Press review

* “This is our last tweet, for now. In line with our values, we have decided to suspend posts on all of our X accounts.” This is the message posted today on the last tweet published by the regional daily Ouest France on its X account. The post links to an op-ed published on the newspaper’s website, where the Management Board and editorial leadership explain their decision. “In the current state of affairs, it does not seem wise or appropriate to us to continue contributing to this platform, as long as serious safeguards against disinformation, harassment, and violence are not implemented.” (11/19, 20 Minutes) * Visit our “support” tab for all the media outlets approached

* The fun is over: the European Commission announced on Thursday, November 14, 2024, that it has imposed a €798 million fine on Meta for violating competition rules by tying its online advertising service, Facebook Marketplace, to its social network, Facebook. Brussels considers that the American giant thereby imposed “unfair trading conditions” on other online advertising service providers. (11/14, 20 Minutes) * Visit our “support” tab for Mr. Thierry Breton

* Nearly a third of the data exchanged on the Internet (posts, downloads, messages, and all kinds of queries) is generated by malicious bots, according to the 2024 “Bad Bot Report” by Imperva, a subsidiary of Thales specializing in cybersecurity. And what are the tech giants – Facebook, Instagram, X, TikTok, YouTube, and their ilk – doing to combat this invasion? Not much. When questioned about their ineffectiveness, the platforms claim to prioritize moderating high-risk content. A convenient excuse! Why do the social media giants make so little effort to tackle them? Because they have no economic incentive to do so. Above all, addressing the issue could drive advertisers away! Fake accounts inflate the platforms’ performance metrics, enabling them to “oversell advertisements.” The tech geniuses, led by Zuckerberg and Musk, who are massively investing in artificial intelligence, therefore have no interest in taking down these bots that bring them revenue. (11/06, Le Canard Enchaîné)

* This Wednesday, following a selection process that began in June, Arcom designated France’s very first “trusted flagger.” This status was created by the Digital Services Act (DSA), the major European regulatory text for social networks and e-commerce platforms that came into effect at the end of August 2023. Each of the 27 EU countries must designate several of these trusted flaggers. In France, the association e-Enfance, recognized as serving the public interest, is leading the way. (11/07, Le Figaro) * Visit our “support” tab for the e-Enfance association

* An unprecedented judicial initiative in Europe against TikTok. Seven families, united within the collective Algos Victima, accuse the social network of exposing children to dangerous content, according to information from FranceInfo. At issue are videos promoting suicide, self-harm, and eating disorders. Lawyer Laure Boutron-Marmion, who represents the families, confirmed to Le Figaro that she is taking the platform to court before the Créteil judicial court. The starting point of this civil lawsuit is the suicide of two 15-year-old girls, Marie and Charlize, who were victims of bullying. (11/04, Le Figaro)

* Shielding the youngest from the “power of algorithms,” says the Norwegian Prime Minister. On Wednesday, the Norwegian government announced its intention to strengthen data privacy laws to prevent age restrictions from being bypassed. 72% of Norwegian children aged 11 are on social media. (10/25, 20 Minutes)

* Attendance over prevention. The teams at TikTok had identified harmful effects of the platform on young users, but limited preventive measures. This is what internal documents revealed on Friday by Kentucky’s public radio station show. They indicate that TikTok was aware of the platform’s addictive appeal and its recommendation algorithm, which offers an endless stream of videos. “Compulsive use [of TikTok] is linked to a series of negative effects on mental health, such as the loss of analytical skills,” and also hampers “memory formation, contextualization ability, conversation skills, and empathy,” concluded researchers within the company, according to the documents. (10/11, 20 Minutes)

* The algorithms of major platforms are under scrutiny by the European Commission. The European executive, the digital watchdog in the EU, sent information requests this Wednesday to YouTube, Snapchat, and TikTok “regarding the design and operation of their recommendation systems.” The issue involves content that Brussels considers “harmful,” citing the particular need to protect minors. The platforms must “properly assess and mitigate the risks” associated with their online services, including potential harm to users’ mental health, the Commission reminded in a statement. (10/02, La Tribune)

* Job search ads, congratulations addressed to a “colleague,” or an excessive fondness for the rocket emoji… On LinkedIn, some of the data shared by users outside of Europe has recently been used to train artificial intelligence (AI) models. This information, revealed in mid-September by the online publication 404Media, has sparked a wave of concern across the Atlantic. And indignation: the professional social network never informed its users about this. (09/26, Libération)

* A study conducted over several years shows that social media and internet giants engage in “mass surveillance” to capitalize on users’ personal data, according to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC). A report published Wednesday evening, based on inquiries made four years ago to nine companies, found that they collected large amounts of data, sometimes through personal data brokers, and could retain this information indefinitely. (09/19, Le Figaro)

* A new feature that might upset some but won’t change how the app is used. On Tuesday, Snapchat announced the upcoming introduction of ads… right in the middle of its users’ private conversations, reports iPhone Addict. Evan Spiegel, Snap’s CEO, revealed the update in a lengthy statement celebrating the social network’s 13th anniversary this September. He explained that “sponsored snaps” will soon appear on the app. However, he hopes that this new form of advertising will encourage users to click and perhaps make purchases through call-to-action buttons. (09/05, 20 Minutes)

* By nabbing Pavel Durov on August 24th at Le Bourget airport, the French justice system triggered a global shockwave. This high-profile legal move reignites the ongoing battle between governments and tech giants, whose power is considered uncontrollable. It was Xavier Niel, the telecom magnate—whom the Russian had requested to contact during his custody—who broke the news to the President. Emmanuel Macron himself had intervened to help the Russian entrepreneur obtain French nationality in 2021, and shortly afterward, a decree was issued to “Frenchify” his name to Paul Du Rove. During a 2018 lunch at the Élysée, Macron had dangled the promise of French citizenship in exchange for Durov relocating Telegram’s headquarters, which was based in Dubai, to France. That promise was never kept, but Durov still got his passport. All this buzz is welcomed by the European Commission, which has been pushing for the “accountability of platforms” since the Digital Services Act (DSA) came into effect this past February. “The era of impunity is over; the time to enforce the rules has arrived,” rejoiced Thierry Breton’s team, the commissioner in charge of Digital Affairs. (09/04, Le Canard Enchaîné) * Visit our “Support” tab for Mr. Emmanuel Macron and Mr. Thierry Breton

* Despite Elon Musk’s noisy endorsement of Trump for the upcoming U.S. presidential election in November and the rampant misinformation on the social network X, French politicians remain completely addicted to X! And it doesn’t matter which side they’re on: even anti-capitalists are contributing to the general chaos by compulsively tweeting. One of the plagues of Elon Musk’s network is the anonymous accounts where trolls let loose, hurl insults, and spread fake news. Why do these activists – but also local leaders, parliamentarians, ministers, and Emmanuel Macron – endorse these practices? (08/28, Le Canard Enchaîné) * Visit our “support” to find out about all approaches we’ve made to government figure and Mr. Emmanuel Macron

* Pavel Durov will have to explain himself before the French justice system. The head of Telegram was detained Saturday night at Le Bourget airport near Paris, as a search warrant was issued against him by French investigators for various offenses related to his encrypted messaging service, sources close to the case confirmed, corroborating information from TF1 and LCI. The Ofmin, responsible for combating violence against minors, had issued a search warrant for Pavel Durov as the coordinating service of a preliminary investigation involving various investigative services for offenses ranging from fraud, drug trafficking, cyberbullying, organized crime, to the promotion of terrorism and fraud. (08/25, 20 Minutes) * visit our ‘support’ to find out about all approaches we’ve made to government figures

* He was already seeing himself there… A consortium composed of Capgemini, Thales, Atos (via its entity Eviden), and HeadMind Partners had positioned itself to respond to the enormous cyber contract (to advise, provide expertise, and train in cybersecurity across all ministries except the Ministry of Armed Forces) launched by the State in September 2023. Alas! On June 25, Marc Fesneau’s ministry shattered this dream by preferring the Canadian company CGI and the French firm Wavestone over the made-in-France consortium. “Don’t talk to me about digital sovereignty anymore when the Health Data Hub (health data) goes to Microsoft, the management of EDF’s information system for its nuclear fleet goes to Amazon’s cloud (AWS), and the securing of ministries goes to CGI,” continued one of the disappointed candidates. (08/21, Le Canard Enchaîné) * visit our ‘support’ to find out about all approaches we’ve made to government figures

* The French representative’s message, urging the American to respect European regulations on online content, was met with an unfiltered response: Musk retorted to Breton with a meme, a mocking image bluntly telling him to “get lost.” The exchange immediately mobilized the massive fan base of the Tesla CEO. On X, the backlash came in the form of thousands of hateful comments, insults, and threats. Thierry Breton thus became a victim of what he denounces and struggles to regulate with the European Commission: the “digital Wild West.” (08/21, Le Canard Enchaîné) * visit our ‘support’ tab for Mr. Thierry Breton

* Complaints in eight European countries for “illegal” use of internet users’ personal data. The social network X is accused by the Noyb association of using this data to train its artificial intelligence program. X “never proactively informed its users that their personal data was being used to train its AI technology Grok,” writes the Viennese NGO, a thorn in the side of tech giants, which already forced Meta to back down on the same issue in June. (08/12, 20 Minutes) * Visit our ‘support’ tab for the NOYB association

* After a week of violent riots following the stabbing deaths of three young girls in northern England, TikTok, X, Facebook, and others continue to fuel the fire with fake news and calls for migrant hunts as if nothing happened. These calls to hatred were not removed by the platforms even after official denials. A bit overwhelmed, the British Prime Minister tried to raise his voice, saying, “let me tell the big social media companies and those who run them: the violent disorders are clearly being stoked online, and that is also a crime.” (08/07, Le Canard Enchaîné)

* The U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against TikTok on Friday, August 2. The app, already facing a potential ban in the United States, is accused of “widespread violations of children’s privacy laws.” Due to the Chinese group ByteDance’s platform, millions of children under 13 were subjected to “extensive data collection,” “interacted with adult users, and accessed adult content,” the department said in a statement. (08/02, Le Monde)

* Meta delighted Wall Street this Wednesday. The social media giant Facebook and Instagram increased its net profit in the second quarter to $13.5 billion, a 73% increase year-on-year, mainly due to its advertising activity. (08/01, Le Figaro)

* What is the real purpose of the small blue checkmark adorning certified accounts on the social network X? Not much, according to an opinion issued by the European Commission on Friday. Worse, the certification on certain accounts is misleading, according to the EU. The Commission also believes that Elon Musk’s firm is violating its transparency obligations regarding displayed advertisements and providing platform data access to researchers. (07/12, 20 Minutes) * go to our ‘support’ tab for Mr Thierry Breton

* The EU paved the way on Monday for heavy financial sanctions against Meta, deeming that the social media giant was not complying with European data usage rules for targeted advertising. “Meta forced millions of users across the EU to make a binary choice: pay or consent. According to our preliminary findings, this constitutes a violation” of the Digital Markets Act (DMA), said Digital Commissioner Thierry Breton on X. The DMA, which fully came into force at the beginning of March, “is there to give European users control over their data,” he emphasized. (07/01, 20 Minutes) * go to our ‘support’ tab for Mr Thierry Breton

* The social media platform TikTok is making headlines again in the United States. On Tuesday, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that it had forwarded a complaint against the platform and its parent company, ByteDance, to the Department of Justice. The authority suspects TikTok of potential violations of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), which requires social networks that know they are targeting children under 13 to obtain parental consent before collecting their data. (06/18, Le Figaro)

* A “provocation.” This is how the Secretary of State for Digital Affairs, Marina Ferrari, expressed her frustration with the new moderation measures on X (formerly Twitter). “This announcement seems like a provocation, probably for commercial purposes,” she commented on X on Wednesday, June 5. Two days earlier, the social network had announced it would officially allow pornographic and violent content on its platform. This measure aligns with the stance of its owner, Elon Musk, a self-proclaimed absolutist of free speech. However, it does not align with French and European law. (06/06, Libération) * Visit our “Support” tab to see the steps taken with all Secretaries of State for Digital Affairs and various state officials

* Since October and the Hamas attack, calls for hatred on social media have been increasing and sometimes go too far. Too far? At least, that’s the view of the association SOS Racisme, which announced on May 22 that it had referred the matter to the public prosecutor following racist remarks made by the identitarian influencer Mila in a Space—a group audio conversation—on X. “The reported exchanges are of unprecedented violence,” the association responded in a statement. (06/01, 20 Minutes) * visit our ‘Support’ tab for more information on the SOS Racisme association

