Facebook

Facebook is the quintessential social network, but you may not always feel like being social every time you log in to your Facebook account. Whether it's because you don't have the energy or the time to engage with friends, you do have the option to browse Facebook without anyone knowing you're online. The way to achieve this is by turning off your "Active Status," which can be done within...

Facebook has introduced a tool that lets users export notes and text-based posts to third-party services, making it easier than ever to leave the social network without saying goodbye to your content. The new "data portability types" mean people can now directly transfer their notes and posts to Google Docs, Blogger and WordPress. The updates are extensions to Facebook's existing tool that...

When it came to adding a Dark Mode option to its iOS app, Facebook was late to the game. The social network announced it was coming in June 2020, but dragged its feet for months before eventually rolling it out to mobile users in November the same year, over 400 days after Apple first introduced the feature in iOS 13. Dark Mode‌ has been available on the social network's website for a while ...

Facebook has just made a photo transfer tool globally available that lets account holders easily download all their pictures and videos from the social network to Google Photos. Previously, the majority of Facebook users wanting to download their media from the site had to do it manually. From today, however, users with a Google Photos account can automate the job, and Facebook says more...

After previously only existing as an "Easter Egg" setting, Facebook in April 2019 added a Dark Mode theme as an official display feature of its standalone Messenger app. Facebook says that Dark Mode is designed to provide less harsh brightness in situations where ambient lighting is lower while maintaining contrast and vibrancy. If you have an OLED iPhone, such as an iPhone X, iPhone XS,...

With the release of iOS 11, Apple nixed its built-in integration with Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, and Vimeo, a feature that allowed iPhone and iPad users to store their third-party account information and access it within apps that needed to use those services. The equivalent feature remains in macOS High Sierra, although Apple has removed it completely from macOS 10.14 Mojave, which many...

Facebook is testing the use of Page labels as a way to give people more context about the posts that appear in their news feed, the social network has announced. Politicians' pages will be marked with the label "public official," while the labels "fan page" and "satire page" will be applied to posts from the relevant pages, with the aim of helping users to distinguish between genuine news...

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's own personal information was among the details of 533 million Facebook users that leaked in a data breach, it has emerged. Facebook has now confirmed that the leaked data was obtained not by a hack, but by scraping the platform prior to September 2019. The company now says that an exploit was found in its contact importer, but the "specific issue that allowed...

Facebook and Apple are squabbling over document requests in the ongoing Epic v. Apple legal battle, according to a new discovery letter filed with the court today. Facebook is involved because Facebook executive Vivek Sharma is set to testify on behalf of Epic. Apple wants a "limited set of documents" that are needed for a fair cross examination of Sharma, who plans to testify about Apple's...

Facebook Pay is expanding on its service by rolling out person-to-person payments via QR codes, allowing users to scan a friend or family member's QR code, and instantly transfer money. Facebook Pay launched in 2019 as an easy and convenient service for people to transfer money to friends and family, pay businesses, purchase products, and more. It's integrated into all of Facebook's apps,...

The personal details of more than 553 million Facebook users have been published on a website for hackers, according to multiple reports over the weekend. The details appeared on Saturday, according to Business Insider, and are also available in 106 different country-based packages, included 32 million records on users in the US, 11 million on users in the UK, and 6 million on users in...

In a preview of an interview with The New York Times' Kara Swisher, set to be published on Monday, April 5, Apple CEO Tim Cook said he's "shocked" at the criticism Apple has received in recent months over upcoming privacy changes in iOS, and claimed that they're "hard to argue against." Apple plans to begin enforcing App Tracking Transparency (ATT) changes following the release of iOS 14.5,...

Facebook today announced a slew of new changes coming to its app on iOS and Android, making it easier for users to turn off the algorithmically-ranked News Feed, and new tools for controlling who can comment on posts. Facebook previously rolled out a new Favorites timeline, allowing users to specify their favorite friends, family members, and pages, and access their posts in one place....

