As most Android users know, one of the nice things about the operating system is that you don’t always have to get your apps through the official Google Play app store. But usually, any future updates to an app come through whichever store you downloaded the app from. Except now Facebook is asking some Android users to accept an update in the app itself that would allow future updates to be pushed through without notice. [More]
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Netflix Users Can Now Hook Up Accounts To Facebook, Gab About Finally Watching ‘Dr. Who’
I can post all day long on Facebook that I’m seriously addicted to The Walking Dead but wouldn’t it just be great if my Netflix account was connected to Facebook? That way when I finally join the cult of Doctor Who* like everyone is telling me to do, my pals will just know. Netflix will be able to do just that after a long battle with U.S. regulators. [More]
!["Goodbye Clutter," says Facebook. Hello, likely user complaints.](../../../../consumermediallc.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/fbfeedsies.png?w=300&h=225&crop=1)
Facebook’s Newsfeed Redesign Seeks To De-Clutter, Makes Everything Bigger
Listen. You’re probably going to freak out about Facebook redesigning its newsfeed yet again, so let’s get that out of the way [cue freakout]. Now that that’s out of the way, let’s get to what Mark Zuckerberg and company announced today at the unveiling. Basically everything is getting a lot bigger and less cluttered. [More]
![This is what the real memorial page for Victoria Soto looks like.](../../../../consumermediallc.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/newtownreal.png?w=300&h=225&crop=1)
Months After Newtown School Shooting, Facebook Finally Gets Around To Dealing With Scammy Tribute Pages
It’s been more than two months since the tragic shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, CT, and just as long since heartless, greedy scammers immediately jumped on the event as an opportunity to enrich themselves with fake Facebook pages. Now the site is finally doing something about it. [More]
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DKNY Apologizes For “Inadvertently” Using Photographer’s Photos In Store Display Without Compensation
In yet another lesson to retailers that social media won’t let them get away with any shenanigans, DKNY has issued an apology to a New York photographer mere hours after he claimed on Facebook that the company lifted his photos without his consent, and used them in a store display in Bangkok. [More]
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Facebook Reportedly Working On Location-Tracking App So Friends Can Stalk You More Efficiently
Have you ever stared at your phone, cursing its inability to pinpoint your exact location and broadcast it to your large group of friends on a popular social network? Probably not — there are apps for that, Foursquare being one that pops to mind — but if you did, Facebook has a solution. The company is reportedly working on its own location-tracking app so your friends will be able to see where you go, when you go and who you’re with. Whew. [More]
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Just What We Don’t Need — More Gift Cards! And This One’s From Facebook
Say the word “gift card” around Consumerist HQ and hackles will raise at an alarming rate. Which is why we’re greeting the news of a new gift card offered by Facebook with what one might call, “extreme wariness and trepidation.” Building on the social network’s recent launch of Facebook Gifts, these cards will be able to hold balances for multiple retailers and are reusable. [More]
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Regulators Looking To Rein In Debt Collectors Who Use Facebook To Contact Consumers
Even though there’s a lengthy “no-no” list of things debt collectors can’t do, it makes no mention of how collections agencies can use social media. But that may be about to change as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau gains oversight control over the largest members of the collections industry. [More]
![The search for married people who like prostitutes is one of many odd search results that users' over-sharing has opened them up to on Facebook's new Graph Search.](../../../../consumermediallc.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/facebooklikeprostitutes.png?w=300&h=225&crop=1)
Use Facebook’s New Search To Find Married People Who Like Prostitutes & Other Fun Stuff
When Facebook revealed that its latest, super-secret project was really nothing more than an internal search engine, the general public greeted it with a shrug. But Graph Search may have one amusing aspect — uncovering users’ peculiar behaviors. [More]
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Facebook Won’t Remove My Dead Brother’s Page
Sylvie’s brother died at a tragically young age. It’s awful enough that his loved ones have to face life without him, but they also have to deal with his continued presence on Facebook. People still comment on his … wall, timeline, whatever Facebook is calling a person’s profile this week. They don’t want to un-friend him, which feels wrong, but Facebook won’t delete or memorialize his pages, even when family members have submitted his death certificate and specifically requested to have them taken down. She doesn’t know where else to turn. [More]
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Can You Get Away With Complaining About Your Job Online? Maybe, Says NLRB
Any number of people have gone online to vent their exhaustion after a particularly tough day at work. But where do you draw the line between innocuous, “What a day!” posts and statements that could actually get you fired from your job? And what about valid gripes with working conditions? [More]
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Don’t Call Your High School Crush: Facebook Launches Free Voice Calls On Messenger App
In case it isn’t embarrassing enough to realize you may have had one drink too many and sent your high school crush a gushing, nostalgia-filled message on Facebook the night before, the company is rolling out a new feature with its Messenger app —the ability to place voice phone calls over a WiFi network. So far the feature is only available for U.S. users so don’t get any ideas about calling your cousin in Australia. [More]
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Instagram Reminds Users That Updated Terms Of Service Goes Into Effect This Week
It seems like only last month (because it was) that everyone was threatening to quit Instagram over the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy it introduced in December, and now here we are on the brink of that update happening. Of course, the policies that go into effect Jan. 19 — instead of today as originally planned — don’t include those pesky advertising efforts that caused such a stir. [More]
![Your News Feed could soon be combining all sorts of info about you.](../../../../consumermediallc.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/newsfeedgrab.png?w=200&h=203&crop=1)
Report: Your Facebook News Feed Will Soon Know A Lot More About You
The Facebook News Feed is that place where people you haven’t seen since high school post endless photos of their kids, and occasionally share sage wisdom in the form of a quote from Gandhi or Lemmy from Motorhead. But a new report says the Feed is about to become more personalized. Perhaps too much so. [More]