WhatsApp Clarifies It's Not Giving All Your Data To Facebook

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: WhatsApp has published a new FAQ page to its website outlining its stances on user privacy in response to widespread backlash over an upcoming privacy policy update. The core issue relates to WhatsApp's data-sharing procedures with Facebook, with many users concerned an updated privacy policy going into effect on February 8th will mandate sharing of sensitive profile information with WhatsApp's parent company. That isn't true -- the update has ...
Tags: Facebook, Instagram, Tech, Eu, Signal, Facebook It, Facebook We, Bosworth, Cathcart, Andrew Boz Bosworth, Adam Mosseri, Will Cathcart, Facebook AR VR

One of Mark Zuckerberg's top lieutenants at Facebook gave 4 tips to maximize your career – here's how you can write a 'personal API'

Andrew "Boz" Bosworth, vice president of augmented and virtual reality at Facebook, has explained how employees from all walks of life can create their own "Application Programming Interfaces" (APIs). Using a simple analogy from computer science, Bosworth's idea is for employees to gain a greater understanding of themselves and thereby maximize their own usefulness. Writing on his personal blog Wednesday, he explained four simple ways in which employees can do this. These include explicitly de...
Tags: Apple, Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, Trends, Donald Trump, Andrew Bosworth, Trump, Bosworth, Boz, Andrew Boz Bosworth, Visit Business Insider, BuzzFeed News Bosworth

Facebook is the reason Trump got elected, says Facebook exec who ran advertising during the 2016 election, 'but not for the reasons anyone thinks' (FB)

During the 2016 US presidential election, the Russian government used Facebook and other social networks to influence the election in favor of Donald Trump. Facebook and the Trump campaign have both downplayed that influence in the years since. However, in a Facebook internal memo that was leaked to the New York Times this week, Facebook exec Andrew Bosworth said, "Was Facebook responsible for Donald Trump getting elected? I think the answer is yes." Bosworth was in charge of Facebook advertis...
Tags: Facebook, Russia, US, Trends, New York Times, Donald Trump, Andrew Bosworth, Trump, Bosworth, Andrew Boz Bosworth, Hillary -LSB- Clinton, Donald Trump Facebook, Facebook Exec, Brad Parscale, Parscale, Period Bosworth

Facebook exec Andrew Bosworth warns fellow employees against using their power to stop Trump's re-election (FB)

Facebook executive Andrew Bosworth has warned employees against trying to use the social network to prevent Trump's re-election. In an internal memo leaked to The New York Times, Bosworth said he "desperately" didn't want Trump to win in 2020 but that the company shouldn't try and stop him. Doing so would endanger democracy and turn Facebook into "the thing we fear," he wrote. Bosworth also compared Facebook to "sugar," arguing that it's fine in moderation but that users must take responsibili...
Tags: Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, UK, Russia, US, America, Trends, New York Times, Nazi, Donald Trump, Hillary, Kraft, Signal, Andrew Bosworth, Trump

Facebook is building an operating system so it can ditch Android

Facebook doesn’t want its hardware like Oculus and Portal to be at the mercy of Google because they rely on its Android operating system. That’s why Facebook has tasked a co-author of Microsoft’s Windows NT named Mark Lucovsky with building the social network an operating system from scratch, according the The Information’s Alex Heath. “We really want to make sure the next generation has space for us” says Facebook’s VP of hardware Andrew ‘Boz’ Bosworth. “We don’t think we can trust the marke...
Tags: Apple, Google, Android, Social, TC, Gadgets, Mobile, Gaming, Facebook, Apps, Wearables, Mark Zuckerberg, Hardware, Microsoft, Tech, Tim Cook

10 things in tech you need to know today

Good morning! This is the tech news you need to know this Monday. Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg gave an unconvincing speech to a conference in Munich about privacy, just at the point she needs to sound sincere for regulators.Sandberg talked about how Facebook needed to do better, and its commitment to stopping election interference and abuse, but audience members described her comments as rehearsed. Huawei CEO Ren Zhengfei warned of job losses thanks to global fears about the firm's equipment. ...
Tags: Google, Amazon, Facebook, China, Germany, Disney, Trends, Earth, Netflix, Munich, Hulu, Huawei, Sheryl Sandberg, Alexa, Accel, Sequoia

