Facebook

Facebook is the quintessential social network, but you may not always feel like being social every time you log in to your Facebook account. Whether it's because you don't have the energy or the time to engage with friends, you do have the option to browse Facebook without anyone knowing you're online. The way to achieve this is by turning off your "Active Status," which can be done within...

Facebook has introduced a tool that lets users export notes and text-based posts to third-party services, making it easier than ever to leave the social network without saying goodbye to your content. The new "data portability types" mean people can now directly transfer their notes and posts to Google Docs, Blogger and WordPress. The updates are extensions to Facebook's existing tool that...

When it came to adding a Dark Mode option to its iOS app, Facebook was late to the game. The social network announced it was coming in June 2020, but dragged its feet for months before eventually rolling it out to mobile users in November the same year, over 400 days after Apple first introduced the feature in iOS 13. Dark Mode‌ has been available on the social network's website for a while ...

Facebook has just made a photo transfer tool globally available that lets account holders easily download all their pictures and videos from the social network to Google Photos. Previously, the majority of Facebook users wanting to download their media from the site had to do it manually. From today, however, users with a Google Photos account can automate the job, and Facebook says more...

After previously only existing as an "Easter Egg" setting, Facebook in April 2019 added a Dark Mode theme as an official display feature of its standalone Messenger app. Facebook says that Dark Mode is designed to provide less harsh brightness in situations where ambient lighting is lower while maintaining contrast and vibrancy. If you have an OLED iPhone, such as an iPhone X, iPhone XS,...

With the release of iOS 11, Apple nixed its built-in integration with Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, and Vimeo, a feature that allowed iPhone and iPad users to store their third-party account information and access it within apps that needed to use those services. The equivalent feature remains in macOS High Sierra, although Apple has removed it completely from macOS 10.14 Mojave, which many...

Facebook today shared its earnings for the fourth quarter of 2020, and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's opening remarks were focused on Apple's upcoming anti-tracking privacy changes that will impact the advertising industry and companies like Facebook that rely heavily on online advertising. As highlighted by The Washington Post, Zuckerberg claimed that Apple is changing its privacy policy...

Facebook News today launched in the United Kingdom, the first country outside of the U.S. to receive the curated news portal. Accessed via a dedicated tab in the mobile Facebook app, the portal features licensed content from hundreds of local and national media organizations including The Guardian, The Economist, The Independent, Channel 4 News, Sky News, Daily Mail Group, and Financial Times...

WhatsApp has opted to delay new privacy policy changes that have led to a significant amount of confusion over data sharing with Facebook, WhatsApp announced today. The planned privacy policy update will be delayed for three months, but it is not canceled. According to WhatsApp, there's been "a lot of misinformation" leading to concern about the update. WhatsApp clarifies that the update...

Facebook is today rolling out an update for its "Access Your Information" tool to make it easier to use and to better explain how data is used, reports TechCrunch. "Access Your Information" provides a detailed look at the information about you that's shared on Facebook. The updated version is organized into eight categories: Your Activity Across Facebook, Personal Information, Friends and...

Following backlash after changing its terms and privacy policy to consolidate a significant amount of data sharing with Facebook, WhatsApp is now assuring users about the privacy measures built into its app. Last week, WhatsApp began informing users of updates to the app's terms of service and privacy policy. The updated agreements, which users must consent to in order to continue using...

Encrypted messaging app Signal faced big delays in verifying the phone numbers of new accounts on Thursday because of a sudden surge in people trying to join the platform. In messages posted from its official Twitter account, the non-profit Signal Foundation said verification codes were delayed across several cellular networks, and that it was working through the backlog as quickly as it...

WhatsApp's latest terms and privacy policy allows the popular messaging app to share a significant amount of user data with Facebook (via XDA Developers). WhatsApp users are today receiving an in-app notice informing them about the app's updated terms of service and privacy policy. The notice gives an overview of the main three updates, covering how WhatsApp processes user data, how...

