Back in 2011, Facebook settled charges with the Federal Trade Commission that the website deceived consumers by telling them they could keep their information private, only to repeatedly allow that information to be shared and made public. The settlement requires that Facebook get explicit permission from users before sharing such information, but the FTC wants to know if the website’s latest privacy update violates that agreement. [More]
Facebook’s Policy Changes Will Mean Your Content Can Be Used In Ads If You Use Facebook
By 8.29.13 — Updated: 8.30.13
Facebook has learned its lesson about not explaining what content it will use in ads, after that whole Sponsored Stories legal saga that finally concluded recently, but that doesn’t mean the social media company doesn’t still want to use your pretty mug to market products and services to your pals. It’s just explaining ahead of time that it’ll happen, and if you want to use the site at all you’ll have to be cool with that . Oh, and you won’t be compensated. Facebook is free, after all. [More]
Facebook Provided User Info In 79% Of Requests From U.S. Government
By 8.27.13
Earlier today, Facebook released a report on governmental data requests made during the last six months, showing that there were between 11,000 and 12,000 requests made by the U.S. government during that short period of time, and that the website shared at least some information in nearly 4 out of 5 requests. [More]
Can’t Get Approved For A Loan? Blame Your Facebook Friends
By 8.26.13
Maybe it’s time you finally accept your great-uncle Aloysius’ Facebook friend request — if not out of familial love, perhaps if he happens to be particularly credit-worthy. Because if a new report is to be believed, not only do you have to worry about how that one lost video rental dinged your credit score, but you could miss out on a loan if your social media contacts are deemed to be financially unsavory. [More]
Mark Zuckerberg Wants World’s 5 Billion Without Internet To Get Connected (And On Facebook?)
By 8.21.13
Forget trying to buy the world a Coke — Mark Zuckerberg would like to connect the five billion people on the planet who don’t have Internet with the rest of the online world. And while yes, of course, since he’s the founder and CEO of Facebook, one might assume that the more of those people who have access to the World Wide Web, the more there’ll be on Facebook. But he says it’s really about connecting people. On Facebook. Okay, really — just about connecting. [More]
Domino’s Pizza Is So Used To Complaints, It Can’t Take A Compliment
By 8.8.13
You know how some people are conditioned to believe that any statement directed at them must be a complaint, so they don’t know how to react when someone says something nice? That’s apparently the mindset of whatever robot responds to customers on the Domino’s Pizza Facebook page. [More]
Cafe Owner Learns That Attempts At Snark Will Not Go Over Well With Customers On Facebook
By 8.7.13
It is totally okay to be a sarcastic person, as we live in a world where each and every human is unique snowflake. But there comes a time when perhaps it’s not a bad idea to curb that snarky nature, like when dealing with messy customers. A cafe owner in Washington learned that lesson after she posted about a group of crumb-spewing people who had frequented her business. [More]
Dear Facebook: Please Do Not Start Running Video Ads
By 8.5.13
Ever since Facebook went public in 2012, the pressure has been on for the social networking site (if one considers posting baby photos and Buzzfeed links to be “social networking”) to start leveraging its massive audience for ad revenue. And back when its stock price was around the cost of lunch at a diner, auto-play video ads seemed inevitable. And even after recent upticks in Facebook’s value, it looks like the company wants to drive y’all away with these ads that consumers avoid like the plague. [More]
Facebook Takes My Post Promotion Money, Offers No Way Out
By 7.12.13
All Carla wanted to do was find out how much it would cost her to promote a status update on Facebook. You know, in case something so important came up that she needed to pay Facebook to share it with the people who she already thought she was sharing her posts with. Only something went wrong and she ended up buying a promoted status. Facebook won’t let her take it back, and there are no humans there to help. [More]
Facebook To Pull Ads From Pages With “Violent, Graphic Or Sexual Content”
By 6.28.13
A day after Google alerted Blogger users that they could keep publishing explicit content but they won’t be able to profit from it, Facebook has told advertisers that they will no longer need to worry about their ads showing up on pages with content that might get them into hot water by association. [More]
Former Politician Ran Ponzi Scheme Promising Investors He’d Get Pre-IPO Facebook Shares
By 6.25.13
A former politician who ran for governor back in 1994 has pleaded guilty to defrauding investors in a textbook example of a Ponzi scheme. Craig Berkman admitted that he’d told investors he could get the jump on pre-IPO shares of Facebook, as well as LinkedIn, Groupon and Zynga. [More]
Facebook Launches Instagram Videos So You Can Make Moving Selfies Just Like In Days Of Yore
By 6.20.13
Charlie Chaplin. Alfred Hitchcock. Martin Scorsese. What if all those filmmakers could’ve taken 15-second selfie videos and slapped old-timey effects on them? Think of how great they could’ve been! If only they had Facebook’s new video service for Instagram, complete with all those sepia-toned, vintage-looking filters beloved by self-portrait artists flashing duck faces at their phones everywhere. [More]
Amazon Marks The Passing Of James Gandolfini By Trying To Sell Sopranos DVDs
By 6.19.13
As you have probably already heard by now, actor James Gandolfini has sadly and suddenly passed away at the age of 51. And to add just the right hint of commercialism to this tragic news, Amazon’s Facebook feed was there to remind everyone they can remember the late actor by purchasing DVD collections of The Sopranos. [More]
Express Your Displeasure With Facebook Friends’ Inane Posts Via New Photo Comments
By 6.19.13
Sometimes there are no words in the human language that can adequately express the rage/excitement/annoyance/eyeroll one can feel when presented with a friend’s Facebook post. And because, you know, a picture is worth a thousand words, Facebook is rolling out the capability to respond to posts on the social network with photos. [More]
Apple Says It Received 5,000 Data Requests From Law Enforcement, Doesn’t Say How Many It Fulfilled
By 6.17.13
With many people still wondering about the extent to which the National Security Agency and other authorities were peeping in to consumers’ phone and Internet activities, some of the larger firms caught up in the scandal are making attempts at being transparent about what they did and didn’t hand over to the government. However, some are being more transparent than others. [More]
Facebook Launches Hashtags In Latest Attempt To Keep Up With The #Cool #Kids
By 6.12.13
A few months back all the kids were chatting on the Internets about how like, Facebook wanted to be a lot more like Twitter? And like, the best way to do that might be to use those hashtag thingies? Those rumors turned out to be true, as the #SocialNetwork is rolling along with the tide of progress and learning to use hashtags. [More]
Facebook Finally Ditching Those “Sponsored Stories” We All Love So Very Much
By 6.7.13
Remember all that brouhaha over Facebook’s “Sponsored Stories,” the ads that are supposed to be cleverly disguised as simple recommendations from friends? We kind of can’t believe it’s taken this long for Facebook to realize that users are onto their little ruse, but the social network announced yesterday that it’s ditching the ads in favor of a brand new approach toward advertising. [More]
You Should Probably Check Your Facebook Privacy Settings Right Now
By 6.6.13
If you’re like most Consumerist readers, you’re probably Internet-savvy enough to carefully screen what you say on Facebook, and to use filters when you have something more colorful and interesting to post. Now that everyone from your grandmother to your niece’s cat are on using Facebook, though, everyone could use a reminder of how to set up your privacy settings, how to change who sees a given post, and how to make sure those settings are still arranged how you want them. [More]
