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Tag: meta

  • Facebook-owner Meta to open first physical store in metaverse bet

    Facebook-owner Meta to open first physical store in metaverse bet

    Meta Platforms is set to open its first physical store where shoppers can try out and buy virtual reality headsets and other gadgets as the company plots a course to take its highly touted metaverse mainstream.

    The 1550sqft Meta Store at the company’s Burlingame campus in California opens on May 9, and will feature demos for its Quest 2 VR headset and video calling device Portal as well as Ray-Ban’s augmented reality (AR) glasses, Meta said on Monday.

    The devices, except for the Ray-Ban glasses, will be available for purchase at the store. The products can also be bought online through a new shopping tab on meta.com, the company said.

    Meta is investing heavily in metaverse – a virtual space where people interact, work and play – by adding new features to hardware devices that serve as access points to the virtual world.

    Earlier this month, the Facebook owner said it would start testing tools for selling digital assets and experiences within its virtual reality platform Horizon Worlds, a VR platform Meta launched late last year.

    Meta also said it would charge creators of digital experiences and assets a 47.5 per cent fee, a move that has attracted criticism from some app developers.

    Shoppers tracking the space are awaiting the next version of the Quest 2 VR headset, likely to be released in the second quarter and widely seen by analysts as critical to the company’s metaverse plans.

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  • Instagram to adjust its algorithm to give preference to original content

    Instagram to adjust its algorithm to give preference to original content

    Sick of seeing only TikToks on Reels? So is Instagram. On a more serious note, Instagram is tweaking its algorithm not only to crack down on reposts but also to incentivize creators to produce original content.

    Adam Mosseri, the current head of Instagram, announced yesterday some interesting changes coming to the social media platform. In addition to expanding the functionality of tags, Instagram is introducing a ranking for originality and implementing it in its algorithm.

    This is the next step in Instagram’s concrete efforts to encourage creators to produce original content for the app. The idea is pretty straightforward – more creativity, fewer reposts.

    If you create something from scratch, you should get more credit than if you are resharing something that you found from someone else. We’re going to do more to try and value original content more.
    This is how Mosseri explains the rationale behind the recent changes in a video posted on Twitter.

    In a subsequent tweet, Mosseri expressed concerns over the long-term future of Instagram, if the platform does not stop to “overvalue aggregators”. The changes to the algorithm are a step in the right direction as they will aim to single out aggregator accounts and handle them accordingly.

    The exact way in which Instagram will filter “original” content currently remains unclear, however. Mosseri himself is not entirely confident in the platform’s ability to do so consistently. Some trial and error will likely be required before the mechanism is refined

    Ultimately, this is just another milestone in Meta’s vision. Instagram and Facebook have steadily been transitioning away from their previous purpose of keeping people connected. They now aim to be, above all, platforms for creators with the recent changes reflecting that perfectly.

  • Creators will be able to sell virtual items in Meta’s Horizon Worlds

    Creators will be able to sell virtual items in Meta’s Horizon Worlds

    Well, well, as you know Facebook rebranded to Meta in order to focus more on the metaverse, a virtual reality world. But of course, the company cannot give up on social media, or at least, a form of social media dubbed Horizon Worlds, which is a virtual world you can hang out with using avatars in the metaverse. Meta has found a way to monetize in the metaverse: with creators selling virtual items on there.

    Pretty much, Meta is looking into ways to let creators make money within Horizon Worlds. Horizon Worlds is a social metaverse platform for Quest VR, and it should be coming soon to mobile phones and possibly game consoles. Now, a handful of Horizon creators will get the possibility to sell virtual items and effects in the worlds they have created.

    Basically, creators will be able to sell anything, whether we are talking about a VIP section in their virtual worlds or just virtual items such as jewelry, or a special basketball, stated Meaghan Fitzgerald, who is the product marketing director for Horizon.

    In the US, participants will be able to earn money from a $10 million creator fund that Meta has recently set up in order to reward creators who have the most engaging worlds. And now, to further incentivize creators to use Horizon Worlds, Meta will be offering an “in-world purchases” system so creators can make money.

