Facebook Messenger Kids adds sleep mode

The controversial Facebook Messenger Kids app is now letting parents have more control over how long their children spend on the app. It now has a sleep mode that will let parents set predetermined times when the app can’t be used. This feature is accessible through the parental control panel, from their parents can select between weekdays or weekends as well as sleep mode’s start and stop time. If your kid attempts to open the app when it’s in sleep mode, they’ll see a message that tells them it’s in the said mode.

Since Facebook’s main app is for people 13 years and above, the target market for Messenger Kids is those from ages six to 12. They don’t need a Facebook account to have access to the app and it lets kids video and text chat with filters and gifs. Parents can control who’s in a child’s contact list and messages in the app can’t be hidden or won’t disappear. The social media platform claims that they make sure the app is safe for children to use and that they have complied with the Children’s Online Privacy and Protection Act. According to Facebook, it doesn’t offer in-app purchases and your child’s information will not be used for ads. Messenger Kids has met resistance from parents, to educators, to health advocacy groups, and child development experts saying it might hamper the growth of younger children.

Source: The Verge

Facebook's looking to develop its own chips

New job listings from Facebook suggest the company is looking to be a bit more self-reliant. Under the infrastructure category, the social media company is looking to hire a manager who will assemble “end-to-end SoC/ASIC, firmware, and driver organization.” With the listing filed under infrastructure, it could be Facebook is looking to build a team for its artificial intelligence servers, which are currently NVIDIA-powered. One of the job listing references says it needs “expertise to build custom solutions targeted at multiple verticals including AI/ML,” which broadens the focus a bit but also shows the company looking to develop its AI capabilities further. Also, who knows if the company might want to use it to power any hardware it might release in the future, including things like future Oculus virtual reality headsets.

Source: The Verge

Facebook says personal data of 622,161 Canadian users were harvested by Cambridge Analytica

According tor Facebook Canada, they estimate 622,161 Canadians had their data “improperly shared” with Cambridge Analytica. The U.K.-based firm, which served the Trump presidential campaign and Brexit, used data harvested through an innocous personality quiz app that collected personal information about users and their social network.

It is sobering news, that the personal information and data of more than half a million Canadian Facebook users was harvested by political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica who used this information to profit from targeting voters.

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Facebook CEO says most of the social network’s users should assume their public data’s been compromised

If you thought things couldn’t get any worse for Facebook, here are a couple more things. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has announced that all of its 2.2 billion users should assume their public information has been compromised by third-party scrapers. As he said in a call today, “I would assume if you had that setting turned on that someone at some point has access to your public information in some way.”

Zuckerberg is referring to a vulnerability in the social network’s search function, which lets anyone look up users using email addresses or phone numbers. Users would need to opt in to have their names show up in searches. He’s also said that they found a maximum of 87 million users potentially affected by the Cambridge Analytica fiasco.

Source: Facebook | Via: The Next Web