Hootsuite’s Android app receives update bringing better image sharing and content publishing
Hootsuite’s Android application has been updated with several new features, mostly focused on image sharing and scheduled content publishing. The update brings the app to version 3.1, marking the first iterative update since it’s massive 3.0 update not too long ago.
Most of the new features are noticeable in the tweaked interface. The UI for composing tweets has been moved around a bit, making the send tweet arrow more prominent while hiding scheduling options behind a drop-down menu. When placing images within a tweet, Hootsuite now also shows a live preview of those images, which it didn’t do before. There are a few other slight changes, including Hootsuite being able to send out images to social media as opposed to just links, and a menu for looking at your scheduled content before it goes live.
You can grab the update from the link below.
Come comment on this article: Hootsuite’s Android app receives update bringing better image sharing and content publishing
Facebook figures if you listened to a video, you must like it
Facebook continues to refine what you see in your news feed. Today, the social network that your mom uses announced that it will track more information about your video watching habits to include whether or not you perform any actions like turn up the volume or make a video full screen. Facebook will use that information to place what it believes are more relevant auto-playing videos into your feed. Facebook recently announced that it would track how long users look at posts in addition to when someone clicks the Like or Share button to aggregate posts. Today’s news is just an extension of that. The company says it will roll out this new way to weight posts in user feeds over the coming weeks and that Pages shouldn’t expect “significant changes in distribution as a result of this update.”
Filed under: Internet, Facebook
Source: Facebook
Instagrads: What it’s like to spend all 4 years of high school on Instagram
By Sarah Kessler
“You’ve never heard of ‘Man Crush Monday’?”
Michael Martin, a recent graduate of Musselman High School in Inwood, West Virginia, has graciously agreed to explain his class’s Instagram habits to me.
“Well, ‘Man Crush Monday’ is the hashtag #mcm. On Monday, you post a picture of either your current boyfriend or person who you would want to be [your boyfriend]. #wcw is ‘Woman Crush Wednesday.’”
Okay.
“Throwback Thursday, Did you know about that one?”
This one, I know. On Thursday, my friends often post childhood photos with the hashtag #tbt.
“If you miss throwback Thursday,” Martin continues, “you can do flashback Friday. And if you took a selfie in the week, but you’re saving it for selfie Sunday, you put it up on selfie Sunday. A lot of people will like your selfies that day.”
Martin and his fellow graduating seniors across the country began their high school careers just after Instagram launched. They are the first high school class that used Instagram from freshman year on. Together, they have helped define the platform’s unwritten rules and decided what role the app would play in their social lives-a large one, it turns out.
Michael Martin
Instagram is now more important to teenagers than any other social network. It’s the first place teenagers go for news on new couples or breakups; it’s where they can show off in front of their friends; and it’s where most parents still don’t go. Like the physical hallways of individual high schools, Instagram’s exact rules do vary a bit from place to place. In 24,000 public high schools across the country, you may find slightly different interpretations of what it means when someone likes your photo, what is cool to post, and how classic teenage anxiety over popularity translates to the literal numerical value of “likes” or “followers.” This is the story of Instagram culture at just one high school, Musselman-but it’s safe to assume a similar set of social norms, faux pas, and meanings have developed around Instagram at the high school in your own hometown.
If I don’t Instagram in a day, I feel weird.
I discovered this when I set out to interview teenagers with exceptionally high numbers of followers. “I think a lot of kids use it to gauge who’s hanging out with who, and who’s engaging who romantically, and what people are getting into,” says Mark Otto, a 17-year-old photographer from Dayton, Ohio, who has more than 16,000 followers.
Instagram is also a form of self-expression. “If I don’t Instagram in a day, I feel weird,” Kami Baker, a junior in Omaha, Nebraska, who writes about her social anxiety for The Huffington Post, tells me. “It’s become a kind of online diary for me.” As Otto says, “[Teenagers] are using Instagram to express who they are, in a way.”
And you better make it count. Be careful about posting more than one photo a day. If you’re planning a “promposal” (an elaborate prom invitation that may or may not involve balloons, posters, flowers, or dessert), you better have somebody ready with a camera. Breakups are an occasion for black-and-white selfies captioned with mysteriously sad quotes. Every day could be an occasion for a selfie. But please, don’t post ONLY selfies. And if it doesn’t get more than 10 likes, well, that’s just “a little embarrassing,” Martin says. Selfie sticks, however, are totally cool.