    But of course, Meta will be indeed taking a cut of the money that creators earn by selling virtual stuff in the metaverse. You may be wondering what exactly is that cut? Well, for Horizon purchases, Meta is taking a 25 percent cut of the percentage that’s left after a platform fee was applied.

    And that platform fee depends on the platform. For example, there are platform fees with a 30 percent cut, like Meta’s own Quest Store, and the creator will then be left with a little over half of the sale price. Put in simple terms, Meta will get 25% of the 70% left after the platform fee was applied.

    Vivek Sharma, Meta’s VP of Horizon, stated that the company thinks this is a pretty competitive rate in the market, and that other platforms should also be able to have their share. However, as The Verge rightfully reminds us, Meta was calling Apple’s 30% commission for App Store purchases too aggressive, but hey…

    So far, Horizon doesn’t have advertising, except for a recent Wendy’s theme world that was called… wait for it… “Wendyverse”. Apart from that, though, the focus is on monetization for creators, and not on ads right now. Fitzgerald does mention that ads would be an area they want to explore in the future, but as you can imagine, it’s better first to have people in the metaverse. And the best way to get users on there – is to have creators on there.

    Additionally, Meta is rolling out a bonus program to encourage creators to build out their world. It is a “goal-oriented bonus program”, and the bonuses will not be subject to any fees. The bonuses will be calculated based on the engagement of the creator’s world.

    Of course, not everything is allowed in there. Creators will need to follow the company’s VR conduct policy and not publish any content that’s prohibited in Horizon Worlds. If creators fail to follow the rules, they would be removed from the program.

    Horizon Worlds has so far hit 300,000 monthly users just for its few months of existence. So far, the company stated that 10,000 worlds have been created in the metaverse. And Meta plans to expand further, planning to bring Horizon Worlds to mobile phones later this year, and probably to game consoles too (but there, it is still in “early discussions”).

  • Meta seals partnership for 3D ads in step toward the metaverse

    Meta seals partnership for 3D ads in step toward the metaverse

    Meta Platforms will make it easier for brands to run three-dimensional ads on its Facebook and Instagram social media platforms through a new partnership with an eCommerce technology firm.

    The integration with VNTANA will allow brands to upload the 3D models of their products to Facebook and Instagram and easily convert them into ads, VNTANA said on Thursday in a press release.

    The move is a stepping stone into advertising in the metaverse, said VNTANA Chief Executive Ashley Crowder, referring to the futuristic idea of a collection of virtual worlds that can be accessed through devices such as headsets.

    Meta has staked its future on contributing to the building of the metaverse, which it has said could take up to a decade to be realized.

    Meta previously partnered with augmented reality (AR) companies Modiface and PerfectCorp to help beauty and cosmetic brands more easily run 3D and AR advertising.

    “The metaverse is basically the spatial internet,” Crowder said. “It is a whole world of possibility that starts with having the right 3D models of your products.”

    Facebook and Instagram users who see a 3D ad while browsing on their desktop or phone can interact with an image of a handbag, for instance, and move it around to view the item from all angles.

    “In a way, this offers a glimpse of what you might expect on future devices like AR glasses,” said Chris Barbour, director of augmented reality partnerships at Meta’s Reality Labs unit.

    Before VNTANA’s integration with Meta, advertisers would need to reformat 3D files to be compatible with Meta’s ad systems. Now, brands can use VNTANA to easily upload and convert the files into ads without technical expertise in working with 3D images, Crowder said.

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  • Ads on Facebook are starting to recover from Apple’s App Tracking Transparency effect

    Ads on Facebook are starting to recover from Apple’s App Tracking Transparency effect

    Recently, Facebook has been struggling with its market share as it predicted a $10 billion loss in revenue due to Apple’s App Tracking Transparency. However, the company might be starting to recover its ad revenue.

    For those of you who don’t know, with iOS 14.5, Apple introduced a feature dubbed App Tracking Transparency (ATT), which allowed iPhone and iPad users to opt-out of tracking of their activity for targeted ads. Before this change, apps could track you across websites in order to offer you relevant ads, but Apple’s feature prevented that. And, as you can imagine, a vast majority of iOS users decided they didn’t want to be tracked.

