PSA: That Facebook quiz may be hackers mining your personal information.

Social media quizzes – especially popular on Facebook – seem innocent enough. But taking the quiz might mean you are giving away more about yourself than you originally thought, and may extend to your friends as well.

These quizzes ask seemingly silly or useless questions, but hackers can use that information to penetrate your social accounts and gain access to your personal information or the information of your friends and family.

Some quizzes are designed to steal your data in an outright scam. Once answered, hackers can easily hijack personal accounts and use them to lure in more victims. The hackers will include links embedded in the quiz that can cause a security breach of your personal accounts.

But the latest news shows that it isn’t just scammers who are interested in your quiz answers. It turns out, your personal information is big business.

Not all social media quizzes are about unprincipled data collection, but the Better Business Bureau cautions users to be careful about what they share online. Profile data, quiz answers, and more can be used to used to steal your money, or let a scammer pretend to be you in order to steal someone else’s money.

Facebook is finally taking action against fake news!

After an election season infused with hoax stories, more than a month of global outcry and at least one real-world incident of gun violence in the US, Facebook is finally stepping up to combat the spread of fake news. 

The social network has announced that it will work with fact-checking outlets to label fake stories, flagged by users, as “disputed.”
 
Now before sharing a fake story on the site, you’ll get a warning that its accuracy has been disputed. To find out why, you’ll be able to click a link for a fact-check of the article.

The updates are rolling out this week, so you won’t see the disputed flags right away, but expect them shortly.

Facebook also announced several other steps that chief executive Mark Zuckerberg had hinted at in a post last month.

It’s too early to know whether these efforts will be effective in combating the problem, which is perhaps larger in scope than many initially realized.

The company is finally coming to terms with the fake news problem. For now, Facebook will be working only with Snopes, FactCheck.org, Politifact, ABC News and the Associated Press, but hopes to add more as the site figures out what works.

While other sites, including Reddit and Twitter, have made some moves recently to combat fake news and vile trolling, Facebook is the last one to do so.

With its 1.8 billion monthly users, Facebook is a critical platform for news distribution. News websites now get a majority of their traffic from Facebook, as internet users switch from visiting home pages on desktops to using apps on their mobile devices. In the U.S., 44% of American adults get news on Facebook (source).

Can we please stop falling for this Facebook privacy hoax?

We've been debunking this hoax for seven years now, and here we are doing it again.

No, Facebook hasn't changed its privacy settings.

 

No, what you post doesn't belong to Facebook now. 

 

A note is doing the Facebook rounds claiming, yet again, that you need to post a legal gibberish to your status or you'll lose copyright control of your pictures and other content you share with your family and friends. 

 

Here's part of what you're supposed to post:

"The content of this profile is private and confidential information. The violation of privacy can be punished by law (UCC 1-308- 1 1 308-103 and the Rome Statute). NOTE: Facebook is now a public entity. All members must post a note like this. If you prefer, you can copy and paste this version. If you do not publish a statement at least once it will be tactically allowing the use of your photos, as well as the information contained in the profile status updates. DO NOT SHARE. Copy and paste."

 

Please. Don't.

 

We get that you don't want Facebook to own your weird bathroom selfies, but you need to stop sharing this post. 

 

It's not true. 

 

"Anyone who uses Facebook owns and controls the content and information they post, as stated in our terms. They control how that content and information is shared. That is our policy, and it always has been," Facebook said in a statement.

 

If you're still skeptical, try reading Facebook's actual terms of service....you know that contract that you blindly agree to when you sign up.

Scam of the week: Brad Pitt found dead!

The divorce between Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie has been used by the bad guys for a "celebrity death hoax" which unfortunately is high-grade click bait.

A new celebrity death scam reared its ugly head. The bad guys claim that Brad Pitt has committed suicide because of the recent Angelina Jolie divorce. The scam is currently on Facebook but you can expect emails with links for "more details" and / or attachments that claim it is a video of his last moments. There are several versions that claim he hanged himself, died in a shooting range or from a substance overdose.

You might even get text messages to your smartphone that try to trick you into going to a site with the exclusive pictures of his death. If you see any social media posts or get emails with links or attachments, do not click on anything, do not open attachments or reply, and if it is social media, do not touch and do not share or forward. These bad guys will use anything to shock and trick you into clicking.

Do not fall for any of it! And if you do, call IES immediately at 781-816-9437 for a scan of your computer.

Above: example of the latest click bait - as seen on Facebook.

Breakups are hard...Facebook wants to make it easier.

