AI + ML Zuck defends monitoring employees to win AI race in purported leaked audio Limping Llama model needs a crutch made of surveillance tools
Networks Facebook went down for about three hours, interrupting your poking and Meta's ads business Go outside and smell some flowers
On-Prem US tech giants open their wallets for AI-friendly politicians Rush is on to push forward sympathetic candidates from both parties ahead of midterms
On-Prem Meta to pour the GDP of Kenya into AI infrastructure push in 2026 Zuck bets big on 'personal superintelligence' with $135B splurge
Off-Prem Zuck forms Meta Compute to pave the planet with 'hundreds of gigawatts' of AI datacenters No wonder he's going nuclear
Software Meta knows how bad its sites are for kids, say lawyers Multiple internal studies allegedly buried by the company
Security Phishers try to lure 5K Facebook advertisers with fake business pages One company alone was hit with more than 4,200 emails
Off-Prem Meta can't afford its $600B love letter to Trump The Zuck better hope his finance bros have deep pockets and a whole lotta patience to pull this off
Personal Tech Meta calls €200M EU fine over pay-or-consent ad model 'unlawful' 'Deserves fair compensation for the valuable and innovative services'? Which ones are those then?
Personal Tech Google's email spoofed by cunning phisherfolk who re-used DKIM creds PLUS: Malware developers adopt Node.js; US disinformation warriors disbanded; Gig worker accounts for sale; and more
Personal Tech Meta blocked Distrowatch links on Facebook while running Linux servers Popular community site became unmentionable – the irony is thick enough to compile
Personal Tech EU stings Meta for nearly a billion bucks over competition-trampling Facebook Marketplace Mark Z does not like this
Networks Former Facebook lobbyist joins UK comms regulator as non-exec director Who better to watch the watchmen?
Personal Tech It's true, social media moderators do go after conservatives Because they're most likely to share crappy misinformation online
AI + ML Zuck dreams of personalized AI assistants for all – just like email A model finetuned on your social media profile? What could possibly go wrong?
Bootnotes Trump threatens to send Meta's Mark ‘Zuckerbucks’ to prison if reelected president If you were wondering how the US White House race is going in 2024, it's going like this...
Software Appeals court reanimates lawsuit accusing Meta of hiring bias against US citizens Software techie claims he was snubbed because he wasn't on an H-1B
Personal Tech Australian billionaire wins right to sue Facebook in the US over scam ads Andrew Forrest has spent five years railing against promos that falsely claim he's found the route to crypto riches
Networks Researchers find Meta's withdrawal of misinformation tool hard to swallow If the new system is so good, why not onboard everyone who accessed the old system?
AI + ML Meta faces multiple complaints in Europe over plans to train AI on user data Opt out, if you can, or prepare for your posts to be ingested
Databases Graph database shows Biden outspends Trump in social media ad war But incumbent is mentioned a lot more in attack material
Security EU tells Meta it can't paywall privacy Platforms should not confront users with 'binary choice' over personal data use
Personal Tech Meta accused of snarfing people's Snapchat data via traffic decryption I ain't afraid of no ghosts, but in this case...
Security How do you lot feel about Pay or say OK to ads model, asks ICO And does it count as consent?
Personal Tech Trump, who tried kicking TikTok out of the US, says boo to latest ban effort Florida man would rather have app stay so as not to give gift to 'true enemy of the people' ... Zuckerberg
Security We're not Meta support: State AGs tell Zuck to fix rampant account takeover problem 'We refuse to operate as customer service representatives'
Networks World-plus-dog booted out of Facebook, Instagram, Threads Millions of Meta addicts suddenly cried out in terror and were silenced
Personal Tech Meta kills Facebook News in the US and Australia So much for the 'commitment to support news organizations' made in just 2020
AI + ML Untangling Meta's plan for its homegrown AI chips, set to actually roll out this year So that's where all the laid-off semiconductor engineers went!
