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Senate approves Netflix-backed amendment to video privacy law

The U.S. Senate has approved legislation to amend a 1988 law that would make it easier for people to share their video-viewing habits online should the Netflix-backed bill win President Obama's signature.

The Senate approved revisions this evening to the Video Privacy Protection Act to allow video rental companies to obtain consent from customers in order to share information about their viewing preferences on social networks. The 24-year-old law was enacted after a newspaper printed the video rental history of Judge Robert H. Bork during his Supreme Court nomination hearings.

Bork died yesterday at age 85, a day … Read more

Facebook begins rolling out new privacy tools

Facebook began rolling out new tools this evening that it touts as helping users better manage who can see what on the social network.

Note that Facebook is not changing what settings users can pick, except for the option to block profile searches within the social network. The network has already begun phasing out this feature and soon it will be removed from everyone's profiles.

Facebook says these new changes are designed to give users more flexibility with their privacy.

"We believe that the better you understand who can see the things you share, the better your experience … Read more

Time to send an SOS over Instagram's TOS

Maybe Mark Zuckerberg is busy out hunting for his own food. The company's No. 2, Sheryl Sandberg, might be tied up putting the finishing touches on her soon-to-be-published memoir. And so we're left with poor -- not financially poor, obviously -- Kevin Systrom to explain one of the most bizarre weeks in Facebook's young history.

On Monday, Instagram, which is owned by Facebook, announced changes to its terms of service that opened the way for the company to use people's photos in advertisements without needing permission. That triggered the predictable storm of controversy, with privacy advocates … Read more

Facebook tests $1 fee for inbox access

A new revamp of Facebook Messages is pointing the way to let people buy access to your inbox on the social network.

In a "small experiment" starting today, Facebook said it'll be evaluating the "usefulness of economic signals" to determine what messages, from those with whom they have no connection, might be relevant to a given user.

"This test will give a small number of people the option to pay to have a message routed to the Inbox rather than the Other folder of a recipient that they are not connected with," Facebook … Read more

Facebook starts pushing out new privacy settings

Facebook has started dribbling out the latest changes to its ever-changing privacy controls.

New privacy notifications and menus are now greeting members as they log in to the social network, according to The Next Web. Facebook users in New Zealand seem to be the first on the list to have received these updates.

Based on screenshots published by TNW, members receive a new message alerting them to the changes and explaining how they can block specific users.

A privacy shortcut menu is now part of the main toolbar at the top of your Facebook page. Previously, you'd have to … Read more

Five big tech stories to watch for in 2013

We were dazzled by an array of smartphones. We were fascinated and then disappointed by Facebook's initial public offering. And we held our breaths as we awaited the verdict in the Apple v. Samsung trial.

But all that's so 2012. Let's talk 2013. Will we still be paying attention to patents, smartphones, and IPOs? The answer is "yes, yes, and yes," but not in the way you might imagine. The great thing about writing about the high-tech industry is its constant march forward. New companies get built on the bones of old companies, and new … Read more

Facebook in 2012: 5 ways its IPO changed the social giant

Now that was a year Mark Zuckerberg will never forget -- even if he didn't celebrate each moment on Facebook, as he wants the rest of the world to do. Sure, he turned 28 and married longtime girlfriend, Priscilla Chan, in a backyard ceremony at the couple's home in Palo Alto, Calif. But that's the stuff of ordinary men. Make no mistake: 2012 will go down as the year in which Zuckerberg came out from under his hoodie and tried to prove himself as leader of one of the titans of consumer tech.

Is he succeeding? So … Read more

Facebook: Five things to watch for in 2013

Mark Zuckerberg has built the world's largest startup. His is a giant company, for sure -- $5 billion-plus in revenue, a stock market value around $60 billion -- but it's as nimble as they come. Its engineers push out products and features at a near-constant pace, emboldened by posters around Facebook's campus that read, "Move fast and break things."

Zuckerberg, too, moves fast when he wants. He's even structured the company so that he can make huge decisions without his board's approval, and he hasn't hesitated to do just that. His surprise purchase of Instagram … Read more

Gather 'round Cyrcle for real-world social-media alerts

Cyrcle is a bit hard to define. It's a Kickstarter project. It's an augmented-reality device. It's a creature of social media. Its maker Symplio calls it an "intelligent decorative object."

We met Cyrcle's prototype predecessor Rymble last year. The new incarnation is pretty different, though they both share a circular shape and a similar desire to bring social-media notifications into the real world. … Read more