It’s April Fools Day, the Washington Post has kept an up to date list all day of pranks and here’s a list of Google’s various April Fools jokes.
Facebook Updates
Facebook’s response to the Cambridge Analytica incident continues. Here’s a summary of key Facebook updates:
- Simplified Privacy Controls: All end-user privacy controls are now centralized in one place, including the ability to disconnect apps. Facebook also released a video outlining the privacy changes.
- Android Call/Message History: Android users who downloaded their Facebook data discovered that Facebook had call and message logs. Facebook responded by saying this was an opt-in feature, the data was never sold and that it did not collect the content of calls/messages.
- Custom Audiences: Facebook will no longer show reach estimates for Custom Audiences and limit the number of changes that can be made per day.
- Partner Category Targeting Ending: All Partner Category Targeting will end globally effective July 1 (as you won’t be able to credit or edit Partner Category Targeting from this date). This means buying Experian, Acxiom, Oracle Data Cloud segments natively will be unavailable. This change has wide-ranging impacts for advertisers. An FAQ document will be available next week.
- Facebook App/Bot Approvals on Hold: Facebook is pausing all App and Bot approvals. The hold will be in place until Facebook completes the audit of existing apps.
- FTC Investigation: The FTC issued a press release confirming it was opening a non-public investigation based on “recent press reports raising substantial concerns about the privacy practices of Facebook”.
- Facebook’s Smart Speaker on Hold: The (back in February) rumored Facebook Smart Speaker has been delayed in response to the current privacy concerns/issues.
- Mozilla Facebook Quarantine: Mozilla (makers of Firefox) who were one of the first advertisers to pull spend have released a browser extension that quarantines Facebook’s ability to track and use your data. Available on Firefox only, you can download the extension here.
- Election Security: In non-Cambridge Analytica news, an update was published on what Facebook’s doing to protect election security.
Industry News
- Google acquired GIF company Tenor for an undisclosed sum. Tenor will operate as a separate company. One of the interesting bits of news to come out of the deal was that tenor has more users than twitter.
- In a brave move (editorial opinion), Snapchat have started testing connected apps. here is a lot of value for Snap to go down this path, as apps helped Facebook gain popularity with users and the developer community.
- Waze is offering self-service small business advertising directly on their app.This is currently only available as a test in Israel.
- Pinterest is making it easier to follow people and brands by introducing a dedicated “Following:” tab. The update will be available to mobile app users over the coming weeks but is available now on Pinterest.com
- Apple iOS 11.3 was released – which is news because iMessage Business Chat is now available. Launch partners include Discover Card, Hilton, Lowe’s The Home Depot, Marriott, Ameritrade, Wells Fargo, 1-800-Flowers, and online electronics retailer Newegg. There’s a good hands-on overview of the user experience at 9to5mac.
- twitter has introduced a feature called timestamps, which lets you share a link to a specific time within a live video. This is really useful for a live broadcast if you want people to jump to the most relevant part of the video.
- Need to explain Snapchat to someone? what is Snapchat is a new site and education campaign from Snap Inc. to help consumers understand the service. The campaign kicks off tonight (4/1) with TV spots during the Final Four. Snap is positioning itself as a camera company.
- PSA. Under Armour has confirmed that 150MM MyFitnessPal accounts have been hacked. If you use the app, you should have received an email notification to update your password.
Have a great week.
Joshua