    Facebook was among the companies that vocally disagreed with ATT, accusing Apple of harming small businesses with the move. And, as we could see later, Facebook ended up suffering quite a lot from ATT, and its ad revenue dropped significantly.

    As nothing is without consequence in this world, Facebook’s share value then plummeted because investors started selling their Facebook stock.

    However, things seem to be starting to improve, at least according to some small businesses owners on Facebook or Instagram. Many small businesses are claiming that their ads are performing better than usual. The reason for this change is… surprise, surprise – unknown at the moment.

    Earlier, Meta stated that it is working on adapting its advertisement systems to the new situation, so they can maximize the performance of ads. At the same time, many advertisers are reportedly still skeptical, but Meta seems to be working hard to maintain the improvement.

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  • Vietnam taxed tech giants $218 mln in four years

    Vietnam taxed tech giants $218 mln in four years

    Vietnam taxed cross-border platforms like Google and Facebook some VND5 trillion ($218.53 million) in 2008-2021, Finance Minister Ho Duc Phoc informed lawmakers Wednesday.

    During the four-year period, Facebook was taxed VND1.69 trillion, Google, VND1.62 trillion, and Microsoft, VND577 billion, Phoc said.

    Last year, Vietnam earned VND1.32 trillion from taxing cross-border platforms, up 15 percent from 2020, he added.

    Vietnamese authorities have been calling for properly taxing tech giants like Facebook and Google, saying these companies account for around 70 percent of the online advertisement market, but use different means to evade tax.

    The General Department of Taxation said last year that Facebook, Google, Netflix, YouTube and other cross-border platforms were not fulfilling their tax obligations in Vietnam.

    Vietnam is also looking to tax online sellers, both on e-commerce platforms and social media, as e-commerce sales have been surging by double-digits in recent years.

  • If you receive a Facebook email for enabling Facebook Protect, don’t worry

    If you receive a Facebook email for enabling Facebook Protect, don’t worry

    If you receive an email or have recently received an email from Facebook telling you to enable Facebook Protect, or you will be locked out of your account, don’t worry. The email is indeed from Facebook, and it isn’t a phishing attempt, as many have thought. Facebook recently began sending such emails to some of its users. Facebook Protect is an additional level of security for higher-risk accounts like journalists and activists, and is currently available only for some users.

    In the email you received or may receive, Facebook requires you to activate Facebook Protect before/by March 17, 2022. Facebook further explains that it wants you to enable Facebook Protect because your account ‘has the potential to reach a lot more people than an average Facebook user,’ and, because of that, you might become a target for hackers. As the email says, “Hackers are often motivated to attack accounts that have a lot of followers, run important Pages, or hold some community significance.”

    Because many people thought that the Facebook Protect emails were phishing attempts, Nathaniel Gleicher, Meta’s head of security policy, confirmed in a tweet that the emails were indeed coming from Facebook. He said, “Confirming that it’s an enrollment notice from us.”

    As to why Facebook sends emails that make you enable Facebook Protect, Gleicher stated, “Because this is mandatory for highly targeted users like journalists, activists, etc., we’re also sending notices off-platform to the people who may not use the platform as often so they don’t miss the notice and lose access to Facebook.”

    The Facebook emails contain a link that, when clicked, takes you to the Facebook Protect setting. But, although it has been confirmed that these emails are coming from Facebook, you may not want to click on any links, just for safe measure. If you’ve received such an e-mail, you can go to the Facebook app and then go to Settings & Privacy. After that, click Settings and go to the settings within Facebook “Settings & Privacy,” then click “Settings,” and after that, “Security and Login.” Find Facebook Protect and click “Next,” and follow the on-screen instructions until the process is completed.

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  • New report shows how Meta was forced to change its ad tech on iOS because of Apple’s ATT

    New report shows how Meta was forced to change its ad tech on iOS because of Apple’s ATT

    As you may have heard, recently Meta (Facebook’s parent company) reported a substantial decrease in its revenue, and more specifically, a big 26% drop in revenue, a total of $250 billion, and a large part of this decrease is due to Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) feature, which changed the way ads work within iOS apps.

