Facebook

Facebook to stop stalking you off-site - but only if asked

Many may not like what they see.

A feature in settings called Off-Facebook Activity will show all the apps and websites that send information about you to Facebook, which is then used to target ads more effectively.

You will also be able to clear your history and prevent your future off-app behaviour being tapped. But one expert said the move was unlikely to have a big impact on the firm's profits.

For now, it is rolling out very slowly, with only Ireland, South Korea and Spain getting access. But the goal is to eventually offer it globally.

Twitter and Facebook remove Chinese accounts

Twitter said it removed 936 accounts it said were being used to “sow political discord in Hong Kong”.

The network said the accounts originated in mainland China and were part of a coordinated attempt to undermine the “legitimacy and political positions of the protest movement”.

Facebook said it had, after being tipped off by Twitter, removed "seven Pages, three Groups and five Facebook accounts.”

Facebook 'to be fined $5bn over Cambridge Analytica scandal'

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has been investigating allegations that political consultancy Cambridge Analytica improperly obtained the data of up to 87 million Facebook users.

The settlement was approved by the FTC in a 3-2 vote, sources told US media.

Facebook and the FTC told the BBC they had no comment on the reports.

How was the settlement reached?

The consumer protection agency the FTC began investigating Facebook in March 2018 following reports that Cambridge Analytica had accessed the data of tens of millions of its users.

Vanuatu govt investigates fake Facebook IDs

This comes after a person using a fake ID had abused the prime minister.

RNZI correspondent said the Government Chief Information Officer is now investigating fake Facebook IDs..

The prime minister's spokesman, Hilaire Bule, said people who make comments on Facebook are in breach of the country's laws will be prosecuted.

A lot of people with fake IDs on Facebook often target leaders with their frustrations and concerns.

Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp suffer outages

The website Down Detector reported that thousands of people globally had complained about the Facebook-owned trio being down from 11.30 BST onwards.

Facebook users were presented with the message: "Something went wrong."

At 14:50, the site said it had resolved the issue after some users "experienced trouble connecting" to the apps.

A spokesman for the company added: "We're sorry for any inconvenience."

Facebook did not comment on the cause of the problem, or say how many users had been affected.

Millions of Facebook passwords exposed internally

Security researcher Brian Krebs broke the news about data protection failures, which saw up to 600 million passwords stored in plain text.

The passwords that were exposed could date back to 2012, he said.

In a statement, Facebook said it had now resolved a "glitch" that had stored the passwords on its internal network.

In a detailed expose, Mr Krebs said a Facebook source had told him about "security failures" that had let developers create applications that logged and stored the passwords without encrypting them.

Facebook bans the sale of community groups

This follows BBC News uncovering several incidents of group owners being approached about selling their pages.

Last month, nearly all 25,000 members of a west London group left in protest after finding out it had been sold by the person running it.

One buyer told BBC News they bought groups to promote their own business. They also sell unofficial ad space.

Facebook says the practice falls under the "spam" section of its Community Standards rules although there is no specific line that says this.

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Facebook documents seized by MPs investigating privacy breach

Rarely used parliamentary powers were used to demand that the boss of a US software firm hand over the details.

The Observer, which first reported the story, said the documents included data about Facebook's privacy controls.

MP Damian Collins later told the BBC that he believed the documents were "highly relevant" to his inquiry. Facebook has demanded their return.

The documents were intercepted when an executive of US tech firm Six4Three was on a trip to London.

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Will Facebook be fined after hack attack?

In theory Facebook could be fined if it is found to be in breach of GDPR, Europe's data protection rules.

It has not revealed whether other services which people use their Facebook log-ins for - such as Tinder and Spotify - have also been affected.

Facebook has now fixed the issue.

People potentially affected were logged out of their accounts on Friday and those definitely affected were notified.

Facebook says it has identified 50 million accounts which were certainly involved in the breach, with an extra 40 million also warned as a precautionary measure.

Facebook animal trade exposed in Thailand

Traffic, which monitors such activity, said many of the species, despite having international protection, were not native to the country, and so trading them was unregulated.

The listings were found on 12 Facebook groups during one month in 2016.

Facebook said it did not allow the trade of endangered species.

Among the 200 different species listed for sale were two non-native species banned from international commercial trade - the Eurasian otter and the black spotted turtle.