Amid a barrage of public attacks on Apple from Facebook over privacy measures, Facebook employees have expressed their displeasure with the direction of the campaign in comments obtained by BuzzFeed News. Last week, Facebook launched a campaign in print newspapers explaining that it was "standing up to Apple for small businesses everywhere," and created a website encouraging people to "Spea...

Facebook's recent criticism directed at Apple over an upcoming tracking-related privacy measure is "laughable," according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a non-profit organization that defends civil liberties in the digital world. Facebook has claimed that Apple's new opt-in tracking policy will hurt small businesses who benefit from personalized advertising, but the EFF...

Some Messenger and Instagram features are temporarily unavailable to users in Europe in order to comply with new rules on data usage currently being rolled out in EU countries. Affected users are seeing alerts in the Facebook-owned apps that some features aren’t available to "respect new rules for messaging services in Europe." The alert doesn't specify what the missing features are, but ...

Facebook has expressed additional criticism towards Apple over an upcoming iOS 14 privacy measure that will require users to grant permission for their activity to be tracked for personalized advertising purposes. For the second consecutive day, Facebook is running a full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and The Washington Post that claims Apple's tracking change will...

Apple has responded to Facebook's criticism over an upcoming iOS 14 privacy measure — specifically a change that will require users to grant permission for their activity to be tracked for personalized advertising purposes starting early next year. In a statement provided to MacRumors, Apple said "we believe that this is a simple matter of standing up for our users," adding that "users...

Facebook today in a blog post claimed that Apple's upcoming anti-tracking privacy-focused change in iOS 14 will have a "harmful impact on many small businesses that are struggling to stay afloat and on the free internet that we all rely on more than ever." Facebook has also launched a "Speak Up For Small Business" page. "We disagree with Apple's approach and solution, yet we have no choice...

Facebook has today attacked Apple in a series of full-page newspaper ads, asserting that iOS 14's privacy changes regarding data gathering and targeted advertising are bad for small businesses (via Bloomberg). The ads are running in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post, feature the headline "We're standing up to Apple for small businesses everywhere." Image via Dave ...

Facebook services including Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp, and Facebook itself are all currently suffering outages, based on user reports posted to social media. The majority of issues appear to be focused in European countries, but problems have also been reported in other countries, too, suggesting even more widespread outages. Users of the Facebook-owned apps report issues connecting ...

The United States Federal Trade Commission today teamed up 46 states, the District of Columbia, and the territory of Guam to sue Facebook for maintaining an illegal social networking monopoly through years of anticompetitive conduct. Facebook is accused of engaging in a "systematic strategy" to eliminate threats to its monopoly, which included the 2012 acquisition of Instagram and the 2014...

WhatsApp is protesting Apple's requirement that developers submit information about what user data they collect to create new privacy labels on the App Store (via Axios). WhatsApp, which is owned by Facebook, has accused Apple of anti-competitive behavior because iMessage is preinstalled on iPhones and does not need to be downloaded from the App Store, where the new privacy labels will be...

Facebook is now rolling out a new disappearing messages feature to all WhatsApp users on iOS and Android, allowing messages, photos, and videos to be marked to disappear after seven days (via TechCrunch). Users can use the feature for direct messages, and it can be enabled in groups by members with administrator privileges. The seven-day limit exists regardless of whether the recipient...

After months of delay and stop-start testing, Dark Mode for Facebook finally appears to be rolling out for iOS users globally, over 400 days since Apple first introduced the feature in iOS 13. Evidence that Facebook has been working on a ‌Dark Mode‌ for its official app first surfaced in April, and by June a small percentage of users had access to the setting, which hinted that the company...

Facebook has today announced a new series of cloud-streamed games for its app and website, but the service will be unavailable in-app to iOS users due to Apple's App Store policies (via CNBC). Facebook explained in its announcement that the games will not be spun off into a separate cloud gaming service, instead remaining within Facebook's app and website. The first set of games...