithmic one, showing you new posts in the order that the service believes you’ll like them. Users are not super thrilled about this, but Instagram tried to assure users that we’ll like it, even if we think we won’t. [More]
PSA: You Need To Update Your Facebook Privacy Settings Again To Opt Out Of New Targeted Ads
By 6.2.16
Facebook announced in recent weeks that they’re expanding their advertising empire. With that change, came a stealthy new privacy setting for users — one that all of us are opted-in to by default. [More]
Facebook’s Robots Are Working Hard On Content Moderation So Humans Don’t Have To
By 6.1.16
Sometimes it’s a bad thing when a robot gets invented to do a human job. And other times, it can be a relief, because the job was really terrible for any human to do. And that’s the tactic Facebook is taking with content moderation now, getting its AI to identify and “quarantine” offensive content before any human has to. [More]
Is Facebook Trying To Scuttle Facial-Recognition Lawsuit By Changing Illinois Law?
By 5.27.16
Earlier this month, a federal court gave the go-ahead to a lawsuit alleging that Facebook’s photo-scanning, facial-recognition feature violated Illinois state law. Having lost that legal battle, it looks like Facebook may be trying to get out of the lawsuit by simply changing that Illinois law. [More]
Study: Your Computer May Be Tracking You Online Through An ‘Audio Fingerprint’
By 5.20.16
We all kind of know that our devices, and our activities on them, are being tracked. In response, there are entire categories of apps and services that let you browse incognito, block ads, or hide your tracks — and many of those are quite popular. But it turns out there’s another kind of tracking signal that those privacy protectors, for the most part, miss. [More]
Facebook Lawsuit Over Scanning Of Private Messages Moves Forward, But Plaintiffs Will Receive No Money
By 5.20.16
Way back in late 2013, a lawsuit accused Facebook of scanning links in users’ private messages and turning them into public “Likes,” from which the company earned revenue. This week, a federal court certified the class action, giving it the green light to move forward, but none of the plaintiffs should expect to see any money if they prevail at trial. [More]
Senators Introduce Bipartisan Bill To Limit Law Enforcement’s Rights To Hack Stuff
By 5.19.16
A group of Senators has announced today that they are introducing a new bill into the Senate designed to prevent mass hacking of Americans’ digital devices. But the lawmakers aren’t targeting shadowy collectives or foreign nationals with their proposed legislation; they’re seeking to limit the scope of actual Federal agencies’ powers. [More]
Facebook Now Lets Users Comment On Posts With A Video
There are some moments when a Facebook post cannot be answered in words, or even a photo. For those times, users can now respond to posts through the art of the moving image. In other words, video comments are coming. [More]