Like the detention hall that brought kids from different social groups together in The Breakfast Club, everyone-the band geeks, the nerds, the football players, the country boys, the artistic kids-is on Instagram. Pitching into its photo stream is an opportunity to tell everybody who you are, even if they might not otherwise ask. “Maybe the jocks don’t talk to all of the theater and band people,” says Kelsey Bageant, another student at Musselman. “They might not know them at all, but they all follow them on Instagram, just because they all go to the same school.”
Coming Out On Instagram
Martin, who has more than 22,000 Instagram followers, is Musselman’s soccer goalie and two-time MVP. He has been voted “goalkeeper of the year” for the conference, and this year he made the all-state team. He is also gay, and, being from a religious household and a “pretty conservative town,” he was for a long time reluctant to be open about his orientation. That changed his junior year, when he slowly began to confide in friends. He went to another school’s dance with the homecoming king, and two weeks later, danced with the same boy at his own homecoming dance. But he didn’t tell the whole school he was gay until December, when he wrote an article about coming out for Outsports.com.
The day before the article came out, he posted a black-and-white selfie on Instagram and captioned it with an emoticon timer that showed, with its trickle of virtual sand, that time was running out. “People didn’t know,” he says, “but I knew that I was going to be embarrassed the next day.”
The article went viral on the Internet. For his classmates, though, Martin made the real announcement when he posted the story on his own social media accounts. He took a screenshot of a Facebook post from Outsports.com that mentioned his article-it had been shared 24,000 times-and posted it on Instagram. “That’s pretty much how I came out to literally the entire school,” he says. “[After the school dance], word did not get out too much [that I am gay]. Nobody gave me dirty looks or anything like they did after my first article came out. After my first article came out, boy-did I get a lot of dirty looks.”
But he also got a flood of support-almost 200 comments on his Instagram post alone. They said things like, “Great read. I also grew up in West Virginia, so I know what it can be like,” and, “Just read your story. Wished I had the courage when I was in high school to do what you did.”
After that, Martin started treating his relationship with his new boyfriend, Logan, like anyone else in his high school treated theirs, including on Instagram. He added his boyfriend’s Instagram handle into his bio line on his profile page and posted pictures with him for the first time (including on #mcm). “It’s a big thing to put your significant other in your bio,” says Martin’s classmate, Tyler Brewster. “It’s huge. Everyone does that. I guess just to tell other girls that I’m not available anymore.” When Martin concocted a promposal (which involved a Chick-fil-A sandwich and the phrase, “Don’t be a chicken, go to prom with me”), he posted a picture of that event, too.
At some point, someone at Instagram got wind of Martin’s story, and they put his account on a page of recommended people to follow. Within a week, he says, he skyrocketed to 13,000 followers (he now has more than 20,000). “It’s like a social status,” Martin says. “Whoever has the most likes I wouldn’t say is the most popular, but has a better social media presence.”
“I don’t really know how to describe it,” Brewster says, “But I guess I would say when you’re a freshman or sophomore, you care more about what people think, and the upperclassmen, I guess they look up to you more if you have more followers. They don’t look down on you anymore. They treat you as an equal person. It’s kind of terrible to say that a number can do that. When Michael’s followers shot up, everyone was like, oh wow, Michael got like 17,000 followers.”
Musselman High School is large, with about 400 students per class. When Martin got big on Instagram, he says, suddenly everybody knew his name. His Instagram handle, WVnatureboy, became his nickname. He mostly posted photos of nature, soccer fields, and selfies with his boyfriend. But that’s not the only way to be big on Instagram. “A lot of people in student council use it for their elections,” Martin tells me.
Connecting To Other Students
Brewster is Musselman’s student body president.
He is also the homecoming king; the guy who supplies the body paint and the poster board for the “student section” at Musselman sporting events; and the creator of a Twitter account called “Musselman Maniacs” that tweets out reminders about student council elections, pep rallies, and spirit days.
Tyler Brewster
On Instagram, he has more than 1,000 followers, but he’s not sure how he got them. “Sometimes it’s more extroverted people who get more followers, simply because they put themselves out there,” he says.