* It is one of those notifications we tend to overlook. However, we should pay attention to it because, starting a few hours ago, a page indicating that your personal data will be used to power the generative AI of Instagram and Facebook—Meta’s subsidiaries—has begun appearing on French users’ smartphones. These updates will take effect on June 26, 2024. (05/24, Le Figaro)

* After France and Germany, Amazon continues to invest in Europe. The e-commerce giant announced on Wednesday, May 22, that it will inject 15.7 billion euros over the next ten years to increase the capacity of its data centers located in Aragon in the northwest of Spain. (05/22, La Tribune)

* Despite having been warned about this in November, the responses provided by the Meta group were evidently not deemed sufficiently reassuring by the European Commission. A new investigation has been opened against the social networks Facebook and Instagram, suspected by Brussels of fostering addictive behaviors in children and failing to comply with age verification obligations. (05/16, Libération) * go to our ‘support’ tab for Mr Thierry Breton

* As New Caledonia faces a wave of violence over the past few days, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal announced on Wednesday the ban of the social network TikTok. The media platform, owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, is one of the preferred communication channels for the groups committing violence over the past three nights in New Caledonia. This ban “is in effect” and “operationally functioning” on mobile phones in the archipelago, Matignon specified on Wednesday evening. (05/16, 20 Minutes) * go to our ‘support’ to find out about all approaches we’ve made to government figures and Mr Gabriel Attal

* Lobbyists are getting a super promotion. The GAFAM companies (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft) claim to have spent €6.1 million on lobbying in France, a 30% increase in one year. Microsoft has been the most aggressive, dedicating around €2.1 million between July 1, 2022, and June 30, 2023, a 100% increase in one year. For this price, its lobbyists—equivalent to nine full-time positions—have established “regular correspondence (by email, letter)” with an advisor to the President as well as various “members of the government or ministerial cabinet members” to, according to one of Microsoft’s activity reports, “promote the digital transformation of the state.” The digital sovereignty of France is in good hands! (05/15, Le Canard Enchaîné) And what about the digital sovereignty embodied and proposed by Newttle for over 9 years? Our registered letters have had less success than these lobbyists! * go to our ‘support’ tab for Mr Macron, certain members of his government and to find out about all approaches we’ve made to government figures

* An expert report, which will be submitted to the President of the Republic on Tuesday, April 30. The commission also recommends allowing mobile phones only from the age of 11, via a phone without internet until the age of 13. From the age of 13, it suggests providing a smartphone without access to social networks, and then opening this access from the age of 15, only on ‘ethical’ networks. (04/30, Le nouvel Obs) * go to our ‘support’ tab for Mr Macron and Mrs Macron, Mrs Charlotte Caubel and the various Ministers of National Education (Mr Pap Ndiaye, Mr Gabriel Attal and Mrs Nicole Belloubet)

* On Tuesday, April 30, 2024, the European Commission announced, through a press release, the opening of a formal procedure against Meta, suspected of several violations of the Digital Services Act (DSA), particularly ‘in terms of misleading advertising and political content on its services.’ In essence, the American group is accused of lacking transparency and, more importantly, of not dedicating sufficient resources to moderate political content that appears on its platforms, namely Facebook and Instagram. (04/30, Le blog du modérateur) * go to our ‘support’ tab for Mr Thierry Breton

* Speech on Europe, « we must civilize the digital space and establish digital majority in Europe at 15 years old » Emmanuel Macron. (04/25, BFMTV) * go to our ‘support’ tab for Mr Emmanuel Macron

* TikTok Lite, « our children are not guinea pigs for social media » Thierry Breton. (04/25, BFMTV) * go to our ‘support’ tab for Mr Thierry Breton, Mrs Charlotte Caubel and the various Ministers of National Education (Mr Pap Ndiaye, Mr Gabriel Attal and Mrs Nicole Belloubet)

* The application is in the crosshairs of Uncle Sam’s country. At the beginning of the month, U.S. President Joe Biden, during a conversation with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, expressed concern about the platform. As part of a broader text, the House of Representatives passed a law requiring ByteDance, the Chinese parent company that owns TikTok, to sell the social network, under penalty of prohibition. Adopted by the Senate, it must be signed into law by Joe Biden. (04/24, 20 Minutes)

* The Samara case brings back into focus the ‘fisha’ accounts. Since the assault on the 13-year-old girl in front of her school in Montpellier, an administrative investigation has been underway. While the procedure, entrusted to inspectors general from the Ministry of Education, was extended by a week on Friday, April 12, its initial findings already implicate the ‘extended and malicious’ role, in the words of the Ministry of Education, played by social media in the affair. The institution notably highlights the ‘fisha’ accounts, allowing for ‘the dissemination of humiliating photomontages and altered videos leading to an atmosphere of aggression among students’. (04/15, Libération) * go to our ‘support’ tab for Mr Gabriel Attal and Mrs Nicole Belloubet

* No one saw it coming. This Thursday, TikTok Lite, the new second application from Chinese company ByteDance, quietly arrived in France. Lighter and more interactive, perhaps, but above all more rewarding. Indeed, the new application offers users the opportunity to earn rewards while watching videos. 300 virtual coins upon registration, then up to 600 coins for each daily login and 150 coins for every three likes. The time spent is also important: the longer you stay connected to the application, the more coins you earn. 150 coins for one minute spent on the application, 750 for 5 minutes, and 4,200 for 25 minutes. All this small fortune can then be exchanged for Amazon vouchers or gift cards on PayPal. (04/11, 20 Minutes) * go to our ‘support’ tab for Mr Gérard Larcher and Mr Claude Malhuret

* After months of deliberation, the law aimed at ‘securing and regulating the digital space’ (SREN) is reaching the end of its journey. Voted on by the Senate on Tuesday, the text is expected to be adopted by the Assembly on April 10th and promulgated shortly thereafter. This is a revised version by the joint committee (CMP) that met behind closed doors on March 26th. A first version voted on in the fall had, indeed, attracted the ire of Brussels, which repeatedly denounced a text conflicting with European law, particularly the Digital Services Act (DSA) and, to a lesser extent, the Digital Markets Act (DMA). (04/06, La Tribune) * go to our ‘support’ to find out about all approaches we’ve made to government figures

* Caught red-handed Louis Vuitton. ‘Nearly half’ of the 310 influencers inspected in 2022 and 2023 by the fraud repression were ‘anomalous regarding the display of the commercial intent of their posts, misleading claims about certain products, or the promotion of prohibited products or services,’ according to a statement from the DGCCRF on Wednesday. The fraud repression specifies that ‘for some, more serious facts were also observed at the end of the investigations, consisting of declaring or giving the impression that the sale of a product or the provision of a service is lawful when it is not.’ Like this case of hyaluronic acid injections by an aesthetician who does not have the qualification of a doctor. (04/03, 20 Minutes)

* Florida is attempting to combat the dependency of its youth on screens. The governor of the state, Ron DeSantis, signed a law on Monday aimed at restricting access to social networks for minors under the age of 16, at a time when the impact of platforms on young people is a concern in the United States. The law, which will come into effect next January, stipulates that those under 14 will not be able to open an account on a social network. Teenagers aged 14 and 15 will need parental consent to sign up for these platforms. (03/26, 20 Minutes)

* Beware of Fake News! For the past few months, fake interviews of celebrities, fake articles with sensational titles, or advertisements using logos of press organizations have been circulating on several social networks. Their objective? To target internet users massively to promote online investment sites and cryptocurrencies… While this phenomenon is starting to affect the social network X, this ‘financial scam industry’ has been active on Facebook for a while, according to Alexandre Alaphilippe, executive director of the disinformation watchdog NGO EU DisinfoLab, as interviewed by AFP. (03/20, 20 Minutes)

* The American giant Google is being sanctioned by the French Competition Authority for not complying with its commitments made in June 2022 regarding neighboring rights. This is not the first time Google has been fined in this regard. (03/20, La Tribune)

* Loss of economic opportunity and negligence of digital freedoms. This is essentially what eleven complainants, including companies Clever Cloud, Nexedi, and Rapid.Space, as well as the Open Internet Project association, are accusing the Health Data Hub of. They filed an appeal with the Conseil d’État against the National Commission on Informatics and Liberty (CNIL). The hearing is scheduled for Tuesday, March 19th at 11 am. This appeal follows a decision by the CNIL, dated December 21st. The digital watchdog authorized the public interest group ‘Health Data Platform’ (Health Data Hub) to choose Microsoft as the host for the EMC2 data warehouse. (03/18, La Tribune)

* The prosecutors of the state of Virginia in the United States opened an investigation in 2023 into suspicions of illegal drug sales on Meta’s social networks, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, reported the Wall Street Journal on Saturday, citing documents and sources close to the matter. Prosecutors are seeking to determine if Meta facilitated and profited from such sales, the newspaper said, adding that subpoenas were issued last year and interrogations conducted as part of this criminal investigation. The Food and Drug Administration, the federal authority responsible for the drug sector, is participating in this investigation, continues the Wall Street Journal, while noting that such proceedings do not necessarily result in charges. (03/16, La Tribune)

* A first step towards a ban on TikTok in the United States? That’s the direction being taken by the House of Representatives, which on Wednesday, March 13, adopted a bipartisan bill instructing the social network to sell its application to a non-Chinese operator, citing national security concerns. Otherwise, the platform would be banned on American territory. (03/14, Marianne)

* According to a study conducted by Ipsos for Feminists Against Cyberbullying, “84% of cyberbullying victims are women” and “a woman is 27 times more likely than a man to experience online violence, and 74% of cyberbullies are men.” (03/06, 20 Minutes)

* AI is the latest craze of the President. There’s no way the leader of the ‘start-up nation’ will miss out on this unprecedented revolution! It’s about our sovereignty… Macron’s desires are on the verge of being fulfilled. Mistral AI, a French gem in artificial intelligence, is poised to launch its own ChatGPT, named ‘Mistral Next.’ The company has also received funding from the Public Investment Bank and several big-name CEOs friendly with the President, including the Decaux brothers, Rodolphe Saadé, and Xavier Niel. This shows the importance the government places on the Mistral Next venture and French AI. Macron wants to organize a major AI summit in Paris next January. Cédric O, the former Secretary of State for Digital Affairs turned consultant, has leveraged his network to ensure that Brussels doesn’t hinder Mistral AI’s takeoff too much. He presents himself as one of the founders. He initially invested €176: his shares are now worth €23 million, and he reportedly pocketed €1 million last December by selling some of them. In Paris, Cédric O participates in the ‘Generative AI Committee,’ established last October by former Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, as a ‘consultant, former Secretary of State for Digital Affairs.’ This blending of roles has allowed this Macron ally to push France into a fierce campaign against the European legislation. His target is the transparency of the works used to train AI models, which could lead Mistral to pay royalties. A scandal! By entering this battle, Paris has irritated Thierry Breton, the European Commissioner who initiated the legislation, who stated at the end of November: ‘I’m keeping an eye on the Mistral start-up. They’re lobbying, which is normal. But we’re not fooled by anything. They’re defending their business interests today, not the general interest’. (02/21, Le Canard Enchaîné) * go to our ‘support’ tab for Mr Cédric O and Mr Emmanuel Macron

* On the ‘Sexy Bunny’ forum, created in the fall of 2023, over 900 people were exchanging nude photos of their acquaintances, videos taken on the fly, and revenge porn content, all while encouraging masturbation. This was the daily routine on the Discord server, which was shut down by the platform on February 14th following an investigation by Numerama. (02/18, 20 Minutes)

* Meta is once again targeted regarding personal data. Thirty privacy advocacy NGOs (including NOYB) called on Friday for the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) to speak out against the web giant’s policy of charging users who refuse to allow the exploitation of their personal data. (02/16, 20 Minutes) * go to our ‘support’ tab for Mr Max Schrems

* The social network X is accused of selling paid certification to organizations sanctioned by the United States, including terrorist groups, reveals a report from the Tech Transparency Project (TTP) released on Wednesday, February 14th. The NGO identified ‘more than a dozen X accounts belonging to entities sanctioned by the United States but displaying a blue checkmark, which requires purchasing a premium subscription,’ according to the report. Among these accounts are profiles of personalities and entities related to Hezbollah, designated as a terrorist organization by the United States and thus subject to severe financial sanctions. (02/15, Le Monde)

