According to Facebook, government agencies had access to between 18,000 and 19,000 user accounts in six months. The Wall Street Journal reports that Microsoft admitted 6,000 to 7,000 user data requests by the NSA and other law enforcement organizations during the same six-month period.
Facebook is finally going to come clean. Or well, as clean as the government will allow it to. Like Google’s Transparency Report and like similar reports given by Microsoft and Twitter, Facebook is releasing its data on the amount of government requests it receives. Of course, the numbers are completely unspecific but that’s not exactly…
We’d heard tale that this day was coming, and here to confirm our suspicions that, why yes, there is indeed nothing sacred anymore, the hashtag is officially infusing its personal brand of poison into our once-beloved Facebook. https://gizmodo.com/wsj-facebook-stealing-hashtags-from-twitter-5990625 Should you decide to click on the tiny demon, a list will pop up directing you to…
The Facebook Like and Share are so ingrained into our day to day internet lives that they’re more than just verbs, they’re almost instinctual. But what does an inherently digital, formless thing like a Like actually look like? Well, a lot like this, actually. Facebook Data Science collected data about the likes and shares of…
In 2011 Facebook reported that their first data center in Prineville, OR had a high humidity issue. Probably not the best condition for servers, sure. But it turns out that wonky temperature controls were actually causing condensation in the data center. Like indoor rain. Like it was literally raining in the server room. The cloud…
Apple. Facebook. Google. Microsoft. Yahoo. AOL. YouTube. Skype. PalTalk. The tech companies that have been associated with PRISM have all unequivocally denied involvement with the spying program. But are they speaking the whole truth? Or are they simply using choice words to evade the real question? It definitely doesn’t look like the whole truth. When…
In response to PRISM—the NSA and top tech companies’ spy network to capture all your calls, photos, videos and files—hacker group Anonymous has published 13 secret US government’s secret documents. These include documents about PRISM and the Department of Defense’s Strategic Vision for controlling the internet. https://gizmodo.com/nsa-surveillance-scandal-feds-shut-down-snowdens-secu-511588927
It seems Facebook isn’t totally deaf to the cries of its unwashed masses. After a lot of complaining and some unfortunate lube endorsing, Facebook users are finally seeing the death of the dreaded “Sponsored Stories.” https://gizmodo.com/facebook-ads-turn-unsuspecting-man-into-spokesperson-fo-5888669 In fact, Facebook is getting rid of quite a few of its many ad formats. The current 27 flavors…
Since it’s become apparent that the NSA has been siphoning off data from phone companies and internet giants—spying on everything from phone records to Facebook—the internet is awash with people ready to make a stand. But what are you going to do? https://gizmodo.com/the-nsa-and-fbi-have-been-spying-on-our-internet-habits-511750202 Are your outraged enough to cancel your Verizon contract, quite Facebook and…
Perhaps understandably, the likes of Facebook, Apple, Google, Yahoo, Microsoft et al are all flatly denying allegations that they allow the NSA direct access to their servers. Importantly, that’s not the same as not sharing data with them.
Man, I love “I Fucking Love Science“, the Facebook page with 5.4 million likes that clutters my News Feed with hundreds of clever images, many of which are stolen without attribution to their authors. It’s entertaining, and amazingly sharable. It’s also changing the character of the social network—and some argue it’s doing so for the…
Despite Facebook’s public promise to crack down on hate speech and misogyny, there’s still plenty of ugly stuff on the world’s most popular social network—this Facebook page about prostitutes in the brothels of Kolkata is the latest outrage. A do-gooder bus driver lost his job for mentioning a hungry student on Facebook, and a weird…
Intel’s always been a bit of a brand machine—remember the “Intel Inside” stickers?—and on Tuesday it upheld that tradition. In a pivot from the sort of stodgy “Sponsors of Tomorrow” slogan, the company is going with the hacker-friendly “Look Inside.” How much can a new slogan really matter, though? A lot, if history is any…
A particularly nasty breed of malware is raiding people’s Facebook profiles and emptying their bank accounts. Its name is Zeus, and yes, it is all powerful. Because despite the fact that this money-grubbing, Likejacking malware has been around for years stealing both private and government data, cybersecurity experts are still stumped about how to stop…
Here’s the truth: you’re embarrassed by how much you use Facebook. You color your phrases about Facebook like you’re not on it that much. You pretend you didn’t see updates on Facebook when you really saw them the second they were posted. You hate saying you heard about something when really you read it on…
Everyone has felt that feeling. You posted something on Facebook that pissed off a friend. You Instagrammed a mortifying picture of your sister. They’re pissed. How do you smooth things over? Ideally, you practice common sense before you pull the trigger on a post. But you’re only human, and there will be a time when…
A little over a year ago, everybody started freaking out about Pinterest’s new porn problem. “Officially, there is no porn on Pinterest,” Business Insider’s Jim Edwards declared at the time. “But there is porn on Pinterest, and it appears to be a growing problem.” Oh noes! There’s porn on the Internet?! Of course there is,…
To date, over 110 million songs have been played some 40 billion times through Facebook apps integrated with Open Graph. This 3D visualization shows how three of these tracks propagated throughout the United States during a 90-day span. This video is called a Beatquake, and it’s the result of a collaboration between Facebook and Stamen…
Apparently, Google wants to start a bidding war with Facebook over who gets to buy Waze. That sounds like a lot of fun, actually. Who’s got more billions? [Bloomberg]
In the wake of Yahoo’s $1.1 billion acquisition of beloved social platform Tumblr, it’s perhaps worth looking back what the company did after it caught—and gutted—another big fish. https://gizmodo.com/its-official-yahoo-is-buying-tumblr-508846808 Yes, Yahoo’s a different company now, especially with Marissa Mayer at the helm. And Tumblr, along with its price tag, are an order of magnitude larger…
