Facebook has started to test a feature that will make it a lot harder for you to “miss” the birthdays of your closest friends – by displaying a big, friendly banner at the top of your news feed announcing that it’s someone’s Big Day. The banner is similar to the polite greetings that some users have started to see, wishing them a good morning, afternoon, or evening by name. “Thanks for being here,” the greetings read. “Enjoy Facebook today!” Those greetings seemed to quietly roll out in late October, puzzling, delighting, and/or creeping out those who saw them. But the…
Author: Richard
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The makers of an application recommended by the Islamic State group as providing a safe way to communicate defended the technology on Thursday, saying that “total surveillance” was not the solution to stopping extremist violence. In a guide distributed by IS to its jihadist followers in January, Threema was listed as a “safe” communication forum. There is no evidence the gunmen who killed 129 people in Paris last week used Threema or any similar messaging system to communicate. Asked about balancing the need for ensuring privacy in an era of massive data collection, including demands from intelligence agencies, Threema spokesman…
If you are young and love Facebook, keep it to just “liking” and minimise your virtual circle of friends to cut the upcoming depression risk. According to researchers, the social networking site can have positive and negative effects on the levels of a common stress hormone in teenagers. The team found that having more than 300 Facebook friends increased teenagers’ levels of cortisol while those who only posted “likes” on their Facebook friends to encourage them actually decreased their cortisol levels. “We were able to show that beyond 300 Facebook friends, adolescents showed higher cortisol levels. We can imagine that…
Austrian student Max Schrems’s attempt to bring a class-action lawsuit against Facebook over its privacy policies will head to Austria’s Supreme Court to determine whether such collective legal action is allowed, his group said on Monday. The law student has claimed EUR 500 ($531 or roughly Rs. 35,000) in damages each for the more than 25,000 signatories to his lawsuit – the latest in a series of European challenges to US technology firms and their handling of personal data. At issue is whether the claims can be combined into one in Austrian courts. An appellate court has let Schrems file…
Keeping up with its promise to make Internet free for those who cannot afford it in India, social networking giant Facebook has chosen Reliance Communications Network to offer Free Basics – its free Internet sharing platform – now to everyone in the country. “We just took another step towards connecting India. As of today, everyone in India nationwide can access free Internet services for health, education, jobs and communication through Internet.org’s Free Basics app on the Reliance network,” wrote Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg in a post on Monday. In his post, Zuckerberg also said how Free Basics app has helped…
Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on Monday expressed concern over the Islamic State using Internet for recruitment, saying it was important to enhance information and communications technology (ICT) capabilities to face any threat. “…you take the example of terrorist organisation like Daesh or IS; they use Internet to ensure lot of recruitment and support. They are the ones who are the best users of Internet technology for promoting their cause,” the minister said at an event. “My worry is about information blackout due to various disruptive mechanisms… information corruption can be another danger to platforms; and information overload is also a…
Telecom major Bharti Airtel and social media giant Facebook on Monday announced the launch of the Free Basics zero-rating Internet access platform across 17 African countries in phases by March 2016. “We are excited to continue our partnership with Airtel in bringing more people online. More than one billion people have access to Internet.org’s free basic services across Asia, Africa and Latin America today. Our intention is to help the people in Africa access relevant basic services,” Internet.org Vice President Chris Daniels said in a statement. The Free Basics service, which has been in midst of neutrality debate, offers free…
The hacker group Anonymous claimed Tuesday to have taken out 5,500 Twitter accounts linked to the Islamic State group, which claimed responsibility for the Paris attacks. The loosely organized hacking collective made the claim in a tweet one day after launching #OpParis campaign, which stepped up an earlier effort to shut down social media accounts of the organization. “We report that more than 5500 Twitter account of #ISIS are now #down! #OpParis #Anonymous #ExpectUs,” said a tweet posted on Tuesday which followed a video message posted Monday. It was not immediately clear how the accounts would have been disabled. But…
Last week, Facebook started allowing Google to “crawl and index its mobile app” in its mobile search results to show publicly available information. This means Facebook for Android users would now be able to directly jump to the relevant page inside the app from Google mobile search results. “When people search for public Facebook content on the mobile web, those who use Facebook for Android can now click through and go straight to the Facebook app,” said a Facebook spokeswoman to The Wall Street Journal, news that was also confirmed by an Alphabet spokesperson to the publication. Google had introduced…
Facing criticism for activating its “Safety Check” feature in the wake of the Paris terror attack and not for other bombing incidents, Facebook has decided to use the tool more often in conflicts globally. The social networking site activated the tool after terrorists struck in the capital of France, killing 129 people and injuring many. The tool sends users in the affected area a note asking if they are safe. When a user clicks “Yes, let my friends know,” the tool then notifies their Facebook friends, CNET.com reported. Facebook came under criticism when it did not activate the “Safety Check”…