焦点信息

Individuals Simple read

Russia Blocks Facebook and Twitter

Facebook and Twitter on Friday were blocked in Russia, amid President Vladimir Putin's ongoing military invasion of Ukraine. In a statement issued on Friday, Roskomnadzor, the country's communications regulator, explained the decision was made to "block access to the Facebook network" after at least 26 cases of "discrimination against Russian media and information resources" since October 2020. The agency highlighted Facebook's recent restriction of Kremlin-tied media sources RT News and Sputnik News across the EU. Hours later, Russian news agency Interfax reported that Roskomnadzor had also begun blocking Twitter.

Business & Government Intermediate read

Australia's Standoff Against Google and Facebook Worked - Sort Of

Remember when Google threatened to leave Australia if the country implemented a "news media bargaining code" forcing social media platforms to pay news publishers? Google and Facebook did not leave; they paid up, striking deals with news organizations to pay for the content they display on their sites for the first time.

Now countries around the world are looking at Australia’s code as a blueprint of how to subsidize the news and stop the spread of “news deserts”—communities that no longer have a local newspaper.

Developers Intermediate read

Mozilla and Meta Propose New Privacy-Preserving Ad Technology

Mozilla engineer Martin Thomson reveals they've been collaborating with Meta (formerly Facebook) on new technology that can measure "conversions" from advertising while still preserving privacy. The proposed new technology is called Interoperable Private Attribution, or IPA.

Business & Government Intermediate read

Meta Threatens To Pull Facebook and Instagram From Europe If It Can't Target Ads

Meta states in an SEC filing it is considering leaving Europe if it can no longer exchange data from European users with the United States, following the Schrems II decision. It's customary for regulatory filings to preemptively declare a wide variety of possible future hazards, and in that spirit a recently-filed Meta financial statement cites a ruling by the EU's Court of Justice (in July of 2020) voiding a U.S. law called the Privacy Shield (which Meta calls one legal basis for its current dara-transferring practices).

In the meantime Meta writes that it does not plan to withdraw from Europe.

Business & Government Simple read

How Apple's Privacy Push Cost Meta $10 Billion

Pop-up notifications are often annoying. For Meta, one in Apple's iOS operating system, which powers iPhones, is a particular headache. On February 2nd Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, told investors that privacy-focused changes to iOS, including the "ask app not to track" notification, would cost the company around $10 billion in 2022. That revelation, along with growing competition and sluggish growth in user numbers, helped to prompt a 23% plunge in Meta's share price and showed Apple's might. But what did Apple actually do, and why was it so costly?

Business & Government Intermediate read

WhatsApp Gets EU Ultimatum After New Terms Spark Backlash

Meta Platforms' WhatsApp was given a month to answer European Union concerns over new terms and services that sparked outrage among consumers and privacy campaigners: WhatsApp must provide "concrete commitments" to address EU concerns about a possible lack of "sufficiently clear information" to users, or the exchange of user data between WhatsApp and third parties, the European Commission said Thursday. "WhatsApp must ensure that users understand what they agree to and how their personal data is used," EU Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders said in a statement.

Business & Government Simple read

WhatsApp Ordered To Help US Agents Spy On Chinese Phones

U.S. federal agencies have been using a 35-year-old American surveillance law to secretly track WhatsApp users with no explanation as to why and without knowing whom they are targeting. In Ohio, a just-unsealed government surveillance application reveals that in November 2021, DEA investigators demanded the Facebook-owned messaging company track seven users based in China and Macau. The application reveals the DEA didn't know the identities of any of the targets, but told WhatsApp to monitor the IP addresses and numbers with which the targeted users were communicating, as well as when and how they were using the app. Such surveillance is done using a technology known as a pen register and under the 1986 Pen Register Act, and doesn't seek any message content, which WhatsApp couldn't provide anyway, as it is end-to-end encrypted.

Individuals Simple read

Meta faces billion-pound class-action case

Up to 44 million UK Facebook users could share £2.3bn in damages, according to a competition expert intending to sue parent company Meta.

Business & Government Intermediate read

Google, Amazon, Meta and Microsoft Weave a Fiber-Optic Web of Power

To say that Big Tech controls the internet might seem like an exaggeration. Increasingly, in at least one sense, it's literally true: The internet can seem intangible, a post-physical environment where things like viral posts, virtual goods and metaverse concerts just sort of happen. But creating that illusion requires a truly gargantuan -- and quickly-growing -- web of physical connections. Fiber-optic cable, which carries 95% of the world's international internet traffic, links up pretty much all of the world's data centers, those vast server warehouses where the computing happens that transforms all those 1s and 0s into our experience of the internet. Where those fiber-optic connections link up countries across the oceans, they consist almost entirely of cables running underwater -- some 1.3 million kilometers (or more than 800,000 miles) of bundled glass threads that make up the actual, physical international internet. And until recently, the overwhelming majority of the undersea fiber-optic cable being installed was controlled and used by telecommunications companies and governments. Today, that's no longer the case.