Off-Prem Cory Doctorow has a plan to wipe away the enshittification of tech It's not just you – things really are getting worse
Personal Tech Study: Thousands of businesses just love handing over your info to Facebook Mmm, Zuck up that data
Bootnotes Zuckerberg hunkers down in Hawaii to wait out apocalypse $270M secret building project includes 5,000 sq ft bunker
Applications Meta starts rolling out end-to-end encryption in Facebook Messenger Surfing the cryptographic wave
Personal Tech Meta killing off Instagram, Messenger cross-platform chatting How could you, Mark? Oh, right - gotta avoid those pesky EU gatekeeper rules
Personal Tech Europe bans Meta from using personal data to target ads EU folks have no chill, not that we're complaining
Security Meta's ad-free scheme dares you to buy your privacy back, one euro at a time If you're in the EU, EEA, or Switzerland
Legal 33 AGs sue Meta for 'exploitative and harmful acts' against American children Cracks down on the so-called four-pronged process of luring the youth
AI + ML Meta watchdog sticks a probe into Facebook rules after fake Biden vid allowed to stay Doctored video featured vile false slur, but it wasn't a deepfake ... so that's OK, then?
Offbeat Zuck dives deeper into the metaverse, dragging Snoop Dogg along for ride Meta's annual conference sees the company playing catch-up to OpenAI but pulling ahead of Apple
Software Zuck uses India visit to increase Meta's transactional traction WhatsApp gets better at taking money and so does Meta with verified accounts for biz
Personal Tech Norway court upholds miniscule fine against Meta for flouting privacy rules Targeted ads require data usage consent under EU regulations
AI + ML How to ask Facebook's Meta to not train its AI models on some of your personal info Hey, stop Zucking up my data!
Software One weekend's TwitX chaos brings threats from Japan; indemnity promises for users; prominent account seizures Plus: Musk in 'we will fund your legal bill' promise
Legal Australian court orders Meta subsidiaries to pay $14 million over data use Adverts said Onavo Protect user data would be kept a secret – just didn't say from whom
Personal Tech After Meta hands over DMs, mom pleads guilty to giving daughter abortion pills Facebook messages, obtained via valid warrant, help make case against women
Personal Tech Meta's data-hungry Threads skips over EU but lands in Britain Plus: Facebook corp loses appeal on crossing data streams in Germany
Security Cops told: Er, no, you need a wiretap order if you want real-time Facebook snooping Privacy: It's a Jersey Thing
Personal Tech Meta forced to sell Giphy, takes 87% loss in Shutterstock deal Zuck and Co face Brexit bonus
Personal Tech That Meta GDPR fine is €1.2B. Plus biz must stop sending EU data to US Zuckercorp says the EU-US Data Privacy Framework will pass before its penalties enacted, so why worry?
Personal Tech Meta wheels out Deloitte to plug the metaverse. Is anyone actually convinced? All these analysts know is that their gut says... maybe
Offbeat Meta CEO doesn't Zuck at Brazilian jiu-jitsu, apparently 'Silent killer' Mark bags himself top medals in tournament
Security Strike three: FTC says Meta still failing to protect user privacy Deals between Zuckercorp + FTC in 2012 and 2020 are being ignored, so time to get stricter, says commish
Personal Tech Facebook puts a price on privacy for US users and it's not enough to buy a cup of coffee Coughs up $725 million to settle class action that covers 244 million users
Offbeat Meta's Zuckerberg paid $27M in 'other' compensation for 2022 The average pay of how many human employees = one humanoid CEO? 91
Personal Tech Meta chops another 10,000 employees, closes 5,000 vacancies The Year of Efficiency may also include sending engineers back into the office
Personal Tech Four top euro carriers will use phone numbers to target ads and annoy Google & Facebook European Commission satisfied joint venture won't create competitive problems for locals
Legal Meta sees off another logo complaint from blockchain player Dfinity What would possess a nonprofit to go after Mark Zuckerberg's empire?