Facebook employees were caught writing 5-star Amazon reviews for its Portal device, and now they must take them down

Facebook has seemingly confirmed that employees left five-star reviews for its new Portal video-chat device on Amazon. The reviews were first spotted by New York Times tech journalist Kevin Roose. Facebook executive Andrew "Boz" Bosworth tweeted saying that Facebook had not asked employees to leave good reviews, and that it will ask the employees to remove them. Facebook employees have been caught leaving glowing reviews on Amazon for Facebook's new video-chat device. Facebook released the Po...
Tags: Amazon, Facebook, Trends, New York Times, Roose, Andrew Boz Bosworth, Kevin Roose, Facebook Portal, Amazon for Facebook, Amazon New York Times, Facebook s AR

Facebook endured a staggering number of scandals and controversies in 2018 — here they all are (FB)

Facebook has had a truly tumultous 2018. The company lurched from scandal to crisis, from spreading genocide-fuelling hate speech in Myanmar to the Cambridge Analytica debacle. Business Insider has rounded up the Silicon Valley tech giant's dozens of scandals over the last 12 months. Mark Zuckerberg kicked off 2018 with a promise: He was going to fix Facebook. The billionaire chief executive is famous for his often-wacky yearly challenges — build a robot butler! Visit all 50 states! Only eat ...
Tags: Google, Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, Trends, Un, Myanmar, Silicon Valley, George Soros, Soros, Boz, Andrew Boz Bosworth, Cambridge Analytica, Brian Acton, World Economic Forum in Davos Facebook

Internal emails show Mark Zuckerberg saying what's good for the world is not necessarily what's good for Facebook

What's good for the world isn't the same as what's good for Facebook, CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a leaked email. The British Parliament released a trove of confidential internal emails from the social networking giant on Wednesday. The documents provide an unprecedented window into Facebook's ruthless approach to growth. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg once privately made a stark admission: What's good for the world isn't necessarily what's good for Facebook. On Wednesday, the UK Parliament re...
Tags: Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, UK, California, Trends, Silicon Valley, Parliament, Jeff Bezos, Signal, Sheryl Sandberg, Zuckerberg, Facebook In, Boz, Andrew Boz Bosworth

Facebook reorganizes Oculus for AR/VR’s long-haul

Facebook is again looking to whip Oculus into shape for its 10-year journey towards making virtual reality mainstream. According to two sources, Facebook reorganized its AR and VR team this week from a divisional structure focused around products to a functional structure focused around technology areas of expertise. While no one was laid off, the change could eliminate redundancies by uniting specialists so they can iterate towards long-term progress rather than being separated into groups d...
Tags: Apple, Social, TC, Mobile, Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, Hardware, La, Samsung, Tech, Xiaomi, Htc, Oculus, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Magic Leap

Reddit's former product chief says he made the world 'a worse place' in his pursuit of growth at all costs

Former Reddit head of product Dan McComas told New York magazine that he believes his time at the internet forum "made the world a worse place." McComas said a relentless pursuit of growth has led to user safety and wellbeing being sacrificed. He also criticised Twitter and Discord, and has "no hope" that these platforms can ever be free from abuse. Former Reddit product head Dan McComas gave New York magazine a bracingly honest account of his time at the internet forum. McComas said growth t...
Tags: Facebook, New York, Navy, Trends, Reddit, New York Magazine, Andrew Boz Bosworth, Jason Citron, Dan McComas, McComas, Imzy, Heather Heyer, James Alex Fields, Charlottesville Unite the Right, Reddit McComas

Facebook poisons the acquisition well

Who should you sell your startup to? Facebook and the founders of its former acquisitions are making a strong case against getting bought by Mark Zuckerberg and Co. After a half-decade of being seen as one of the most respectful and desired acquirers, a series of scandals has destroyed the image of Facebook’s M&A division. That could make it tougher to convince entrepreneurs to sell to Facebook, or force it to pay higher prices and put contractual guarantees of autonomy into the deals. WhatsA...
Tags: Google, TC, Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, Instagram, Tech, Eu, Whatsapp, Harvard, Hillary Clinton, David Marcus, Xiaomi, Vr, Oculus, Kevin Systrom, Mike Krieger

