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Sunday, August 20, 2017
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WhatsApp Sees Facebook Banking Frozen In Brazil

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WhatsApp Fines in Brazil sum up to close to $19.5 million

WhatsApp refuses to compromise the security of its 1 billion users.

STATES CHRONICLE – Brazilian police officials are making a habit of taking Facebook to court. Federal police have once more urged WhatsApp to allow them access.

WhatsApp and Facebook Have Seen Blocks, Fines, and Arrests

The ongoing investigation against several high profile international drug traders has hit a snag again, according to Brazilian police. Suspected and involved parties appear to be using WhatsApp, which is currently owned by Facebook.

In less than 12 months, Brazil has asked, legally and in court, WhatsApp and implicitly Facebook to present them with the data pertinent to the suspects. Facebook has replied every time by stating that the encryption program that WhatsApp is using is preventing anyone else from reading the messages, which also includes them.

Brazil remained skeptical, it seems, and continued to demand what could be seen as a severe violation of privacy and human rights.

Previously, In December 2015, WhatsApp received a 48-hour block in the country for refusing to hand over the data which the service repeatedly said they could not access. The Brazilian courts tried again in May 2016, this time, using a 72-hour block.

Brazilian federal police even arrested Facebook’s VP as he was considered a suspect. The company’s refusal to comply with the Brazilian authorities was declared as aiding the suspects in their ongoing drug trade investigation. As such, Facebook’s Vice President was arrested in an attempt to make Facebook stand down and hand over the data.

Nevertheless, the social media service refused to be bullied into compliance and did not touch the current encryption on WhatsApp.

Presently, the Brazilian courts are trying a different persuasion approach. As such, Facebook’s banking in Brazil has been frozen. Brazilian authorities have stated that the $19.5 million frozen assets in Facebook’s bank accounts will equivalate for the total number of fines the company has been issued since first going to court.

WhatsApp has in return stated that they will continue to refuse to compromise one billion users’ security. The messaging service believes that their current encryption has been a safe and solid development. Making any modifications to it will increase the risk of hackers breaching the app and obtaining personal data and conversation.

Even though Brazilian authorities have been in an ongoing battle against international drug traders, their constant actions against Facebook and WhatsApp are seen on an international level as bullying. Similar demands are made by authorities worldwide, so perhaps an international decision should be taken.

Image Courtesy of Pixabay.

Peter Thiel Will Be Staying With Facebook After Bankrupting Gawker

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Peter Thiel has be re-elected on Facebook's board of directors.

“What Facebook has never been about [is] replacing people,” – Peter Thiel

STATES CHRONICLE – Facebook hosted its annual shareholder meeting, and its entire board of directors was up for re-election. Following the meeting, it was revealed that all of its members had been re-elected. The list includes Mark Zuckerberg, Sheryl Sandberg, Peter Thiel, Reed Hastings, Susan Desmond-Hellmann, Erskine Bowles, Jan Koum, and Marc Andreessen.

Although Sheryl Sandberg had previously stated that the board would re-elect Peter Thiel, the decision still came as a shock to several media communities.

Peter Thiel is known as the man who single-handedly forced news outlet Gawker into declaring bankruptcy. More recently, he funded the Hulk Hogan lawsuit which lead to Gawker being financially devastated.

Facebook has stated that Thiel’s actions were independent of his work for Facebook. He used his own money independently from the company. Several members of Facebook’s board of directors have had public side projects in the past. They acted independently of the company’s agenda, and Peter Thiel’s case is not seen to be different by the board of directors.

While Facebook’s statements are true, the actions of Peter Thiel can be seen as an attempt at forced censorship of the press. Before this year’s shareholder meeting, several media publisher partners of Facebook had already expressed concern in regards to keeping Peter Thiel.

Many will interpret the re-election as a guarded maneuver in which Thiel is directly rewarded after being able to bankrupt a company which had worked with Facebook previously. Nevertheless, Facebook had earlier stated publically and on the record that Peter Thiel would not be leaving the company’s board of directors. A change of mind could have had a greater potential adverse effect in the long run.

There are also some who believe Mark Zuckerberg awarded Peter Thiel considerable special treatment in regards to the whole situation. The two are considered to be close friends and recent in-house events can more than confirm this.

In February, Mark Zuckerberg received an award for Facebook from Axel Springer, the German media company. During the ceremony, Peter Thiel gave a six-minute long speech which revolved around praising Mark Zuckerberg for all he has achieved with Facebook and also praising Facebook for, as he saw it, making the world and the internet better places to be.