Today social media means that you are guaranteed to run into your ex, and he or she might very well be wrapped around a new partner. Research has shown that those who don't disconnect electronically have a harder time getting over a breakup. Facebook is ready to help by creating tools that will let people manage their post breakup life on its pages.

The tools, available only on mobile devices, are being tested with some users in the United States. Facebook will complete the US rollout and begin expanding the tools to other countries early next year.

What The Tools Do:

• One tool lets users restrict how much they see former significant others on Facebook.
• Another ensures that an ex's posts won't show up in a user's news need and Facebook prompts won't suggest that person's name when others write messages or tag friends in photos.
• A third tool restricts the photos, videos or status updates a user's ex-partner will see.
• A fourth tool lets users edit who can see past posts with their former partners and untag themselves from joint posts with ex-partners.

Facebook plans on tweaking these tools based on user feedback. Use of the tools will be optional and will be located in Facebook's help center after they're rolled out.

Using social media? Here's three tips to boost results by effectively using hashtags.

More than 27 million people have seen Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake join forces in the fight against #overzealous #hashtaggers.

Here's our top three tips for using hashtags:

1). Beware of hashtag overload: The use of excessive hashtags seems desperate and can even be perceived as spam. According to one study, the number of hashtags for optimal engagement is 7. Be strategic with the help of sites like Websta, Populagram, and TagsforLikes - they’ll tell you what’s trending at any given time to help you maximize your hashtag’s impact.

2). Consider color theory: Stay away from posting anything too dark. Light, bright images produce 24% more likes than dark photos. Photos that have blue as the dominant color also reportedly attract 24% more likes (when compared to images in red).

3). Offer a “behind the scenes” glimpse: People are inherently voyeuristic. Giving your customers a sneak peek into how the sausage gets made can be an effective social tool. If you’re a jewelry designer, post photos of your studio or a mood board that inspired your latest collection. You’ll make your customers feel like they have a closer relationship to your company.

A false copyright message is rapidly spreading across Facebook. Don't waste your time copy & pasting.

"In response to the new Facebook guidelines, I hereby declare that my copyright is attached to all of my personal details, illustrations, comics, paintings, professional photos and videos, etc. (as a result of the Berner Convention). For commercial use of the above my written consent is needed at all times!"

You may have seen that very message pop up -- perhaps time and time again -- in your Facebook feed. The message has been making the rounds on the social network. It encourages people to copy and paste the text and post it on their own walls if they want to be placed "under protection of copyright laws."

It's a frightful message and those worried that Facebook will own their photos or other media are posting it -- unaware that it is a hoax. Here's the truth: Facebook doesn't own your media and there is no such thing as the Berner Convention.

"We have noticed some statements that suggest otherwise and we wanted to take a moment to remind you of the facts -- when you post things like photos to Facebook, we do not own them," Facebook spokesman Andrew Noyes said in a statement. "Under our terms (https://www.facebook.com/legal/terms), you grant Facebook permission to use, distribute, and share the things you post, subject to the terms and applicable privacy settings." 

Brad Shear, a Washington-area attorney and blogger who is an expert on social media, said the message was "misleading and not true." He said that when you agree to Facebook's terms of use you provide Facebook a "non-exclusive, transferable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any content you post. You do not need to make any declarations about copyright issues since the law already protects you.  The privacy declaration [in this message] is worthless and does not mean anything."

 

Facebook users cannot retroactively negate any of the privacy or copyright terms they agreed to when they signed up for their Facebook accounts nor can they unilaterally alter or contradict terms instituted by Facebook simply by posting a contrary legal notice on their Facebook walls.

This isn't the first time a message like this has popped up on Facebook. A similar message made the rounds in June and a few years ago as well. 

Bottom line? Don't bother copying, pasting, and posting. It was a hoax before and is still a hoax now.

If you use Facebook on your mobile device, you have surely seen this message to upgrade. We urge you not to.

If you’re anything like your neighbor…you probably use Facebook on your phone way more than you use it on a computer. You’ve been sending messages from the Facebook app and it probably always asks you if you want to install the Facebook Messenger App.

It’s always been optional but coming soon to your Facebook experience….it won’t be an option…it will be mandatory if you care to send messages from your phone.

No big deal one might think…but the part that the average Facebook User doesn’t realize is the permissions you must give to Facebook in order to use the Facebook Messenger App. Here is a short list of the most disturbing permissions it requires and a quick explanation of what it means to you and your privacy.