“I have had it happen to me plenty of times when people who I’ve seen in the hallways follow me, but I’ve never actually had a conversation with them. But then after they follow me, I’m like, Oh, well now I know your name.” Sometimes he learns more about them than that, like when a classmate who lost a parent posted a photo on the anniversary of the death. Or when friends who have been fighting post a photo together with a caption that says something like, “I’m so glad we’re friends again.”
“It’s definitely something that you talk about,” says his classmate, Kelsey Bageant. “You say ‘Instagram’ so much in high school.”
Brewster thinks Instagram helps his classmates have a more nuanced view of him as a person. “I’m involved in sports and government and theater at my school,” he says. “A lot of people don’t know that. So I feel like when they see me doing one activity, especially the younger students who are new to the school, that’s all they would see me doing. Whenever I would post something about a different aspect of my life, like being in the [musical], I feel like that showed other people that I’m a multifaceted individual. I can hold a conversation over multiple topics versus just sports or whatever. I think that makes me more approachable.”
His photos are from plays (most recently he played Link Larkin in Hairspray), in addition to his participation in the student section, student council activities, spirit days, and (of course) his promposal.
“For guys, I think it’s more of a ‘hey guys, this is what I’m doing’ kind of thing,” Brewster says. “And for girls it’s a ‘look at me’ thing. They feel pretty that day or something.”
A Short PSA: How To Selfie
“The thing behind the selfies is that some people need that instant gratification,” says Maria, whose mother asked that I not use her last name. “But I think selfies are just fun if you use them the right way.”
What is the right way?
“Not posting one every day and using them maturely.”
What are the wrong ways to use selfies?
“Posting one every day. Posting on different days but you’re wearing the same outfit so you can see that you took them at the same time. “
Maria’s feed features a lot of selfies-and a lot of photos with her girlfriends.
“It’s literally like you’re meeting someone through the lens of their camera on their phone,” she says. “You can post a comment, but a lot of times the picture speaks for itself. So it’s kind of cool, you know? I’m really into fashion. A lot of times I post photos of my outfits or new shoes I got.”
“My one close friend who went to Musselman, she’s an artist, and she’s always posting her artwork,” Maria adds.
“This Is Me”
For the first three years of high school, most of Kelsey Bageant’s time went to year-round volleyball. But her senior year, when she finished the season, she started posting photos of her artwork on Instagram. “Junior year, everyone is telling you, what are you going to be interested in? Where are you going?” she says. “And I started thinking about things. What would I like to do for the rest of my life? And for me, art is the only thing that I am really passionate about.”
Kelsey Bageant
Comments started trickling in on her Instagrammed artwork, some from people she didn’t even know. A few even offered to buy artwork, and she sold about 10 pieces for between $20 and $40 based on Instagram requests. “I think it gave me confidence,” she says. “Having people who don’t know you commenting on your artwork is really a neat thing.” She’ll be studying art when she starts classes at the University of Sioux Falls in South Dakota next fall.
“A lot of times you’ll see pictures of athletes and you’ll say, they’re really into the sports, they’re really good at it. And the same thing can happen with art, and you post it, and they’ll say, wow, you’re really talented at this. And they wouldn’t have known before without something like social media to show everyone.”
She still posts a lot of selfies, but in a way, they say the same thing as the posts that feature her sketches.
“It’s like, here I am,” Bageant says. “This is me.”
[Photo: Flickr user Chandler Abraham, Instagram photos of the subjects Tyler Brewster, Kelsey Bageant and Michael Martin]
Facebook Lite launches in India and the Philippines
Facebook is one of the largest social media applications on Android and is known to consume a lot of data and while this is acceptable in developed markets, it has hampered users of the social network in developing markets. To solve this, Facebook announced the 2G-friendly Facebook Lite, which is designed specifically for 2G networks and areas with intermittent connectivity.
Facebook Lite has now launched in India and the Philippines and is set to launch in more markets over the coming weeks. While the full Facebook app weighs in at a whopping 250MB in size, Facebook Lite is just 430KB in stature thanks to the social network rolling back the experience to focus on four key services:
- News Feed
- Status Updates
- Push Notifications
- Messages
Ironically, the four services are the core of Facebook’s offering and why many began using the social network before the influx of game requests and Facebook apps. Also included in the new app is access to your photos, pages and groups and you can also use Facebook’s full search feature. The app offers a similar user experience to the full Facebook app but loads faster on 2G networks thanks to Facebook optimising the content on its servers and Facebook have also confirmed that it will support video in the near future.
