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Instagram taps seller of fake likes with multi-million dollar lawsuit

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Instagram lawsuit
A Chrome extension can bring your hidden "Likes" out in the open.
Photo: Pixabay

Facebook is suing a New Zealand-based company for selling fake likes and follows to users of its photo-sharing app, Instagram.

The lawsuit, filed today in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, accuses the defendants of using different companies and websites to peddle bot-generated likes, views, and new followers, which violates Instagram’s terms of use along with U.S. computer fraud laws.

Facebook Assistant is taking on Siri and Alexa [Updated]

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Facebook Portal
The Facebook Portal smart display is getting a digital assistant with artificial intelligence.
Photo: Facebook

Facebook is going into the voice-driven digital assistant race. Its AI tech will go into the line of Facebook Messenger-driven smart displays this social networking/advertising company launched last fall, as well as other future devices.

Facebook could bring Messenger back to its main app

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Facebook Messenger unsend
It’s about time!
Photo: Facebook

Facebook could bring Messenger back to its main app as part of its strategy to merge all of its chat services into one.

Evidence of the change has been discovered in recent code. Facebook is yet to confirm the move, but it certainly looks like it is already making preparations.

Facebook admits hundreds of millions of passwords were exposed

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Facebook owns 4 of the top 10 apps of the past decade
The issues keep piling up for Facebook.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

It’s time to change your Facebook and Instagram passwords again.

Facebook revealed today that it unknowingly stored hundreds of millions of passwords in a readable format on its internal storage systems. There’s no information yet that the passwords were accessed by any nefarious people, but you should probably update yours, just in case.

Some of your favorite iOS apps are feeding your data to Facebook

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Facebook owns 4 of the top 10 apps of the past decade
Oh look, another Facebook controversy.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Deleting your Facebook account isn’t enough to stop some apps from sending deeply personal information about you to the social network.

The Wall Street Journal found a wide range of apps that send personal information to Facebook even if you don’t have an account. Health apps and real estate apps were discovered sending a lot of information to Facebook and the type of data might surprise you.

Apple pulls third-party SDKs from Shazam in latest update

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Apple acquisition meant that Shazam turned a profit in 2018
Apple acquisition meant that Shazam turned a profit in 2018
Photo: Apple

Apple has pulled all but one third-party SDK from Shazam in its latest update.

The move wipes out analytics firms, ad networks, open-source projects, and more — including Google AdMob, Facebook Ads, Amazon Ads, and DoubleClick. Only HockeyApp, a Microsoft platform for beta testing, is still available.

Instagram removes tool that let users see who’s ‘stalking’ them

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Instagram lawsuit
It just got harder to tell who's Insta-stalking you.
Photo: Pixabay

The Instagram viewers list — a popular feature for keeping tabs on who’s stalking you on the photo-sharing service — quietly disappeared overnight.

The move infuriated some Instagram users after they lost the ability to see the full list of who viewed their Stories after 24 hours. Users also can no longer see who viewed their Highlights, causing some to take to Twitter in anger.

Apple restores functionality to Google and Facebook’s internal apps

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Facebook owns 4 of the top 10 apps of the past decade
Apple broke Facebook and Google's internal apps this week.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Having apparently proved its point, Apple has restored its access to enterprise certificates for both Facebook and Google, essentially un-breaking their internal apps.

In a statement to the New York Times‘ Mike Isaac, Facebook confirmed that Facebook is currently “in the process” of returning its internal apps to working order. Google, meanwhile, confirmed to Bloomberg that it was, “working with Apple to fix a temporary disruption to some of our corporate iOS apps.”

Apple breaks Google’s internal apps for privacy violations

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Google
Apple is on a ban-spree!
Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac

Google’s internal apps have been completely disabled from running on iPhone’s and iPads today by Apple.

The move comes one day after Facebook’s internal apps suffered the same fate when Apple revoked the social network’s enterprise certificates that allowed them to install apps without going through the App Store. Without the certificates, Google is unable to test beta builds of its iOS apps.

Zuckerberg explains benefits of WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger merger

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facebook-logo-file
It won’t happen until 2020 at the earliest.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has confirmed plans to merge WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook Messenger — but says it probably won’t happen until 2020 at the earliest.

In a fourth-quarter earnings call this week, Zuckerberg also explained the reasons behind the plan, such as increased security with end-to-end encryption. Many questions still remain unanswered, however.

Apple just broke all of Facebook’s internal apps

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Facebook owns 4 of the top 10 apps of the past decade
Facebook owns 4 of the top 10 apps of the past decade
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Apple just dealt Facebook a serious blow in retaliation for the social network’s recently pulled VPN app that was paying teens to take all their data from phones.

Facebook’s internal iOS apps no longer work after Apple revoked the certifications need to install the apps on employee’s iPhones. Everything from early builds of Facebook, Messenger and Instagram won’t even open. Even simple tools like a lunch menu are currently broken.

Facebook will remove iOS app that paid users to ‘spy’ on them

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Facebook owns 4 of the top 10 apps of the past decade
Facebook previously ran into problems with Apple for data collection.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Facebook will shut down the iOS version of its Research app after a TechCrunch report revealed how it was paying users aged 13-35 to install a VPN, allowing it to gather data on their phone and web activity.