It is true that in the past year Facebook has significantly managed to improve its features as a social media service. A full re-election of the board of directors also means that the board, including Peter Thiel, is going in the right direction.

Image Courtesy of Flickr.

Facebook Will Allow You to Send SMS Messages

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According to the latest news, Facebook will allow you to send SMS messages.

According to the latest news, Facebook will allow you to send SMS messages.

STATES CHRONICLE – According to the latest news, Facebook  will allow you to send SMS messages. Facebook Messenger users will be glad to find that the application will soon allow them to send text messages. At the moment, the social network is testing SMS incorporation in its Messenger app.

Moreover, Facebook announced the application will allow users to switch between multiple accounts.  Three years ago, Facebook had enabled the SMS option in its Messenger app. However, it was later removed because not may customers used it. Now, the social network decided to bring the SMS support back.

With this option, users will see “Write SMS message” within the text input box when writing a message to someone. Instead of the normally blue color, sent messages would be displayed as purple bubbles. Moreover, the Messenger bubble and the user’s image in the conversation list is replaced with a purple one.

This new SMS feature will save users’ time as they will be allowed to reply to both Facebook messages and SMS texts using the same app. One social network’s spokesperson said:

‘At Messenger, we are always trying to create new ways for people to communicate seamlessly with everyone. Right now, we’re testing the ability for people to easily bring all their conversations — from SMS and Messenger — to one place.’

Facebook is also trying to update the application with multiple account support. The company announced this feature is already available on Android devices. Customers with two or more accounts will be permitted to switch between them without logging out over and over again.

Users can add their accounts from the Messenger application’s settings. Facebook has always tried to bring new options for its Messenger app. In 2015, it enabled new settings which included Uber service, personal assistant and allowed user to send money via Messenger. The social network continues to improve their strategies in order to gain more followers.

Photo Credits: Wikimedia

Insomnia Is Linked to Social Media Use

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"A man in bed at night checking his social media accounts because of insomnia"

Experts recommend that people exercise more and keep their devices on “silent mode”.

STATES CHRONICLE – According to the latest study from the Pittsburgh University, insomnia is linked to social media use. The researchers have established that people who spend their time on social media platforms before going to bed have a bigger chance of developing sleep problems that those who don’t. Also, it seems that the same health issues apply to those who use social media frequently during the day.

A team of researchers from the Pittsburgh University reached the conclusion that insomnia is linked to social media use after studying a sample of 1,788 volunteers with ages in between 19 and 32. The participants were given a questionnaire that was created to determine the link between the use of social media and the increasing numbers of sleep disorders.

The survey focused on the most popular platforms for social media and the time that each respondent spent on a daily, or weekly basis on the site. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Google Plus, Reddit, Snapchat, LinkedIn, Vibe, and Tumblr were all included in the questionnaire.

The average responded spent approximately 61 minutes in a day on one, or more platforms, and visited the respective account an average of thirty times in a single week. According to their answers, more than 30 percent of the participants in the study suffered from a sort of sleep disturbance.

Upon analyzing all of the answers, the researchers from Pittsburgh University came to the conclusion that the more time the participants spent on the platforms for social media, the more trouble they had with their sleep. The team established that those who used social media more had three times the chances of experiencing sleep disturbances than those who preferred to check their accounts more rarely.

On the other hand, the volunteers that engaged in exercises and physical activities in the outdoor environment while keeping their phones on the “silent” mode experienced a better sleep.

There are many ways in which social media can disturb the sleeping pattern of a user. It could disrupt the circadian rhythm due to the backlight of the devices used, the user can spend hours on a site without realizing the amount of time that has passed, thus losing sleep, or it could promote physiological, emotional and cognitive arousal like in the case of an engaging conversation.

The main problem is that the people usually enter a vicious cycle that cannot be easily escaped. They seem to have trouble going to sleep so they decide to go on their social media accounts to pass the time until they feel sleepy, but that only makes them stay up later.

Image source: www.flickr.com

Let Your Friends Know You’re OK During Natural Disasters with Facebook Safety Check

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Facebook takes care of its folks! Yesterday we saw how Facebook made egg freezing a work benefit for every woman who works for them and today it implemented a new feature, the Facebook Safety Check, so that your friends know you’re alright in case natural disasters strike. Let’s take an in-depth look at what the feature offers.