The best Apps:
.rvs_wrapper
width: 350px;
.rvs_wrapper.align_left
float: left;
.rvs_wrapper.align_right
float: right;
.rvs_wrapper.align_center,
.rvs_wrapper.align_none
width: 100%;
.rvs_wrapper.align_center
text-align: center;
.rvs_wrapper.align_center.cbc-latest-videos ul li
float: none;
display: inline-block;
vertical-align: top;
.rvs_wrapper.cbc-latest-videos:not(.align_none) ul li:nth-child(2n+1)
clear: both;
.rvs_title
font-weight: 600 !important;
margin: 0 !important;
font-size: 24px !important;
.rvs_wrapper.align_right .rvs_title
padding-left: 20px;
.rvs_title a
font-family: ‘Roboto Condensed’;
color: #3a3a3a;
.rvs_wrapper.cbc-latest-videos ul
padding-top: 10px;
.rvs_wrapper.align_left.cbc-latest-videos ul li,
.rvs_wrapper.align_none.cbc-latest-videos ul li
padding: 0 15px 0 0;
.rvs_wrapper.align_right.cbc-latest-videos ul li
padding: 0 0 0 15px;
float: right;
.rvs_wrapper.align_center.cbc-latest-videos ul li
padding: 0 7px;
.rvs_wrapper.cbc-latest-videos ul li > a
font-weight: 400;
.rvs_wrapper.cbc-latest-videos ul li > a .yt-thumbnail
margin-bottom: 0;
@media only screen and (max-width : 480px)
.rvs_wrapper
width: 100%;
text-align: center;
body .rvs_wrapper.cbc-latest-videos ul li
padding: 0 7px;
display: inline-block;
float: none;
vertical-align: top;
Vijay Shankar, Product Manager for Facebook Lite, said:
“We will get to video soon… In India over 80% of the users are on 2G network. We have worked on improving the apps performance even on spotty connections and across devices from entry-spec devices to high-end ones.
Shankar then went on to add that development of the app has taken over a year and the development team tested the app across Asia and Africa to ensure it worked properly.
“During the development phase, the team behind the app spent a lot of time on the ground traveling across India to test and check performance of the app.”
One of the reasons that rival social network Twitter grew in popularity was that it launched at a time when Facebook introduced apps and games, which resulted in the news feed becoming cluttered and the service consuming significantly more data. Facebook Lite will mean its now possible for users in developing countries to use the app without having to worry about poor connectivity and low allowances.
You can download it from Google Play (if you’re in India or the Philippines) or alternatively, there are APKs available to download from APKMirror.
Facebook wants to give your photo uploads a Snapchat-like flair
Facebook may be not as in tune with the teen crowd as Snapchat, but that isn’t stopping it from trying to fit in. TechCrunch has discovered that Facebook is testing an iOS photo uploader that lets you overlay Snapchat-like filters, stickers and text on pictures as you post them. While it’s not exactly a subtle attempt at riding the coattails of a fast-rising rival, it does show that the social network has ditched writing me-too apps in favor of adding features you’re more likely to use. Whether or not you see this uploader any time soon is another matter. Facebook regularly experiments with features, and it wouldn’t be surprising if the revamped software sees a lot of tweaks (assuming it makes the cut) before you get to try it yourself.
Filed under: Internet, Mobile, Facebook
Source: TechCrunch
Facebook makes it easier for iPhone users to find links
Facebook’s about to make it easier for you to find and share links while you’re on the move. The social network has updated its iPhone application with a new feature that lets users search for articles, videos and other web content using keywords. As pictured above, typing a couple of words about what you’re looking will bring up a list of related links — which can then be viewed and shared with your Facebook friends, directly from the app. For now, the feature is only available to people who have an iPhone, but it wouldn’t be a surprise to see this on Facebook’s Android app in the near future.
Filed under: Cellphones, Internet, Software, Mobile, Facebook
Source: Facebook
Facebook lets users ‘celebrate pride’ with rainbow filter
If you’re a fan of the Supreme Court’s ruling today that same-sex marriage is legal in all 50 states, Facebook has your profile-pride needs on lock. While logged into Facebook, head to facebook.com/celebratepride to superimpose a rainbow banner over your profile picture. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and plenty of other tech executives are celebrating the legalization of gay marriage today on social media: Apple CEO Tim Cook tweeted, “Today marks a victory for equality, perseverance and love,” and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella similarly wrote on Twitter, “A historic moment and step forward for equality in America. #LoveWins.” In a speech this morning, President Barack Obama characterized the Supreme Court decision as “justice that arrives like a thunderbolt.”