• Change the state of network connectivity – This means that Facebook can change or alter your connection to the Internet or cell service. You’re basically giving Facebook the ability to turn features on your phone on and off for it’s own reasons without telling you.
• Call phone numbers and send SMS messages – This means that if Facebook wants to…it can send text messages to your contacts on your behalf. Do you see the trouble in this? Who is Facebook to be able to access and send messages on your phone? You’re basically giving a stranger your phone and telling them to do what they want when they want!
• Record audio, and take pictures and videos, at any time – That means that the folks at Facebook can see through your lens on your phone whenever they want..they can listen to what you’re saying via your microphone if they choose to!!
• Read your phone’s call log, including info about incoming and outgoing calls – Who have you been calling? How long did you talk to them? Now Facebook will know all of this because you’ve downloaded the new Facebook messenger app.
• Read your contact data, including who you call and email and how often – Another clear violation of your privacy. Now Facebook will be able to read e-mails you’ve sent  and take information from them to use for their own gain. Whether it’s for “personalized advertisements” or if it’s for “research purposes” ….whatever the reason..they’re accessing your private encounters.
• Read personal profile information stored on your device – This means that if you have addresses, personal info, pictures or anything else that’s near and dear to your personal life…they can read it.
• Get a list of accounts known by the phone, or other apps you use – Facebook will now have a tally of all the apps you use, how often you use them and what information you keep or exchange on those apps.

After reading more about it and studying the permissions, I will personally avoid downloading the new app to my phone. I still have my Facebook app, but I just won’t use the messaging feature unless I’m at a computer.

Source: CBS Local

T-Mobile pulls ahead in the prepaid wireless field with this trick...

Need your mobile Facebook fix but don't have any data coverage? T-Mobile has one option for you.

T-Mobile has tweaked its GoSmart Mobile prepaid wireless plan to offer free Facebook and Facebook Messenger access for all customers starting in January. That means subscribers can use Facebook without chewing up their data allowance or without even needing a data plan.

Rolled out early this year, GoSmart Mobile is aimed at consumers who want low-cost unlimited mobile coverage. The plans range from $25 a month for unlimited talk to $45 a month for unlimited talk and text and 5GB of 3G data.

Mobile consumers can hop onto the program by purchasing a phone directly from GoSmart or by spending $8 for a GoSmart Mobile SIM and installing it on their GSM unlocked phone. Subscribers will be able to access Facebook by logging in from a mobile browser or by running the Facebook app on their phone.

"Facebook's mission is to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected, and we're delighted that GoSmart subscribers, many who don't have data access, will be able to use Facebook for free," Chris Daniels, vice president of partnerships at Facebook, said in a statement.

Source: CNET

Been on Facebook today? You may have seen some annoying video ads slowing down your news feed.

The feature offers companies a new way to promote movies and products on smartphones and computers, and is being tested with a small group of Facebook users.

"Rather than having to click or tap to play, videos will begin to play as they appear onscreen -- without sound," Facebook said in a statement. When users tap the videos, the sound will turn on and the video will play in full-screen mode.

Analysts estimate Facebook could gain as much as $8.4 billion per year in revenue once the program is fully rolled out.

But don't expect a flood of video to start clogging up your online experience just yet...The company says only a few Facebook users will see video ads this week. It's testing the feature with one company, Summit Entertainment, which is promoting its new movie Divergent, starring Kate Winslet.

Facebook has been working to improve the video experience for users since September. It says users view, like, share and comment on content more often if videos begin playing automatically.

For users who don't want to see the videos, Facebook suggests quickly scrolling past them.


Facebook also says the new ads will not eat into mobile data plans, explaining that videos will only download when devices are connected to WiFi.

Source: CNN

Facebook temporarily disables profiles as it grapples with 150 million hacked Adobe passwords.

Facebook is asking millions of people to change their passwords if they had an account with Adobe, the content creation and cloud marketing company. Adobe was hacked recently and up to 150 million passwords were exposed.

Facebook is taking those exposed passwords and searching its system to find users who may have used the same password for Facebook. Those people will be asked to change their passwords.

The password crisis was triggered because Adobe apparently used only one encryption key for all its stored customer passwords, according to Krebs On Security:

What’s more, experts say Adobe appears to have used a single encryption key to scramble all of the leaked user credentials, meaning that anyone who computes, guesses or acquires the decryption key immediately gets access to all the passwords in the database.

The Adobe password hack is causing a huge headache all across the web. At first, it seemed that just a few million passwords had been stolen. But then that estimate increased to 38 million. And Krebs said the total universe of compromised passwords could be as high as 150 million.

