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 today updated its mobile Marketplace to include home service professionals, such as house cleaners, plumbers, and contractors. The company says that Marketplace will integrate with existing service professional marketplaces like Handy, HomeAdvisor, and Porch to provide users with an all-in-one location for finding help around the house. In total, there will be hundreds of thousands of ...

Facebook today announced three new mobile app features aimed at helping its users better "create and save memories," with a launch in India first and then rolling out to the global community "shortly thereafter" (via The Verge). The first feature allows photos and videos taken with Facebook's in-app camera to be saved directly to a user's Facebook account in the cloud, and not onto their...

WhatsApp for iOS has been updated to support inline Instagram and Facebook video playback, according to the messaging platform's latest release notes. YouTube videos have been playable for some time in WhatsApp, which also offers a Picture-in-Picture mode for continuing to watch while switching between chat threads. However, clicking on an Instagram or Facebook video link kicks users out of...

United Kingdom-based data firm Cambridge Analytica is shutting down operations following the ongoing Facebook data scandal, in which the firm improperly amassed sensitive Facebook user data to target messages to voters during the previous U.S. presidential election. Cambridge Analytica affiliates SCL Group and SCL Elections will also shut down in the U.S. and U.K. In a statement on the...

Yesterday during its F8 conference, Facebook announced that an update coming to Messenger would simplify the chat app and reduce the amount of visual clutter that had been added into the user interface over the last few years. The Next Web has shared images of this new update, showing off the cleaned up interface, a dark mode, and more. Images via The Next Web The updated Facebook Messenger...

During the F8 Facebook Developer Conference this morning, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the launch of the Oculus Go, the latest virtual reality headset from Oculus, which is owned by Facebook. Priced at $199, the Oculus Go is Oculus' first standalone VR headset, which Zuckerberg said represents the "first really affordable standalone virtual reality headset." It's shipping with...

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg this morning hosted a keynote event for the F8 developers conference, where he unveiled several new features that are coming to the social network. Watch Party is a new Facebook feature that will allow you to watch videos while also chatting with your friends. When introducing the feature, Zuckerberg joked about his recent congressional testimony. "Let's say your...

Ahead of Facebook's F8 Developer Conference, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook is building a new "Clear History" privacy control option to erase some of the data Facebook has collected. Zuckerberg likens the new Clear History tool to the ability to clear cookies and cache on a web browser. Zuckerberg says it "will be a simple control" that will clear browsing history on...

WhatsApp co-founder Jan Koum today announced plans to leave the company, which is owned by parent company Facebook. Koum has worked with Facebook and served on the company's board since Facebook acquired WhatsApp for over $19 billion in February of 2014. WhatsApp is the largest messaging service in the world with more than 1.5 billion monthly users. It is highly popular in India, Malaysia,...

Facebook this week shared a blog post explaining "new privacy experiences" that will be available on the social network, in compliance with the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), coming into effect on May 25. Facebook originally detailed part of its plan for GDPR-related privacy features back in January, and is now following through in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica...

When Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified in front of Congress last week about the ongoing Cambridge Analytica scandal, he was asked a question about what kind of data Facebook collects from people when they use various apps and websites that have Facebook tools and integrations installed. Zuckerberg promised to share more information on that topic at a later time, and today Facebook made...

Facebook today announced the launch of a new data abuse bounty program that will see it rewarding Facebook users who discover instances of companies using unauthorized data. Facebook users who report companies for misusing data can receive rewards that range from $500 to $40,000 for major discoveries impacting at least 10,000 people. Companies who are discovered misusing data will have their...

Facebook today launched a new section of its Help Center focusing on user data breaches following the Cambridge Analytica scandal that's been ongoing for the past few weeks. The updated Help Center tool allows you to check to see if any of your Facebook data was shared with Cambridge Analytica (via Matt Navarra). The tool specifically details whether or not you or any of your friends ever...

Facebook Chief Technology Officer Mike Shroepfer today wrote a blog post outlining several changes that are being made to Facebook APIs to limit the amount of data apps can collect from Facebook users. Changes are being made to the Events, Groups, and Pages API to cut down on what apps can see. With the Events API, for example, apps will no longer be able to access attendees or posts on the...

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has countered the argument that companies without an ad-supported business model are better off. "You know, I find that argument, that if you're not paying that somehow we can't care about you, to be extremely glib," said Zuckerberg, in an interview with Vox's Ezra Klein. "And not at all aligned with the truth." "The reality here is that if you want to build a ...

"I wouldn't be in this situation" Apple CEO Tim Cook told Recode's Kara Swisher in an interview where he was asked what he would do right now if he was Mark Zuckerberg. Cook went on to say that Facebook should have self regulated to prevent the massive data collection scandal it's now embroiled in, but the time for that has passed. "I do think that it is time for a set of people to think...

Following revelations that emerged last week about Facebook's misuse of user data, the company today said it has "heard loud and clear" that it needs to make it easier for users to know how to control their own privacy settings and data. These updates to Facebook mobile and on the web "have been in the works for some time," according to Facebook chief privacy officer Erin Egan, "but the events of ...

Facebook has chosen not to unveil its latest smart connected devices at the company's F8 developer conference in May, in part because of the ongoing data-privacy scandal that has engulfed the social network, according to people familiar with the matter. Bloomberg reports that Facebook's new home products, which include a video-capable smart speaker featuring the company's own digital...

Apple CEO Tim Cook attended the annual China Development Forum in Beijing on Saturday, during which he called for stronger data privacy regulations following the "dire" Facebook and Cambridge Analytica scandal (via Bloomberg). Last week, it was revealed that the social network let Cambridge Analytica amass data on 50 million Facebook users without their consent, in an effort to target messages to ...

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg this afternoon addressed the ongoing Cambridge Analytica situation, in which Cambridge Analytica used personal data acquired from Facebook in an illicit manner by a third-party app to create targeted political advertisements during the 2016 election. Zuckerberg outlined a multi-step response that Facebook plans to take to prevent this situation from recurring, and...