Facebook is developing a version of Instagram that's specifically aimed at children under 13, according to an internal company post (via BuzzFeed News). "I'm excited to announce that going forward, we have identified youth work as a priority for Instagram and have added it to our H1 priority list," Vishal Shah, Instagram's vice president of product, wrote on an employee message board on...

Despite campaigning heavily against Apple's upcoming anti-tracking rules, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg today said that Facebook will "be in a good position" when Apple begins enforcing App Tracking Transparency and could even benefit from the changes. "It's possible that we may even be in a stronger position if Apple's changes encourage more businesses to conduct more commerce on our...

Facebook has announced that starting today, users on iOS and Android will have the ability to log into their account with a hardware security key, bringing a more than three-year-old feature for the desktop to mobile devices. Since 2017, Facebook has allowed users to use a hardware security key to access their accounts on desktops. Mobile users, however, have remained limited to protecting ...

As Apple prepares to implement App Tracking Transparency changes in iOS 14.5, CNBC spoke with several former Facebook employees to get details on why Facebook has been so heavily against the planned privacy updates. Starting this spring, Facebook and other app developers will need to get express permission to access a user's advertising identifier, or IDFA, which is used to track usage...

Facebook is reportedly weighing up the legal implications of building facial recognition technology into a pair of smart glasses that the company is currently developing and which it intends to launch later this year. Prototype Project Aria AR glasses Facebook is using to research AR tech According to BuzzFeed News, Facebook's chief of AR and VR, Andrew Bosworth, told employees during an...

Facebook is launching a new PR campaign that highlights how small businesses rely on personalized advertising to help their businesses grow from "an idea into a livelihood." The new campaign indirectly takes aim at App Tracking Transparency (ATT), an upcoming iOS 14 feature that will require apps to ask for a user's permission to opt into tracking for personalized advertising. Starting with...

Facebook has announced that it will restore the ability for users in Australia to share news content on the social platform, following changes to the country's media code. The company banned all news sharing last week in response to a proposed Media Bargaining Law, which aims to level the playing field between Australian news media businesses and digital platforms in terms of bargaining...

WhatsApp has revealed how it will gradually limit the features available to accounts held by users who do not accept the platform's impending privacy policy changes, due to come into effect on May 15. WhatsApp's new banner explaining the privacy policy changes According to an email seen by TechCrunch to one of its merchant partners, WhatsApp said it will "slowly ask" users who have not yet...

Facebook has followed through on its threat to ban users from sharing news on its platform in Australia, in response to proposed media laws in the country that the company claims "fundamentally misunderstand" its relationship with publishers who share news content. The move is a retaliation to Australian Competition and Consumer Commission's (ACCC) proposed Media Bargaining law, which seeks...

Apple and Facebook have been in a very public spat over the course of the last few months as Apple dials up its pro-privacy stance. The two companies have long had tension, but more recently, Facebook is taking shots at an upcoming iOS and iPadOS feature that will require apps and data companies such as Facebook to ask for users' permission before tracking them across other sites and websites. ...

Facebook is developing a smart watch that will focus on messaging and health features, according to a new report from The Information. Wearers will be able to send messages with Facebook services like Messenger and WhatsApp, and it will work with a cellular connection without a tethered smartphone. Health features like options to track workouts with friends or communicate with trainers will...

A follow-up report by security researchers Talal Haj Bakry and Tommy Mysk has alleged that Facebook Messenger and Instagram are collecting and using data from link previews in a way that would breach European privacy law. In October last year, Bakry and Mysk revealed that link previews in popular messaging apps can lead to security and privacy issues on iOS and Android. It was discovered...

In its ongoing feud with Apple regarding App Tracking Transparency, Facebook has announced that it will encourage users to allow tracking with "additional context" on a dedicated screen, according to an updated blog post. Image via Axios iOS 14's App Tracking Transparency feature will require developers to receive a user's consent to track their activity across apps and websites and access...