So Amazon, Diapers.com and Microsoft are struggling with the same issue: The Adobe password cache is so massive that there are likely multiple millions of users with accounts at other companies who used identical passwords. Because the hackers can match passwords to IDs (email for instance), anyone who used the same password at Adobe for any other online company is now potentially screwed.

(click to enlarge)

Source: Business Insider

Doctors to parents: Limit kids' tweeting, texting & keep smartphones / laptops out of bedrooms.

The recommendations are bound to prompt eye-rolling and LOLs from many teens but an influential pediatricians group says parents need to know that unrestricted media use can have serious consequences.

It's been linked with violence, cyberbullying, school woes, obesity, lack of sleep and a host of other problems. It's not a major cause of these troubles, but "many parents are clueless" about the profound impact media exposure can have on their children, said Dr. Victor Strasburger, lead author of the new American Academy of Pediatrics policy

"This is the 21st century and they need to get with it," said Strasburger, a University of New Mexico adolescent medicine specialist.

The policy is aimed at all kids, including those who use smartphones, computers and other Internet-connected devices. It expands the academy's longstanding recommendations on banning televisions from children's and teens' bedrooms and limiting entertainment screen time to no more than two hours daily.

Under the new policy, those two hours include using the Internet for entertainment, including Facebook, Twitter, TV and movies; online homework is an exception.

The policy statement cites a 2010 report that found U.S. children aged 8 to 18 spend an average of more than seven hours daily using some kind of entertainment media. Many kids now watch TV online and many send text messages from their bedrooms after "lights out," including sexually explicit images by cellphone or Internet, yet few parents set rules about media use, the policy says.

"I guarantee you that if you have a 14-year-old boy and he has an Internet connection in his bedroom, he is looking at pornography," Strasburger said.

The policy notes that three-quarters of kids aged 12 to 17 own cellphones; nearly all teens send text messages, and many younger kids have phones giving them online access.

Mark Risinger, 16, of Glenview, Ill., is allowed to use his smartphone and laptop in his room, and says he spends about four hours daily on the Internet doing homework, using Facebook and YouTube and watching movies. He said a two-hour Internet time limit "would be catastrophic" and that kids won't follow the advice, "they'll just find a way to get around it."

Source: Yahoo News

Do you have a Google / Google Plus account? You may be featured in inappropriate advertising. Here's how to opt out:

You may have seen a warning at the top of your Gmail or Chrome browser explaining that Google is changing its privacy policy. What Google is actually doing is starting a program where it takes things you’ve “liked” (or +1′ed, or rated) around the web, then use your name and face in advertisements that show up in other people’s Google search queries.

Remember when Facebook introduced a similar program, one unlucky guy became a spokesman for a giant barrel of lube (story link)? For the vast majority of people, this use of data is unacceptable.

The good news is that Google is giving you a one-click way to opt out of this sort of invasive use of your likeness.

Here's how to do it:

1. Follow this link: https://plus.google.com/settings/endorsements.
2. Now uncheck the box. Congratulations, you’re now opted-out of Google’s endorsement program.

This bar owner wants to be your Facebook friend. Don't want any more friends? Then don't expect to get in.

Tony Mannor, the owner of Finnegan's Irish Pub & Restaurant in Stockton, California insists that if you want to get into his bar after 9 p.m., you have to be one of the bar's Facebook friends.

CBS Sacramento reports that as Finnegan's became more popular, the wrong crowd muscled its way in.

So Mannor tried to think of a way to maintain the bar's inner decorum without having its inner decor destroyed by undesirables.

He liked the idea of people becoming the pub's Facebook friends. Then, he personally screened all the profiles.

Now, customer (and Facebook friend) Debbie Walters told CBS Sacramento: "The bouncer actually stands at the front door with a computer to make sure you're a guest." Yes, there really is no greater intimidation than a large man clutching an iPad.

The bar's Facebook page currently enjoys 3,712 Facebook "likes" and around 10,000 friends. What a party that would be if they all came at once.

Mannor claims that since he instituted his Facebook bouncer system, almost all the trouble has been eliminated.

I am, though, extremely concerned about Friday night.

For the bar's Facebook page promises: "The SEX ON FIRE Burlesque Show! This is 'Night 2' of the bartender battle! Team Outlaws are bringing THE HEAT with Singer Bo Vixxen and celebrity burlesque performer Minxie! Dont miss out! The show starts at 9pm!"