    Now, a new report from Recode dives deeper into how Meta has tried to find a workaround for iOS advertisement.

    Meta, upon the report of the decreased revenue, singled out Apple’s App Tracking Transparency as one of the things that affected it the most. App Tracking Transparency was announced back in June of 2020, and was released with iOS 14.5, and gave iPhone users the ability to opt-out of app tracking their internet behavior in order to deliver personalized ads.

    App tracking, however, is important to advertisers as they use your information to deliver ads relevant to your interests, and understandably, the more relevant the ad is to you, the easier it is for advertisers to make you buy the products.

    Apple’s ATT then made the information less relevant for users, and advertisers on Meta suffered from it. Nevertheless, Meta and many of its advertisers reportedly expect to see an increase in revenue this year, but it has become harder for them to advertise to iOS users.

    According to the report, Meta has decided to make up for the issue. It has created an “aggregated event measurement” workaround, which provides advertisers with access to metrics for a much larger audience while being denied individual users’ information. Pretty much, the info advertisers get is less personal, so the ads are less relevant to a specific iPhone or iPad user.

    On the other hand, the report underlines that Facebook also pushed selling products on its own apps, like digital storefronts on Instagram and Facebook, which is a plan laid out last spring just as Apple’s privacy changes went into effect. Facebook could generate revenue from those sales as well. However, despite that, the report indicates that Meta’s ads for iOS users will never be at the same level of efficiency as they were before ATT.

    We are left wondering what these changes might lead to in the future, but all we can do so far is wait and see.

    A couple of weeks ago, we reported on the exact toll Apple’s App Tracking Transparency feature cost social media giant Meta. Back when it published its initial revenue report, Meta’s stock dropped by $73.95 to finish that day at $249.05. And now, at the time of writing, Meta’s stock has gone even lower at $217.70.

    And it seems that Facebook’s issues will be continuing through this year. As we reported earlier, the company’s forecast for 2022 doesn’t seem to get much better, and it stated that there are headwinds from increased competition from other apps and social media platforms for people’s time and attention. Additionally, there has been a shift in engagement without its own apps towards video platforms such as Instagram Reels, but they monetize at lower rates than Feed and Stories. Basically, it is struggling to find ways to grow its business during these changing times.

    Unfortunately for Meta, it is looking at a possible cost of $10 billion just because of Apple’s App Tracking Transparency and users spending their time on Reels and finding other things to do than just sit for ages on Facebook.

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  • Texas sues Meta for using its facial recognition technology without Texans’ consent

    Texas sues Meta for using its facial recognition technology without Texans’ consent

    Meta once again needs to defend itself in a lawsuit. The state of Texas, represented by Attorney General Paxton, sues Meta for using its facial recognition technology, which is now shut down, to collect and use for profit the biometric data of Texans without their consent.

    According to Paxton, Meta gathered Texans’ biometric data without their consent ‘not hundreds, thousands, or millions of times—but billions of times,’ and all of these times, Meta violated Texas’ Capture or Use of Biometric Identifier Act and the Deceptive Trade Practices Act.

    In a statement, Paxton said, “Facebook will no longer take advantage of people and their children with the intent to turn a profit at the expense of one’s safety and well-being. This is yet another example of Big Tech’s deceitful business practices and it must stop. I will continue to fight for Texans’ privacy and security.”

    Also, in a statement, a spokesperson for Meta said, “These claims are without merit and we will defend ourselves vigorously.” Furthermore, Meta said that before the shut-down of the facial recognition technology, all users received a notice about the technology and had the choice to give their consent or not when using the facial recognition feature.

    In the past, Meta used its facial recognition technology to scan uploaded photos and tag users automatically. In November 2021, Meta ended the use of its facial recognition technology due to concerns about how it could be used in the future.

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  • Meta warns that it’s possible to shut down Facebook and Instagram in Europe

    Meta warns that it’s possible to shut down Facebook and Instagram in Europe

    Meta, formerly known as Facebook, has warned that it may need to shut down its Facebook, Instagram, and other products and services in Europe if it is unable to process user data on both US-based and Europe-based servers. The warning comes after a change in European laws requiring users’ data to be kept and processed on only European servers.

