Google has launched an app to rival WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger

Google took aim Wednesday at the red-hot mobile messaging market, with a new artificial intelligence-powered Allo app that seeks to compete with popular rivals such as WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger.

But the app’s reliance on Google’s predictive software drew immediate criticism from privacy advocates who argued it could open up user data to law enforcement — with former US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden warning people not to use it.

Google defended its privacy stand, saying users can opt for a more secure “incognito” mode if they prefer.

The app includes Google Assistant, an artificial intelligence program which makes live suggestions as you chat.

“You no longer need to leave a conversation with friends just to grab an address, share your favorite YouTube video, or pick a dinner spot,” Google said in a blog post.

“Google Allo can help you make plans, find information, and express yourself more easily in chat. And the more you use it, the more it improves over time,” Google said.

The app will adjust according to whether its user’s style is usually an emoji or written response, for example.

Like rival apps, it has tools for personalizing chat messages including changing the size of emojis and a choice of stickers.

– Keeping pace –

Allo was unveiled by Google in May at the same time as Google Duo, an app for video calls, which hit the market last month.

The app is available on smartphones using Google’s Android system and Apple’s iOS.

Google faces a challenge in carving a place in a sector dominated by popular apps such as WhatsApp, which Facebook acquired for some $20 billion in 2014 and which counts more than a billion users.

In July, Facebook said that users of its own Messenger application had also passed the one billion mark.

Apple has also moved to catch up with rivals, upgrading the messaging app in its latest iOS 10 launched last week.

Google and its earlier messaging app Hangouts had failed to keep pace in a market that also includes Snapchat, Skype and global rivals such as WeChat, Viber, Line, Kik and Telegram.

– Privacy, encryption –

Conversations in Allo will be encrypted, according to Google. And additional privacy will be offered with an “incognito” option in which messages will disappear after a fixed period.

But some analysts expressed disappointment that Google did not go further in agreeing not to store messages on its servers, where they can be accessed by authorities.

Christopher Soghioan, a privacy researcher with the American Civil Liberties Union, lamented that Google “decided that improving auto responses was worth making all messages accessible to law enforcement.”

Snowden, the former US intelligence contractor wanted for leaking National Security Agency documents on surveillance, said in a tweet, “Don’t use Allo.”

A later tweet from Snowden called Allo an “app that records every message you ever send and makes it available to police upon request.”

Google argues that the “smart” features of the application require “data processing” and that the tech giant needs to store chats to improve responses.

“We’ve given users transparency and control over their data in Google Allo,” a Google statement emailed to AFP said.

“Our approach is simple — your chat history is saved for you until you choose to delete it. You can delete single messages or entire conversations in Allo.

“We also provide the option to chat in Incognito mode, where messages are end-to-end encrypted and you can set a timer to automatically delete messages for your device and the person you’re chatting with’s device at a set time.”

AFP

Man who shot ex-wife and son confesses on Facebook, says she deserved what she got

Earl Valentine had just critically injured his ex-wife and killed his
namesake son in North Carolina, authorities said. He was somewhere on a
dark road, possibly driving to Richmond to kill his former in-laws.

That’s when Valentine went on Facebook and started broadcasting live.

“She
lied on me, had warrants taken out on me,” he told the camera early
Tuesday, as he divided his gaze between the phone and the road. “She
drug me all the way down to nothing. I loved my wife, but she deserved
what she had coming.”

In his chilling Facebook livestream, which was later re-posted on YouTube, Valentine acknowledged that the violent chain of events he started could end in his own death.

“Pleasure
knowing all y’all,” he said. “I’ve been very sick for months. And this
is something that I could not help. So I don’t know if I’m gonna make it
where I’m going, but if I don’t, I wish all of you a good life.”

Police in
Norlina, a town of 1,100 people about an hour east of Raleigh, spent
Tuesday and Wednesday trying to unravel what caused Valentine allegedly
to kick in the door of his ex-wife’s single-story home and open fire —
and then admit to the crime on social media.

But more than anything, they want to find Earl Valentine.

Authorities
from the FBI and the U.S. Marshals Service have joined local and
regional law enforcement agencies in a manhunt stretching from Virginia
to South Carolina, Norlina Police Chief Taylor Bartholomew told The
Washington Post.

Bartholomew said Valentine was carrying a pistol and a shotgun and is considered “extremely” dangerous.

He
said he talked to Valentine on the phone and described him as “cold and
callous,” saying he showed no remorse for the shootings.