I fear that Facebook's legendary insistence on ensuring everyone has an honest and genuine profile will be put to a rigorous test for this one night.

Source: CNET

How's this for irony? Mark Zuckerberg's wall got hacked....warning him of a security problem.

A Palestinian IT expert who claimed to have discovered a Facebook vulnerability said he took his bug report to Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook page after being ignored by the social network's security team.

The vulnerability allows anyone to post anything to anyone else's page, regardless of whether they are a Facebook friend of that person, Khalil Shreateh wrote in a blog post Saturday. Shreateh initially reported the vulnerability through Facebook's "white hat" security disclosure service, which offers a minimum bounty of $500 for legitimate bugs.

However, despite including a demonstration of the bug executed on the Facebook page of Zuckerberg pal Sarah Goodwin, Shreateh was told by a Facebook security engineer in a terse note that "sorry this is not a bug."

Undaunted, Shreateh decided to share his experience with Zuckerberg by posting a note to the Facebook founder's page that apologized for the post but said he had "no other choice."

"[A] couple of days ago I discovered a serious Facebook exploit that allows users to post to other Facebook users timeline while they are not in friend list," Shreateh wrote in his post to Zuckerberg's timeline. "I appreciate your time reading this and getting some one from your company team to contact me."

Within minutes, Shreateh was contacted by a Facebook security seeking details of the exploit, Shreateh said, adding that his own Facebook account was quickly disabled. A security engineer told Shreateh his account had been disabled as a "precaution."

"When we discovered your activity we did not fully know what was happening," an engineer who identified himself as "Joshua" told Shreateh. "Unfortunately your report to our Whitehat system did not have enough technical information for us to take action on it. We cannot respond to reports which do not contain enough detail to allow us to reproduce an issue."

Joshua also informed Shreateh that he would not be receiving a bug reward for reporting the exploit because he violated the site's terms of service. "We do hope, however, that you continue to work with us to find vulnerabilities in the site," he wrote.

A Facebook security engineer responded Saturday in a Hacker News post that the vulnerability was fixed Thursday and conceded that Shreateh should have been asked for more details on the issue after his initial report. Along with offering inadequate information about the bug, Shreateh's post to Zuckerberg's timeline violated the social network's responsible disclosure policy, the security engineer wrote.

"Exploiting bugs to impact real users is not acceptable behavior for a white hat," the engineer wrote, adding that researchers are allowed to create test accounts to aid their research.

(click for larger screen shot)
Source: CNET

So your teenager wants to open a Facebook account...here's how to handle it.

There are plenty of reasons Facebook, Instagram, and other social networks have a minimum age limit. Here's just one: Children aren't born with internal privacy settings.

Moms and Dads can't assume teens know what they should and shouldn't share online. And just because children meet the minimum age requirement (for Facebook, it's age 13), that doesn't mean they should rush to create an account. Colby Zintl of Common Sense Media, a nonprofit family and children's advocacy group, said kids are probably better equipped to deal with the not-always-kid-friendly content and situations found on social networks when they're 14 or 15.

Once everyone's in agreement about when to get online, parents should show kids how to go about it. Walk them through the privacy settings. Show them how to unfriend people and delete posts. Make sure that only their friends can view their profile.

Zintl suggested that parents activate the setting that allows kids to approve all posts before they're added to their timeline. "Talk to your child about the importance of that," Zintl said. "It relates to the concept of a digital footprint -- everything is permanent. If a child is going to post on your child's wall, there should be some barrier to entry there."

The current generation of kids are growing up as digital natives, so they're often comfortable with social media, but they still need to be careful. And thanks to proud parents and grandparents, their lives are probably well-documented. Said Zintl: "Parents posting pictures of their babies starts a kid's digital footprint for their entire life. They're creating a lifetime of photos and history online."

Common Sense Media urges parents to emphasize to kids that the Internet is written with a permanent Sharpie, not pencil. "Once a photo, or a comment, is out in cyberspace, there is no getting it back. Even if you take it down from Facebook, another kid could have forwarded it," Zintl said. "There is no such thing as a real eraser button in social media, and that is an important reminder to share with kids over and over again."

Source: CNET

Low on money? Know how to hack? Get on over to Facebook to "research" (a.k.a. hack).

Facebook has paid a $20,000 reward to a UK based security researcher for reporting a bug that hackers could've used to take over users' accounts. 

Last month, UK security researcher Jack Whitton found a way to hack into other users' Facebook accounts without their knowledge, simply by sending a text message to Facebook. 