    In a report to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Meta stated that the data transfer between countries or regions is ‘critical’ to its ‘operation.’ Meta also shared its fear that if it’s unable to transfer data between the US and countries in Europe, it could impact the way it currently provides its services and its ability to target ads.

    Europe has Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) for international data transfers. As Meta stated in its report, in August 2020, it received a draft decision from the Irish Data Protection Commission (IDPC), which stated that Meta’s data transfers between the US and Europe are against the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and must be suspended.

    Although the decision by the IDPC was only a draft, Meta suspects that a final decision may be issued in the first half of 2022. According to the company, if it can’t rely anymore on the SCCs and if a new data transfer framework is not introduced, its fear will become a reality, and it won’t be able to offer many of its products in Europe, Facebook and Instagram included. This, like Meta said, ‘would materially and adversely affect’ its business and financial condition.

    At this moment in time, Meta’s warning is only a possible future, and it doesn’t mean it will ever happen. But let us know what you think. Do you think that Meta may indeed shut off its Facebook and Instagram platforms in Europe, or do you think that these are only empty words?

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  • Facebook stock takes historic dive, after Zuckerberg claims Apple cost him $10B

    Facebook stock takes historic dive, after Zuckerberg claims Apple cost him $10B

    Facebook’s parent company Meta is currently undergoing one of the biggest stock price drops in the company’s history. Meta’s shares plummeted by more than 23% over the past 24 hours—which will ultimately result in Meta’s market cap crashing down by $210 billion, to about $689 billion.

    This comes as a direct result of Mark Zuckerberg’s disappointing earnings report on Wednesday evening, which revealed that the company had fallen below its projected earnings estimates for the last quarter of 2021. As a consequence, the company is forecasting another low-earning quarter in 2022.

    According to Zuckerberg’s lengthy post, Apple is largely to blame for the blow to the company’s revenue.

    He directly called out Apple and its App Tracking Transparency policy in his report, claiming that the tech giant’s privacy-friendly update in iOS 14.5 is going to end up costing Meta $10 billion, as the company is currently rebuilding its entire ad infrastructure in order to better target iOS users going forward.

    “Next up is ads,” Zuckerberg began. “With Apple’s iOS changes and new regulation in Europe, there’s a clear trend where less data is available to deliver personalized ads.”

    “But people still want to see relevant ads,” he continued, “and businesses still want to reach the right customers. So we’re rebuilding a lot of our ads infrastructure so we can continue to grow and deliver high-quality personalized ads.”

    As part of this restructuring process, Meta has announced that it will be an increasing focus on Instagram Reels—which have been becoming increasingly popular with users’ decreasing attention spans—as well as other investments that may prove profitable in the long run. A huge part of that is Meta’s grand plans to revolutionize the internet by introducing the Metaverse.

    Zuckerberg also revealed that for the first time in history, Facebook has seen a visible decline of active users on the platform during the fourth quarter of 2021. Yet the company is holding on to the hope that things will take a turn for the better with the new ad infrastructure, as well as project Metaverse.

  • Another Apple Car engineer quits, this time, joining Meta

    Another Apple Car engineer quits, this time, joining Meta

    Okay, so far, we’ve had a lot of information about the reported turnover at Apple’s mysterious project for self-driving vehicles. Many engineers have reportedly left the project to join other firms. Now, AppleInsider reports about yet another Apple Car engineer leaving the company, and this time, he will be joining Meta (former Facebook).

    The long-rumored project for a self-driving car from Apple seems to be having a lot of setbacks recently, mainly due to losing engineering managers and other key staff and an overall quite consistent employee turnover.

    It seems this pattern is continuing in 2022. This time, it’s the head of software engineering of Apple Car, Joe Bass, who has reportedly left Cupertino to go join Meta. Joe Bass was the Lead Engineering Program Manager for Autonomous Systems over at Apple since the beginning of 2015. According to his LinkedIn profile, he has now left Apple for a new start.

    His new position is Director of Technical Program Management, Mixed Reality Technologies over at Meta (formerly Facebook). The departure of Bass comes after several other engineers did the same back in December, with a majority of them seemingly going to air-taxi startup Archer Aviation, and another similar company, Joby Aviation.