Today marks a victory for equality, perseverance and love.
– Tim Cook (@tim_cook) June 26, 2015
A historic moment and step forward for equality in America. #LoveWins
– Satya Nadella (@satyanadella) June 26, 2015
Today is a big step in our march toward equality. Gay and lesbian couples now have the right to marry, just like anyone else. #LoveWins
– President Obama (@POTUS) June 26, 2015
5 Android apps you shouldn’t miss this week! – Android Apps Weekly
Hexlock
[Price: Free / $1.07]
Hexlock is a security application that’s aimed to help you protect your applications. The way it works is you choose a profile and then select which applications are locked down on that profile. From there, every time someone tries to enter that app, they’ll have to enter the password before the app can be opened. You can select virtually any application installed on your device which means you can keep friends out of your video games or keep your kids out of your work email. It’s free to use and the only in-app purchase is to remove ads. We’d like to thank Hexlock for their support of Android Authority.
Welcome back to another episode of Android Apps Weekly! Let’s check out the big headlines from the last week!
- First up this week, we’d like to announce that Android Authority is now on Twitch! We decided to check out the platform so we could bring you more mobile gaming fun. Go subscribe and keep an eye out for our next live stream. We play games, chat it up, and have some fun.
- A potential upcoming Android game called Kill the Plumber will let you kill Mario once and for all. The game is a parody of the popular Mario series except you play as the bad guy to prevent Mario from winning. The interesting thing here is the Apple App Store turned the app down, so we’ll see how it fares on Android.
- Facebook has announced a new algorithm for their photos that will be able to identify you in pictures even if you’re not facing the camera. This unique and slightly frightening algorithm is expected to roll out to the services very soon and it boasts a really good 83% success rate in identifying people.
- A new commercial for Google Translate has unveiled that the app translates over 100 billion words every day. The idea behind the commercial was to show how it’s changed how we communicate and the most translated phrase? “How are you”, “thank you”, and “I love you”. Dem feels though!
- In our last major headline this week, Google has announced that Google Play Music will now have free, ad-supported radio. That means you can enjoy the various playlists and “radio” stations without buying an All Access pass as long as you don’t mind a few ads. In the US only for now, but we expect expansion eventually.
For even more Android apps and games news, don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter where we’ll have all the stories from the week, even the ones we didn’t have time for here. If you’re so inclined, you can sign up with your email and we’ll beam this info directly to your inbox every single Friday.
Check out our Android Apps Weekly newsletter!
Microsoft Word, Excel, and Powerpoint
[Price: Free with in-app purchases]
Microsoft released individual Word, Excel, and Powerpoint apps for tablets earlier this year to massive success. After a few months of rumors, those three apps are now finally available for Android phones as well as Android tablets. The tablet versions are already known to be fairly high quality and powerful productivity apps and we’ve no doubt the phone versions are the same way. Do beware that you’ll need a Microsoft account in order to use all the features to their fullest.
The GameOn Project
[Price: Free]
The GameOn Project is an interesting game discovery application that aims to help you find mobile games that are to your liking. The way it works is you sign in, answer some questions, and then you tell it what games you’ve heard of and know about. It will then recommend games to you based on your decisions. Some of the questions could be potentially awkward but the developers swear that they matter. It’s worth a look if you’re looking for some games.
Dawn of the Sniper
[Price: Free with in-app purchases]
Dawn of the Sniper is a new freemium game where you play as a sniper and you go on missions to do what snipers do best, which is shoot people. The game includes easy to learn mechanics, plenty of levels, and a variety of weapons, achievements, and more. The in-app purchases for this game aren’t too bad. One of them is to remove ads and you can beat the game without purchasing anything really. It’s a fun little time waster and worth a shot.
Dragon Quest VI
[Price: $14.99]
Square Enix has released Dragon Quest VI on Android. This is the final chapter of the Zenithian trilogy and you can find the other two parts of it in the Google Play Store as well. It’s a little steeply priced at $14.99 but there are no in-app purchases. The game is also played in portrait mode like most Dragon Quest games. The grahpics are a bit retro but this game was originally released in the mid 90s so that’s to be expected. If you like jRPGs, this is a good option.
