In partnership with eyewear brand Ray-Ban, Facebook has released its first pair of smart glasses, offering wearers the ability to capture photos and videos without even needing to pull out their phone. The glasses, called Ray-Ban Stories, are now available for A$449 and are functionally similar to devices already on the market, such as SnapChat… Read more »
Instagram’s parent company, Facebook will default set Instagram accounts for users under 16 to private, and restrict targeted advertising to them following an Australian expose that revealed how easy it was for marketers to show smoking, gambling, extreme weight loss, and alcohol advertising to underage users. The social media giant announced the changes in a… Read more »
Facebook’s quasi-independent Oversight Board on May 5, 2021, upheld the company’s suspension of former President Donald Trump from the platform and Instagram. The decision came four months after Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg banned Trump “indefinitely” for his role in inciting the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. The board chastised Facebook for failing to… Read more »
Privacy-focused messaging app Signal has invoked the ire of Facebook after it created a series of advertisements designed to show Instagram users how their data is being used for micro-targeting. In a blog post this week, Signal’s head of growth Jun Harada said the app – owned by the non-profit Signal Foundation – found its ad-buying account… Read more »
Apple users across the globe are adopting the latest operating system update, called iOS 14.5, featuring the now-obligatory new batch of emojis. But there’s another change that’s arguably less fun but much more significant for many users: the introduction of “app tracking transparency”. This feature promises to usher in a new era of user-oriented privacy,… Read more »
Over the long weekend reports emerged of an alleged data breach, impacting half a billion Facebook users from 106 countries. And while this figure is staggering, there’s more to the story than 533 million sets of data. This breach once again highlights how many of the systems we use aren’t designed to adequately protect our… Read more »
Hello Thursday! Lots happening around the world today. Here’s some of what we spotted. Don’t forget to tune in for the Startup Daily show on Ausbiz.com.au every weekday, 2-2.45pm. Watch online, download the ausbiz app or via 7Plus. OVH data centre burns Millions of websites, banks, retailers and government services in Europe are offline today after fire destroyed a… Read more »
I want to thank Facebook and Zuckerberg sincerely. I truly do. The blindsided vengeance of this past week has proven beyond doubt how dangerous it is for small businesses to rely on any marketing channel they do not fully own and control. Many were Zuckerberg-ed into believing that Facebook loved them and would be a never-ending fountain… Read more »
What’s the difference between Google and Facebook? One difference is that last week Google agreed to pay Australian news outlets for their content in the face of a threat of government action to force it to. Facebook did not, temporarily removing Australian news sources from its feeds, a decision it only reversed after winning a… Read more »
Facebook’s hostage standoff with Australian government and media will end in the next few days after the company struck a deal with the Morrison government over its controversial News Media Bargaining Code. Intense negotiations with the government in the wake of Facebook blocking hundreds of media sites on its platform last Thursday, saw the warring… Read more »
Welcome to Monday. Here’s the latest news from here and overseas. Don’t forget to tune in for the Startup Daily show on Ausbiz.com.au every weekday, 2-2.45pm. Watch online, download the ausbiz app or via 7Plus. Government pulls Facebook ads Facebook may have blocked media and a bunch of other organisations from promoting themselves for free on the $1 trillion global… Read more »
In case you haven’t heard, Australia is proposing a new law that will force Facebook and Google to pay news orgs for linking to their content. In response, Facebook has stopped allowing the sharing of links to Australian news sites. As one would imagine, the response has been shock and horror at the power and… Read more »
Information is everywhere, right? Well, here in Australia, we now have one less source of news information at our fingertips. Yesterday, Facebook banned Australian users from posting news links, and sharing or viewing Australian and international news content. This will have a far-reaching impact on many organisations and groups. For the public – people of… Read more »
In denying news content to its Australian users, Facebook is arguably overplaying its hand, behaving as a big company that thinks it can intimidate governments. If it keeps doing this, it will ultimately lose customers, and that’s the last thing Facebook wants. Perhaps you’re already considering breaking up with Facebook, whether in reaction to the… Read more »
Facebook decided today that it became necessary to destroy the town to save it. Australians woke to news – but not on Facebook – that the trillion-dollar social media giant had banned the posting and sharing of news stories in their country. And it was worse than that when the algorithm the company deployed to… Read more »
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