Business & Government Intermediate read

Despite EU Court Rulings, Facebook Says US Is Safe To Receive Europeans' Data

Despite the European Union's highest court twice declaring that the United States does not offer sufficient protection for Europeans' data from American national security agencies, the social media giant's lawyers continue to disagree, according to internal documents seen by POLITICO. Their conclusion that the U.S. is safe for EU data is part of Facebook's legal argument for it to be able to continue shipping data across the Atlantic.

Individuals Simple read

Is Facebook Bad for You? It Is for About 360 Million Users, Company Surveys Suggest

Facebook researchers have found that 1 in 8 of its users report engaging in compulsive use of social media that impacts their sleep, work, parenting or relationships, according to documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

Individuals Simple read

Facebook is Changing Its Name To Meta

Facebook said Thursday it's changing its name to Meta. "From now on, we''ll be metaverse first, not Facebook first," CEO Mark Zuckerberg said during the company's Oculus Connect event. "Over time you won't need to use Facebook to use our other services." This should highlight the companies longer-term effort to help build a "metaverse" that will bring physically distant people closer together.

Business & Government Simple read

The Facebook Papers reveal staggering failures in the Global South

When Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen was asked what motivated her to share a trove of internal company documents with 18 news organizations and researchers in India and the Middle East, her response was straightforward. “The reason I wanted to do this project is because I think the Global South is in danger,” she said.

Individuals Simple read

Researchers Show Facebook's Ad Tools Can Target a Single User

A new research paper written by a team of academics and computer scientists from Spain and Austria has demonstrated that it's possible to use Facebook's targeting tools to deliver an ad exclusively to a single individual if you know enough about the interests Facebook's platform assigns them.

Individuals Simple read

Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Oculus Have Been Suffering Global Outage

Facebook is back online after a six-hour outage due to DNS routing problems. The outage took down Instagram, Whatsapp, Messenger, and Oculus VR as well.

Individuals Intermediate read

Facebook Whistleblower Speaks

An Iowa data scientist with a computer engineering degree and a Harvard MBA has come forward as the whistleblower leaking damaging information about Facebook. They've now also filed at least eight complaints with America's Securities and Exchange Commission, which has broad oversight over financial markets and has the power to bring charges against companies suspected of misleading investors. To buttress the complaints, the whistleblower secretly copied "tens of thousands" of pages of internal Facebook research, which summarizes her ultimate conclusion: "that the company is lying to the public about making significant progress against hate, violence and misinformation.

Individuals Simple read

Salesforce CEO Argues Facebook 'is the New Cigarettes'

Social media may be bad for our health, argues long-time technology reporter/commentator Kara Swisher in the New York Times.

Business & Government Simple read

WhatsApp fined €225m by Ireland over Privacy

Facebook's WhatsApp was fined a record 225 million euro by the Irish data protection regulator on Thursday after the EU privacy watchdog pressured Ireland to raise the penalty for the company's privacy breaches.

Partly at issue is how WhatsApp share information with parent company Facebook, according to the commission. The decision brings an end to a GDPR inquiry the privacy regulator started in December 2018. WhatsApp said it disagrees with the decision and plans to appeal. "We have worked to ensure the information we provide is transparent and comprehensive and will continue to do so," a WhatsApp spokesperson said via email.

Individuals Simple read

Social Media Giants Failing To Remove Most Antisemitic Posts

Five social media giants failed to remove 84% of antisemitic posts in May and June -- and Facebook performed the worst despite announcing new rules to tackle the problem, a new report finds.

[Intermediate] Inside Facebook's Data Wars

Executives at the social network have clashed over CrowdTangle, a Facebook-owned data tool that revealed users’ high engagement levels with right-wing media sources.

Business & Government Simple read

Apple robbed the mob's bank

Interesting perspective:

Apple has brazenly, in broad daylight, stormed into the Bank of Facebook, looted its most precious resource, and, camouflaged under the noble cause of giving privacy controls to the consumer, fled the scene.

[Simple] Facebook v Apple: The ad tracking row heats up

A new feature is being introduced to iPhones and iPads this week which is causing a huge rift between Apple and Facebook: It will allow device users to say no to having their data collected by apps.

[Simple] 533 million Facebook users' phone numbers and personal data have been leaked online

The exposed data includes the personal information of over 533 million Facebook users from 106 countries, including over 32 million records on users in the US, 11 million on users in the UK, and 6 million on users in India. It includes their phone numbers, Facebook IDs, full names, locations, birthdates, bios, and, in some cases, email addresses.

[Simple] French digital envoy explains departure from Facebook and WhatsApp

Henri Verdier, France’s ambassador for digital affairs, said the decision was both personal and political. He decided on February 1 that he would permanently leave the social network and the messaging app it owns.

Business & Government Simple read

Tim Cook May Have Just Ended Facebook

“If a business is built on misleading users on data exploitation, on choices that are no choices at all, then it does not deserve our praise. It deserves reform.”

[Simple] Tech giants join China as superpowers calling the shots

Australia is presently embroiled in two major showdowns with superpowers. One is with China. The other is with Google and Facebook.