Seigefall
[Price: Free with in-app purchases]
Last up is Seigefall by Gameloft. This game caught our attention at E3 for its decent graphics and simple premise. It’s much like games such as Clash of Clans or Boom Beach, except with better graphics and a longer story line. There are some release day bugs and some may not like the in-app purchase strategies, but this is one of the more decent freemium games to be releases this year. It’s worth a shot if you like strategy games.
Wrap up
If we missed any great Android apps or games news this week, let us know about it in the comments! Don’t forget to subscribe to our new Twitch channel for the latest in Android gaming and some plain old having fun!
Women, LGBT least safe on Facebook, despite ‘real name’ policy
Despite Facebook’s insistence that its “real names” policy keeps its users safe, a new report reveals that Facebook is the least safe place for women online. And things are turning more explosive, as stories emerge that Facebook has been changing its users’ names without their consent — and the company isn’t allowing them to remove their real names from their accounts. Meanwhile, a furious LGBT coalition has rallied around the safety threats posed to its communities by the policy. Though, it was unsuccessful in blocking the company from marching in America’s largest gay pride parade.
Facebook’s ongoing war on pseudonyms became well-documented in 2011 when a blogger risking her life to report on crime in Honduras was suspended by the company, under its rule requiring everyone to use their real name on the social network. The problem re-emerged in September 2014 when Facebook’s policy locked an eye-opening number of LGBT accounts in violation of the “real names” rule. Facebook met with Bay Area LGBT community representatives, offered an apology, then suggested a policy change was in the works. Surprise: It never came. Nine months later, Facebook has failed to solidify or clarify this policy, and one organization has bad news for Facebook’s years of “real name” policy implementation.
Epicenter of online abuse for over 23 million women
The Safety Net Project (at the National Network to End Domestic Violence, NNEDV) recently released a report based on results from victim service providers called A Glimpse From the Field: How Abusers Are Misusing Technology.
The report found that nearly all (99 percent) the responding programs reported that Facebook is the most misused social media platform by abusers. Facebook is a key place for offenders to access information about victims or harass them by direct messaging or via their friends and family. The respondents included national domestic violence programs, sexual assault programs, law enforcement, prosecutor’s offices and civil legal services.
Facebook is the most misused social media platform by abusers.
NNEDV’s report (PDF) concluded that, “It is unsurprising that nearly every program reported Facebook as the main social media abusers use to harass victims.” That’s because, “Facebook is the hardest for survivors to shut down or avoid because they use it to keep in contact with other friends and family.” And no wonder, because NNEDV recognizes the critical need to avoid isolation for abuse victims. “Although we often hear suggestions that survivors shouldn’t use social media, we don’t agree that this is a solution.”
NNEDV tells us that one in four American women are domestic abuse survivors; in one recent 24-hour survey, NNEDV found that US domestic violence programs served more than 65,000 victims and answered more than 23,000 crisis hotline calls in one day alone. It’s widely accepted that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender survivors of violence experience the same rates of violence as straight individuals.
Pew currently estimates that 71 percent of American adults (188 million) use Facebook; if half are female, and one in four of those are victims of domestic violence — that’s a little over 23 million women whose “real names” put them in danger. And that’s 23 million users who, especially if they are using the social network by its own rules, are experiencing Facebook as their primary avenue of abuse, harassment and stalking.
When reached for comment about the How Abusers Are Misusing Technology report, a Facebook spokesperson referred us to this Facebook post explaining how the company’s “authentic name” policy “creates a safer community for everyone.”
The Facebook prison experiment
On its website resource for survivor support, NNEDV adds, “Getting off social media doesn’t guarantee any level of safety or privacy. Additionally, online spaces can decrease isolation and offer much support for survivors, especially when they offer privacy and security controls to the user. Survivors shouldn’t have to worry about their safety when they want to connect with friends and family online.”
Facebook’s very public 2013 partnership announcement with NNEDV shows that the company is fond of saying one thing, and instead doing the opposite.
Obviously, the status of that relationship is “complicated.”
NNEDV’s own Survivor Privacy Guide instructs survivors of abuse to never use their real names on social media accounts. “Survivors can maximize their privacy by using being careful about what they share, strategic in creating accounts (not using your real name in your email or username) and using privacy settings in social networks.”
