Facebook and Instagram are using a sneaky loophole to collect Apple iPhone users’ data, according to two new class action lawsuits filed against the social network’s parent company, Meta.
According to the lawsuits, Meta has been injecting javascript tracking code into websites that users visit via the in-app browsers in Facebook and Instagram for iOS, but without user permission.
Social media advertisements have the power to bring in new customers and reinvigorate existing ones. The trick is knowing how to target the right audience with the right approach. Here is a look at social media retargeting and how it works, along with some best practices.
Understanding social media retargeting
While scrolling through Facebook, a consumer sees an ad for an item that they searched for or interacted with in the past. The ad reminds them of their interest in the item and brings them back to the original site where the item was viewed. Once they’re on the website, they may decide to purchase the item or otherwise convert.
While scrolling through Instagram, TikTok or Facebook, you may notice people who call themselves guides, healers, or coaches and boast that they can provide you with instant enlightenment and spiritual guidance to enhance your “vibration.” The end result? A path to a better you.
To be honest, I’m not criticizing anyone who seeks comfort by connecting to self-professed healers making these claims. As a matter of fact, I think the majority of individuals who pursue an understanding of spirituality outside of our normal reality are well intentioned. Perhaps they’re even seeking refuge from the violent legacy of organized religions, including Christianity. As an Osage man, as well as a Native educator, I am very familiar with how the church has villainized Native spirituality, traditions, and ceremonies.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has filed a lawsuit against Meta over Facebook’s facial recognition practices, his office announced on Monday. The news was first reported by The Wall Street Journal, which notes that the lawsuit seeks civil penalties in the hundreds of billions of dollars. The lawsuit alleges that the company’s use of facial recognition technology, which it has now discontinued, violated the state’s privacy protections regarding biometric data.
A press release announcing the lawsuit alleges that Facebook has been storing millions of biometric identifiers contained in photos and videos uploaded by users. Attorney General Paxton says that Facebook exploited the personal information of users “to grow its empire and reap historic windfall profits.”
Facebook has changed its corporate name to Meta as part of a major rebrand.
The company said it would better “encompass” what it does, as it broadens its reach beyond social media into areas like virtual reality (VR).
The change does not apply to its individual platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp, only the parent company that owns them.
The move follows a series of negative stories about Facebook, based on documents leaked by an ex-employee.
BACK IN FEBRUARY, Facebook announced a little experiment. It would reduce the amount of political content shown to a subset of users in a few countries, including the US, and then ask them about the experience. “Our goal is to preserve the ability for people to find and interact with political content on Facebook, while respecting each person’s appetite for it at the top of their News Feed,” Aastha Gupta, a product management director, explained in a blog post.
On Tuesday morning, the company provided an update. The survey results are in, and they suggest that users appreciate seeing political stuff less often in their feeds. Now Facebook intends to repeat the experiment in more countries and is teasing “further expansions in the coming months.” Depoliticizing people’s feeds makes sense for a company that is perpetually in hot water for its alleged impact on politics. The move, after all, was first announced just a month after Donald Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol, an episode that some people, including elected officials, sought to blame Facebook for. The change could end up having major ripple effects for political groups and media organizations that have gotten used to relying on Facebook for distribution.
Facebook is a platform designed for sharing, but with the amount of misinformation, fake news and just plain nonsense being shared on Facebook every day, it’s become a big problem.
On Monday, Facebook announced it will start testing a new feature that will nudge users to actually read an article before they share it. If you try to share a news article link that you haven’t opened, Facebook will show a prompt encouraging you to open it and read it.
Facebook has turned the news back on.
In Australia, the websites that were previously blocked by Facebook are now accessible and sharable once again.
But the battle involving social networks and news is just beginning.
This week Australia’s government passed a law this week that offered a glimpse at the future for Facebook and media consumers around the world.
The News Media Bargaining Code, passed Wednesday, effectively forces big tech platforms to pay publishers for news content
WhatsApp recently announced it would be changing its privacy policy, in a move that has many users worried about how much of their data will be shared with WhatsApp’s parent company, Facebook. Now, the service has revealed what will happen to the accounts of users who don’t agree to the new policy by the May 15 deadline.
TechCrunch contacted WhatsApp for more details on what would happen to users’ accounts if they didn’t agree to the new privacy policy. It reports that WhatsApp will “slowly ask” its users to agree to the new privacy changes, warning that they need to do so to continue having full access to the app’s features. Users who decline to accept the new policy will be able to continue using the app for a few weeks, but only in a limited way. “For a short time, these users will be able to receive calls and notifications, but will not be able to read or send messages from the app,” the company told TechCrunch.
Can’t they please just let us have this one thing?
This was the thought that came to mind last week, when Twitter announced its acquisition of the newsletter platform Revue, and when three sources told The New York Times that Facebook is planning its own newsletter tools for journalists and writers.
For Twitter and Facebook, getting into the newsletter business makes sense. Alongside Google, their platforms have come to dominate the distribution of journalism and online discourse in general, using their news feeds and search results to monetize a never-ending flow of content. With newsletters, a growing number of writers are trying to get off that treadmill and establish a more direct relationship with readers. Some prominent journalists have even quit their staff jobs to make newsletters full-time, and some budding newsrooms now publish primarily to readers’ inboxes.
Dispatches From The Front 