The other big thing that comes out in the released documents is all the way at the end, when Facebook is getting ready to roll out a Facebook app update on Android that will snoop on your SMS and call logs and use that information for trying to get you to add more friends and for determining what kinds of content it promotes to you. Facebook clearly recognized that this could be a PR nightmare if it got out, and they were worried that Android would seek permission from users, which would alert them to this kind of snooping.
Tag: facebook
Data Factories
Facebook quite clearly isn’t an industrial site (although it operates multiple data centers with lots of buildings and machinery), but it most certainly processes data from its raw form to something uniquely valuable both to Facebook’s products (and by extension its users and content suppliers) and also advertisers (and again, all of this analysis applies to Google as well): Users are better able to connect with others, find content they are interested in, form groups and manage events, etc., thanks to Facebook’s data. Content providers are able to reach far more readers than they would on their own, most of whom would not even be aware said content provider exists, much less visit of their own volition. Advertisers are able to maximize the return on their advertising $ by only showing ads to individuals they believe are predisposed to like their product, making it more viable than ever before to target niches (to the benefit of their customers as well).
Fixing Facebook
In some sense, the “Mark Zuckerberg production”—as he called Facebook in its early years—has only just begun. Zuckerberg is not yet 35, and the ambition with which he built his empire could well be directed toward shoring up his company, his country, and his name. The question is not whether Zuckerberg has the power to fix Facebook but whether he has the will; whether he will kick people out of his office—with the gusto that he once mustered for the pivot to mobile—if they don’t bring him ideas for preventing violence in Myanmar, or protecting privacy, or mitigating the toxicity of social media. He succeeded, long ago, in making Facebook great. The challenge before him now is to make it good.
FB Wifi
In late 2015, we began testing Express Wifi, a program that enables local entrepreneurs, internet service providers, and mobile network operators to offer fast, affordable internet access in local communities around the world. We partner with licensed local internet service providers, mobile network operators, and others to provide Wifi services. Today, Express Wifi is available with 10 partners in 5 countries — India, Indonesia, Kenya, Nigeria, and Tanzania.
People typically access Express Wifi hotspots by signing up with a participating retailer and purchasing a prepaid data pack. Using Express Wifi hotspots, our partners can easily expand their services and provide faster, more affordable connectivity to rural and urban areas.
FB Stories
Stories potentially have significant value for Facebook beyond strategic positioning. First and foremost, the fact that users find Stories even more engaging than the News Feed suggests there is at least the possibility to create even more engaging advertising as well. This is in fact another way to look at that chart about the top 200 advertisers: the biggest spenders are brand advertisers, and while it is to Facebook’s credit that they serve the long tail, there remains a significant opportunity the company has mostly not tapped into, and oh-by-the-way, those are the advertisers best equipped to spend the money to make an effective Stories ad; after all, they’re already spending the money on TV.
Freeing FB Friends
There are no easy answers to this privacy-versus-portability conundrum. However, there are a few critical takeaways in terms of things that Facebook can and should do now to promote portability—and which are in its own interest to do, as it may face unwanted regulatory action if it doesn’t. Help Set Clear Technical Standards. Solve the Graph Portability Problem. Allow Competitive Apps to Use the Facebook Platform.
High altitude connectivity
Part of that investment has been in developing next-generation connectivity technologies like Aquila, a high altitude platform station (HAPS) system. This has involved a lot of trial and error. When we started the Aquila program back in 2014, very few companies were involved in this area — and they were all working independently of one other. In addition, the only spectrum available for these platforms wasn’t suitable for broadband due to technical and geographical limitations.
FB rent extraction
the Facebook hearings are easily understood. Facebook is a very profitable monopoly that doesn’t benefit politicians very much. Although consumers aren’t upset by high prices (since Facebook is free), they can be made to be upset about loss of privacy or other such scandal. That’s enough to threaten regulation. The regulatory outcome will be that Facebook diverts some of its profits to campaign funds and to subsidize important political constituents.
Who will be subsidized? Be sure to watch the key players as there is plenty to go around and the money has only begun to flow but aside from campaign funds look for rules, especially in the political sphere, that will raise the costs of advertising to challengers relative to incumbents. Incumbents love incumbency advantage. Also watch out for a deal where the government limits profit regulation in return for greater government access to Facebook data including by the NSA, ICE, local and even foreign police. Keep in mind that politicians don’t really want privacy–remember that in 2016 Congress also held hearings on privacy and technology. Only those hearings were about how technology companies kept their user data too private.
The fake FB industry
how the gullible are entrapped by fake fb accounts. what works for politics works for scams too, of course.
While investigating the world of fake Facebook profiles, my colleague Marie-Eve Tremblay and I have discovered a massive network of fraudulent accounts that catfish their male victims using stolen photos of young women and adolescent girls. This is the story of the months-long investigation that allowed us to piece together the inner workings of this network of online bandits.
Oversharing
#blessed
A 18-year-old woman from Carinthia is suing her parents for posting photos of her on Facebook without her consent. She claims that since 2009 they have made her life a misery by constantly posting 100s of photos of her, including embarrassing and intimate images from her childhood.
Gregor J. Rothfuss 