Applications Cedars-Sinai hospital's website shares patient info with Meta, lawsuit claims Facebook parent could then offer that data to other advertising clients, complaint alleges
Personal Tech Meta, which pays for web scraping, sues to stop web scraping Social ad behemoth insists what it does it okay ... and what others do is not
Personal Tech Former Facebooker alleges Meta drained users' batteries to test apps You are the product
Security Long data privacy notices aren't foolproof, Euro watchdog tells Meta As Meta reels from €390 million EU fine, the 'personalized ads' case might not be over, Max Schrem’s legal group says
Security Ireland fines Meta $414m for using personal data without asking Facebook, Insta told to pay up, make changes to data slurping process within 3 months
Personal Tech Computing's big question for 2023: How many more questions can we endure? The answers aren't much fun either
Off-Prem Meta freezes development of $1.5B Alabama datacenter pending redesign More AI is the answer to all our woes, Meta CTO says
Off-Prem Meta axes two Danish datacenters amid shift to AI infrastructure Cancelled bit barns the latest casualties following mass layoffs last month
Personal Tech Using personal info for ads without consent puts Meta in EU's gunsights Schrems strikes again
Personal Tech Facebook approved 75% of ads threatening US election workers Not a good look for Meta's content moderation team
Personal Tech Meta fined $275m after data-scraping fiasco leaked 533m Facebook users' profiles Irish eyes aren't smiling
Legal Meta scores $200k default win against alleged peddler of Instagram Likes Manipulating users' feelings on a social media platform? That's our job!
Personal Tech Quest VR glasses back on sale in Germany – but watchdog has eye on Meta Goggles unhooked from Facebook login, but officials still watching for antitrust abuse
Research Meta links US military to fake social media influence campaigns Didn't say they were good, though – covert ops apparently got 'little to no engagement' from targets
Offbeat Feel Luckey, punk? Oculus designer builds VR murder headset The metaverse is shaping up to be such an inviting place
Personal Tech Twitter layoffs were bad but Meta's mass ejections could take the cake Just in time for the holidays, a bunch of firing talk to worry Facebook crew
Software Microsoft revising licenses and prices in Korea and Japan, won't say why PLUS: Tencent's edgy JV; US/China space spat; Facebook's India boss bails to join Snap; and more
On-Prem Meta thirsts for desert conditions in datacenter water quest Finally testing out the honesty of that one engineer who always says: 'It's not the heat, it's the humidity'
Systems Meta wants to sweat its servers for longer – at a cost of $60b Even as the ad market chills and share price slumps
Personal Tech Finance watchdog warns of long-term risk Big Tech poses to competition FAGA's interest in payments and lending services has UK's Financial Conduct Authority's attention
Off-Prem What's up with WhatsApp? Messaging platform suffers outage in the UK Massive spike in user reports on DownDetector, no word on cause
Personal Tech Shareholders slam Zuckerberg's 'terrifying' $100b+ Metaverse experiment Start with dumping a fifth of staff, capping that VR capex, firm urges
Personal Tech Meta gives up fight to get $400m Giphy buy approved Facebook to dump GIF super-gallery after just enough pestering from UK
Legal Meta mad as hell over allegations it let Indian politicians block content Local outlet claims to have insider docs that prove takedown powers. Meta says they're fake. And around and around they go
Security Biden's Privacy Shield 2.0 order may not satisfy Europe Also, Albania almost called in NATO over cyber attacks, and Facebook warns of account-stealing mobile apps
Software Don't mind Facebook, just putting its own browser in its Android app Totally not for data collection
Cyber-crime Meta busts first Chinese campaign prodding US midterms Russian cybercriminals were also caught targeting Europe with anti-Ukraine messages
Personal Tech Meta accused of breaking the law by secretly tracking iPhone users Ad goliath reckons complaint is meritless – but it would, wouldn't it?
Software To preserve Earth's treasures, digital silence is golden There are beautiful, undisturbed places in the world. You do not have to catch 'em all
Security Shape-shifting cryptominer savages Linux endpoints and IoT Also, Authorities seize WT1SHOP selling 5.8m sets of PII, The North Face users face tough security hike
Security Meta disbands Responsible Innovation team, spreads it out over Facebook and co Still unclear: Were members just screaming into a void for the past few years?