Facebook Safety Check

The Facebook Safety Check is a new feature from Facebook that uses your current location it obtains through your IP address and city listen in your profile, to send a message out to your friends’ News Feed in case of a natural disaster. Let’s say there is an big earthquake in are where you live and the phone lines are down. Facebook will send you a push notification in which it asks you if you are safe. You have two options for reply: I am safe and I am not in the area. You simply choose the one that suits you and Facebook lets everyone know you are alright.

facebook safety check

The feature is slowly being rolled out and Japan was the first country where the Facebook Safety Check was introduced, possibly because of the high number of earthquake the country experiences. Vice President of Product Management at Facebook, Naomi Gleit, had this to say about the Facebook Safety Check:

Our engineers in Japan took the first step toward creating a product to improve the experience of reconnecting after a disaster. They built the Disaster Message Board to make it easier to communicate with others.

The social media giant is working together with authorities in order to flag disasters and the test in Japan was a massive success. We’re expecting the feature to come to Facebook pretty soon, so keep your eye on it!

What are your thoughts on the Facebook Safety Check? Are you happy such a thing exists? Tell us about it in the section below.

Facebook and Apple Will Freeze Their Female Employees’ Eggs

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Earlier this week we saw how Apple is going to launch Apple Pay mobile payments service, which is going to allow users to pay in stores and online with their smartphones alone. Today, we’re going to take a look at another Apple news: it appears that Facebook and Apple will freeze their female employees’ eggs, if they want to.

Facebook and Apple Will Freeze Their Female Employees’ Eggs

Egg freezing is now for the first time ever being offered as a work benefit. Facebook and Apple will freeze their female employees’ eggs if they choose to undergo such a procedure. At first glance, it’s mighty nice of these companies to offer this. The procedure is a very expensive and can cost up to $10,000, while the egg storage and cost around $500 per year.

Facebook is ahead of Apple and has already started to offer up to $20,000 in coverage for one egg freezing procedure to all their female employees. Apple will start offering this benefit starting with January 2015.

Facebook and Apple Will Freeze Their Female Employees’ Eggs

An Apple spokesperson released a statement via mail:

We continue to expand our benefits for women, with a new extended maternity leave policy, along with cryopreservation and egg storage as part of our extensive support for infertility treatments. We also offer an Adoption Assistance program, where Apple reimburses eligible expenses associated with the legal adoption of a child. We want to empower women at Apple to do the best work of their lives as they care for loved ones and raise their families.

But is it mighty nice of these companies to offer to pay for the freezing of their female employees’ eggs? Does it discourage women from having babies and if it does it that a bad thing? Or does it simply make women to put their careers ahead of family.

Please share your thoughts on this matter. We would love to hear from you.

Sticker Lovers Rejoice: Facebook Allows Stickers in Comments

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At the beginning of this month we saw how Facebook finalized the purchase of WhatsApp, which began this year in February. The company ended up paying $21.8 billion, which is the largest transaction ever made by a social media company. Today, we’re going to take a look at the latest Facebook news: it appears that Facebook allows stickers in comments, which means that users have even more freedom to express themselves!

Facebook Allows Stickers in Comments

Stickers were introduced by Facebook to their Messenger app last year in April. The little moving animations were a huge hit among Facebook users and now Facebook is showing us that it does listen to its users and it introduced the possibility to put stickers in comments. The feature is slowly being rolled out by the social media giant and we believe it’s going to be a massive hit, after it was initially introduced in Japan.

Facebook Allows Stickers in Comments

Why use your own words to comment on friends’ post and photos, when you can let a cat or a rabbit do that for you? In all seriousness, these cute stickers really do take commenting to another level, all you need to do is find the sticker that work best with your personality. There is a wide range of stickers to choose from, and they’re all free!

If you have a Facebook page for your company or brand, know that stickers aren’t yet available on pages right now and there is no news about when this is going to happen. They’re only available for personal pages, for free. So go on and download more stickers to voice your opinions on Facebook!

If the feature isn’t yet available, just relax, it’s coming your way soon! You should get a small pop-up message that tells you that Facebook allows stickers in comments.

Have you ever used stickers? Which are your favorite? Are you happy that Facebook allows stickers in comments? Drop us a line in the comment section below and tell us your thoughts on this Facebook news?

Facebook’s Shuttle Drivers are Seeking Help

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Google finally put security guards on their payroll, letting go of outside contractors which deepened the wage gap between two kinds of Google employees. Facebook is now coming under fire after a letter to Mark Zuckerberg emerged in which attention was drawn to Facebook’s shuttle drivers and how hard it is for them to make a living in the Facebook environment.

