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Facebook is the most popular social media service in the world with 2.32 billion monthly active users as of December 31, 2018

Facebook is the most popular social media service in the world with 2.32 billion monthly active users as of December 31, 2018. It also averages 1.52 billion daily active users as of December 2018.

Facebook was launched in February of 2004 (as The Facebook) for college students and then rapidly grew as it opened the service to more than those with a .edu email address. It was the subject of the 2010 movie called “The Social Network“.

In 2012, the social media giant offered its IPO and Facebook earned the title of the fastest company to grow to $250 billion market capitalization in the S&P 500.

In recent years, the company has been at the center of attention related to its role in the Russian interference in the 2016 US election. Since then, it’s been a continual stream of negative news for the company. They recently had all of their enterprise certificates for iOS revoked after it was discovered they had repackaged Onavo VPN as a ‘Research’ app and were paying teens $20/month to sneakily sideload it.

In early 2019, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced a “privacy shift” for the company. He outlined a detailed vision for the future of the social media platform, specifically its messaging services. Notably, in contrast to how the company operates today, he says the future of the platform will be privacy-focused with features like end-to-end encryption, interoperability between its various apps like Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, reducing how long it holds data, secure storage of personal data, and more.

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How Facebook sneakily uses IP data & more for targeted ads, even if users disable all location settings

Facebook has a storied history of privacy concerns, especially as privacy relates to advertising. Today, Aleksandra Korolova, a University of Southern California computer science professor, has shared a post on Medium diving deeper into Facebook’s targeted ad technology. Specifically, Korolova focuses on how Facebook is able to deliver location-based ads even if you disable location services.


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Fake Portrait mode selfies available on older iPhones in Facebook Messenger update

Portrait mode selfie

Portrait mode was a headline feature for the iPhone 7 Plus, dual cameras allowing the stock Camera app to blur the background. A Portrait mode selfie feature came to the iPhone X, XS and XS Plus, thanks to the TrueDepth camera system.

But you can now take a (fake) Portrait mode selfie on older iPhones thanks to an update to Facebook’s Messenger app …


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Facebook considered selling user data, and offering free data access to Tinder

selling user data

One of the questions asked in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal was whether Facebook was selling user data. CEO Mark Zuckerberg told a Congressional hearing that the answer was very simple.

I can’t be clearer on this topic: We don’t sell data.

But it appears that while the company has never done it, it did consider effectively doing so …


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Facebook rolling out ‘Your Time on Facebook’ feature to track how long you spend in the app

After announcing it nearly four months ago, Facebook today is officially starting to rollout its new “Your Time on Facebook” tool, which shows just how long you spend on the service. The rollout was first spotted by TechCrunch. The feature comes as other social networks, such as Facebook’s own Instagram, add new digital health functionality.


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Zuckerberg forced Facebook execs to switch to Android after being ‘infuriated’ by Tim Cook, report says

tim cook zuckerberg

A new piece by The New York Times goes in-depth on how Facebook has handled its repeated breaches and blunders. But one detail in particular is fascinating relating to Apple, Mark Zuckerberg apparently forced his management team to give up iPhones and switch to Android after Tim Cook made some comments that “infuriated” the Facebook CEO.


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How to find out if your data was included in Facebook’s latest security breach

Facebook FTC

After originally disclosing its latest data breach last month, Facebook yesterday offered more details to users. The social network revealed that hackers obtained data from some 30 million users, and while that number is down from the initial 50 million user estimate, it still represents an alarming number of people.

Here’s how to check whether your data was included in the latest Facebook breach.


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Facebook enters the smart speaker race with Portal and Portal+, featuring video calls and Amazon Alexa

facebook virtual assistant

Facebook has entered the smart speaker market, attempting to battle Amazon Echo and Google Home. The Facebook Portal is more tablet than speaker, with both models featuring large touchscreens. The natural comparison is the Echo Show, and Facebook is undercutting slightly on the price. The entry-level Facebook Portal will sell for $199, launching in November. The Portal+ is in the Apple HomePod price range, priced at $349.

The Portal touts a 10-inch display and the Portal+ has a 15-inch panel — so big. They both feature webcams with video calls using Facebook webcams, and it integrates Amazon Alexa to provide most of its smart speaker features.


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