* The highly secretive decision by the CEO of EDF last spring to entrust a portion of the digital data from its nuclear fleet to the American giant Amazon is now sparking controversy at the highest levels of the French government. This fear is shared internally at EDF, as evidenced by a message posted on LinkedIn last April by a senior executive: ‘AWS as a partner? Isn’t there a cybersecurity problem there? Industrial espionage? I find this imprudent.’ And to drive the point home: ‘Since Edward Snowden’s revelations in 2013, we know that the GAFAMs are entry points for American intelligence services’. (02/14, Le Canard Echaîné) * go to our ‘support’ to find out about all the approaches we’ve made to government figures and Mr Bruno Le Maire

* Last week, Meta (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp) reported strong annual results and subsequently soared by $200 billion in market capitalization on the stock market. This was unprecedented on Wall Street. The Menlo Park firm is currently approaching its historic peak of $1.2 trillion. Between October and December, its advertising revenue jumped by 24% year-on-year to $38.7 billion. (02/09, Les Echos)

* On Friday, the European court rejected a request from the social network TikTok, owned by the Chinese group ByteDance, to suspend a decision from Brussels imposing stricter competition rules starting from March. TikTok was designated in early September by the European Commission as one of the 22 digital platforms subject to the Digital Markets Act (DMA) regulation from March 6th onwards. The regulation establishes new, stricter rules to curb anti-competitive practices in the tech sector. (02/09, Le Figaro)

* It’s one of the few subjects that unites Republicans and Democrats in the US Congress. The leaders of Meta (Facebook, Instagram), X (formerly Twitter), TikTok, Discord, and Snap faced fierce criticism from senators on Wednesday during a hearing on the dangers of social media for children and adolescents. The most pointed attacks were directed at Mark Zuckerberg and TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew, and only X and Snap officially voiced their support for a law aimed at better protecting children and teenagers online, particularly against the risks of sexual exploitation or harassment, depression, and suicide. (01/31, 20 Minutes)

* In a statement dated January 19th, the National Commission on Informatics and Liberty (CNIL) informs that it has fined Yahoo! €10 million, notified at the end of December. CNIL reproaches the American group for tracking its users on its portal Yahoo.com through about twenty cookies when they had requested not to be tracked. (01/19, Le Monde)

* On Thursday, the European Commission demanded explanations from 17 major online platforms, including Amazon, Google, and TikTok, suspected of not complying with the obligation to open their data to researchers from the EU. ‘Access for researchers to data is essential to ensure monitoring of platforms’ within the framework of the new legislation on digital services (DSA),’ the Commission explained in a statement. (01/18, Le Figaro) * go to our ‘support’ tab for Mr Thierry Breton

* Meta is being sued by the state of New Mexico, which accuses it of failing to protect children on Instagram. According to documents made public on Wednesday and dating from 2020 and 2021, 100,000 children may have been exposed to sexual predators on the platform every day. (01/18, Le Monde)

* Google and the European justice system are once again at odds. Flagged by the European Commission for abusing its dominant position in online search in 2017, the bill for the American giant could be hefty as the European justice system has finally ruled on the matter. Juliane Kokott, Advocate General of the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU), proposed this Thursday to ‘confirm the fine of 2.4 billion euros’. (01/11, La Tribune) * go to our ‘support’ tab for Mr Thierry Breton

* Since November 2023, users of Meta’s platforms, including Facebook and Instagram, who do not wish for their data to be collected for targeted advertising purposes, nor to be bombarded with ads in their timeline, can pay a subscription of €9.99 on the web (or €12.99 on mobile). In other words, they have the choice to pay or accept ad tracking. Very quickly, noyb (None of your business, founded by activist Max Schrems), filed a complaint against this practice called “Pay or okay.” (01/11, Le blog du modérateur) * go to our ‘support’ tab for Mr Max Schrems

* Stanislas Guerini, Minister of Public Service, married to a woman who leads the strategy for Google Cloud France, is supposed to recuse himself from any decision-making concerning the American giant. Mr. Guerini “does not know of any acts of any nature related to the parent company Alphabet Inc. and its subsidiaries,” according to the decree adopted during his appointment in 2022. Thus, he launched with great fanfare, at the beginning of October, an experiment with generative artificial intelligence (AI) in the public service, using the model of the American startup Anthropic… in which Google has invested over 2 billion dollars. Since then, more than 1,000 public servants have been able to familiarize themselves with the workings of this toy funded by the American company. Similar to ChatGPT, the model is used to make responses to users’ queries on the website “service-public.fr” more efficient. (12/27, Le Canard Enchaîné) * go to our ‘support’ to find out about all the approaches we’ve made to government figures

* Google is facing more pressure than ever from competition regulators. After losing the first round of its lawsuit against Epic Games last week, and with a landmark trial on its near-monopoly of the search engine market underway, the giant found a way out yesterday for another ongoing case. Google will pay $700 million in compensation to American consumers. (12/19, La Tribune)

* On Monday, December 18th, the European Commission announced the opening of its first ‘formal investigation’ under the new EU legislation on digital services (DSA), which came into effect in August 2023. Not surprisingly, given the numerous warnings issued by the Commissioner for the Internal Market, Thierry Breton, regarding hate speech or misleading content circulating on X, formerly Twitter, it is the social network that is the subject of the investigation. (12/18, Le Monde) * go to our ‘support’ tab for Mr Thierry Breton

* Olvid, the French instant messaging application hosted by Amazon Web Services (AWS)  was targeted on December 8 by Elisabeth Borne and her ministers and members of their cabinets in the name of “cybersecurity” and “French technological sovereignty.” We learned that the IP addresses, which make it possible to identify the various devices active on the network, are not only collected by Olvid but also “visible by the server”. AWS can even have access to contextual data and metadata from the French executive’s conversations. Created by French cryptographers, Olvid modestly presents itself as “the most secure application in the world”. Is it? Not sure. The certifications obtained by Olvid from the National Information Systems Security Agency date from 2021 for its Android version and from 2020 for its IOS version. An eternity, on the scale of the internet. (12/13, Le Canard Enchaîné) * go to our ‘Support’ to find out about all the approaches we’ve made to government figures

* Meta wants to strengthen the privacy of messages on Messenger and Facebook. The social media giant has started end-to-end encrypting “all personal conversations and calls on Messenger and Facebook,” like on WhatsApp. This type of encryption will make private exchanges on messaging and the platform and “even more confidential and secure,” he argued in a press release on Wednesday. “This means that no one, including Meta, can see what is sent or said, unless you choose to report a message to us,” detailed the American group. This deployment, announced for years, comes as various authorities oppose end-to-end encryption on Meta applications. They want the justice system in their country to be able to recover emails, instant messages and photos exchanged, which are essential in the context of criminal investigations. (12/08, 20 Minutes)

* An investigation by the Wall Street Journal published Monday reportedly shows that some Instagram accounts could be offered “racy footage of children and overtly sexual adult videos.” The American media conducted experiments using accounts that only followed accounts of children and adolescents such as gymnasts or cheerleaders, summarises BFM with Tech & Co. However, it appears that a number of subscribers to these accounts are adult men “who have demonstrated an interest in sexualised content, both around children and adults.” (11/29, 20 Minutes)

* On Tuesday, Amnesty International released a report finding that TikTok’s “For You” feed sometimes pushes young people toward content that is harmful to mental health. “Social media is designed to generate maximum available brain time for advertisers. They live from advertising and, by pushing you the most relevant content possible, they make you stay longer,” explains Paul Midy, deputy for the 5th constituency of Essonne and general rapporteur of the bill to secure the Internet. (11/10, 20 Minutes) * go to our ‘support’ tab for Mr Paul Midy

* To use Instagram or Facebook, you must choose between a paid subscription (€9.99 to €12.99/month), or free use but with targeted advertising. Indeed, like other tech giants, Meta must comply with new European legislation, notably the DSA and the DMA, and of course, the GDPR. Yes, but this “imposed” consent does not seem to please everyone, especially the European Committee for the Protection of Personal Data. (11/10, Le Blog du modérateur)

* Did Mark Zuckerberg personally intervene in decisions that were unfavourable to the mental health of Instagram’s youngest adolescent users? In any case, this is the thesis of prosecutors from around forty American states, who two weeks ago filed a joint complaint against the Meta group, accusing the company of knowingly harming the well-being of adolescents. The full version of the complaint shows that prosecutors believe that Mark Zuckerberg himself ignored several internal alerts and refused to take seriously certain mental health problems that could be aggravated by features of the social network. According to the documents, Mark Zuckerberg had rejected this proposal, although it was supported by several very senior Meta officials, including Adam Mosseri, the director of Instagram, and Andrew Bosworth, the group’s technology manager. (11/09, Le Monde)

* According to a study by the IPSOS institute, 52% of 16-19 years olds use Instagram daily to find out about the news, 47% use TikTok and 44% use YouTube. (11/01, Le Canard Enchaîné)

* Aix-Marseille University exit X. An announcement made on the platform itself. “By withdrawing from the European code of good practice against disinformation and modifying its moderation rules, X has become a place for the propagation of fake news and hateful, illicit or violent content,” observes the institution. (10/17, Libération)

* When the European Commission starts policing social networks: following the war that broke out between Hamas and Israel after the terrorist operation of the Palestinian armed group, large amounts of false information or inappropriate content was disseminated on various online platforms. The European Commission therefore announced on Thursday the opening of an investigation targeting the social network X for the alleged dissemination of “fake news,” “violent and terrorist content,” or “hate speech,” after the Hamas attacks on Israel. (10/13, 20 Minutes) * go to our ‘support’ tab for Mr Thierry Breton 

* The social media giant is reportedly considering setting up ad-free subscriptions at around 13€ for European users of Facebook and Instagram. An attempt to comply with regulations. (10/03, Les Echos)

* Two anonymous mourners facing a growing juggernaut two years after the suicide of their daughter Marie, aged 15. Her parents, Stéphanie and Charles, are pursuing legal action against Tiktok. The teenager, a regular user of this social network popular amongst minors, had mentioned in videos being the victim of bullying at school. But after digesting its content, the application bombarded her with sensitive content – on depression, suicide, unhappiness – which, in the eyes of those close to her, worsened her condition. (09/18, 20 Minutes)

* On Friday the European Union imposed a fine of 345 million euros on the social network TikTok for violating its data protection rules (GDPR) in the processing of information concerning minors. The Irish authority notes in particular in its decision that the registration of children on the platform was done in such a way that their accounts were defined as public by default. Other issues related to the “family connection” mode, which allows a parent’s TikTok account to be linked to that of their teenager. According to the decision, the company notably did not verify whether the associated user was actually the parent or guardian. (09/15, 20 Minutes)

* In the name of ‘freedom of speech,’ Elon Musk announced the upcoming removal of the possibility to block accounts on X (formerly Twitter), a function that is nevertheless very useful for protecting users who are victims of harassment. (08/23, Le Canard Enchaîné)

* Followed by hundreds of thousands of users on their social networks, four influencers have been singled out by the General Directorate for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Prevention (DGCCRF). Authorities demanded them to “stop deceptive marketing practices” on their Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube accounts. (10/08, 20 Minutes)

* We don’t play around with personal data protection in Norway, even if we’re called Meta. A Norwegian regulator on Tuesday fined the American technology giant for serving targeted ads by exploiting user data from its Facebook and Instagram platforms. From August 14th, Meta will have to pay the equivalent of one million Norwegian crowns per day (88,500 euros), the Norwegian Data Protection Authority (Datatilsynet) said. (08/08, 20 Minutes)

* The Center for Countering Digital Hate, an English NGO, has published several studies pointing to Twitter’s inaction in moderation. Work that the platform considers biased and partisan. (01/08, Le Monde)

* A few weeks ago, Twitter (now X) announced the launch of its monetization system for creators. The Creator Ads Revenue Sharing program officially saw the light of day on July 13th in the United States and allows creators to benefit from a portion of the platform’s advertising revenue. The amount of revenue is calculated based on ads shown in tweet replies. (07/31, Blog du modérateur)

* A real platform for getting famous, Twitter is becoming an El Dorado for porn actors. Unlike other social networks, Twitter allows the wide dissemination of pornographic content, sometimes to the detriment of a very young audience present on the platform. (07/17, 20 Minutes)

* The Threads application, created by Meta to compete with Twitter, passed the 100 million user mark just five days after its launch, group CEO Mark Zuckerberg confirmed on Monday July 10th. (10/07, Libération)

