Facebook News & Updates

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RE: Facebook Chatbox Hanging Issue

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MUMBAI: Social networking giant Facebook is making a "huge effort" to weed out fake profiles to prevent misuse of such identities, a senior company official has said.

"Absolutely, there is a huge effort," Facebook India business manager Pavan Varma told PTI when asked about the company's action on this front.


If Facebook doubts the ownership of an account, it will ask the user to identify himself/herself, he said.

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The doubt about the authenticity of the account will arise if an account has a generic name instead of a proper name, uses images of celebrities/ cartoon characters as display pictures, or does not have "enough friends", Varma said.

"It could even be that Facebook comes back to you saying, `could you help us identify yourself if you don't have enough friends, because we don't want fake identities," he said.

"We are worried about the experience we deliver....It's not about protecting our brand identity so much," he said.

Recently there were reports of fake accounts being created by computer programs, which are used for inflating the number of "likes" on Facebook page for a brand.

Facebook had recently said it would be taking out fake "likes" generated by spammers, malware and black marketers.

Varma said advertisers must also shed the obsession with numbers. "How does an advertiser today treat a Facebook page? It is treated as a place where they just come with a number of people who are there. But that is a wrong way of doing it," he said, stressing that the conversations around the brand should assume importance rather than the numbers.

Mere "likes" on the page do not help a brand, he said. Companies generally pay Facebook for a dedicated page on its platform that helps them connect with the target audience.

IDBI Bank claims it has over five lakh fans on Facebook, Varma said, who was speaking to PTI on the sidelines of a banking summit.

He added that Facebook, as a medium, is completely secure and cited the case of ICICI Bank, which now offers basic services over the Facebook page by integrating its net banking platform with the social networking site.

Source
 
Facebook begins ‘search’ for top rank

BANGALORE, SEPT. 17:
The world’s largest social networking company, Facebook, is developing a search engine to take on Google and Microsoft.

Mark Zuckerberg’s company is also tapping Indian talent among others to develop an ecosystem for the search engine.

Facebook is not stopping at that. Sudhanshu Garg, a programme manager at Amazon, is working on an app that aims to be the Wikipedia for Facebook users. “Lot of information on Facebook is junk and this app would help in collating useful information similar to Wikipedia,” he said. These efforts will help users find information within their circle of friends instead of looking for it on the Internet. Saurav Bhardwaj, founder of start-up Digital Venture Technologies, is developing an app for Facebook which will collate blood groups of all users.

Industry watchers believe that these efforts are part of the building blocks that would eventually put Facebook on top of the search-based marketing, which is dominated by Google today. While Facebook would not confirm this, Bear Douglas, a developer advocate at Facebook, told Business Line that the company is building an ecosystem to create apps.

India with its large developer base continues to be a draw for Facebook, Yahoo!, Microsoft and others. According to IDC estimates, India and China had the highest growth in software developers between 2003 and 2008 at 24.5 and 25.6 per cent CAGR respectively.

Source
 
5 million Facebook users are children

An estimate reveals that 5 million Facebook users are children which the company claims of having banned. The issue has now got relevance as the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) finalizes rules to further restrict companies and Web sites that target youths or are geared to young audiences.

Facebook and many other web sites bar people under age 13 because the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) requires web sites to give special treatment to children 12 or younger. The law aims to stop marketers prying personal information from children or using their data to advertise to them. Sites must get parental permission before allowing children to enter, and must take steps to protect privacy.

Facebook claims that the rule would not be applied to it as it bars users below 13 from accessing Facebook. It is also known that the Facebook has made some progress in identifying preteens and excluding them from the site. A June Consumer Reports study showed that Facebook eliminates as many as 800,000 users under age 13 in a year through its tiered screening process.

The study still estimates 5.6 million children are on Facebook, a figure that experts say includes many who create accounts with help from their parents.

Further, Reuter’s test of Facebook's signup process shows that a child could bypass the site's screening features with relative ease. The site effectively blocked a fictitious sign-up from an underage prospective user. But after an hour's wait, the site accepted a sign-up using the same name, email, password and birthday but citing a different birth year.

However Facebook declined to discuss the data or describe its efforts to outlaw children.

5 million Facebook users are children
 
Facebook to charge firms for promotional offers

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Facebook said Thursday it was revamping its "Offers" service, by making companies pay for what had been free advertising until now.
Withe the social network giant struggling to prove it can boost revenues, the change requires payments, starting at $5 per ad, for the deals offered through Facebook.

"The new features will help people find the most relevant Offers, such as in their local area, and help businesses better measure the success of their Offers. Offers will remain free for people to claim," the firm announced.

"Businesses will still be able to run Offers for a minimal budget, but ads must be created in order for people to see Offers in their news feeds. Businesses can spend as little as $5 per ad."

Facebook, which is the world's largest social network with more than 950 million members, has seen its stock price sag as much as 50 percent since its market debut in May.

The statement said the Offers ads launched this year have produced "great success" for some firms, including one resort getting more than 1,500 bookings from such an ad,

Offers will be available globally to all companies with more than 400 fans. Facebook will allow firms to add a bar code or a unique code to an offer to allow businesses to better track the results of their ads.

Facebook shares fell 1.9 percent in early trade Thursday to $22.84.

