Karissa Bell says, “Facebook might soon offer the option for users to share with one another completely anonymously. The social network is preparing to launch a standalone app that will allow users to anonymously interact with each other, according to a report in the New York Times. SEE ALSO: 20 Things Your Most Annoying Friends Do on Facebook According to the report, the app will launch in the coming weeks and allow people to use pseudonyms so they can have discussions about topics “which they may not be comfortable connecting to their real names.””. Report: Facebook Readying... [...]

Adario Strange says, “Not content to manage the news updates and friend connections of its over one billion users, the long arm of Facebook is now reportedly preparing to enter the world of mobile payments. According to a report from Techcrunch, Andrew Aude, a student developer at Stanford, discovered the as yet unreleased feature of Facebook Messenger by using the iOS and Mac OS X hacking tool Cycript. SEE ALSO: Here’s How to Turn Off Notifications in Facebook Messenger Posting the find on Twitter on Saturday, including screenshots, Aude claims the dynamic would allow Facebook Messenger... [...]

Martin Beck says, “Touting its efforts to cut down on spam, Facebook revealed some of its fraud-fighting tactics today — including that it has won nearly $2 billion in legal judgements against spammers — and offered advice to businesses to avoid being fooled by fake-like scams. Fake likes are a particular target for Facebook, and much of the post by Facebook site integrity engineer Matt Jones focused on the company’s battle against them. Sold by so-called like farms that promise to deliver large numbers of likes to Pages, they are marketed to unwitting Page administrators trying to... [...]

Selena Larson says, “When Facebook announced changes as to how it will conduct online research, there was one glaring omission in its new guidelines: There’s no mention of how the social network will treat its users moving forward. Facebook faced quite the backlash from its emotional manipulation study published earlier this summer, in which it deliberately showed some users more positive or negative posts to see how they affected mood. In an effort to placate its critics with more transparency, the company issued new guidelines on Thursday to help it conduct online experiments more responsibly. The... [...]

AP team says, “The European Union’s antitrust authority says it has approved Facebook’s proposed $19 billion takeover of the messaging service WhatsApp. The 28-nation bloc’s executive Commission said Friday the deal may go ahead because consumers will continue to have a wide choice of alternative communication apps they could use. Facebook Inc. runs its own mobile messaging service with its Messenger app but the EU found the merged entity “would continue to face sufficient competition.” EU antitrust chief Joaquin Almunia says “while Facebook Messenger and... [...]

Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai says, “Three months after Facebook was widely criticized for a study into user’s emotions, the social network has announced that it will be more careful when doing this type of research in the future. The company pledged to do things “better” and in “the most responsible way” by giving its researchers “clearer guidelines,” better training, and creating an internal review panel. But in the post published on Thursday, Facebook also failed to specify what these new guidelines are and whether they will ask users for consent... [...]

Helen A. S. Popkin says, “In an ever-escalating battle to own the Internet, Facebook is going after Google’s digital advertising empire, using your personal information as ammunition. Atlas, the ad-serving platform Facebook purchased from Microsoft in 2013, will apply Facebook user data to sell ads on websites outside the social network. That’s not as creepy as it might sound—rather, it’s not any creepier than anything else that happens to your not-so-personal-anymore info that’s already free-floating on the Internet. Facebook’s repository of humans will provide... [...]

Todd Wasserman says, “Good news for advertisers, but maybe not-so-great news for users concerned about their personal data: Starting Monday, Facebook will use data it gleans from users for its new ad network, Atlas, which it will serve up ads on non-Facebook sites based on what Facebook knows about you. Atlas is a former Microsoft property that Facebook bought last year for around $100 millionthat Facebook has now rebuilt from the ground up. Atlas is distinct from Audience Network, a mobile ad network Facebook introduced in April that was aimed at app developers”. Facebook Ads Will Follow... [...]

Lance Ulanoff says, “I’m afraid to say how I feel about Ello. I’ve been in this position before. A new social media platform arrives, everyone proclaims it the next big thing and better than all that’s come before or currently exists. I look at it and feel a profound sense of meh. It’s not really Ello’s fault. The social network that seems to encourage big images, short thoughts and unthreaded conversation launched over the summer. I don’t recall hearing about it. In fact, Ello was flying way under the radar until September”. Ello Is No Facebook Killer Mashable  [...]

Ben Davis says, “Here’s a brief introduction to Atlas by Facebook, the social network’s new ad network of sorts. Facebook was already selling ads in other apps via its Audience Network, which has been in beta since April 2014. This Audience Network allows advertisers to promote their apps in other apps using banner, interstitial or native units and all the targeting data Facebook can stump up. But now, with Atlas, Facebook is extending this to websites, too. All that Facebook data will be used to sell ads outside of the network and these will be seen by Facebook users”. Facebook... [...]