* Being accused of amplifying the violence following the death of Nahel in Nanterre on June 27th, social media platforms are under pressure from the government. A parliamentary group must work on regulatory proposals. Therefore, Emmanuel Macron came up with this formula regarding social networks : “When things get out of hand, we perhaps need to put ourselves in a position to regulate or cut them off.” (07/07, Libération) * go to our ‘Support’ tab for Mr Emmanuel Macron

* A simple comment under a video. We don’t always pay attention to them and yet they are sometimes hateful. And YouTube, the platform most visited by French Internet users (63% of them), is not spared from this scourge. This is what shows a study carried out by Medialab at Sciences Po and which appears in the latest report on racism from the National Consultative Commission on Human Rights (CNCDH), made public this Tuesday. (04/07, 20 Minutes)

* Snapchat, Telegram, and TikTok have been major drivers in the dissemination of videos showing the scale of riots which, since the death of Nahel, a teenager killed by a policeman in Nanterre on Tuesday, have set many towns on fire. (06/30, Le Monde)

* Twitter backsliding. The social network plans to leave the European Union’s code of practice against online disinformation, an agreement bringing together the main platforms on a voluntary basis, according to European sources. The platform owned by American billionaire Elon Musk has informed the European Commission of its intentions but has not yet formally notified the decision. (05/25, Liberation)

* On Tuesday, May 23rd following the National Assembly, the Senate adopted upon first reading with modifications, the legal requirement that social networks like TikTok or Snapchat verify the age of their users and demand parental consent for children under 15 years old. (05/23, Le Figaro)

* Meta, the parent company of WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram, was fined 1.2 billion euros on Monday, May 22nd for failing to comply with European data protection rules, being the highest fine ever imposed in Europe for this type of offence – the GDPR. (22/05, Libération)

* Since March 24th, the government has banned 2.5 million French civil servants from downloading recreational applications to their professional phones, primarily TikTok. With 1.7 billion users worldwide, including more than 15 million French people, the risk of seeing this Chinese video app and its data become a weapon in the hands of Beijing is worrying. The Senate opened a commission of inquiry on March 13th. (26/04, Le Canard Enchaîné) * go to our ‘Support’ to find out about all the approaches we’ve made to government figures

* Did Twitter deliberately participate in a cyberstalking campaign against Magali Berdah? In any case, this is what the boss of the influencer agency Shauna Events asserts, who filed a complaint on Tuesday April 18th against the social network and against X for “complicity in aggravated moral harassment.” (04/20, Le Figaro)

* Montana passed legislation on Friday to ban TikTok, a law that is unlikely to be enforced as it stands, but which could strengthen the United States’ desire to ban the popular platform belonging to the Chinese group ByteDance for good. (04/14, Le Figaro)

* The Italian authorities announced on Friday, March 31st, their decision to impose “with immediate effect” a halt on the chatbot ChatGPT, accused of not respecting the legislation on personal data, from collecting all types of data on its Italian users . (01/04, Le Monde)

* The government on Friday banned with immediate effect the installation and use of all socalled “recreational” applications on work phones belonging to the 2.5 million state civil servants. This ban concerns the Chinese video application TikTok, but also “Netflix or Candy Crush,” specified the Minister of Digital Affairs in Figaro. An exhaustive list of prohibited applications has not been communicated. (03/24, Le Figaro)

* The list is starting to grow. Hours after Washington ordered its federal agencies on Tuesday to ban TikTok from their devices within 30 days, Denmark followed suit. Highlighting “a risk of espionage,” parliamentarians and all parliamentary staff had to remove the Chinese social network from their devices. Canada and the European Commission also got rid of the mobile video-sharing application, very popular among teenagers around the world. (02/28, 20 Minutes)

* In France, the lack off transparency from the Chinese social network TikTok was pointed out by Arcom in its report published at the end of 2022 which highlights the company has “soared to an incredible place at lightning speed,” especially among young people. And a commission of inquiry into TikTok should see the light of day in the Senate, we learned on Friday from parliamentary sources. The Les Indépendants group chaired by Claude Malhuret, particularly attached to data protection and the responsibility of platforms for the content they broadcast, “is considering” exercising its power to draw up such an investigation. (03/02, 20 Minutes)

* TikTok has put its commitments to inclusion and body acceptance on hold. This is indicated in a study by Media Matters relayed by BFM TV this Wednesday. It appears that the Chinese social network garnered $4.3 million from advertisements offering weight-loss products displayed on its platform. (01/02, 20 Minutes)

* The CNIL took stock of its repressive action in France over the past year on Tuesday. While the quantity of sanctions (21 sanctions in 2022 for a total amount of over €101 million) is down compared to the previous year, the Commission highlights the record number of formal notices (147 in 2022). (31/01, Le Monde)

* The US Department of Justice on Tuesday filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google seeking to break up the internet giant’s lucrative digital ad tech business. Over the past 15 years, Google has been engaging in “anti-competitive, exclusionary, and unlawful practices” that have allowed it to “severely damage or even destroy competition in the tech ad industry,” concluded United States Attorney General Merrick Garland at a press conference on Tuesday. (01/25, ZDNet)

* Over half (60%) of influencers “targeted” since 2021 by fraud suppression have not complied with regulations on advertising and consumer rights, and several proceedings have been opened against them, according to a press release on Monday. The investigation by the Directorate General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control (DGCCRF) “targeted” more than sixty agencies and influencers active in promoting cosmetics, food supplements, weight-loss programs, or even online trading and gambling services. (01/23, Le Figaro)

* Cookies are expensive. TikTok has been fined 5 million euros in France for not allowing users of its website to simply refuse cookies, the French personal data authority announced on Thursday. (13/01, 20 Minutes)

* A significant setback for Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram has failed in its “transparency obligations” and is relying on an erroneous legal basis “for its processing of personal data for targeted advertising purposes,” the DPC (Irish data protection authority) announced Wednesday, January 4th. The latter, which supervises for Europe whose regional headquarters is located in Dublin, therefore imposed on the group founded by Mark Zuckerberg a fine of 390 million euros (210 million for Facebook and 180 million for Instagram). Another sanction, concerning WhatsApp messaging, is expected next week. (05/01, Le Monde)

* On Tuesday, January 3rd, Twitter announced a loosening on its three year ban of almost all political advertising on the social network. Ads for a “cause” will now be allowed again, and eventually election ads will be permitted too. “We believe ads for a “cause” improve public discourse around important topics,” the company writes. (04/01, Le Monde)

* Without batting an eye, the Brussels Commission has just authorized the transfer of personal data from Europeans to the United States. Who negotiated the deal? And who looked the other way for it? And above all, is it too late to turn back? (26/12, Marianne)

* In a report published on December 13, 2022, the Multinationals Observatory denounces the influence of GAFAM (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft), and the web woven by these digital giants in all sectors of society. Chiara Pignatelli, co-editor of the report, calls for a reinforced and more transparent framework for their action in France. Interview. (20/12, Marianne)

* “The French subsidiaries of GAFAM (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, and Microsoft) declared in 2021 the sum of 4.075 million euros in lobbying expenditure in France, against 1.35 million in 2017, i.e. a multiplication by 3,” says the association based on data from the High Authority for the Transparency of Public Life (HATVP). The association’s mission is to shed light on the relationship between major economic players and political power. Google is the biggest spender, with more than 1.6 million euros, ahead of Microsoft (1.1 million euros) and Amazon (850,000 euros). (13/12, Le Figaro)

* Fake news is on the horizon. In a report published on Monday, ARCOM (Audiovisual and Digital Communication Regulatory Authority) calls on social networks to strengthen their fight against misinformation with greater effort and transparency. For the third year in a row, around ten platforms such as Google, Meta (Facebook & Instagram), Snapchat and Twitter answered ARCOM‘s questions on the measures taken in 2021 to combat “fake news.” (28/11, Libération)

* Google has struck a massive settlement deal with 40 US states, agreeing to pay them $391.5 million to end investigations into how the search engine collects user data. (14/11, 20 Minutes)

* On this anti-bullying day, young adults are not immune to online violence. According to a study by the Caisse d’Epargne and the E-Enfance association, 60% of 18-25 year olds have already been victims of cyberbullying: virtual violence with very real consequences. Despite awareness on this subject, the tools to combat cyber–violence remain weak. (10/11, 20 Minutes)

* Germany has just imposed a fine of 5 million euros on Telegram messaging for its inaction in response to the hate speech shared on it. Pronounced under the “NetzDG” – the German law in charge of sanctioning hateful content on social networks, this sanction could seem trivial, even minor, but it carries with it a strong symbolic message, because it does not target the usual big platforms – Meta [Facebook & Instagram], Twitter, TikTok etc. – but encrypted messaging like Telegram, where it’s time to end impunity. (29/10, Le Monde)

* It’s not a new viral video or a new challenge that has been invading the TikTok platform for the past few days, but… dick pics (penis photos).  A lot of nude content has indeed been publicised for several days on the social network, without the algorithms succeeding in detecting and deleting them, notes the site Numerama. (22/10, 20 Minutes)

* For several months, Twitter has been considering relaxing its content moderation policies. According to the Financial Times, the company is exploring more flexible moderation tools that could replace the most onerous disciplinary measure the platform can inflict: permanent suspension of user profiles. (12/10, Le Figaro)

* The social network TikTok, from the Chinese company ByteDance, seeks to collect not only its users private data but also that of Internet users who do not have an account. This has been revealed by the American consumer association Consumer Reports, in a press release published on Thursday. (04/10, 20 Minutes)

* A fresh blow for Mark Zuckerberg. Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, was ordered on Wednesday to pay $174.5 million in damages to Voxer. The app accused the tech giant of infringing on its patents. The trial opened in Austin last week. (22/09, 20 Minutes)

* At the start of the Ukrainian conflict, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and United States President Joe Biden announced on March 25th that they had reached an agreement on a new framework for personal data transfer between the two continents. This announcement, which went relatively unnoticed, could nevertheless ruin years of efforts to establish European digital sovereignty. (16/09, Le Monde)

* The EU strikes hard. The social network Instagram, a subsidiary of the Meta group, the parent company of Facebook, has been fined a record 405 million euros for failures to process the data of minors under the GDPR, the Irish regulator announced on Monday. This is the second heaviest fine imposed by the equivalent to the French CNIL, and the third for Meta, whose regional headquarters are in Ireland. (05/09, 20 Minutes)

* Setting out of court, or paying off to avoid an embarrassing lawsuit, it a well known trick in the United States. Tangled up in the Cambridge Analytica scandal – a company linked to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign in 2016 which had access to private user data – Facebook opted for this solution. According to a court document filed Friday in a San Francisco court, Facebook said it was submitting a draft “agreement in principle” and requested a stay of proceedings for 60 days “to finalize the agreement in writing and appear in court”. (28/08, 20 Minutes)

* TikTok, the favorite app among 18-25 year olds, is able to monitor everything you type on your smartphone screen through its built-in browser. The Chinese social network is particularly capable of obtaining your passwords or your credit card numbers. (19/08, 01Net)

* Apple intends to place more adverts on its iPhones via their native App Store, Maps, Books, and Podcasts applications, according to sources. Mark Gurman, Apple watcher at Bloomberg, reports that Apple’s VP of Advertising, Todd Teresi wants to significantly grow the ad business. Since, July, the App Store already has more advertising slots. (16/08, ZDNet)

* Advertisements containing obviously false messages about the October elections were published on the social network Facebook, despite numerous signals that should have triggered an alert, denounces the NGO Global Witness. (16/08, Le Monde)

* Tensions are rising between Meta and the Data Protection Commission (DPC), the Irish equivalent of the CNIL. According to press reports, the DPC informed its European counterparts on Thursday of a draft order aimed at preventing Meta from sending the data of its European users to the United States without a transatlantic regulatory framework on data transfer. (08/07, ZDNet)

* The end of a long saga approaches as Elon Musk, the head of Tesla and SpaceX, told Twitter on Friday that he was pulling out of an agreement reached with the board of directors to buy the social network due to “false and misleading” information coming from the company. His lawyers affirm that Twitter did not respect its commitments made in the agreement, by not giving all the information requested on the number of fake and spam accounts (08/07, 20 Minutes)