“For
somebody that had just done something like that, he was calm but he was
aggressive,” Bartholomew said. “He was trying to pump me for
information. His main focus was to make sure his ex-wife was dead.”

Bartholomew
also quoted Valentine as saying that he wouldn’t be taken alive and
that he planned to kill his in-laws, then himself.

Keisha Valentine and her teenage son had moved to Norlina nearly nine
months ago to get away from her abusive ex-husband, Bartholomew said.

A
year-long domestic violence restraining order she was granted had
expired last month. But the police chief said there’s evidence that Earl
Valentine had exchanged heated words with his ex-wife’s family
on Facebook.

Still, it’s unclear what prompted Tuesday morning’s assault on Hyco Street.

About
1:30 a.m., Earl Valentine burst through the front door of the house and
marched to his ex-wife’s bedroom, Bartholomew said. Keisha Valentine
leaned against the door, trying to keep him out, but he managed to shoot
her anyway.

Their son, awakened by the commotion, confronted his father. But the teenager fell to the floor and was shot in the chest.

Before he died, he called police and told them what had happened.

Earl Valentine faces a first-degree murder charge in his son’s death, Bartholomew said.

Since
Facebook Live launched in April, millions have used the service to
offer a glimpse into the big moments and small details of their lives. 

The view isn’t always pretty.

Earl Valentine is the latest example of a person using Facebook Live to discuss a violent act — or to showcase the act itself.

In June, Larossi Abballa, a terrorism suspect accused of killing a French police captain and his partner in their home, broadcast the aftermath of the attack on Facebook Live. An
occasionally tearful Abballa, speaking a mix of French and Arabic,
swore allegiance to the Islamic State militant group and encouraged
others to follow his example and kill police.

A month later, a Georgia mother went on her daughter’s Facebook account to broadcast herself beating the teenager — punishment for posting sexually explicit pictures on the site.

“This
is my page now,” Shanavia Miller told the camera after she fixed her
hair. “Now I’m gonna need y’all to send this viral. Please share this
because I’m not done. More to come.”

A July shooting in Norfolk that injured three men was inadvertently captured on Facebook Live.
In the video, three men are sitting in a car, smoking and listening to
rap music. Five minutes into the video, there’s a series of 30 gunshots.

And after police in Minnesota fatally shot Philando Castile during a traffic stop in July, his girlfriend opened Facebook and began livestreaming the aftermath. The video was viewed millions of times, sparking outrage and widespread protests.

The
nascent live-streaming service is raising philosophical questions about
the power of unfiltered Internet video that can reach millions
instantly.

As The Post’s Caitlin Dewey wrote in July:

Facebook
Live, which launched globally in April, has quickly emerged as one of
the Internet’s dominant platforms for streaming unfiltered, real-time
video. As Facebook has learned in the past week, however, that status
comes with unique challenges.

Real-time video is exceedingly
difficult to moderate, as it reaches its largest audience
instantaneously and can be redacted only after that moment of impact.
That limits the power of even a dedicated, 24-7 moderation team, which
Facebook Live has. Despite growing concern that the tool could be abused
— several shootings, a police standoff and an accused jihadist’s confession
have streamed on Facebook already — the company has remained
intentionally (and characteristically) vague on the composition and
guidelines of its moderation team.

Facebook has reportedly spent $16 million on Mark Zuckerberg’s security

Facebook has spent more than $16 million protecting Mark Zuckerberg and his family in just five years after ‘specific threats’ to the 31-year-old.

The firm, according to Daily Mail report, disclosed the staggering amount spent on security for Zuckerberg – the fourth richest person in the world – in a regulatory filing on Wednesday.

It reveals that, in 2015, $5 million was invested in bodyguards and other protective services to ensure the safety of its founder and CEO.

The substantial sum is in fact a mark down from the $6.2 million spent on his security in 2014.

Mark Zuckerberg had $5 million spent on his security in 2015, $6.2m in 2014, and $3.3m in 2013. Zuckerberg, who is worth $35.7 billion, has 16 bodyguards working on rotation to protect him; In February he was pictured jogging through the streets of Berlin with some of them

Also protected: Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg has a security package worth $1.2 million – roughly the same amount as CEOs of rival tech companies and much more than Apple’s Tim Cook, who has $209,000 security

Also protected: Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg has a security package worth $1.2 million – roughly the same amount as CEOs of rival tech companies and much more than Apple’s Tim Cook, who has $209,000 security

The year before, he had $3.3 million-worth of security.