Why Instagram’s founders are resigning: independence from Facebook weakened

Facebook promised Instagram autonomy, but reduced it over time leading to today’s bombshell revelation. Eight years after launching Instagram and six years after selling it to Facebook, Instagram co-founders CEO Kevin Systrom and CTO Mike Krieger are leaving the company, according to The New York Times. The founders apparently did not give a reason for their departure when they informed the company today that they’re resigning and that they’ll depart in the next few weeks. But according...
Tags: Social, TC, Facebook, Apps, Mark Zuckerberg, Instagram, Stanford, Tech, Snapchat, Harvard, The New York Times, Talent, Kevin Systrom, Mike Krieger, TechCrunch, Cto

Facebook's top security exec called for huge changes to solve the company's problems in a leaked memo (FB)

Facebook's security boss Alex Stamos called on Facebook to make some major changes in the wake of its string of scandals in March 2018. BuzzFeed News has published an internal memo in which the exec argues that the company needs to collect less user data and listen to people's concerns about it being "creepy." Alex Stamos, Facebook's head of security, called for radical overhaul in how Facebook operates in a leaked memo from March 2018, as the company reeled from a chain of ugly scandals. In...
Tags: Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, Yahoo, Trends, BuzzFeed News, PSC, Stamos, Alex Stamos, Andrew Boz Bosworth, Alex Stamos Facebook

Facebook's biggest product event of the year kicks off Tuesday — here's everything we're expecting to see (FB)

Get ready for feedfull of updates and announcements from Facebook. The social network' annual developers' conference, F8, kicks off on Tuesday in San Jose, Calif. There's likely to be lots of talk about VR, AR, video games, and of course, data security--an issue that Facebook is still tangled up in after trying to regain users' trust in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Here's what to expect at this year's big event:SEE ALSO:  The conference is largely geared toward software de...
Tags: Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, Samsung, Trends, Capitol Hill, Zuckerberg, SAN JOSE Calif, Alex Stamos, Andrew Boz Bosworth, Cambridge Analytica, Facebook Spaces, Facebook Scale, Frontier of Social VR

The Disturbing High Modernism of Silicon Valley

A Revealing Memo A couple weeks ago, BuzzFeed leaked a memo written by Facebook VP Andrew “Boz” Bosworth in the summer of 2016. It contained the following controversial passage: “[Connecting people] can be bad if they make it negative. Maybe it costs a life by exposing someone to bullies. Maybe someone dies in a terrorist attack coordinated on our tools. And still we connect people. The ugly truth is that we believe in connecting people so deeply that anything that allows us to connect more peo...
Tags: Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, College, Uncategorized, Silicon Valley, Steven Pinker, Zuckerberg, Stalin, Scott, Boz, Andrew Boz Bosworth, Pinker, James Scott

Top Facebook Executive Defended Data Collection In 2016 Memo, Warned That Facebook Could Get People Killed

An anonymous reader quotes a report from BuzzFeed: On June 18, 2016, one of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's most trusted lieutenants circulated an extraordinary memo weighing the costs of the company's relentless quest for growth. "We connect people. Period. That's why all the work we do in growth is justified. All the questionable contact importing practices. All the subtle language that helps people stay searchable by friends. All of the work we do to bring more communication in. The work we wi...
Tags: Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, China, Tech, Silicon Valley, Zuckerberg, Bosworth, Boz, Andrew Boz Bosworth

What you need to know in advertising today

David Hogg, a student who survived the shooting last month at a high school in Parkland, Florida, on Wednesday  called for a boycott  of companies that advertise on Laura Ingraham's Fox News show in response to a  tweet that mocked Hogg  by saying he "whines" about college rejections. He later  tweeted a list of companies  he said were advertisers on Ingraham's show and urged his followers to contact them. On Thursday morning, the pet-food company  Nutrish  confirmed on Twitter that it would pul...
Tags: Amazon, Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, Trends, Walmart, Fox News, Wall Street Journal, Business Insider, Trump, Univision Communications Inc, Hogg, Laura Ingraham, Ingraham, Andrew Boz Bosworth, Scott Howe, Cambridge Analytica

Facebook VP wrote site's actions were 'de facto good' – even if they led to deaths

