Google this morning announced that it was acquiring Fitbit for $2.1 billion. Speculation that the company was up for sale started last month, and it’s now emerged that Facebook was also an interested suitor.
Some of the day’s biggest stories included a huge report about Google’s efforts with a “Pixel Watch,” new details on Android TV, as well as some news regarding Google Stadia’s popularity. In other news, Focals by North is getting a convenient new Showroom app, Alexa expands its language support, and more.
Facebook’s interest in AR smart glasses was telegraphed by Mark Zuckerberg at the company’s 2016 developer conference. A new report today reveals some details about Facebook’s “Orion” project and a possible time frame.
IFA 2019 is in full swing today with tons of big announcements, and we also got three major leaks for Google’s Pixel 4. In some of today’s smaller stories, Google is making it easier to get a vacation home, Facebook Dating hits the United States, and more.
A bipartisan push for a new US law could see companies like Google, Facebook and Amazon having to state exactly how much your data is worth.
Consumers would be better able to understand how much privacy they were sacrificing to use free services if the value of the data used by the companies was made explicit …
The effects of the Huawei ban by the US Government have been felt in some major ways, including the potential to completely lose Android as a platform. Now, a report states that Facebook has banned Huawei from pre-installing its applications.
Executives from YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and other social networks could face jail in Australia if they fail to promptly remove violent material from their platforms.
The Australian parliament passed new legislation in the wake of live-streamed footage from the terrorist attack in Christchurch …
YouTube says that in the hours after the terrorist attack in New Zealand, people were uploading copies of the shooter’s live-streamed video footage at the rate of one copy every second.
Facebook said that it automatically blocked 1.2 million copies at the point of upload, and removed another 300,000 copies …
Facebook’s Android app may not be the best-designed app available today, but it is one of the most used currently available. Now, Facebook is testing a redesign for its Android app that ditches the blue for an all-white theme.
A study of 34 of the most popular Android apps found that at least 20 of them are sending user data to Facebook without consent.
The data transmitted ranges from the innocuous to the sensitive – such as whether the user has children – and is likely to be illegal in the case of European citizens …
Back in April 2016, Facebook made waves by poaching Regina Dugan to lead its new Building 8 division. The social network wanted to create an experimental hardware group similar to what Google was doing with ATAP. Building 8 is now dead due to a hardware reorganization at Facebook.
When Facebook entered the smart speaker business last week, it was keen to stress that it understood potential concerns about the privacy of Facebook Portal and Portal+ devices.
The company said then that four forms of protection were employed …
Two weeks ago, Facebook announced that a flaw with its “View As” feature allowed hackers to compromise up to 50 million accounts. Today, the company is out with more specific details on the security breach and has shared exactly what information was stolen and for how many users.
Facebook says it has taken down hundreds of fake accounts with millions of followers in the run-up to the US midterm elections …
Since January, Facebook has been rumored to be developing a video conferencing device. Today, just ahead of Google announcing its own Assistant Smart Display, the social media network unveiled the Facebook Portal and Portal+.
Facebook’s efforts to compete head-on with Snapchat have been incredibly clear thanks to features like Stories. Now, the company is planning to revive its unpopular ‘Nearby Friends’ feature with a new Snapchat-like interface. While the Facebook location sharing feature has never been too popular, the company hopes this redesign could spur new interest.
One of the concerns raised by the recent Facebook hack was whether access tokens might have provided access to third-party apps. The company now says there is ‘no evidence’ that this has happened …
Just after confirming the controversial practice of using 2FA phone numbers to send targeted ads to Facebook users, the platform has discovered a flaw that’s left at least 50 million accounts compromised to attackers.
Update: Facebook shares have fallen 2% in pre-market trading, which would wipe $11B from the company’s market cap if unchanged by the time the market opens.
Instagram’s two founders, who have continued work on the app since it was acquired by Facebook six years ago, have announced that they are leaving Facebook to work on something new …
Facebook has announced that it has created a ‘war room’ to fight the spread of fake news in the run up to the US midterms, as well as elections in Brazil …
Facebook’s COO and Twitter’s CEO will be appearing before Congress today to defend their failure to prevent Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election, and to explain what they are doing to prevent state-sponsored interference in the November midterms.
Google was also asked to appear, but it seems unlikely to do so …
A state-sponsored disinformation campaign identified on Facebook and Twitter is significantly bigger than it first appeared, says a new report …
Google is one of more than a dozen tech giants meeting today to discuss countermeasures for state-sponsored disinformation campaigns on their platforms during the run-up to the 2018 midterm elections …