The flaw, which Facebook has fixed, was in a Facebook service that lets users link their mobile phones with their accounts. This lets them log into Facebook using their phone number instead of their email address, and send profile updates via text message.

To activate this feature, a user sends a text message to Facebook, which texts back an authorization code. This code is what ties the user's device to their account. 

But Whitton found that Facebook's authorization code could be tweaked to work with other users accounts as well. This means a hacker could just change the password and gain complete control over the account.

Graham Cluely, an independent security analyst, says the bug could have had a widespread impact on Facebook users.

"This should – obviously – have been impossible, but due to a weakness in Facebook’s tangled nest of millions and millions of lines in code, potentially hundreds of millions of accounts were vulnerable to hijacking through the simple technique," Cluely said in a Friday blog post.

Whitton informed Facebook about the flaw May 23, and Facebook fixed it five days later. Facebook gave Whitton a shout-out on its list of "white hats," the term for researchers who find bugs and inform vendors instead of using them for financial gain.

Source:  Business Insider

New Facebook bug exposes some contact information.

A newly discovered Facebook bug may have inadvertently compromised the contact information of 6 million users, the company says.

The bug, which has since been repaired, was part of the Download Your Information tool, which lets Facebook users export all the data from profiles, such as posts to their timeline and conversations with friends. People using the tool may have downloaded inadvertently the contact information for people they were somehow connected to.

 

Some people upload their contact lists or address books to Facebook, which the company then uses to suggest new friends they can connect with who are already using the service.

 

Though the number of people impacted is sizable, the actual spread of their contact information appears to be limited. The phone numbers and e-mail addresses were not exposed to developers or posted publicly. It is only shown to people they had at least a tentative connection with, and who may have already had their contact information. Even in that pool, it was only exposed to people who had used the data-exporting tool.

"For almost all of the email addresses or telephone numbers impacted, each individual email address or telephone number was only included in a download once or twice. This means, in almost all cases, an email address or telephone number was only exposed to one person," Facebook's security team said in a post.

 

The company says it has no evidence that the bug was "exploited maliciously" and that there have been no complaints so far.

 

The social media company announced the bug on Friday afternoon. The issue was discovered by a third-party security researcher who submitted it through Facebook's White Hat program.

 

Facebook's White Hat program is set up so that people such as security researchers can report any vulnerabilities they find on the social network and get a reward for $500 and up in return. These types of programs are common at Internet companies.

 

"Your trust is the most important asset we have, and we are committed to improving our safety procedures and keeping your information safe and secure," read the post.

People who were affected by the bug will receive an e-mail from Facebook.

 

Source: CNN

Facebook has adopted the hashtag symbol.

Hashtags are coming to Facebook to help users better surface conversations.

Support for the all-but-ubiquitous topic organization system was rumored in March and will roll out to a small percentage of users Wednesday. Facebook will roll out hashtags to more users in the coming weeks.

 

The social network wants to make it easier for users to find content already on Facebook, and functional hashtags are the first step. According to Facebook, many users already post hashtags anyway, so why not make them work? Hashtags will be both clickable and searchable, so, for example, topics like #NSALeaks or #NBAFinals will now exist.

 

Hashtags from other services, such as Instagram, are clickable as well. Users will also be able to compose posts directly from a hashtag feed and search results. That could make adding real-time content to specific streams easier than before.

 

How nice...now we can see more #smile #happy #selfie #sunshine crap clogging up our Facebook feeds, just as it does to our Twitter accounts.

 

Source: CNN

New Facebook feature trusts friends to reset your password.

Have you forgotten or lost your Facebook password? Relax. You can now turn to friends for help.

Facebook on Thursday rolled out Trusted Contacts account recovery, a feature it has tested with a limited number of people as the Trusted Friends capability since 2011.

Users can select three to five trusted contacts from their security settings at any time. These contacts should be available via phone or in person.

This feature could be helpful when a user suffers a mass compromise, meaning he or she loses access both to email and other accounts as a direct result of malware infestation. However, these cases are rare, and most users lose access only to specific accounts in targeted phishing schemes.

How it works:
Once users go into their Facebook Security Settings and select three to five people as trusted contacts, Facebook notifies those people.

When users can't log into their Facebook accounts, they can turn to their trusted contacts for help. Each contact will get a security code with instructions on how to use it. Users need security codes from three trusted contacts to recover their Facebook accounts.

When there's a problem, Facebook will generate an URL dynamically and the user's trusted contacts go into their own personal security settings and find the URL. The URL will give the contact a code and instructions on what to do with it.

Source: Tech News World