    Keep in mind that the Apple Car project is still just rumored, and has not had an official announcement. The most recent news about it is the report that the company is looking to announce its key partners for the project sometime this year. This information is coming from South Korean sources: it seems Cupertino has been looking into South Korean carmakers to possibly strike a deal with them for Apple Car components.

    This information seems to indicate Apple has plans to ship an Apple Car by 2025. The possible announcement of the partnerships could give us more information about the time frame in which we expect to see this ever-so-mysterious self-driving car. And from this high level of turnover, one can not help but assume things aren’t going exactly according to plan for the Apple Car.

    This image is a part of the newly-created Apple Car renders that we reported on earlier, coming from British car leasing firm Vanarama, and of course, they are based on patents filed by Apple plus previously released Apple devices.

    It is, indeed, a very early stage to know for sure if the Apple Car will look anything like the image shown above, but it looks cool, don’t you agree?

    There have been many people leaving and joining the supposed Apple Car project in recent months, especially in November and December of last year. Some of its key engineers have been leaving to join air taxi startup companies, while other ex-Tesla engineers have joined to take their place.

    Just to name a few, Eric Rogers, who was Apple’s chief engineer for radar systems for the project for the self-driving vehicle has left to go join Joby Aviation Inc, a flying taxi startup. Alex Clarabut, who was an engineering manager for the team’s battery systems group, has now joined Archer Aviation, another company working on air taxis.

    The third person who recently left Apple is Stephen Spiteri, who was a hardware engineering manager, and he has also gone ahead and joined Archer. The two flying taxis companies have confirmed the appointments.

    All these staff changes serve to show how many challenges the Cupertino tech giant is facing as it is expanding into an entirely new industry. Of course, building and selling a self-driving car represents a massive new sales opportunity, one of its famous “next big thing”. We will see how Apple will face the challenges coming with it.

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  • The FTC’s attempts at splitting up Meta are continuing

    The FTC’s attempts at splitting up Meta are continuing

    The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has been trying to break up Meta for quite some time now, due to alleged anti-competitive practices the company did: pretty much, the act of buying rising possible competitors Instagram and WhatsApp has been considered as anticompetitive by the FTC. It had filed a lawsuit last year, and the “amended and more detailed” version of it was now allowed to proceed.

    The documentation provided by CNN’s Brian Fung shows that the social media giant has again tried to dismiss the case; however, the judge didn’t agree with its argument and allowed the case to move forward.

    This lawsuit was initially filed back in December of 2020, and it indeed accused the social media giant of anti-competitive practices. According to the complaint, Facebook violated antitrust regulations with the purchase of Instagram and WhatsApp (which have been rising rivals to it) in an attempt to eliminate possible competition.

    Back in June, the complaint was dismissed by a federal court, and the main reason for this decision was the lack of evidence that Facebook is indeed a monopoly in its market. Despite the dismissal though, the FTC went ahead with a 3-2 vote to refile the complaint.

    As many of you may have probably heard so far, many regulators (not only in the United States but in Europe as well) have been scrutinizing tech giants for at least a couple of years now. The reason: supposed anti-competitive practices. And it’s not only Facebook but Google, as well as Apple, that have been under the radar of antitrust entities.

    Many of these antitrust regulations, research, proposals, or lawsuits are continuing for years. In some of the cases, tech giants have been found to behave in an anti-competitive manner, and of course, fined by commissions quite heavily.

    One of the more recent cases was involving Google vs the EU court, and the Mountain View tech giant ended up having to pay a fine of $2.8 billion. In this particular case, the fine was due to the fact Google had paid phone makers to have Google Search pre-installed on Android phones.

    Additionally, back in July, Google was ruled to stand trial for recording and disseminating private conversations of people who accidentally activated Google Assistant.

    On the other hand, both Apple and Google are currently being investigated for their alleged monopoly by a UK watchdog. In this case, we are talking about the mobile operating systems Android and iOS; for which the two companies have been alleged to hold a monopolistic position on the global market.

