Last minute geek

1. Facebook reportedly aims to buy a 'major' cybersecurity company
(English/engadget)

Facebook is still reeling from the hack that exposed 29 million users, but it may have a solution: go shopping. Sources talking to The Information claim that Facebook is accelerating plans to buy a "major" ...

2. Facebook carried ads from mysterious pro-Brexit group for months
(English/engadget)

While Facebook might be making strides in clamping down on fake news and shady political ads, there appear to have been holes in its strategy. The UK's Digital, Culture, Media and Sport committee ...

3. All the economists who told the FTC we shouldn't break up Big Tech are paid by Big Tech
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

... though; she also moonlights at the economic consulting firm Analysis Group, has consulted for Microsoft and Facebook, and has received a $155,000 research grant from Google. Wharton Professor Katja Seim ...

4. HTC's standalone Vive Focus will soon get 6DoF VR controllers
(English/engadget)

While Facebook's Oculus Quest won't arrive until the spring of 2019, its seemingly beefier inside-out tracking plus 6DoF controllers may already pose a threat to HTC's Vive Focus, as well ...

5. Brazil Elections: Facebook's WhatsApp “taking immediate legal action” against political spammers
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

WhatsApp, the messaging application business owned by Facebook, said on Friday it is “taking immediate legal action” against companies responsible for a flood of political spam ahead of Brazil's presidential ...

6. Fake news is down on Facebook in the US and France, say three studies
(English/engadget)

Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook have not had a great year. From being called in front of Congress to getting lashed by the media for its appalling handling of user data, the pressure has been on the social ...

7. Uber, Google, Facebook: Your experiments have gone too far
(English/engadget)

It was 2014, around the time when Travis Kalanick referred to Uber as his chick-magnet "Boober" in a GQ article, that I'd realized congestion in San Francisco had gone insane. Before there ...

8. Facebook hires Nick Clegg, British politician who annihilated his own party, as new global affairs chief
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

... of the popular vote in a three-party system and left it with just 8 MPs, marginalized for a generation. Let's hope he can do the same thing for Facebook as their Head of Global Affairs. Facebook has hired ...

9. Facebook hires tarnished UK politician to fix its reputation
(English/engadget)

These days, all Facebook seems to do is lurch from one public relations crisis to a political one, and back again. Consequently, the company has decided to hire a British former politician, Sir Nick Clegg, ...

10. This is what a Facebook election security charm offensive looks like
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

Facebook is working very hard right now to prove it can be trusted to protect users from malicious fake news, political disinformation, and cyberattacks intended to throw the 2018 midterms. What Facebook ...

11. Instagram's bullying, stalking, and harassment crisis
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

... machine-learning technology to better detect bullying in photos. When approached for comment, a Facebook spokesperson referred me to Instagram’s communications team. Instagram declined to speak on the ...

12. Facebook’s confusion about its Portal camera is concerning
(English/engadget)

Facebook couldn't have picked a worse time to introduce Portal, a camera-equipped smart display designed to make video chatting in your home easier. And, if the rumors are true, the company is reportedly ...

13. Slaves - including children - make the bricks for Cambodia's housing bubble
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

... hands of a tiny elite, backed by an autocratic dictator who has mastered the use of Facebook to suppress his opposition by pushing out pro-elite propaganda and exploiting Facebook's "real names" policy ...

14. Deleting Facebook is not enough: without antitrust, the company will be our lives' "operating system"
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

Facebook is the poster-child for the techlash, the worst offender in the monopolistic bunch, and recent books like Antisocial Media: How Facebook Disconnects Us and Undermines Democracy by Siva Vaidhyanathan ...

15. Inside Facebook's 'war room' is a battle for public trust
(English/engadget)

The internet has a misinformation problem. Symptoms include fake news, election interference, hate speech, trolling -- it goes by many names. It's become increasingly clear over the past few years ...

16. Facebook, fondi contro Zuckerberg: va sostituito
(Italiano/webnews)

Quattro fondi statunitensi vogliono che il CEO di Facebook Mark Zuckerberg rinunci alla presidenza dopo gli scandali legati alla privacy. The post Facebook, fondi contro Zuckerberg: va sostituito appeared ...

17. The Morning After: Can anyone trust Facebook?
(English/engadget)

Hey, good morning! You look fabulous. It's time for OITNB to say goodbye, advertisers claim Facebook lied about its video stats for over a year and we're giving streaming games a try. Clearly, ...

18. WSJ: Facebook believes spammers were behind its massive data breach
(English/engadget)

More than two weeks after Facebook revealed a massive data breach, we still don't know who was using the flaw in its site to access information on tens of millions of users. Now the Wall Street Journal ...

19. Facebook’s political ad system still allows anonymous advertising
(English/engadget)

In May, Facebook began requiring political ads in the US to disclose who paid for them and those purchasing political ads to verify their identities. Both moves were meant to address some of the issues ...

20. Facebook is bringing Instant Games to Groups and the Lite app
(English/engadget)

Facebook built Instant Games as a cross-platform gaming experience that can run anywhere without the need to download anything extra. Taking the platform's nature into account, it seems pretty obvious ...

21. Facebook lied: its in-home "Portal" cameras will collect your data
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

Facebook Portal is a camera that is supposed to follow you around your house while you videoconference; the product launch was repeatedly delayed because of the company's string of horrific privacy breaches; ...

22. Facebook accused of lying about video stats error for over a year
(English/engadget)

Facebook is guilty of lying to advertisers, according to a new lawsuit. Back in 2016, online marketing agency Crowd Siren sued the social network for inflating its metrics -- now it claims Facebook knew ...

23. Facebook Portal usa i dati per scopi pubblicitari
(Italiano/webnews)

Dichiarazioni contrastanti di Facebook scatenano dubbi sull’utilizzo dello smart speaker Portal riguardo i dati raccolti e come questi saranno usati. The post Facebook Portal usa i dati per scopi pubblicitari ...

24. Lawsuit: "pivoting to video" was a disaster led by Facebook's cooked viewing data
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

Several years ago media sites began firing writers en-masse to hire video people instead, because Facebook and other social media companies told them that this was the future. "Pivoting to video," some ...

25. The Morning After: Robot Dance
(English/engadget)

Hey, good morning! You look fabulous. Facebook's next big launch is... The Real World? We'll explain. Also, it's time to look inside Google's new Pixel 3, and YouTube took an unplanned ...