[Simple] WhatsApp Beaten By Apple’s New iMessage Privacy Update

Apple uses now privacy labels to inform users about some of the data types an app may collect, and whether that data is linked to them or used to track them. And a picture comparing those privacy labels for different messaging apps (Signal, iMessage, WhatsApp, Facebook Messanger) is quite interesting.

Business & Government Simple read

EU investigates Instagram over handling of children's data

Facebook could face a large fine if Instagram is found to have broken European Union privacy laws.

Facebook testing the boundaries of privacy with Oculus Quest 2

It seems that when you report anything in VR-games, your headset data - including what you see and do - are transmitted to FB and they can do with it and keep it as long as they want. No restrictions.

Ireland To Order Facebook To Stop Sending User Data To US

A European Union privacy regulator has sent Facebook a preliminary order to suspend data transfers to the U.S. about its EU users, WSJ reported Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter, an operational and legal challenge for the company that could set a precedent for other tech giants.

No, Facebook is not telling you everything

Facebook “Download Your Information” feature only gives you part of the picture. Information about advertisers uploading lists with your personal information is limited in time and prevents users from exercising their rights.

Could this plan make Facebook obsolete?

Your digital self is fragmented and wholly owned by third parties – but identity activist Kaliya Young has a plan to help us pull ourselves together, and make tech fairer for all.

Off-Facebook Activity

Off-Facebook activity includes information that businesses and organizations share with us about your interactions with them, such as visiting their apps or websites. Paul-Olivier fought for 4 years to make Facebook implement this feature - read more here.

Facebook’s Privacy Tool Launched Months Ago. Or Did It?

Despite promising access, Facebook’s “clear history” tool is MIA for most of the United States, with no clear release date.

What Would Facebook Regulation Look Like?

The federal government seems increasingly likely to take action on platform giants such as Facebook and Google. Antitrust intervention has emerged as the likely focal point of such efforts.

How I train Facebook to work for me

A data scientist way to control social media instead of been controlled.

Election software used by Boris Johnson and Donald Trump caught in Facebook privacy row

Remember last week when I profiled NationBuilder, the election software used by both Boris Johnson and Donald Trump? Well, it turns out NationBuilder has been buying voters' data from a company accused by Facebook of vioolating its users' privacy.

Facebook: Charting a Way Forward on Privacy and Data Portability

We’re publishing a white paper that sets forth five questions about data portability and privacy that we hope will help advance a global conversation.

Experiment: How private is your personal information?

A coffee shop makes an experiment where they get free coffee by liking their Facebook page. Then, show them how much data they gather within a few minutes just with a like.

Introducing Personal Data Exchanges & the Personal Data Economy

The next big technological shift is to a world where every individual can manage and (optionally) monetise their personal data. Companies like Facebook and Google already make billions because they know everything about us via our online habits. What if we could take a cut? What if we could own and sell our data directly?

MyData 2019 comms and marketing 101 for the community

Anna Ansku Tuomainen has created a folder (linked in the title) to support us in communicating MyData. The 101 doc is currently mostly about the conference but you are encouraged to creatively use the materials also for any comms needs you have. Also important is to remember to tag @mydataorg in your tweets and posts so those can be forwarded in the main channel.

It's not that we've failed to rein in Facebook and Google. We've not even tried!

This is an incredible article by Shoshana Zuboff, the Harvard Professor that wrote 'The Age of Surveillance Capitalism'. I strongly recommend you to read it as what she says also is related to what's being done in MyData. What she says is very much the essence of what we have to tackle.


问题列表

Individuals Simple read

Mozilla Is Going To Track Facebook Tracking You

Researchers at Mozilla announced this week the launch of its "Facebook Pixel Hunt" study, which seeks to track the company's immense web-wide tracking network and investigate the intel it's collecting on users. As the name suggests, this study is focused on a piece of tracking tech known as the "Facebook pixel." Chances are, you've visited a site that uses it; these tiny pieces of tech are buried in literally millions of sites across the web, from online stores to news outlets to... well, you name it. In exchange for onboarding a free pixel on their site, these sites can then track their own visitors and microtarget ads with the same sort of precision you'd expect from a data-hungry company like Facebook.

How to transform terms and conditions into something readable?

Is there any service provider that can transform terms and conditions into something readable for someone who is not a lawyer, or someone who knows about laws. My idea is that if I am going to sign terms and conditions or a privacy policy I would pay happily a service that can translate this into bullet points before I agree.
Various people already provided answers and suggested tools to achieve this.

Challenge from Carole Cadwalladr (Video: 1:10min)

@carolecadwalla from the Guardian wants to find out what acutally happend inside Facebook during Brexit and US elections. And how can we make the underlying data public?


工具
Data Transfer Project

The Data Transfer Project was launched in 2018 to create an open-source, service-to-service data portability platform so that all individuals across the web could easily move their data between online service providers whenever they want.

Ethi

Control what big tech knows about you

Facebook App

The app for an American online social media and social networking service company.