* TikTok has been put under some new pressure. On Tuesday, an American parliamentary committee called for an investigation into the data confidentiality practices of the social network belonging to the Chinese group ByteDance. At the heart of the controversy is a Buzzfeed article published in mid-June, claiming that ByteDance employees in China had access on numerous occasions to American users’ private data. TikTok has confirmed this information. (06/07, 20 Minutes)

* The social network TikTok, has been accused by the European Consumers’ Organization (BEUC) of “not protecting children against disguised advertising and inappropriate content.” It has hence pledged to comply with EU rules, the European Commission announced on Tuesday. In May 2021 the Commission with representatives of its Member States had engaged in a dialogue with the video-sharing platform, owned by the Chinese internet giant ByteDance, and very popular with the youth, following the complaint of the BEUC. (21/06, Le Figaro)

* While TikTok has always maintained that it prevents any transfer or consultation of its users’ data to China, where its parent company ByteDance is located, an internal exchange leak today seems to prove the contrary. According to a set of 80 audio recordings from internal company meetings, revealed on Friday June 17th by the American media BuzzFeed, engineers of the video-sharing application had access from China to information from American users, at least between September 2021 and January 2022, and this “far more frequently than previously reported.” (20/06, Le Monde)

* Alcméon is bringing an end to traditional advertising along with the pile of leaflets slipped into your mailbox that you throw away on sight. And as for email? Too last-year. Instead, imagine receiving an SMS or a Facebook message. It’s not your friend or your sister, but Disneyland Paris who slides in your DMs with the events it has planned for you. This new trend, called messaging, is gaining more and more momentum in corporate marketing strategies. It means allowing brands to send you notifications directly to your WhatsApp, Messenger, Twitter, iMessage, or WeChat if you are in China. (17/06, Marianne)

* The US Department of Justice announced on Wednesday that it has reached an agreement with Twitter, providing a fine of 150 million dollars (about 140 million euros) and obligations for the social network to better respect the confidentiality of personal information. Authorities accuse the platform of deceiving its users from 2013 to 2019 by hiding the fact that it was using their personal data to help companies target them through advertising. (27/05, 20 Minutes)

* After search engines, online advertising and application stores, comes the Cloud. Players in the hosting market and online services for businesses are mobilizing to denounce practices deemed to be anti-competitive. On the chopping block are three American groups: Amazon, Microsoft, and Google which hold 69% of the European market, according to the firm Synergy Research Group. (05/17, Le Monde)

* With real-time bidding, a system used for ad placement on the Internet, data belonging to each Internet user is shared on average 340 times a day for a French person, and nearly 1,000 times for an American, without much transparency. (16/05, Le Monde)   

* In an an op-ed for the Monde, a collective led by the International League against Racism and Anti-Semitism, consisting of Mario Stasi, Gérald Bronner, Patrick Pelloux, Anne Sinclair, Serge Tisseron, and Lucile Jomat, has warned billionaire Elon Musk against any attempt to impose absolute freedom of expression on Twitter, being contrary to French law which considers hate speech a crime. (03/05, Le Monde)

* For the world of advertising too, the Metaverse is the new frontier. In recent months, agencies and advertisers have set their sights on these virtual worlds, a place with both high traffic and large audiences, naturally constituting very fertile ground for advertising campaigns. (02/05, Les Echos)

* French President elect Emmanuel Macron reaffirmed his position to build up the sovereignty of France and Europe in the digital field during an interview given on Thursday, April 21st to the specialized media outlet The Big Whale. Practical cases show, nonetheless, that his government has left it up to American companies to manage French data. (22/04, Marianne)

* Three weeks after the surprise announcement of an agreement between the European Commission and the United States on the transatlantic transfer of personal data, companies are still in waiting. The prospect of lifting the legal constraints that have weighed on the American Cloud champions for nearly two years has left them perplexed. (15/04, Les Echos)

* Meta really doesn’t like TikTok. Obviously, for Facebook’s parent company, all means are necessary to convince the public that TikTok is an enemy to be destroyed. As proof, the Washington Post revealed that Meta dipped into its purse and hired Targeted Victory, a consulting firm with ties to the American Republican Party, to lead a national campaign aimed at tarnishing TikTok’s reputation. (31/03, 01Net)

* Facebook (Meta) cannot escape justice. In the United States, some of its clients have just gotten the green light to pursue a class action lawsuit against the company following a complaint filed in federal court in San Francisco in 2018. They are accusing Meta of knowingly overestimating the potential of some of its advertising products with Instagram or Facebook users; the more the tech giant can boast of a large advertising reach, the more it can charge high prices for the campaigns deployed on its platforms. In 2021, Meta generated $115 billion in advertising revenue – its all-time high. (30/03, Les Echos)

* Google is likely to be fraudulently collecting data through the Message and Phone applications installed on Android. This is the conclusion of analyses carried out by Douglas Leith, professor of computer science at Trinity College Dublin. The specialist determined that Google was able to transmit part of users’ personal data to its servers without any consent given, reports Phonandroid. This violates the GDPR’s European regulations (General Data Protection Regulation). (23/03, 20 Minutes)

* Google’s advertising activities are subject to a new procedure: the European Commission opened an investigation on Friday March 11th, into the agreement concluded in 2018 between  Google and Meta (Facebook’s parent company). The two leaders in online advertising are suspected of having manipulated competition in this market. Something they deny. (11/03, Le Monde)

* Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Facebook and Instagram have just changed their moderation policy by allowing death threats against the Russian military. “We have observed a form of language balkanisation which is very striking,” concluded researcher Olivier Ertzscheid. (11/03, Marianne)

* Offensive, racist, homophobic, and sexist comments remain online after being reported to Facebook’s moderation team. On Thursday March 10th, German NGO HateAid published alongside LICRA (International League against Racism and Anti-Semitism), the results of a large-scale “test” carried out at the end of 2021, which found failures in the social network’s content moderation. (10/03, Le Monde)

* Children’s mental health: in the United States, an investigation opened against TikTok. Prosecutors in eight US states are looking into the strategies effectuated by the social network to increase its youngest users’ time spent on it. (03/03, Le Monde)

* With $243 billion in profits in 2021, Google, Apple, Facebook, and Amazon have unprecedented ways to continue their expansion. (19/02, Le Monde)

* You’ve probably never heard of it, yet a mega-file compiling multiple databases has been the subject of negotiations consisting of twists and turns for several months. It is supposedly an unlimited space where French men and women’s health data would be grouped anonymously to facilitate public health research in particular, including a very large data transfer from the National Health Data System (SNDS), which already includes data from Health Insurance and hospitals. The mega-file belongs to Microsoft, a company governed by American law and therefore not subject to EU laws, which has been chosen to carry out this mega project, all without invitation to tender, as Cédric O admitted in front of senators. (17/02, 20 Minutes)

* Meta, Facebook’s parent company, has reached a $90 million settlement to close a case that has been ongoing since 2012. The legal battle was over Facebook’s implementation of cookies and a trademark browser plug-in between 2010 and 2011 to track users after they completely disconnected from the social network. Although users had to agree to being tracked while logged into Facebook, that tracking was supposed to end upon logging out, according to the User License Agreement. However, this was not the case. (16/02, ZDNet)

* Could this be the end for Google Analytics, the American giant’s service used by many website creators to measure their traffic? If the answer is no, then the CNIL (National Commission for Computing and Liberties) has just muddied the waters by notifying a non-communicated website this Thursday to “comply with GDPR regulations, if necessary by ceasing to use Google Analytics (under current conditions), or by using a tool that does not result in a data transfer outside the EU.” (10/02, ZDNet)

* The District of Columbia and three US States are suing Google. They claim the tech giant tricked consumers into allowing access to their location data. And this, while these users had changed their privacy settings to prevent data collection. (04/02, 20 Minutes)

* The French online advertising market is set to reach 9 billion euros in 2022. Combined the Google-Meta (Facebook)-Amazon trio claims 67% of the French online advertising market. (03/02, Les Echos)

* After a historic drop in the advertisement market in 2020, the industry has come back stronger than ever, especially on social platforms. Through their annual reports, big companies like Meta ($89.465 billion), Google Ads ($209.5 billion), or Spotify ($1.2 billion) have seen their revenue hit record highs. (03/02, L’ADN)

* The use of Google Analytics, a ubiquitous tool used by millions of website makers to measure their audience and user behaviour, could be fundamentally questioned on a European Scale. In any case, such is the implication of a decision handed down on Thursday January 13th by the Austrian personal data protection authority which could initiate a wave of similar decisions from some of its European counterparts, weakening the operation of major digital services in Europe. (20/01, Le Monde)

* In the Facebook metaverse, advertising promises to be even more targeted. Mark Zuckerberg has confirmed it on many occasions: this metaverse, the virtual world his group is building, will be a huge business opportunity. (18/01, Le Figaro)

* Twitter France and its director have been condemned for their lack of cooperation with justice. The prosecution accuses the social network of blocking access to user information in an investigation into abusive tweets targeting an Yvelines local government official. Judgment will be delivered on March 21st. (18/01, Le Monde)

* Starting Wednesday, January 12th, delegates must examine a new bill aimed to “encourage the use of parental controls on certain devices and services having internet access sold in France.” It is an initiative taken by the parliamentarians of the majority in the National Assembly as a response to the proliferation of “testimonies of people who do not sufficiently protect the physical and psychological integrity of their children in front of the screens,” according to Bruno Studer, representative of the Bas-Rhin department’s République en Marche (LRM), who is behind the proposal. (07/01, Le Monde)

* The Swiss army has banned WhatsApp, Signal, and Telegram messaging during service operations, preferring a Swiss messaging service, an army spokesperson announced Thursday, January 7th, confirming information from the German-speaking Swiss daily Tages-Anzeiger. It is considered more secure in terms of data protection than other platforms subject to the Cloud Act. This American law, passed in 2018, allows American judges to order access to data held by American operators, even if this data is on servers outside the United States. (07/01, Le Monde)

* A Twitch money laundering ring was busted in Turkey. Several Turkish e–sport personalities have admitted to participating in an operation, but deny any knowledge to the origin of the funds raised. (06/01, Le Monde)

* The CNIL has imposed heavy fines on Google and Facebook for their cookies. The two platforms will have to pay 150 million and 60 million euros respectively. They have three months to comply, failing which they will have to pay a penalty of 100,000 euros per day of delay. (06/01, Le Monde)

* A Russian court has sentenced Google and Meta to fines of 87 million and 23 million euros respectively. The California giants have been found guilty of “recidivism” for failing to remove illegal content from their platforms in Russia; content which is, according to the authorities, related to drugs, child pornography, or pertaining to the “call to suicide.” (24/12, Le Monde)

* The metaverse cannot escape some real-world problems. Horizon Worlds, Meta Group’s virtual reality video game, has just been released in North America. But the service has already been tainted by a sexual harassment case. A beta tester of Mark Zuckerberg’s digital universe was allegedly the victim, in mid-November, of touching perpetrated on her avatar by another player. (17/12, Le Figaro)

* Rohingya refugees, a Muslim ethnic minority who fled persecution in Burma, have sued Meta Platforms Inc, formerly known as Facebook, for $150 billion (132 billion euros). They are accusing the social network of not taking action against hate speech towards them on its platform. A class action lawsuit was filed on Monday December 6th in California where Facebook is headquartered, by law firms Edelson PC and Fields PLLC. (07/12, Le Monde)

* A document obtained by the New York Times describes how TikTok’s algorithm works to decide what content appears on users’ feeds. The document lays out not only the mathematical functions of the service, but also its ability to analyze us — our personality, our desires, our frequency of boredom — everything the company learns through watching short videos. The single greatest value scrutinized by the application is retention (that is, the ability to get us back to TikTok) and time spent on it. (06/12, Le Figaro)

* The United Kingdom is taking legal measures to regulate Facebook. British MP Damian Collins is working on a bill imposing new moderation obligations on social media platforms. (25/11, Le Figaro)

* The Health Minister’s commitment to revoke Microsoft’s hosting and exploitation of French health data within two years at most seems “seriously compromised,” remarked the president of the State Reform Circle, Christian Babusiaux. (18/11, Le Monde)

* “Facebook Files” | An internal document from the social network, dating from 2020, reveals figures that Facebook never intended to disclose on the number of its moderators. Indeed Facebook employs 766 Arabic-speaking moderators for 220 million Arabic-speaking users. (16/11, Le Monde)