Millions have also been spent on private travel, as well installing alarms in his $10 million home in San Francisco’s well-heeled Mission District.

Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s chief operating officer, also received an above-average security package: the firm issued $1.2 million worth of security measures to protect her last year.

In contrast, Apple spent just $209,000 on CEO Tim Cook’s security last year.

Oracle CEO Larry Ellison was portioned $1.5 million to secure his home in 2015.

Amazon spent $1.6 million on Jeff Bezos’s security in 2015.

Zuckerberg, who is worth $35.7 billion, has 16 bodyguards working on rotation to protect him, his wife Priscilla, and their daughter Maxima.

Though he famously earns a $1-a-year salary, he owns nearly 422 million shares of Facebook stock, which rakes in his millions.

His security entourage has enraged his neighbors, who wrote an open letter in January slamming his guards for taking up space in the residential street.
A letter written by neighbors and obtained by Buzzfeed was distributed to residents of Liberty Hill, a neighborhood adjacent to Dolores Park.

The letter claimed that Zuckerberg’s security team is ‘permanently’ and ‘illegally’ occupying ‘desirable parking spots’ in the area with two silver SUVs.

It urged neighbors to complain to the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) about the vehicles and contact Zuckerberg’s ‘residential security manager’, Tim Wenzel.

‘I think we’ve all tried to be as patient and civil as possible during the very long construction, the noise, the trash, the blocking of streets, etc,’ the letter began.

It continues: ‘Now that all that circus is done, we are left with 2 silver SUV’s permanently occupying desirable parking spots.

‘It goes without saying that living close to Dolores Park and the awesome neighboring districts already creates a challenge when it comes to street parking, so the 2 spots that are illegally being held for Zuck only makes matters worse.’

Facebook maintains there are ‘specific threats’ against the CEO that warrant such a scale of protection.

Millions have also been spent on alarms in his $10 million home in San Francisco’s well-heeled Mission District
‘Because of the high visibility of our company, our compensation & governance committee has authorized an “overall security program” for Mr. Zuckerberg to address safety concerns due to specific threats to his safety arising directly as a result of his position as our founder, Chairman, and CEO,’ it reads.

‘We require these security measures for the company’s benefit because of the importance of Mr. Zuckerberg to Facebook, and we believe that the costs of this overall security program are appropriate and necessary.’

The 31-year-old was the subject of an ISIS threat video earlier this year, which featured his face littered with bullet holes. Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s CEO, also appeared in the video.

It is not clear whether this video is one of the threats that has driven Facebook to pour millions into Zuckerberg’s security detail.

In the 25-minute video, the militants claim they control more than 10,000 Facebook accounts and 150 Facebook groups – and warn they will retaliate to any attempt to drive them off the sites.

The threat came after both Zuckerberg announced an intense push against terrorist users on their social networks.

Facebook has vowed to follow Twitter’s example in shutting down accounts that have terrorist links.

Sheryl Sandberg also called on users to ‘attack’ any terrorist-linked posts with ‘likes’.

(The News)

Mark Zuckerberg Sells $95 Million Of Facebook Shares For Charitable Causes

 

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan (Photo: Adam Berry/Getty Images)

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, have started to make good on their pledge to give away 99% of their wealth to public-interest causes. On Wednesday and Thursday, the couple’s two vehicles for charitable giving and impact investing—the Chan Zuckerberg Foundation and CZI Holdings LLC—sold Facebook shares worth nearly $95 million before taxes, according to a regulatory filing on Friday.

The sales likely netted more than $85 million after capital gains taxes, which CZI Holdings must pay because it is a limited liability company rather than a nonprofit foundation.

The couple announced their plans to give 99% of their Facebook shares to social causes in a Facebook post in December, the same month their daughter, Max, was born. At the time, their stock holdings were worth $45 billion.

To fulfill their pledge, the pair formed the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, which intends to fund charities, companies and policies that “advance human potential and promote equality.” The organization will initially focus on improving education, curing disease, and strengthening communities, according to its website. The venture’s first investment, in June 2016, was in Andela, a startup that trains African engineers for jobs in the tech industry. Zuckerberg’s spokesperson declined to specify what the cash netted in this week’s transactions will fund.

The couple plans to sell or give away no more than $1 billion-worth of stock each year through 2018, according to the regulatory filing.

FORBES estimates that Zuckerberg has a fortune worth $53.3 billion.