    Facebook is one of the big tech companies that US regulators are looking to split up, but it is not the only one. The effort to empower healthy competition (at least, according to the US regulators) could end up affecting all four big companies (Apple, Google, Facebook, and Amazon), and any of these might have to go against similar complaints that we have reported on above. This means that technically, US regulators might try to split up Amazon, Google, and Apple.

    Back in June last year, five bills were introduced aimed at these four tech giants, because of their domination in online shopping, search dominance, and entertainment. Basically, anti-trust practices. All of this comes to say that these tech companies have been having quite a hard time with regulators across the globe for their alleged monopolies over the mobile (or generally the tech) market.

    In summary, the tech giants are facing scrutiny all over the world. Australia and India have also aimed laws at reducing their monopolistic power.

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  • Meta’s Privacy Center enables Facebook users to learn more about their privacy settings

    Meta’s Privacy Center enables Facebook users to learn more about their privacy settings

    Meta has announced the Privacy Center, its latest feature where users of services like Facebook can learn how Meta collects their private information. In the Privacy Center, users will also be able to read Meta’s Data Policy and get additional information on how to use the privacy and security controls of the service. Furthermore, the Privacy Center will become Meta’s hub for all privacy and security settings the company has introduced over the years.

    Currently, the Privacy Center has five modules, and each of these modules offers guides and controls for a related privacy matter.

    The five modules are:

    • Security: For setting up two-factor authentication, updating other security settings, and getting additional information about your safety.
    • Sharing: For finding information on how to change the settings for your posts and how to use the Manage Activity tool.
    • Collection: For additional information on what data Meta collects and how to use tools like Access Your Information.
    • Use: For managing and receiving extra information about how Meta uses your data.
    • Ads: For managing the displayed ads through controls like Ad Preferences and for learning how the service decides what ads to show.

    At the moment, the Privacy Center is available only on the desktop version of Facebook to a limited number of users in the US. In the future, the Privacy Center will be accessible on the mobile version of Facebook as well. Meta also announced that it’s planning to roll out the Privacy Center to more users and to more of its apps. Although the Privacy Center currently has five modules, Meta will continue to add more modules and controls to it with time.

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  • The French data regulator fines Google and Facebook a total of $238 million

    The French data regulator fines Google and Facebook a total of $238 million

    Google and Meta, formerly known as Facebook, must now pay a $238 million combined fine to France. CNIL, France’s data regulator, fined both companies because they violated the EU’s privacy rules. Both tech giants have made it easier for users to accept cookies on their websites, but they have not made it as simple for users to reject the tracking cookies.

    CNIL stated that the sites: facebook.com, google.fr, and youtube.com offer immediate acceptance for tracking cookies only by tapping a button. However, these websites don’t offer a similar button for rejecting the cookies. Instead, they made it more difficult for users to refuse to be tracked by the websites.

    Making it easier to accept cookies than to refuse them, according to the CNIL’s restricted committee, affects the user’s freedom of consent. When a user visits a website, they want to find what they’re looking for as quickly as possible. By making the acceptance of the cookies easier than the refusal, Google and Meta influence the choice of the user in favor of consent.

    CNIL fined Google €150 million ($170 million) and Meta €60 million ($68 million). In addition to the fines, CNIL mandated that Google and Meta provide a way for French users to reject tracking cookies as easily as they would accept them. Both companies were given three months to comply with the mandate. If they do not comply with the order, both companies will have to pay 100 000 euros ($113 000) per day as a penalty.

    In a statement, Google said, “People trust us to respect their right to privacy and keep them safe. We understand our responsibility to protect that trust and are committing to further changes and active work with the CNIL in light of this decision under the ePrivacy Directive.”

    Meta also made a statement according to the CNIL’s decision, saying, “We are reviewing the authority’s decision and remain committed to working with relevant authorities. Our cookie consent controls provide people with greater control over their data, including a new settings menu on Facebook and Instagram where people can revisit and manage their decisions at any time, and we continue to develop and improve these controls.”

    The CNIL, France’s National Commission on Informatics and Liberty, is in charge of ensuring that the data privacy law is followed in the use of personal data in France.

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