Facebook’s Shuttle Drivers

Facebook uses a company called Loop Transportation to hire shuttle drivers that transport Facebook workers to the Facebook campus in Menlo Park, California. If you’re thinking that it’s a sweet job, think again. The Facebook shuttle drivers are being paid $18 to $20 an hour, which isn’t enough to sustain a family in the California area.

Facebook’s Shuttle Drivers

Principal Officer of the Teamsters Union branch in Northern California, Rome Aloise, is speaking on behalf of Facebook’s shuttle drivers about the blatant inequality and the need for reform. He is encouraging the drivers to seek union representation and has even go so far as to write an open letter to Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg. Here’s an excerpt of the letter:

While your employees earn extraordinary wages and are able to live and enjoy life in some of the most exclusive neighborhoods in the Bay Area, these drivers can’t afford to support a family, send their children to school, or, least of all, afford to even dream of buying a house anywhere near where they work. This is reminiscent of a time when noblemen were driven around in their coaches by their servants.

Zuckerberg is asked to encourage Loop Transportation to recognize a union for Facebook’s shuttle drivers, so that they can fight for a fair contract. Up until now, Facebook hasn’t released any comments or statements on this.

What are your thoughts on this news? Drop us a line in the comment section below and share your thoughts with us.

Facebook Finalizes Purchase of WhatsApp

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Facebook is expanding! Just yesterday we saw how it is planning to introduce friend-to-friend payments through its mobile app, Facebook Messenger. Today, we learn that Facebook finalizes purchase of WhatsApp for almost $22 billion!

Facebook Finalizes Purchase of WhatsApp

When Facebook announced back in February of 2014 that is was beginning the long and arduous purchase of WhatsApp, nobody thought it would take too long. But here we are, at the beginning of October when Facebook finalizes purchase of WhatsApp for the price of $21.8 billion (including cash, stock and restricted stock given to employees at WhatsApp).

Purchase of WhatsApp

At the beginning of the year the deal was struck between the two companies, but there was a different price that they agreed on: $19 billion. Part of the reason this happened was the fact that Facebook shares have been rising in price. Yesterday, CEO and co-founder of WhatsApp, Jan Koum, was welcomed to Facebook’s board.

This purchase is not only the largest acquisition made by Facebook, but it’s also bigger than any deals made by Apple, Microsoft and Google! It’s a sign that Facebook’s not only doing well, but it’s expanding at an extraordinary rate.

WhatsApp has more than 500 million users and it’s a huge hit in developing countries, such as India, Mexico, Brazil and Russia. The reason behind it is that it allows users to chat with their phone contacts over Internet. You can also send voice recordings and photos and even call overseas, through your Internet connection. WhatsApp is also ad free and free to join and use for the first year. After your first year, it costs $1 per year!

Facebook plans to keep Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp separate for the time being, but we’re guessing it’s planning a merge in the future.

What are your thoughts on the fact that Facebook finalizes purchase of WhatsApp? Drop us a line in the comment section below.

Facebook Messenger Will Introduce Friend-to-Friend Payments

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The latest Facebook scandal involved their so-called real-name policy, in which users weren’t allowed to use fake names for their accounts. As a result of this, hundreds of accounts were closed and many people weren’t happy. The good news came last week, when Facebook announced that it would change its real-name policy. Today, the latest Facebook rumors are saying that Facebook messenger will introduce friend-to-friend payments.

Facebook Messenger Will Introduce Friend-to-Friend Payments

This news came as a result of some new leaked screenshots that showed the option of sending money to friends. These types of rumors aren’t new to Facebook, as they’ve been circling the company for months. The option of sending money to your friends and family with just a couple of clicks is making a lot of people happy.

Facebook Messenger Will Introduce Friend-to-Friend Payments

Right now, we don’t know too much about this update to Facebook Messenger, but it appears that Facebook could be asking its users for a small fee in return for the service. The cost of running such operations does not come cheap.

The new head of the Messenger app is David Marcus, who is PayPal’s former president. It all makes so much more sense now, doesn’t it? This could be the beginning of something really exciting, even though back in July, Mark Zuckerberg told investors that Facebook wasn’t planning to put in mobile payments any time soon.

Facebook is being very tight-lipped about this for now, and for good reason. They don’t want to make any promises to anyone until everything is just right with the update. Especially when it’s an update that is going to require people to fill in information about their accounts and credit cards. A wrong step and Facebook could mess up and bury itself.

What are your thoughts on the fact that Facebook Messenger will introduce friend-to-friend payments? Are you going to trust Facebook with your details? Drop us a line in the comment section below.

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