* Endowed with her whistleblower status, Frances Haugen will be questioned this Wednesday, November 10th at the National Assembly. Haugen’s revelations which were initially published in the Wall Street Journal, and addressed to Stock Exchange authorities as well as to the American Congress, proved what some observers had been denouncing for years: that Facebook is fully aware of the problems caused by its social network and deliberately chooses to ignore them. (10/11, Marianne)

* Twitter is saying no to the Australian government’s plan to lift the veil on the identity of users on social networks. As another critic put it, identification would deprive a myriad of vulnerable groups from the protection of anonymity. (06/11, ZDNet)

* Two organizations, the Real Facebook Oversight Board and Stop Funding Heat (an NGO acting for the environment), published a study on Thursday November 4th accusing Facebook of contributing to the circulation of false information on climate change thereby being criminal in its inaction. (05/11, Le Monde)

* Already in turmoil since whistleblower Frances Haugen’s revelations, Facebook is once again being singled out for letting fake news about the vaccine spread, despite numerous alerts. Twenty accounts, pages, and groups on Facebook and Instagram spreading fake news about Covid-19 and vaccines have been able to thrive on the platforms, gaining a total of more than 370,000 new subscribers or members over the past year, indicates a report produced by the organization NewsGuard, specializing in pre-bunking. (30/10, 20 Minutes)

* The spotlight on Tuesday shifted to TikTok, Snapchat, and YouTube who are being accused, like Facebook, of harming children’s mental and physical health by overexposing them to the seemingly ideal lives of other people, as well as inappropriate images and ads. Representatives of these three platforms, ultra popular with young people, tried to prove to American senators that they were outperforming Facebook on those matters. (27/10, Le Figaro)

* Facebook is grappling with a new whistleblower. A former employee of the social network accuses the latter of prioritising profits over the moderation of dangerously problematic content, according to a Washington Post article published on Friday, October 22nd. These revelations come just weeks after those made by a former platform engineer, Frances Haugen. (23/10, Le Monde)

* Snapchat’s shares lost nearly a quarter of their market value on Friday. Email advertising revenue has been affected by anti-tracking measures put in place on iPhones, which is a bad omen for Facebook and Twitter. (22/10, Les Echos)

* The British Competition & Markets Authority (CMA) fined social media giant Facebook £50.5 million following its merger with Giphy, because it continued to integrate the two companies despite an ongoing investigation . (20/10, Le Figaro)

* Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, has found himself at the heart of yet another scandal. He has ignited a backfire by announcing an unprecedented wave of recruitments to develop his so-called “metaverse.” This totally dematerialised world that promises to bring people together is a cover for a huge digital goods and services market, a fact which promises to give an unprecedented dimension to all the vices that the company has magnified in recent years: screen addiction, circulation of false information, isolation, and commodification of users… (18/10, Marianne)

* Anti-Semitism is spreading on social media. Hateful content, and more specifically anti-Semitic speech, continues to spread across major platforms, warns a report released this week by European organisations. Despite the strengthening of moderation techniques, social networks like Instagram and TikTok are used daily to disseminate negationist and anti-Semitic content to younger users, according to a study conducted by the British association Hope Not Hate, the German Amadeu Antonio Foundation, and the Swedish group Expo Foundation.(16/10, 20 Minutes)

* Will the Frances Haugen affair create a consensus to crack down on Facebook and other social media giants? In the United States, several congress members intend to take advantage of the whistleblower’s revelations, who had accused Facebook of systematically placing profit over user security, and transmitted several internal documents of her former employer to the Wall Street Journal in an attempt to impose a stricter regulatory framework. According to them, the “momentum” is there. (15/10, Les Echos)

* Twitter is exploring new avenues in an attempt to increase its revenue. Twitter’s revenue manager revealed that the platform was testing a new advertising format, as stated in a tweet posted on the social network. (14/10, 01Net)

* The Irish regulator has threatened up to $42 million in fines against Facebook alone, after the company was accused of violating the GDPR through deceptive data collection policies. This  has emerged out of the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) draft decision sent to other European data protection authorities and published via privacy expert Max Schrems and his advocacy group Noyb – at the origin of the initial complaint against Facebook. For him and other privacy experts, the proposed fine is a long way off, given its relatively tiny amount and Facebook’s legal arguments to avoid harsher fines. (14/10, ZDNet)

* Racism, anti-Semitism, and homophobia … More than a third of online hate messages reported on platforms in the EU are not deleted, a European Commission assessment indicated from March to April, highlighting an increase in this rate compared to the last two years. This report concerns Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, Jeuxvideo.com, and TikTok, all signatories of the EU Code of Conduct to Combat Illegal Hate Speech Online, launched in 2016. (09/10, 20 Minutes)

* A former product manager at Facebook, Frances Haugen left the company in May 2021, taking many internal documents with her. In a CBS interview given on Sunday October 3rd, she revealed how the social network favorises its profits and growth over the security of its users. (04/10, Marianne)

* A new feature will link the Messenger and Instagram apps. Group chats between the two apps will now be allowed, reports TechCrunch relayed by 01net. Messenger and Instagram contacts will therefore be integrated into the same conversation. The merger between Messenger and Instagram began in 2020 when Facebook enabled in-app chat with Messenger contacts from Instagram. (02/10, 20 Minutes)

* The Irish CNIL has confidentiality concerns regarding Facebook’s smart glasses. The European leader in data protection announced that it is closely monitoring Facebook’s marketing for its new connected product, and its compliance with the GDPR. (20/09, ZDNet)

* The Wall Street Journal confirmed on Monday September 13, that under Facebook’s program (Crosscheck or XCheck) certain celebrities, politicians, and influencers do not have to obey the same rules on content moderation as the rest. (14/09, Le Monde)

 * The Irish digital authority announced a record fine of 225 million euros on Thursday (September 2nd) that it had imposed on WhatsApp following an investigation at the request of the European Commission into the protection of personal data. (02/09, Le Monde)

* Authorities in South Korea have fined Facebook 6.46 billion won (roughly 4.3 million euros) for its use of facial recognition without user consent. The country’s Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC) is accusing the social network of offenses committed between April 2018 and September 2019, reports The Register. (27/08, 20 Minutes)

* TikTok Shopping is the new e-commerce feature coming to the viral video app. It is the result of an agreement between TikTok and Shopify that aims to develop social commerce on the platform. (26/08, ZDNet)

* The American Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed a new case against Facebook on Wednesday, accusing the social media giant of abuse of monopoly power after the first attempt was shut down by a judge in June. The initial complaint for anti-competitive practices, filed in December, threatened Facebook with having to part ways with Instagram and WhatsApp. (19/08, 20 Minutes)

* Google in France only paid 20.5 million euros in taxes on its 2020 profits. This is 10 times less than what the company should have paid. (19/08, ZDNet)

* The social network Facebook wants to reinforce its dominant position in online payments and e-commerce. It is out of the question for Facebook to miss out on benefiting from the online payment revolution. Two years ago its founder, Mark Zuckerberg, made a promise to his 2.8 billion users: to provide an instant, secure, and free international money transfer service. (19/08, Le Figaro)

* Fifty-seven billion dollars, such is the striking amount of Apple, Microsoft, and Google’s cumulative profits during the second quarter of 2021. It is obviously the advertising markets which ensure their fortune, as more and more are abandoning newspapers, radio, and television at the same time. Facebook, for example, generated advertising revenue of $29.1 billion, up 56% in one year. With, as a bonus, a profitability of more than 33%! (04/08, Le Carnard Enchaîné)

* On Monday, the European Commission announced the opening of an in-depth investigation into the proposed takeover by Facebook of the American start-up Kustomer, specializing in customer relationship management, because it fears a reduction in competition, especially in the digital advertising field. (02/08, Le Figaro)

* Zoom has agreed to pay $85 million to settle its data protection lawsuits. Faced with the phenomenon of “zoombombing,” the company had already tried to strengthen the security of its meetings, and does not intend to stop there. (02/08, Les Echos)

* The Wall Street Journal investigation proves that TikTok doesn’t hesitate to push harmful content on its users as long as it increases their engagement. (23/07, O1Net)

* The social network Twitter has reported its largest growth since 2014 thanks to a rebound in advertising revenue. The bad memory from spring 2020, which was marked by an operational deficit of $123 million, has been erased. A year later, the social network headed by Jack Dorsey shows its biggest growth in seven years, with an increase of 74% of its turnover to 1.2 billion dollars. (23/07, Le Figaro)

* The change in the rules for using WhatsApp still has not passed. The European Bureau of Consumers’ Unions (BEUC) announced on Monday July 12 that it had filed a complaint with the European Commission against the messaging service over this controversial change. (12/07, Le Monde)

* Anti-GAFAM complaints are rampant in the US. Now it’s Google’s turn to defend itself. The company was sued yesterday by 36 US states including Washington DC. They accuse the digital giant of abusing its position of strength to promote its application store, the Play Store. The complaint also attacks commissions charged by Google when making purchases through apps in its Play Store. (08/07, Le Figaro)

* Are the internet giants being weakened? Subjected to some hostilities in Europe – ministerial declarations, annoying amendments, tax attacks – GAFAM has an answer for everything! “Today, GAFAM’s real lobbying instrument is to be a vast recruitment agency for ex-servants of the state.” Sébastien Gros, ex-chief of staff to Manuel Valls at the Ministry of the Interior and Matignon, a non-executive prefect, was promoted in March to director of strategy and public affairs for Apple, France. In 2013, Facebook launched fashion by propelling Laurent Solly to the general management of its French subsidiary, an ENA graduate who frequented the offices of Nicolas Sarkozy in the Ministries of the Economy and the Interior. Among the most high profile recruits is the former Digital Director at the Ministry of National Education, Mathieu Gendron, who fell into the Amazon basket in 2018. This tech-savvy helped deliver data on millions of students, teachers, and parents to Microsoft. Even more agitating is State Councillor Francis Donnat, in 2005 he was chief of staff at the EU Court of Justice, against which GAFAM is currently battling. In 2012, he joined Google France. (07/07, Le Canard Enchaîné)

* The Facebook AI Innovation Summit, the annual European event for Facebook’s artificial intelligence lab, was held on Wednesday. During the conference, Facebook announced its intention to establish itself in the field of e-commerce and to achieve this, the social network relies on artificial intelligence (AI). “Commerce has been developing in our services for some time, but it has become much more important since the pandemic has accelerated the digital transition of companies,” explained the CEO and creator of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, at the end of May. (01/07, Le Figaro)

* Imagine making an appointment with a doctor on Doctolib and a few minutes later seeing an advertisement on Facebook targeted to your pathology. The medical appointment making platform is being singled out by German media specializing in the security of Mobilsicher phones for having transmitted data from its users to Facebook and Outbrain. (23/06, Marianne)

* Facebook will begin testing ads inside its Oculus Quest virtual reality platform. Ads will begin to appear in the game Blaston, developed by Resolution Games, as well as in games from “a few other developers” in the coming weeks. (18/06, ZDNet)

* In the home stretch before the disappearance of third-party cookies — the basis of online advertising — from its Chrome browser, Google wishes to reassure advertisers, publishers, and the general public. The silicon giant makes pledges while being targeted by authorities around the world for its proven or suspected abuses of its dominant position. (17/06, Les Echos)

* Has Facebook been using data from the 7 million companies that advertise on its platform to strengthen its Marketplace, to the detriment of its competitors like Leboncoin? This is the question that Brussels will have to examine in the coming months. The European Commission and the British CMA on Friday opened an investigation into this service used every month by 1 billion users to buy and sell products. (04/06, Les Echos)

* Google has intentionally made accessing location settings on Android difficult so as to prevent users from turning them off. This is what Business Insider revealed after reviewing documents used in the context of a lawsuit brought by the State of Arizona against the American giant. (31/05, 20 Minutes)

* Critics are raining down on the Data Protection Commission (DPC), the Irish data protection authority, accused of being too lax with GAFAM in relation to European regulations passed into law three years ago. MEPs voted at the end of last week in favor of a resolution calling on the European Commission to open an infringement case against the DPC for not having correctly applied the GDPR. (24/05, ZDNet)

* Snapchat, an application for sharing videos and photos that is very popular among young people, has become “the social network for drugs” by promoting home deliveries, accused Gerald Darmanin on Wednesday. “It is on Snapchat that drug dealers make their appointments, as you no doubt make an appointment to deliver a pizza. (…) It is totally demoralized,” declared the Interior Minister on France Inter, denouncing an “uberization” of traffic via “social networks.” (21/05, Le Figaro)