6 Reasons Why People Unfriend, Block Or Unfollow You On Facebook

Certain Facebook users make sure their friends list is trimmed and such type of people are ready to remove you when ever you violate their “personal terms of use”.

Based on our interactions with certain individuals, these are the top reasons people will unfriend you on Facebook:-

1. Tagging Friends Unnecessarily in Status Updates & Photos

This is one of the most annoying thing people do on Facebook. To be sincere, you do not have to tag your friends in every status updates you post. Unless it’s very important or you are relating the post to them, when you do this in excess, it becomes annoying and will make people unfriend you.

Populating people’s photo albums with your tagged pictures isn’t a good idea unless it’s a picture you took together. Tagging people in pictures originally meant that you took that picture with that particular person but this feature is being abused daily.

2. Sharing Indecent Updates

If you know what it feels like to open your Facebook news feed only to be welcomed with a NSFW picture and you have a friend beside you looking at your phone, perhaps you’ll have a better understanding of what I’m driving at here. It can be very embarrassing.

There are certain things you shouldn’t share on Facebook but some people don’t know this; they just keep share anything from adult content. You won’t think twice to remove this kind of people, you know?

3. Adding Your Friends To Groups

Just as you confirm friends before adding them to your friend list, adding people to groups should be a matter of choice too but unfortunately, Facebook allows your friends add you to different group without your consent. It’s alright to add them to just one group you think they might be interested in but when you make this a daily routine, they won’t hesitate to unfriend.

Adding people to groups only increase notifications. There are times you log in to Facebook to see 20 notifications, 17 of them being from groups, and photo tags.

4. Adding Your Friends to Group Conversations

People hate being added to group conversations especially when the topic has nothing to do with them. People abuse this feature and sometimes used for spamming.

Doing this frequently might get you unfriended upset and get you blocked by lots of people.

5. Sharing Links on Your Friends Timeline

If you have a blog and you’re desperately looking for traffic, you don’t have to paste your links directly on your friends’ timeline every single day

6. Documenting Your Life on Facebook

This may not get you unfriended, but definitely unfollowed. When you keep documenting every second of your life on Facebook, you become one thing people hate to see on their news feed. Some Facebook users go as far as posting updates about them going to the toilet, taking a bath, peeing, spitting or just about everything.

Nobody needs to see pictures of you dressed up for Church or pictures of you having breakfast, lunch and dinner. And also, if you got dumped by your girlfriend, Facebook isn’t the right place to whine.

Source:- Techkibay

After two years, Yahoo wanted to buy Facebook for $1billion

Mark Zuckerberg has led Facebook to become one of the most valuable and respected companies in the world. But despite all of his successes, he rarely talks about the challenges he's faced along the way.

 

In a new interview with Y Combinator president Sam Altman, published on Tuesday, Zuckerberg showed a more vulnerable side when he discussed some of the low points in Facebook's early history, as well as some of his failings.

"One of the hardest parts for me was when Yahoo offered to buy the company for a lot of money," Zuckerberg said. "That was the turning point in the company."

That was 2006. Facebook was about 2-years-old and had 10 million users. Yahoo wanted the company for $1 billion.

Although a lot of people believed Facebook should take the offer, Zuckerberg said he and co-founder Dustin Moskovitz ultimately decided to keep growing the business on their own terms.

"The part that was painful wasn't turning down the offer," he said. "It was the fact that after that, huge amounts of the company quit because they didn't believe in what we were doing."

Facebook's whole management team was gone within a year.

Zuckerberg placed the blame on himself for the exodus.

"I think the fact that I didn't communicate very well about what we were trying to do caused this huge tension," he said. "A lot of folks who joined early on... weren't really aligned with me. ... Being able to sell a [startup] for $1 billion after a couple of years -- that was like a home run [for them]...."

During the 25-minute video interview, Altman also prompted Zuckerberg to explain how Facebook decides which products to test and build.

The Facebook CEO highlighted how it uses a combination of a scientific method -- testing different hypotheses -- and user feedback and data analysis, but added that it wasn't always enough. Facebook's $2 billion acquisition of Oculus in 2014 is proof.

"I actually view that as -- if we'd done a better job of building up some of the expertise to do some of that stuff internally then maybe we wouldn't have had to do that," said Zuckerberg. "We bought the Oculus team for a lot of money ... as CEO, it's your job to not get in a position where you need to be doing these crazy things."

But he conceded that over the course of time, big bets like this will have to be made.

"It's inevitable," said Zuckerberg. "You can't be ahead of everything."