The Survivor Privacy Guide isn’t just the policy on “real names” for domestic violence victims; is the bedrock instruction and most-cited policy for digital safety by every national sexual assault organization in the United States (including the National Resource Center on Domestic Violence, National Sexual Violence Resource Center and numerous state coalitions against rape and Violence Against Women).
In NNEDV’s Facebook guide for abuse survivors, it acknowledges both that Facebook’s policy is to only use your “real name” and that an account’s user name is one of the only things that can never be made private. The official NNEDV guide tells abuse victims and assault survivors the only option to avoid being abused, stalked and harassed by perpetrators by your real name on Facebook is… to not use Facebook.
“Victims of domestic violence, sexual violence and stalking have even more complex safety risks and concerns when their personal information ends up on the internet,” says NNEDV’s Being Web Wise guide — where NNEDV advises only posting online anywhere using a “pen name.”
In the nine months since drag queens made headlines about Facebook’s “real names” problem, the situation for LGBT people, sex workers, and female users has continued, and worsened.
Facebook, in the meantime, has kept its assurance in “expanding the options available for verifying,” which now includes portals where users are told to upload their driver’s licenses and passports (among many other official documents) to unlock their suddenly locked accounts. By May, the steady stream of reports that LGBT people were still being locked out of their accounts and forced to provide their legal name documentation (a terrifying predicament for many LGBT people) hadn’t abated.
Believing Facebook is more interested in appearances than the LGBT community’s worsening user safety problem, Bay Area LGBT figureheads concretized a movement, the MyNameIs Coalition, with a campaign to ban Facebook from this Sunday’s SF Pride parade — placing Facebook in the same category as other corporations who discriminate or behave harmfully toward LGBT people as a group, such as Coors and Exxon Mobil.
Local headlines read that the Pride board bent to pressure from Facebook.
The decision prompted the SF Examiner to write, “If you’re a high-profile donor to San Francisco Pride, you might be able to discriminate against the LGBT community and get away with it.” In at least one instance, Mark Zuckerberg placed at least one personal call to a board member.
According to meeting minutes, Pride board member Jesse Oliver Sanford railed at those who voted for Facebook saying, “What does it say if all it takes is a 15-minute phone call from Zuckerberg for Pride to sell out our own community?”
When reached for comment, SF Pride President Gary Virginia explained to Engadget that SF Pride would be focusing on finding a “solution to expand [Facebook’s] authentication policies and procedures” in community meetings sometime in the “next 12 months.”
“What does it say if all it takes is a 15-minute phone call from Zuckerberg for Pride to sell out our own community?”
Regarding the decision to keep Facebook in the parade, Virginia said, “We look at the totality of intentional support or harm to our queer community when vetting a potential sponsor or parade contingent. FB has been a staunch supporter of our queer community and has a perfect 100 score on the Human Rights Campaign Corporate Equality Index. These are the main factors that drove the board’s decision to continue to welcome Facebook’s LGBT employee group in the parade and Facebook’s sponsorship.”
When reached for comment about SF Pride’s decision in light of MyNameIs Campaign opposition, a Facebook spokesperson told Engadget, “Facebook is proud of our commitment to diversity and our support of the LGBTQ community as a company and an employer. We have been strong supporters of the San Francisco parade for many years. … We look forward to joining this year’s 45th annual celebration.”
However, Facebook didn’t have anything to say to us about reports that the company is changing its users’ names without their consent.
At the same time MyNameIs began organizing its movement, some Facebook users discovered that Facebook is changing the names on their accounts to what Facebook believes is their “real name” — and they have no choice about it.
Stupid facebook, logged me out & changed my name on me. now I can’t change it back for 60days. YES, Sherry Ann Ey is me ‘Rooster’ 
– Sherry Ey (@sherryey) May 27, 2015
User Sherry Ey wrote on May 26th, “Stupid Facebook, logged me out & changed my name on me.” MziAMARt tweeted on June 10th, “They kept me from my account for the last two days then CHANGED MY NAME.” On June 12th, Marilyn Ollie wrote, “So freakin upset with Facebook. How you gone send me an email and tell me that you changed my name and I can’t change it back.” User Modar Almouhammad wrote on June 16th, “Facebook changed my name without even asking me?”