* The deadline is approaching. The two billion WhatsApp users have until Saturday, May 15 to comply with the application’s new privacy policy, which sparked a worldwide controversy at the start of the year. It’s hard to forget this ultimatum as for several weeks, those who have not given their consent have received numerous reminders from WhatsApp encouraging them to click on ‘Accept.’ (12/05, Le Figaro)

* Facebook and Instagram are starting to send out iOS notifications to get their users to agree to being tracked through advertising by their apps, as can be seen in the tweet below. Their explicit consent must indeed be obtained since the implementation of Apple’s anti-tracking system with the latest version of iOS. (04/05, 01Net)

* Facebook virtually doubled its net profit to $9.5 billion. Its turnover, mainly from advertising revenue, is also significantly higher than market expectations. (28/04, Le Figaro)

* The former Children’s Commissioner in England filed a lawsuit against the video platform TikTok on Tuesday, accusing it of illegally collecting personal data from millions of children in the UK and Europe. (21/04, Le Figaro)

* Is Facebook going to launch an “Instagram Kids” soon? The parent company of the photo & video sharing platform created in 2010 said it was working on a social network project exclusively aimed at children under 13. “While collecting valuable family data and retaining a new generation of Instagram users is arguably good for Facebook’s bottom line, it is likely to increase the number of children using Instagram, who are particularly vulnerable to the exploitative and manipulative nature of the platform.” The collective Campaign for a Commercial-free Childhood, being worried about this issue, has just launched a petition to officially demand the termination of the project. (16/04, 20 Minutes)

* Apple, Google, Amazon, Netflix … have mountains of data that they are careful not to share, while they can access public resources freely. Is the open data doctrine an act of naivety in the face of GAFAM? These groups have access to free data, but do not share their own. They have no obligation to do so, since the information they generate through their activity belongs to them. The notion of general interest data could provide a solution to this problem. Especially when these groups, or other private companies, are the only ones with valuable information. (15/04, Le Figaro)

 * NOYB, the NGO defending privacy, said in a statement released on April 6 that it was filing a complaint in France against Google. NOYB is contesting the way in which Google’s most widely used operating system for Android mobile phones assigns each phone a unique identifier, which is used by many applications and other services to provide it with targeted advertising. (07/04, Le Monde)

* Mark Zuckerberg makes his fourth congressional appearance in one year, and third for Sundar Pichai and Jack Dorsey: the CEOs of Facebook, Google, and Twitter respectively. On Thursday, March 25th, they responded to questions from elected representatives of the United States Congress. The Capitol attack on January 6th by Donald Trump fanatics heightened the sense of urgency to regulate social media platforms, where hatred and disinformation are spread. (26/03, Le Monde)

* In this age of product placement on social networks, Google is testing an algorithm that automatically detects products featured in YouTube videos uploaded to user accounts, 01Net reported after relaying the information from The Verge. Only American users are currently targeted, Google said in a blog post. (24/03, 20 Minutes)

* The NGO Reporters Without Borders (RSF) announced on Tuesday March 23rd that it would file a complaint against Facebook for “deceptive commercial practices.” The complaint targets the proliferation of hate speech and fake news, which contradicts the famous social network’s general conditions and terms of use. (23/03, Marianne)

* Facebook wants to strengthen artificial intelligence in its technologies, especially through videos. In a new blog post, Mark Zuckerberg’s group formalised their project called “Learning from Videos.” The goal? That its artificial intelligence will understand videos uploaded to Facebook and Instagram using audio, text, and visual data, without having to go through data labelling. (16/03, Le Figaro)

* An article from France Inter lit a buzz, asserting that data handled by the app Doctolib was accessible to American companies. Doctolib defends itself as best it can. (12/03, ZDNet)

* Facebook has once again been convicted by the American courts for violating user privacy. The social network has been fined 650 million dollars following a “class-action” lawsuit filed six years ago by American users believing that the American giant violated the laws of the State of Illinois as laid out in the Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA). This legislation prevents companies from collecting or using biometric information of users without their consent. (01/03, ZDNet)

* Employees at one of the warehouses owned by e-commerce giant Amazon are attempting to organise a trade union. And in an effort to deter employee unionization Amazon has been running an anti-union video advertisement since February 23rd on its live video platform Twitch. (26/02, Le Monde)

* TikTok has agreed to pay the proposed $92 million to settle a class action lawsuit alleging the company invaded users’ privacy. The settlement, if approved, would end claims that the video content-sharing app, owned by Beijing-based ByteDance, has wrongly collected users’ private and biometric data, including data from adolescents and minors. The class action arose out of 21 separate lawsuits filed in California and Illinois last year. (26/02, ZDNet)

* Snap, the group behind Snapchat, believes augmented reality could be highly profitable and become the next business platform. They might be right. In a recent report of its financial outcomes, the company revealed an optimistic outlook with “sustained revenue growth of around 50% for several years, assuming favorable economic conditions.” Snap’s management also wants to invest in its Discover tabs to drive engagement and in Spotlight to increase its supply of quality content using augmented reality as an advertising tool. (25/02, ZDNet)

* Despite the controversy surrounding data protection and respect for user privacy at the start of the year, WhatsApp is going forward with the decision to introduce its new terms of service starting on May 15, 2021. This change will allow the messaging application to transfer certain data to Facebook, reports Capital. You will no longer be able to send messages if you refuse the new terms of use. (25/02, 20 Minutes)

* Doxxing, a novel privacy issue. The French court of justice will be able to request from Twitter the identity of any account suspected of “violating user privacy and/or private correspondence.”(22/02, ZDNet)

* Facebook was aware that its user number estimation was unreliable and artificially high, but ignored the issue in order to generate more advertising revenue, companies say, according to legal documents released on Wednesday. “This is revenue that should never have been earned because it was based on falsified data,” an employee said in an internal email. (19/02, 20 Minutes)

* Since the first lockdowns of winter 2020, Zoom, Teams, Webex and their ambitious challengers have changed the daily life of companies everywhere. The aforementioned platforms, mainly American, which today dominate the remote working market are engaged in a merciless fight to maintain their advantage. (18/02, Les Echos)

* Big tech is a flashy industry surrounded by a lot of buzz. And the social media and audio application Clubhouse simply does not make the bar. Launched under a year ago, the American start-up is already facing criticism regarding the management of its users’ personal data and the protection of their privacy. (17/02, Les Echos)

* TikTok is the target of a group action complaint from European consumers. Several consumer associations in Europe are accusing the social network of exploiting user data and abusing user rights, as well as insufficiently protecting its underage users. (16/02, ZDNet)

 * Despite losing to Google in the Fitbit buyout in 2019, Facebook is determined to enter the smart watch market. According to the American media outlet The Information citing sources inside the company, the social network could put a health oriented smart watch on the market in 2022. The project is very advanced according to the source. (16/02, Le Figaro)

* Microsoft would like to break into the mainstream social media market. The American giant has approached the Pinterest platform in recent months, and would be ready to invest $51 billion to obtain it according to the Financial Times. (11/02, Le Figaro)

* The Paris Commercial Court ordered Google to pay more than one million euros in damages to Oxone, a telephone information agent. After being refused to use the American giant’s advertising services to promote their activity, they went out of business. (11/02, Les Echos)

* Two cybersecurity researchers, Talal Haj Bakry and Tommy Mysk, have affirmed that Facebook has violated European privacy laws. A change in the previews of links sent via Messenger and Instagram would be indirect proof of Facebook’s offense. (11/02, 20 Minutes)

* Over the past few days, many Instagram users have started getting links from anonymous accounts, which redirect to pornographic content. (08/02, Le Figaro)

* Take your pulse by placing your fingertip on your smartphone’s camera; or know your respiratory rate by filming your chest … Two features that Google will offer “in a few weeks.” The announcements were made Thursday, February 4, during the corporation’s overview of its healthcare business, a field in which the American giant still has apparent ambitions. (05/02, Le Monde)

* Wall Street smiled as Snapchat was doing better than ever. The 2020 financial year for the  app of ephemeral messages and videos is by far the most successful in its entire history. Last year, the company generated $2.5 billion in revenue, a record. Yet in the last quarter alone, it generated $911 million in turnover, a jump of 62% in one year, greatly surpassing analyst consensus ($856 million). (05/02, Les Echos)

 * Facebook ends the year defined by a pandemic with a whopping $11 billion in fourth quarter profit. The social media giant has taken special advantage of the explosion in digital activity, online commerce in particular, during the pandemic. (27/01, Le Figaro)

* The dating app Grindr faces a record fine of 100 million kroner (9.6 million euros) in Norway for illegal data sharing, the Norwegian data protection authority said on Tuesday. (26/01, Le Figaro)

* Data sharing between Facebook and WhatsApp, which belong to the same corporation, is poorly viewed by the European community. WhatsApp could even see a record fine for violating the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) introduced in 2018, Politico reported on January 22, relayed by Numerama. (25/01, 20 Minutes)

* Italy announced on Friday, January 22, that it had temporarily blocked access to TikTok for users who are unable to prove they meet the minimum age requirement to register with the app. This is an emergency measure, in response to the death of a girl who participated in the ‘blackout challenge’ on the social network. (22/01, Le Monde)

* A coalition of health and tech companies, including Microsoft, Salesforce, and Oracle is seeking to develop a vaccination passport. This digital passport would be used by travellers to prove that they have been vaccinated against Covid-19 in order to be able to travel to or enter certain places. (15/01, Les Echos)

* More than 214 million user profiles on social media sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram were discovered last December by SafetyDetectives on poorly secured servers of a Chinese start-up, serving as further evidence to the importance of protecting your personal data on social media. The journal Le Parisien indicated that the Chinese company Socialarks compiled more than 214 million user profiles, or 408 GB of personal data. For France, this concerns 680,733 LinkedIn profiles, 109,869 complete Facebook profiles, and 28,468 Instagram profiles. (12/01, 20 Minutes)

* The deletion of third-party cookies from Google’s Chrome browser, scheduled for 2022, is troubling British authorities who are concerned about the potential impact on other digital advertising players, which target Internet users through cookies, as well as on publishers. (08/01, Les Echos)

* After being found guilty of plagiarism, Facebook is going to have to pay 3.83 million euros to an Italian company, reports The Verge, citing information from Reuters. The Italian company Business Competence is said to have given Facebook the idea for its “nearby” feature. The decision was passed by the Milan Court of Appeals on Tuesday (January 5th). (07/01, 20 Minutes)

* After several years of mobilisation to impose ethical considerations on the Silicon Valley giant, 226 Google employees created a union. The Alphabet Workers Union aims to protect employees, but also to influence the strategic decisions of the company. (05/01, Les Echos)

* WhatsApp totalled 1.4 billion voice and video calls on New Year’s Eve, twice as many as the year before. This is the highest number of calls in a day in the app’s lifetime. Overall, Facebook has seen an increase in calls since March 2020 on Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp due to the pandemic. (04/01, 01Net)

* How did Facebook get a tax rate of just 1 percent? An Irish subsidiary of the company paid $101 million in taxes while recording profits of over $15 billion in 2018 – a rate average taxpayers can only dream of. (29/12, ZDNet)

* In July, Google announced the creation of the India Digitization Fund of $10 billion over the next five to seven years. Five months later, the first investments in Indian tech were also announced. The American giant has participated in two fundraisers, alongside other investors, for the Indian startups Glance and DailyHunt. Both are specialized in social networks. They respectively raised 145 and 100 million dollars during these new rounds of funding. (22/12, Le Figaro)

* In a forum at “Le Monde,” communications professor Charles Cuvelliez and cryptographer Jean-Jacques Quisquater analyzed the new approach to competition manifested by the complaint filed by the US administration against Facebook. On December 9th, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the powerful US competition and consumer protection agency, filed a lawsuit against Facebook for undermining competition. And the FTC is not beating around the bush; considering that social networks are a new market, it declared Facebook to be abusing a dominant position. It is calling for nothing less than the dismantling of Facebook by breaking it up from Instagram and WhatsApp. (21/12, Le Monde)

* Ten Republican states, led by Texas, launched a lawsuit against Google on Wednesday. The American giant is accused of using its power to control pricing and engage in market collusions to rig auctions, as well as offering Facebook preferential access to its platform to prevent the latter from developing a rival product. (17/12, Les Echos)

* Mark Zuckerberg’s social network Facebook is launching a press campaign against Apple’s new iOS 14, which prevents it from employing targeted ads. (17/12, Le Monde)

