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Facebook adds disclosure requirements for issue ads

“But we wanted to put out the maximum we felt that it could be as soon as we had that analysis done”, Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg told CNN.

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Messenger, which allows users to chat amongst themselves, became a point of interest this week after Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company had “detected” that “sensational messages” were being sent via Messenger in Myanmar.

Facebook had previously stopped short of backing the legislation, saying it wanted to work with lawmakers further and announcing attempts at self-regulation.

“After Sony Pictures’ emails were hacked in 2014 we made a number of changes to protect our executives’ communications”. Surely, we’ve all desperately tried to do as much, after sending an embarrassing message (or nine) to an ex-girlfriend (or all of them).

Sheryl Sandberg, the company’s chief operating officer, emphasized in an interview with NBC that Facebook depends on your data.

London-based Cambridge Analytica, which has counted US President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign among its clients, disputed Facebook’s estimate of affected users.

These new rules will first take effect in the USA before reaching the rest of the world in the coming months.

The company will be expanding the authorisation process for political advertisers to include ads that focus on issues, like reproductive rights or housing.

Facebook will also require those who look after pages with a “large number” of followers to also be verified, but it has not stated what this number would be.

Advertisers touting social issues will need to verify their identity and location, Zuckerberg said in a Facebook post. Facebook will mail them a letter with a special code to confirm the address.

Users seeing these ads will notice a “Political Ad” disclaimer in the top left corner of said ad, with information about who paid for it also included. Telegram lets users turn on the self-destructing messages option.

If you want an ad-free Facebook, you’ll have to pay for it.

Facebook users can opt out of seeing targeted ads, but cannot shut off ads altogether. Neither can they opt entirely out of Facebook’s data collection.

Facebook is also facing an investigation by the Federal Trade Commission in what has become its worst privacy crisis in its 14-year history.

The Cambridge Analytica scandal has surfaced many details surrounding Facebook’s relationship with user privacy. The information was later transferred to third parties, including Cambridge Analytica, in violation of Facebook’s policies.

Facebook has been taking steps to assure their users their personal data is safe following the recent Cambridge Analytica data privacy scandal.

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The Italian competition authority Antitrust said on Friday it had opened an investigation into Facebook for “alleged improper commercial practices” by not adequately informing users about data-gathering.

Australian Authorities Open Investigation Into Facebook's Improper Sharing Of Data