One woman, who spoke under condition of anonymity, told Engadget that six weeks ago, Facebook flagged her name as “inauthentic” and was told to change her name. She did — to the name on her ID. She said, “Two weeks later I received another notification that they didn’t think that the name I had entered was my ‘authentic’ name and that I had to submit documents confirming that.”
She uploaded her ID and submitted her user name to be her first and middle name, as seen on her ID. She told Engadget, “I found that when I had my profile set to my name [first and last] that I had unwanted attention from people at my day job tracking me down and able to view my profile pictures, generally available photos, view my website and essentially able to stalk me in a way that made me feel unsafe.”
But Facebook had its own plans after the company obtained her ID. “I received notification within two days of uploading my driver’s license that they didn’t accept my [first and middle name] as my legal name and would change my name to my [first and last name] unless I could provide other identity.”
She said Facebook told her, “I would not be able to change my name again. Not in three months — never.”
This flies in the face of Facebook’s own publicly stated policy following the September drag queen dust-up, when CPO Chris Cox released a statement saying:
“Our policy has never been to require everyone on Facebook to use their legal name. The spirit of our policy is that everyone on Facebook uses the authentic name they use in real life. For Sister Roma, that’s Sister Roma. For Lil Miss Hot Mess, that’s Lil Miss Hot Mess.”
The biggest unregulated private database on earth?
Facebook appears to have started forcing birth names on its users around the time of the September 2014 LGBT name purge, as seen in this nine-month-old plea for help on Facebook’s Help Community page. Triex Keiseki wrote, “I provided Facebook with my original birth certificate and my name change certificate — instead they changed my name to my birth name, which I have hidden for the past years. … and I SPECIFICALLY DID NOT WANT people to know.”
Engadget spoke with two other women, and one gay male performer who has received actionable threats, each of which are terrified to experience Facebook changing their names without consent, or recourse.
Facebook maintains that its “real names” (aka “authentic names”) policy is essential for user safety. It believes its “authentic names” policy protects users from abuse on the social network, “like when an abusive ex-boyfriend impersonates a friend to harass his ex-girlfriend” because “no one can hide behind an anonymous name to bully, taunt or say insensitive or inappropriate things.” But rumblings about Facebook’s real motivations — to prioritize the financial value of its database are the inevitable chorus it receives in the media; Facebook’s stock tanked in 2012 when it revealed 8.7 percent of its accounts to be fake.
Facebook maintains that its “real names” (aka “authentic names”) policy is essential for user safety.
As Reed Albergotti wrote in The Wall Street Journal last year, “Facebook’s advertising product, which will bring in an estimated $12 billion in revenue this year, rests almost solely on its ability to gather detailed, accurate information about users.”
Either way, it’s a hell of a database score, though it stands to reason there are humans in there somewhere: That Facebook is changing user names based on the submitted documents shows that Facebook is indeed recording submitted ID information with the user account record, somewhere.
It’s interesting to note that databases such as this are usually subject to citizen protections; for instance, the Drivers Privacy Protection Act (DPPA) restricts what state motor vehicle departments can do with our driver’s license data — as well as who can handle that data.
Collecting passports, marriage certificates, state ID, birth certificates, library cards, Social Security cards, insurance cards and more as part of Facebook’s identity verification data set must make for an unimaginably impressive candy store for governments, advertisers, stalkers, unethical corporations, and all the creeps in the internet’s clown car.
As someone who writes about privacy and security for a living, I’d say it’s easily one of the most dangerous, highly targeted, unregulated private databases on the planet.
But no matter its monetary value, the view from here looks as if the cost is too high.
[Image credits: Getty (Protest, Pride parade), Facebook (Lisbon), AP (Lil Ms. Hot Mess, Sister Roma and Heklina), Flickr (Driver’s licenses), Shutterstock (Facebook app)]
Facebook v37 (kinda) lets you move app to SD card
The newest beta of Facebook for Android (version 37) allows users to move the app to the SD card somewhat. Only 50MB, which Android Authority believes is the APK file, are moved while the remaining 150MB stay on internal storage. In addition, this division causes the app’s size to increase slightly. It is not known why Facebook went with this rather than relocating the entire app.
If you like this idea, you can grab Facebook v37 from APK mirror. Beta testers should already have the update in the Play Store. Keep in mind that since this is a beta, Facebook reserves the right to remove or change the feature upon final release.
The post Facebook v37 (kinda) lets you move app to SD card appeared first on AndroidGuys.
AIVAnet 