The NSA’s online spying program made news again this week when German publication Der Spiegel published a report saying that the department’s Office of Tailored Access Operations (TAO) has been the most successful branch of the group, exploiting popular websites like Facebook and Yahoo to spy on users. The Spiegel report says that the group…

A new app, Facebook Chat Pro, lets users change their notifications, turn off the feature that allows users to see whether or not a message’s recipient has read the message, and disable the “…is typing” message when a user is composing a reply. The app currently functions as a browser extension for Google Chrome and…

According to a story published this week in the Los Angeles Times, Facebook can see if user’s type on the site even if they don’t post it. The social media giant had to confirm this feature after two Facebook researchers revealed that they had tracked the activity of 5 million random Facebook users while they…

Blogger Molly McHugh from The Daily Dot wrote an extensive column for Salon.com this week claiming that Facebook published old private messages of hers on her Timeline. She even says that many of the messages reappearing in the glitch were sent via Chat. Facebook denies that these reappearing messages were ever sent to McHugh’s inbox,…

A Massachusetts woman plans to sue Facebook for not taking down a Facebook page that was created in her name by her rapist, who used the page to post nude photos of the woman and publicly embarrass her. “I could not walk my own dog down the street without being made to feel like a…

Facebook is well known for having confusing and obscure and privacy controls. The little things do make a difference, and this is especially true when it comes to your online privacy and security. Facebook gives users the ability to control who sees their friends list. We recommend setting this feature to ‘Only Me.’ When cyber…

Facebook and seven other major tech companies, including Google, Apple and Twitter, sent an open letter to lawmakers in Washington this week calling for a reform of the government surveillance program revealed to the public this summer after rogue NSA employee Edward Snowden leaked confidential documents. “We understand that governments have a duty to protect…

Recent company filings from Facebook reveal that the site exported €645 million (about $883 million in U.S. dollars) in United Kingdom earnings to the Cayman Islands, according to The Guardian. The Cayman Islands have much looser tax laws than the United States and Europe, leading many to speculate that Facebook made the move to dodge…

More than 2 million stolen passwords for websites like Facebook, Gmail, Yahoo and other web services were posted online this week, according to the security company Trustwave. The company speculates that this huge security breach was the result of keylogging software uploaded on thousands of computers worldwide. “We don’t know how many of these details…

Facebook announced on Monday that it will move toward a more refined newsfeed system, showing users more hard news stories and, as the site put it, “high quality content.” This move is an attempt to retain user interest in the site and to boost its legitimacy, but the new algorithms could also help clean up…