Zuckerberg says he disagrees with 2016 memo, which acknowledged site could cost lives or play role in terror attacksA top Facebook executive warned in a leaked memo that the platform could lead to deaths and could help terrorists plan attacks, but argued that the negative outcomes were a reasonable byproduct of the company’s broader “growth tactics” and mission to “connect” people.The public disclosure of the 2016 memo, in which a vice-president, Andrew “Boz” Bosworth, wrote “anything that allow...
Tags: Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, Technology, Social Networking, Social Media, US news, Zuckerberg, Facebook VP, Andrew `` Boz '' Bosworth

Mark Zuckerberg says a Facebook exec's memo justifying deaths in order to grow the network was a 'provocative' thing he disagrees with strongly (FB)

Andrew "Boz" Bosworth wrote a memo in 2016 saying that it is Facebook may kill people because the platform connects people. After the memo was first reported by BuzzFeed News, Boz tweeted that he didn't agree with the memo when he wrote it. CEO Mark Zuckerberg also released a statement saying he disagreed with the memo. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg denounced comments from one of his top executives on Thursday, following the publication of a 2016 internal memo in which the executive appeared ...
Tags: Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, Trends, Zuckerberg, Bosworth, Andrew Boz Bosworth, Trump 2016, BuzzFeed News Boz, Facebook VP Andrew Boz Bosworth

Facebook is under fire after one of its execs railed against the Russia coverage in a tweet that Trump cited (FB)

Facebook came back under fire this weekend after its advertising executive Rob Goldman accused the media of misrepresenting the way Russian trolls used its platform. Goldman, who said most Russian ads were bought after the 2016 presidential election, was retweeted by President Donald Trump as proof that the media is "fake news." The tweets launched a debate over whether Goldman should have publicly criticized coverage of Facebook in a way that is easily misconstrued as support for Trump. Fac...
Tags: Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, Instagram, Youtube, White House, Russia, US, America, Trends, Paypal, Cnn, New York Times, Moscow, Kremlin, Donald Trump

Facebook's Building 8 Hardware Chief Is Leaving the Company

Regina Dugan, the head of Facebook's secretive hardware lab called Building 8, is leaving the company after just 18 months. Dugan's departure was announced internally on Tuesday, and in a post she wrote that she's leaving to "lead a new endeavor," though she didn't specify what. Dugan [pictured here] will stay at Facebook into early 2018, to ensure "a smooth transition," she added. It's unclear who will take over Dugan's role leading Building 8 on a day-to-day basis. Facebook recently promoted...
Tags: Google, Facebook, Darpa, Silicon Valley, Dugan, Andrew Boz Bosworth, Regina Dugan, Facebook Dugan

Facebook's Building 8 Chief Is Leaving the Company

Regina Dugan, the head of Facebook's secretive hardware lab called Building 8, is leaving the company after just 18 months. Dugan's departure was announced internally on Tuesday, and in a post she wrote that she's leaving to "lead a new endeavor," though she didn't specify what. Dugan [pictured here] will stay at Facebook into early 2018, to ensure "a smooth transition," she added. It's unclear who will take over Dugan's role leading Building 8 on a day-to-day basis. Facebook recently promoted...
Tags: Google, Facebook, Darpa, Silicon Valley, Dugan, Andrew Boz Bosworth, Regina Dugan, Facebook Dugan

Facebook’s Andrew Bosworth is taking over the company’s consumer hardware efforts

 Veteran Facebook exec Andrew “Boz” Bosworth is taking over consumer hardware efforts at the company, including projects under groups like Building 8 and Oculus. The announcement was made internally by Facebook CTO Mike Schroepfer, Business Insider reports. A Facebook spokesperson confirmed the appointment to TechCrunch. Bosworth, who joined Facebook in January of 2006, has been… Read More
Tags: Startups, TC, Facebook, Andrew Bosworth, Andrew Boz Bosworth, Veteran Facebook, Facebook CTO Mike Schroepfer Business Insider, TechCrunch Bosworth

Facebook is unifying its hardware efforts under a veteran exec and readying an ‘Aloha’ video chat device (FB)