Facebook to charge firms for promotional offers | NDTV Gadgets
 
An Update to Activity Log


Last year we rolled out a new tool called Activity Log to let you review and manage your activity on Facebook.

Starting today, in addition to your other activity, you'll be able to see the searches you're making on Facebook. Just as you can choose to delete any of your posts, you can use the same inline control on Activity Log to remove any of your searches at any time. It's important to remember that no one else can see your Activity Log, including your search activity.

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You can expect to see your Activity Log updated with your search activity over the next few weeks. You can access this tool by going to the top of your profile, and going to Search from the activity sorter.

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We're continuously working to bring your settings inline, next to the information they control. As part of this ongoing initiative, we recently announced the Shared Activity plugin that enables you to easily control your app activity inline while you use the app.

Via FB NEwsroom
 
Facebook tweaks privacy controls to keep regulators happy


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Facebook Inc has tightened up its privacy controls sufficiently to satisfy a review by the body that regulates the social networking company outside North America, removing the immediate threat of legal challenges.
The world's biggest social network makes most of its money from advertising, but has to walk a fine line to avoid giving its over 950 million users the impression it is invading their privacy to boost revenue.

It was told by Ireland's Data Protection Commissioner last December to overhaul privacy protection for its users outside the United States and Canada after a probe found its privacy policies were too complex and lacked transparency.

The regulator said it was particularly encouraged by the decision to turn off a piece of facial recognition technology, the so-called "tag suggest" feature, for new users in the European Union and by next month, existing users as well.

The Irish watchdog, which oversees Facebook's activities because the group's non-U.S. business is headquartered in Dublin, said on Friday most of its instructions had been adopted, with progress still to be made on others over the next four weeks.

"We would hope that the progress reported in the review will have dealt with the various complaints we have received in relation to Facebook Ireland," Ireland's Data Protection Commissioner Billy Hawkes told a conference call.

Privacy cases can prove costly for social networking sites like Facebook, which was the first American company to debut with a value of more than $100 billion in its initial public offering in May, before its share price slumped on an uncertain outlook.

Privacy rights
It had to settle a case for $9.5 million after its now defunct "Beacon" service violated its members' privacy rights by not requiring their consent to allow the company to broadcast their internet activity.

Ireland's watchdog had said the company risked facing legal action under European privacy laws if it failed to comply and said on Friday the social network would have to continue to engage with it as new features are introduced.

In its report, the regulator said Facebook had made particular progress in providing better transparency for its users, handing them more control over settings and the ability to more readily access their personal data.

Facebook's director of policy for Europe, the Middle East and Africa Richard Allan told Reuters the company was committed to bringing the tag suggest feature back once it had taken steps to put it in line with EU guidance.

Allan said the move should also remove the threat of legal action from Germany's Hamburg Data Commissioner over the facial-recognition feature.

"Clearly the announcement today means we think there are no grounds for them to proceed with that," Allan said, adding that Facebook's privacy changes would have no impact at all on its advertising strategy.

Pivotal Research Group analyst Brian Wieser agreed that Facebook's advertising business and its ability to let marketers aim pitches at different groups of users would not be affected.

"They could probably have a lot less data and it would still dwarf other comparable alternatives," he said. "They'll still be able to target better than others."

The regulator said the outstanding areas of concern included minimising the potential for advertising to target users based on words that could be considered as sensitive personal data, but both it and Facebook said they were confident that these issues would be dealt with speedily.

An Austrian-based group of student activists, europe-v-facebook, which has succeeded in extracting some concessions on privacy from Facebook, said the law had been waived for the tech group.

"The Irish ODPC says that Facebook has not fully implemented the suggestions and that further work has to be done, but there seem to be no consequences or fines for not complying with these suggestions," said the group in a statement.

Copyright Thomson Reuters 2012
 
New feature added, Now create offers for your page>

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Facebook turns off facial recognition tool

LONDON: Facebook said Friday it had switched off the facial-recognition tool that prompts users to "tag" photographs uploaded to its website following a privacy investigation.

The feature was identified by regulators as one of the main privacy threats posed by the social networking site.

Ireland's Data Protection Commissioner (DPC), Billy Hawkes, who launched the probe because Facebook's European operations are based in Ireland, said he was happy that the site had agreed to remove the tool in Europe by October 15.

New users are already unable to access it.

Hawkes said: "I am satisfied that the review has demonstrated a clear and ongoing commitment on the part of FBI to comply with its data protection responsibilities."

He added: "By doing so it is sending a clear signal of its wish to demonstrate its commitment to best practice in data protection compliance."

Facebook said in a statement: "In light of discussions with our regulator in Ireland, we have agreed to suspend the Tag Suggest feature in Europe."

It said it would work with the Irish authorities "on the appropriate way to obtain user consent for this kind of technology under European rules".

Facebook was keen to encourage members to "tag" their friends in photographs because it ensures they are shared more widely, but it has been a controversial addition to the site.

Europe-versus-Facebook, an Austrian campaign group that has been fighting for clearer privacy policies on Facebook and already took its complaints to the DPC last year, welcomed Friday's ruling.

This was "a very surprising decision of the Irish authority" and it "sounds like a big victory for users," the group said on its website.

"It looks like we might soon be able to drop our first complaint," it added.

TOI
 
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