For the past several years, Facebook has been on a persistent public relations offensive to win back users who may be spooked by the site’s privacy policies. One recent example saw a prominent Facebook executive claiming to a UK website that Facebook is not only not harmful to user privacy, but actually actively helpful. “I…

This week, the Georgia Supreme Court overturned the conviction of a man given a six-year sentence for threatening to release a sex tape on Facebook. The case involved a landlord named Lister Harrell who made the threats against a county clerk in 2013. The landlord wanted the clerk to lift a bench warrant for his…

The huge amount of information shared on Facebook can be a creepy and sometimes-privacy-invasive feature of the site. However, it can also have positive benefits, like when concerned users reported two cases of animal cruelty to authorities this week based on Facebook posts. In the first case, a North Carolina woman was charged with animal…

According to a recent ruling, Australia’s Fair Work Commission (FWC) found that unfriending someone on Facebook can be akin to bullying them. The tribunal dealt with the case of a woman named Rachael Roberts, an employee at a real estate agency. The properties she represented were not displayed in the front window of the office,…

Facebook secured a patent in August that could theoretically let the site analyze the credit scores of your friends and, potentially, prevent you from getting a bank loan based off that information. “When an individual applies for a loan, the lender examines the credit ratings of members of the individual’s social network who are connected…

Facebook introduced email encryption back in June as a way of protecting users from getting their emails from the site hacked. The social media giant strengthened that protection this week, adding support from encrypted email provider ProtonMail. Encryption is complicated, but the gist of it goes like this: Facebook now allows technologically-inclined users to upload…

Last year, Facebook introduced new a data tracking method that targets ads at users based on their use of other websites and apps with Facebook’s social plug-in. At the time, the site provided several third-party ways for users to opt out of the feature, including the Digital Advertising Alliance Ad Choices program. Finally this week,…

A federal appeals court ruled this week that officials at a Mississippi high school can’t be held liable for accessing the Facebook account of a cheerleader who allegedly threatened another member of the school’s squad. The incident that led to the suit occurred in 2007, when a teacher and cheer squad sponsor “coercively requested” the…

Facebook will ask an appeals court this week to uphold its $20 million settlement of a class-action suit claiming that Facebook’s now-defunct Sponsored Stories feature violated user privacy. However, a consumer advocacy group called Public Citizen has intervened on behalf of a group of parents and attempted to quash the settlement. The group argues that…

The father of a young girl in Northern Ireland is suing Facebook for allegedly allowing his 11-year-old daughter to join the site, where he claims she was targeted by sexual predators. The girl allegedly created multiple accounts, posted sexual pictures of herself and came into contact with adult men who also sent her sexually explicit…