Personal Tech Meta found guilty of flouting Washington political ad laws – again Hundreds of 'intentional' violations could cost Zuck and Co $30k each
Legal Facebook deliberately took down Australian government pages during pay-for-news negotiations: report
Legal Australian court finds Facebook 'divorced from reality' as it tried to define doing business down under
Security Privacy is for paedophiles, UK government seems to be saying while spending £500k demonising online chat encryption
Networks It takes more clicks to reject their cookies than accept them, so France fines Facebook and Google over €200m
Legal Facebook files challenge to UK Giphy buyout ban by complaining CMA was 'unfair' and 'irrational'
Security Facebook expands bug bounty program to include scraping attacks, two years after it was scraped – hard
Personal Tech Facebook slapped with an eyepopping $150B lawsuit for spreading hate speech against Rohingya refugees
Personal Tech Kremlin names the internet giants it will kidnap the Russian staff of if they don't play ball in future
Personal Tech 'We are not people to Mark Zuckerberg, we are the product' rages Ohio's Attorney General in Facebook lawsuit
Bootnotes Still reeling from the Great Facebook Blackout of 2021? Turns out Zuck is not the worst offender
Applications Here's a couple who deserve each other: Facebook links Workplace enterprise offering to Microsoft Teams
Personal Tech Apple's anti-ad-tracking iPhone feature took a '$10bn' chunk out of social network revenues
Networks Did you know there is an Oculus for Business? Make that 'was' – because Facebook has canned it after two years
Personal Tech Zuckerberg wants to create a make-believe world in which you can hide from all the damage Facebook has done
Personal Tech First, stunning whistleblower leaks. Now a shareholder lawsuit lands on Zuckerberg's desk
Legal Facebook fined £50m in UK for 'conscious' refusal to report info and 'deliberate failure to comply' during Giphy acquisition probe
Offbeat Facebook may soon reveal new name – we're sure Reg readers will be more creative than Zuck's marketroids
Personal Tech Allegations of favoring visa holders over US workers for jobs cost Facebook just 4 hours of annual profit
Bootnotes Facebook posts job ad for 10,000 'high-skilled' roles to 'build the metaverse' – and they'll all be based in the EU
Networks Facebook rendered spineless by buggy audit code that missed catastrophic network config error
Personal Tech Facebook far too consumed by greed to make itself less harmful to society, whistleblower tells Congress
Networks We have some sad news about Facebook. It has returned to the internet after six-hour mega outage
Security Sir Tim Berners-Lee and the BBC stage a very British coup to rescue our data from Facebook and friends
SaaS Salesforce should rename its Dreamforce conference to Feverdreamforce because this is getting ridiculous
Software Facebook building 'on-demand executable file format' that self-inflates using homebrew compression
Legal Search 'middle finger' on Giphy: Basically Facebook's response to UK competition concerns over merger
SaaS Element's latest bridge for Matrix: 'All the good stuff from WhatsApp, without the less good Facebook stuff'
Security UK.gov is launching an anti-Facebook encryption push. Don't think of the children: Think of the nuances and edge cases instead
Legal Facebook used facial recognition without consent 200,000 times, says South Korea's data watchdog
Security Facebook sat on report that reveals most-shared post for months was questionable COVID story
Networks The data must flow! Facebook and Google funding Apricot – a 12,000-kilometre sub cable across South-East-Asia
Personal Tech Once again, Facebook champions privacy ... of its algorithms: Independent probe into Instagram shut down
Personal Tech Perhaps regretting those Instagram, WhatsApp acquisitions, UK watchdog suggests Facebook offloads GIF haven Giphy
Systems Tick-tock, Facebook: Not a reference to that short vid horsepuckey but a literal open-source timekeeper
Personal Tech Facebook takes bold stance on privacy – of its ads: Independent transparency research blocked
