Facebook caused a massive stir recently when it updated the privacy policy of its WhatsApp messaging platform. The change, which would allow WhatsApp to share user data directly with Facebook, flies in the face of promises that Mark Zuckerberg had previously made to keep the two entities separate. And this seemingly broken promise has been…
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This week, security researchers at the British firm Comparitech announced that they’ve found a huge network of Facebook bots that operated during the 2020 election to sway public opinion. According to the researchers, this “bot farm” was created for the sole purpose of political manipulation. It included 13,775 unique Facebook accounts that each posted about…
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Because of its data and privacy missteps, Facebook often faces greater punishment in Europe than it does in the U.S. Another example occurred this week when German regulators ordered Facebook to stop processing the data of WhatsApp users. Recently, WhatsApp users began receiving a message that invited them to accept new terms of service that…
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Facebook continued to face blowback this week for its proposed “Instagram for Kids” platform — this time, from more than 40 attorneys general from U.S. states and territories. The massive group of lawmakers wrote a letter to Facebook expressing many of the same concerns that child safety advocates have already raised, including the potential mental…
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When Facebook first announced its plan to create a version of Instagram for children, many parents and advocates raised immediate privacy concerns. After all, it’s hard enough for adults to trust Facebook with their data; why should a company known for its leaky privacy practices be given access to the information of children? However, despite…
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When Facebook created an independent oversight board to handle controversial content moderation issues, it hoped to remove some pressure from itself. However, in the case of banning former president Donald Trump, the board has pushed back strongly against the social media giant, urging it to reach a decision for itself. The board announced its ruling…
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Facebook’s entire business model is built on collecting user data to target advertising. However, according to the encrypted messaging service Signal, Facebook doesn’t want you to know that. The service recently tried to buy ads on Instagram which sought to highlight the kinds of data that Facebook collects, but the social media giant shot them…
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Facebook has recently come under fire for allowing ads related to drugs and alcohol to be targeted to teen users. And this week, the nonprofit group Tech Transparency Project (TTP) proved this to be true once again by submitting six fake ads to Facebook that were approved within hours. According to the TTP report, the…
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Facebook has long touted the fact that it is free to use. However, there is a very real cost to engaging with the social media giant: our data. That’s why the company is so concerned with Apple’s new privacy controls in iOS 14, which will require apps to obtain user consent before tracking them around…
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Facebook and other tech giants were again dragged before congress this week to testify and explain the ways that its algorithms can be abused to spread harmful misinformation. Executives from Facebook were also grilled about the potentially addictive properties of the platform, and how it could be increasing polarization in our society. During the hearing,…
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