This follows an incident last August in which Apple asked Facebook to remove its Onavo VPN from the App Store, since it was violating Apple’s data collection policies.

iPhone is tech reporter’s first line of defense against data vampires

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iPhone data privacy
Data privacy comes with the price.
Photo: Leander Kahney/Cult of Mac

The New York Times investigative reporter Nick Confessore has covered data privacy long enough to make the iPhone his smartphone of choice.

His take on data-hungry Android phones is damning enough to make anybody switch to an iPhone. He also offers other tips for keeping your data as safe as possible these days. Unfortunately, that’s not very safe at all, according to Confessore.

FAANG stocks are bouncing back — except Apple

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apple earnings
"I think what Tessa’s saying is that you haven’t bounced back."
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

FAANG stocks suffered a massive dip before the holidays, wiping out $1 trillion in combined value. Now they’re bouncing back — with one notable Apple-shaped exception.

While Facebook, Google, Netflix and Amazon have all gained between 10.7 percent and a massive 50 percent since Christmas Eve, Apple is severely lagging. It’s up just 5.5 percent over the same period.

Apple puts big Facebook critic in charge of privacy practices

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Apple
Apple is serious about keeping your personal data safe.
Photo: Apple

One of Facebook’s biggest critics is teaming up with Apple, which as it turns out, has also been one of Facebook’s biggest critics lately.

Former Facebook employee Sandy Parakilas has reportedly been hired by Apple. Instead of levying criticism at Facebook though, Parakilas has reportedly been hired to help Apple examine its own privacy policies.

Apple trolls Google with giant billboard at CES 2019

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Apple
Apple is serious about keeping your personal data safe.
Photo: Apple

CES 2019 bugApple’s not letting CES 2019 pass without making its presence felt.

The biggest companies in tech have descended on Las Vegas this week for CES 2019. Apple is one of the few holdouts not in attendance but that hasn’t stopped the company from sending a huge message to its competitors and customers by posting a giant billboard above the city of Las Vegas.

How Facebook Messenger ‘unsend’ feature works

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And you thought all those Facebook messages were secret. Sucker!
You can unsend a message, but you can’t make people unsee it.
Photo: kropekk_pl/Pixabay CC

There was a lot of confusion after Facebook revealed last week that users would soon be able to unsend comments made in Messenger. With this feature starting to roll out, the details of how it will work have come to light.

Turns out it’s not a magic wand that will let you take back what you just said to your now ex-girlfriend.

Apple joins opposition to Trump transgender policy

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President Trump: Apple encryption could protect ‘criminal minds’
Trump wants transgenders to be redefined out of existence.
Photo: Bloomberg

Some of the biggest company’s in the country have come out in open opposition to transgender policy changes proposed by US president Donald Trump.

Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Google are among 50 companies that signed a letter condemning Trump’s alleged plans to limit the definition of gender to birth anatomy. The companies — representing over $2.4 trillion in annual revenue — say that what harms transgender people harms their companies.

How to stop yourself wasting time on Twitter and Facebook

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twitter bird screen time metaphor
This little birds is an easy metaphor for wasting time on Twitter.
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

Today’s tip uses iOS 12’s Screen Time feature to stop yourself from wasting your life on Twitter and/or Facebook (or any other app or website). Maybe you obsess over a golfing forum, or you have a Fortnite habit you just can’t shake.

If so, Screen Time can protect you from yourself. Let’s see how.

Score a social media marketing certification for under 20 bucks [Deals]

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Take a deep dive into social media marketing, earning certification that'll boost your resume and marketability.
Take a deep dive into social media marketing, earning certification that'll boost your resume and marketability.
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

Making money online means knowing how to leverage social media. Whether you’re trying to get an idea out, elevate a brand, or sell a product, social media marketing is essential. So this massively discounted social media certification course is a must-see.

Facebook wants to add a camera to your TV

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Facebook Portal
The Portal is Facebook’s first video calling product.
Photo: Facebook

Facebook is allegedly planning to take on Apple TV and Amazon’s Fire TV with a new set top box of its own.

The social network just debuted its new Portal smart speaker earlier this month and according to a new report its smart TV box could pack some similarly creepy features.

How to check if your Facebook account was hacked

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FAcebook
Some of the alerts you might see in the Facebook app.
Photo: Facebook

30 million accounts on Facebook were recently hacked with attackers gaining access to highly sensitive personal information.

The FBI is investigating the hacking an has asked the company not to reveal who was behind it. Facebook originally disclosed the hack to the public two weeks ago saying 50 million accounts were compromised. That number has now been reduced to just 30 million, but the amount of data stolen makes it the worst attack in Facebook’s history.

Instagram wants to tap out on infinite scrolling

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Instagram lawsuit
A Chrome extension can bring your hidden "Likes" out in the open.
Photo: Pixabay

The days of scrolling through your entire Instagram feed may soon be coming to an end.

Instagram is reportedly testing a new feature that would allow users to move through posts by tapping on the screen. The feature works similar to the way you currently navigate through Stories and could make people spend even more time in the app.