Facebook executive Andrew Bosworth is taking over all of the company’s consumer hardware efforts. That includes Oculus VR and Facebook’s newer Building 8 division, which is working on an unannounced video chat device codenamed Aloha. Aloha will be the first in a string of consumer gadgets from Building 8. The secretive team is also working on an Amazon Echo-like smart speaker, 360-degree camera, and futuristic wearables. Facebook has tapped one of its most veteran execs to lead all of its con...
Tags: Apple, Google, Amazon, Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, Trends, Xiaomi, Darpa, Atap, Amazon Echo, Cto, Andrew Bosworth, Zuckerberg, Regina, Aloha, Apple Google

Why a drop in Snap's share price on its opening day is great for the company — but not so good for its bankers

This is an excerpt from the book "Chaos Monkeys" by Antonio Garcia Martinez. The book describes how Garcia got funding for his tech startup from Y Combinator and Chris Sacca, sold that startup to Twitter for millions, and then bailed on the deal to go work at Facebook. He eventually left Facebook after losing a showdown with COO Sheryl Sandberg and VPs Andrew "Boz" Bosworth and Brian Boland, over Facebook's advertising strategy. Martinez was working at Facebook at the time of its IPO in 2012. Fa...
Tags: Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, Ipo, US, Trends, Ibm, Goldman Sachs, New York Stock Exchange, Penguin Random House, Renault, Sheryl Sandberg, Chris Sacca, Forbes, Snap, Trump, Garcia

Why a drop in Snap's share price on its opening day would be great for the company — but not so good for its bankers

This is an excerpt from the book "Chaos Monkeys" by Antonio Garcia Martinez. The book describes how Garcia got funding for his tech startup from Y Combinator and Chris Sacca, sold that startup to Twitter for millions, and then bailed on the deal to go work at Facebook. He eventually left Facebook after losing a showdown with COO Sheryl Sandberg and VPs Andrew "Boz" Bosworth and Brian Boland, over Facebook's advertising strategy. Martinez was working at Facebook at the time of its initial public ...
Tags: Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, Ipo, US, Trends, Snapchat, Ibm, Goldman Sachs, New York Stock Exchange, Penguin Random House, Renault, Sheryl Sandberg, Chris Sacca, Forbes, Garcia, Martinez

Here are the friends in Mark Zuckerberg's innermost circle, according to his Facebook page (FB)

As the year draws to a close, Facebook is creating personalized highlight reels for each of its 1.8 billion users to "look back at some moments from 2016." Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently shared his personal 2016 highlights reel on his Facebook page. At the end of the video, you get to see Zuckerberg's closest friends on Facebook from the past year: Here are the people in the innermost circle in clockwise order, starting from just above the top of the like button: Dave Morin (...
Tags: Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, San Francisco, Trends, Paypal, Yuri Milner, Slow Ventures, Marc Andreessen, Zuckerberg, Priscilla Chan, Chris Cox, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, Dave Morin, Sam Lessin, Facebook He, Andrew Boz Bosworth

Dating, secrecy, and coding: What it's like on your first day when you get a job at Facebook

This is an excerpt from the book "Chaos Monkeys" by Antonio Garcia Martinez. The book describes how Garcia got funding for his tech startup from Y Combinator and Chris Sacca, sold that startup to Twitter for millions, and then bailed on the deal to go work at Facebook. He eventually left Facebook after losing a showdown with COO Sheryl Sandberg and VPs Andrew "Boz" Bosworth and Brian Boland, over Facebook's advertising strategy. This chapter describes what happened to Garcia on his first day at ...
Tags: Google, Facebook, Trends, Macbook, New York Times, Andy Warhol, Pong, Sheryl Sandberg, Chris Sacca, Andy, Don, Garcia, Cox, Fred, Ellis Island, Depp

'Boz', the man behind Facebook News Feed, explains the importance of launching new products with a 'degree of humility' (FB)

When Facebook launched News Feed a decade ago, the reaction from users was to revolt. Before News Feed, Facebook users had to click around on their friends' profile pages, individually, to check out what they were sharing. Now that information was conveniently accessible in one place. The web is now so flooded with news feeds, the idea seems like a no-brainer. Not at all in 2006. The day after launch, users threatened to boycott the service and protesters swarmed the Facebook offices, demanding ...
Tags: Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, New York, Instagram, Trends, Facebook Messenger, Kevin Systrom, Facebook News Feed, Iab, Mark, Kevin, Bosworth, Boz, Andrew Boz Bosworth