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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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Facebook explains how it will comply with new EU privacy laws; US gets weaker version

The European Union’s new privacy regulations – the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) – come into force next month, and Facebook has now provided details of how it will comply. This includes asking for permission to use face-recognition.

It reveals that those in Europe will get the earliest and strongest privacy protections, with a weaker version rolling out in the US and elsewhere at a later date …


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Analysis says Facebook would have to charge users $11-14/month to switch off ads

Part of the fallout from the Cambridge Analytica scandal has been some people questioning Facebook’s entire business model, based on learning as much as possible about users in order to expose them to highly-targeted ads.

The alternative would be a paid subscription – something CEO Mark Zuckerberg hasn’t ruled out – but the costs might be significantly higher than some have suggested …


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Plenty of unanswered questions in congressional testimony, but Zuckerberg emerges $3B richer

There were plenty of unanswered questions at the end of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s second day of testimony before Congress.

For many questions, Zuckerberg said he would need to consult with his team to provide answers – at times exhibiting a surprising lack of familiarity with the privacy debate that has sprung up around his company’s activities …


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Reaction to Zuckerberg’s testimony to Congress mixed, but Facebook shares close 4.5% up

Facebook FTC

We provided a roundup of some of the key take-outs from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s testimony to Congress yesterday – including some of the things he didn’t say, thanks to a photograph of his briefing notes.

Reaction to Zuckerberg’s responses have been mixed, but investors seemed satisfied as Facebook stock closed 4.5% up on the day …


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Zuckerberg testimony: A paid version of Facebook, refuting a long-running conspiracy, planned Apple hit, and more

Mark Zuckerberg announces Meta lay

As we reported earlier today, Mark Zuckerberg today testified in Congress in a joint hearing of the Senate Judiciary and Commerce Committees. Zuckerberg’s appearance before Congress comes following Facebook’s controversial relationship with Cambridge Analytica and other election meddling concerns.

Thus far, Zuckerberg’s testimony has brought a few notable comments relating to Facebook’s handling of user data, the potential for a paid version of Facebook, and more…


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Here’s how to check whether your Facebook data was shared with Cambridge Analytica

The biggest controversy over the way Facebook data ended up in the hands of political consultancy Cambridge Analytica was how it got there. The company not only got access to the data of anyone naive enough to give permission to a third-party ‘personality quiz,’ but Facebook allowed the app some access to the data of their friends also …


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Facebook: Zuckerberg apologizes to Congress; Cambridge Analytica issues denial; legislation unlikely; more

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has apologized to Congress in a written statement ahead of his testimony before two committee hearings today and tomorrow.

The statement suggests that the company didn’t do enough to prevent misuse because the company is ‘idealistic and optimistic’ but it now recognizes that it made a ‘big mistake’ in failing to put sufficient safeguards in place …


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Facebook latest: Facebook telling users if their data was shared; Zuckerberg being coached in ‘charm & humility’; Woz quits platform; more

Facebook security

If you’re wondering whether you were one of the 87M Facebook users whose data was accessed by Cambridge Analytica, you may find out today. For Brits, at least, the BBC reports that users will receive one of two messages this afternoon letting them know whether or not they were affected …


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More Facebook: Fined $33M, Zuckerberg PMs deleted, some unable to delete accounts, more

[Update: Facebook confirmed to TechCrunch that it plans to bring the an ‘unsend’ message feature to all users in the coming months.]

At a time when Facebook is under fire for failing to protect user data, it is ironically facing a $33M fine for refusing to allow police access to WhatsApp messages between suspected fraudsters …


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Facebook latest: all users may have had some data exposed, messages monitored (for good reasons), more

Mark Zuckerberg announces Meta lay

There seems no end in sight to the Facebook privacy saga. Facebook first revealed that up to 87M people may have had their data harvested by Cambridge Analytica, 71M of them Americans.

The political consultancy denies this, TechCrunch reporting that it claims to have licensed data for up to 30M people, and saying that none of this data was used to help the Trump campaign …


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