 * Faced with the Digital Services Act and the Digital Markets Act, counter-mobilization of lobbyists in the sector was predictable and expected. However some methods have been shocking. And Google has found itself at the heart of the scandal, after an internal document was leaked the press. (15/12, Le Figaro)

* After years of vain pursuit against Google, Facebook, and Amazon (known as “GAFA”) in endless procedures of European competition law, the European Union is presenting on Tuesday its plan to finally impose its legislation on the digital industry giants accused of abusing their power without assuming their responsibilities. (15/12, 20 Minutes)

* After dealing with Carrefour last month, the CNIL is now going after GAFAM, and is imposing severe sanctions of 100 million euros on Google and 35 million euros on Amazon for violating regulations regarding cookies. (10/12, ZDNet)

 * In early 2021, WhatsApp will change its terms and conditions wether you like it or not. This includes the way the application processes users’ personal data. Soon users will have to validate the new “conditions and updates to the app’s policy of confidentiality.” If they refuse, WhatsApp services will no longer be accessible to them, reveals The Independent as relayed by Fredzone. The next update to the app will also boost business and make it easier for users to connect with a product. Businesses will be able to manage messages sent by customers via WhatsApp from within Facebook’s hosting services. (09/12, 20 Minutes)

 * A colossal battle is on the horizon. The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) alongside prosecutors representing 48 states and territories in the country announced on Wednesday that they had filed a major complaint against Facebook, which they accuse of abusing its dominant position, and using its overflowing wealth to oust competition. The FTC, having already fined Facebook $5 billion in 2019, is calling for the dismantling of the group, breaking it up from Instagram and WhatsApp, which had previously been merged in 2012 and 2014 respectively. (09/12, 20 Minutes)

 * Google, being targeted by the administration for monitoring its employees, is scheduled for a hearing this coming April 12th in San Francisco. It stands accused of spying on its activist employees, Google has two weeks to defend itself, according to a ruling issued by a US federal agency on Wednesday. (03/12, 20 Minutes)

* For Facebook, becoming a key player in the digitization of retailers has become a priority. On Monday, it formalized its intention to acquire the American company Kustomer, a specialist in customer relationship management. Kustomer allows businesses to consolidate all of their customer’s questions and complaints into a single stream, whether they are written by email, SMS, social media, or instant messaging. According to the Wall Street Journal, Facebook is preparing to invest $1 billion to acquire the company. (01/12, Le Figaro)

* The Russian government is working on a new law to block foreign social networks within its territory. The Kremlin justified such a measure on the “discriminatory” nature of these social networks (often American) with regard to Russian news networks operating abroad. Sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube are specifically mentioned in the “explanatory notes” accompanying the new bill, submitted last week for debate in the Duma, the Russian parliament. (27/11, ZDNet)

 * Digital giants like Facebook present a “considerable threat” in Europe because of their efforts to launch digital currencies, a member of the executive board for the European Central Bank (ECB) announced on Friday. “If not properly regulated, tech giants could pose considerable threats from an economic and social perspective, and they could limit rather than expand, consumer choice,” said Fabio Panetta during a Bundesbank conference speech in Frankfurt. (27/11, Le Figaro)

* Google is expected to lead an intense lobbying campaign along with the other major platforms against the Digital Service Act currently being passed in Europe. This regulation aims to redefine competition laws and provide more effective means to act against the hegemony of major platforms in Europe, as well as laws to more efficiently moderate hate speech online. The Mountain View firm does not intend to capitulate without fighting back against the new legislation which imposes stronger regulation on big tech players, and Google intends to put its eggs in that basket. (16/11, ZDNet)

* Austrian lawyer Max Schrems’ organisation, a nuisance to large digital companies, denounces the presence of a unique identifier in each iPhone used to track user behaviour. (17/11, Le Monde)

* The fines came too late and have little effect this time, since member States cannot agree on uniform legislation. And it’s the tech giants who profit from these divisions. Faced with the weaknesses of its arsenal of measures against GAFA abuses, Brussels decided to act. On December 2nd, three structuring texts will be presented by the European Commission: the Digital Services Act, the Digital Market Act, and the action plan for European democracy. (13/11, Le Figaro)

* In India, Facebook has finally been authorized to launch an online payment method. And WhatsApp messaging will be available to 20 million Indians to make money transfers, a function that will compete with those of Google, Amazon, Walmart, and Alibaba. (09/11, Le Monde)

* For Facebook and Google, the American election can already be described as a success … at least from a strictly financial point of view. During the first ten months of the year, Joe Biden’s team and Donald Trump’s team spent a cumulative sum of 192.3 million dollars on  Facebook ad campaigns (that’s 99.8 million and 92.5 million respectively), according to data from the Menlo Park group. That is more than double compared to the last election in 2016. (04/11, Les Echos)

* Facebook recorded a loss of 2 million daily users in the United States and Canada in the third quarter of 2020. A significant drop for the social network since these two markets are among the highest paying for it. Nonetheless, it still managed to garner 21.47 billion dollars this year, a 22% increase compared to 2019, including 7.84 billion in net profits. The boycott campaign launched by several advertisers therefore only had a limited impact on Facebook’s net income. (02/11, 20 Minutes)

* Australia’s Attorney General Christian Porter presented the working document that his department will use as a reference point for its review of the privacy law. (01/11, ZDNet)

* The European Commission is going to oblige digital platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Google to show transparency on the mechanisms by which their algorithms recommend content; this in order to “protect our democracy,” the Vice-President of the European Commission Margrethe Vestager announced on Friday. “We cannot allow decisions that affect the future of our democracy to be taken in the secrecy of a few corporate boards,” the Dane said during a speech to AlgorithmWatch. (30/10, Le Figaro)

* Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram have all been implicated in the attack on Samuel Paty. Social networks are being criticized now more than ever. Faced with such surges of hate speech, many users are choosing to leave them, making liberal use of posts and tweets to publicise their departures. (30/10, Le Monde)

* Advertising on social networks is kicking up speed. According to figures from Socialbakers, the third quarter of 2020 has seen social media advertising regain its growth from before the pandemic. Expenses are up 56.4%. (30/10, ZDNet)

* Facebook desires to make WhatsApp a must-have tool for shopping. However, the social network is not very talkative about how it intends to proceed or when these improvements will be carried out within the app. (23/10, 01Net)

* Has Instagram failed to protect underage users’ personal data? Either way, the Facebook subsidiary is being targeted by a European investigation. The Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) indeed opened two separate procedures last month after receiving several complaints. According to the latter, telephone numbers and e-mail addresses of users under 18 years of age were accessible to all network users. (19/10, Les Echos)

 * Digital sovereignty is a very present theme during the 2020 edition of Monaco’s Security Foundation. By accelerating the digital transformation of our societies like never before, the Covid-19 crisis has shed even more light on the dominant arc of the online cloud and other American internet tools in the West. More than 70% of European data is now being stored in non-European clouds. (15/10, Le Figaro)

* The big game digital hunt is on in Brussels. Within the framework of the Digital Services Act (DSA), an immense legislative package expected at the end of the year, the European Commission has decided to seriously raise its voice against “gatekeepers,” the systemic platforms which are able to impose their views on a whole ecosystem because of the dominant place they take up within. As reported by the “Financial Times,” a host of companies would be subjected in consequence to a regulatory regime much stricter than others. In short, it is a means to force GAFA into modifying their practices and give way to competition. (12/10, Les Echos)

* The French private data authority (CNIL) wants to stop hosting Microsoft’s health data research platform, due to the recent cancellation of an agreement between the European Union and the United States, according to a document known to the AFP on Friday. (09/10, Le Figaro)

 * Facebook has been announcing it for months; ultimately, the Californian company’s three instant messaging services (Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp) should be interoperable. On September 30, the company announced its first big move towards this goal: Instagram integrating Messenger’s functionalities, and the two applications can now communicate with each other. (30/09, 01Net)

* On Monday September 21st, the State Council rejected the summary appeal filed five days earlier by a collective against the “Health Data Hub,” worrying that French health data would be exploited by the American company Microsoft. (22/09, Le Monde)

* TikTok, the popular Chinese application, which has been threatened to be banned in the United States by reason of national security, will be able to continue to be downloaded in the country; since Donald Trump gave the green light on Saturday, September 19th to a project involving Oracle and Walmart. (20/09, Le Figaro)

* Political manipulations are either being ignored or dealt with after months of delay. On Monday September 14th, Buzzfeed revealed some bombshell content consisting of a memorandum posted on Facebook’s internal chat rooms. Written by Sophie Zhang, who worked for Facebook as a data scientist responsible for combating “inauthentic” behaviour before her dismissal at the end of August, the text gives several examples of abnormal situations that were not sufficiently addressed by the social network, according to Ms. Zhang. (15/09, Le Monde)

* A new Spanish bill calls for considering instant messaging applications such as WhatsApp or Telegram like telephone operators. This new law, which should be passed through Parliament by summer 2021, is a response to requests from telecom operators who are demanding equal tax treatment among the new players in their sector. (14/09, Les Echos)

* A legal action that could cause the American big tech giants to tremble at the knees. According to the Wall Street Journal, the Irish Data Protection Authority has demanded that Facebook stop transferring EU user data to the United States. (10/09, Les Echos)

* India is accusing Facebook of jeopardizing its democracy. The American company is being criticized by the Indian left and right for manipulating public opinion towards political ends. A Facebook representative had to come and defend the company before deputies in New Delhi on September 2nd. (09/09, Le Monde)

* Being the target of new taxes, the digital giants have chosen to pass the burden on to their partners. Apple, Google, and Amazon have in recent days announced price increases for some of their services in several countries, including France. While the debate on digital taxation rages on and States vote in favour of levies to compensate for the minute local taxation of these multinationals, they are not hesitating to fight back. (04/09, Le Monde)

* Zoom touts record results and has soared on the stock market. The American company specializing in videoconferencing saw its share jump by 40% on Wall Street. (01/09, Le Figaro)

* Instead of opting to pay for the press articles that it circulates on its platforms, as the Australian government has demanded, Facebook has on the contrary decided on Tuesday that it was ready to prevent the publication of any content emitted by the Australian media on Facebook and Instagram. (01/09, Les Echos)

* Apple definitely annoys Facebook. And the disputes between the two American behemoths have been increasing. The latest, Facebook explained on Thursday in a blog post, is being forced by Apple to radically change the way it identifies iPhone users, a measure that will reduce its ability to provide them with personalised advertising. Basically, during the transition to iOS 14 (the next version of Apple’s mobile operating system that could be made available to the billion iPhone users from mid-September), Facebook will stop registering via its applications (Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp) a unique advertising identifier (IDFA) assigned by Apple to each of its devices. (27/08, Les Echos)

* The coronavirus pandemic and ensuing lockdown appear to have given Facebook a lot of ideas. The American company has indeed integrated some new features designed to facilitate online shopping across its various social networks. Last May, Facebook had already put tools in place to help sellers using the platform. Businesses could create Facebook pages to highlight their products, making purchases easier. In July, it was Instagram’s turn to feature a new tool dedicated to buying, a Shopping tab. (27/08, 20 Minutes)

* Facebook is failing to curb the rise in false health information on its platform, a survey conducted by the NGO Avaaz concluded and published this Wednesday. According to the organization, networks in five countries – the US, the UK, France, Germany, and Italy – recorded nearly 3.8 billion views of health misinformation on Facebook between May 2019 and May 2020. These “Fakes News” posts achieved peak viewership of 460 million in April. (21/08, Les Echos)

* According to the American site Motherboard, American secret services have got their hands on geolocation data from smartphones. They would have had to spend a large amount of money to obtain this information gathered by a data broker for popular applications. (21/08, 20 Minutes)

* Those who wish to use an Oculus device will soon be required to have a Facebook account in order to log into their VR profile. Starting in October, the Facebook-owned company will require its users to log in through the social network and merge any existing Oculus account with a Facebook one. Furthermore, all un–merged Oculus accounts will be closed after January 2023. (19/08, ZDNet)

* Noyb, the association for privacy protection whose legal actions this summer resulted in the cancellation of the agreement regarding the transfer of personal data between the European Union and the United States as announced on Monday August 17th, have filed 101 appeals in all EU countries against sites that continue to transfer data to the United States. (18/08, Le Monde)

 * Facebook is said to be on the verge of merging its messaging with that of Instagram. Over the weekend, some Instagram users actually saw a warning window telling them that they would soon be able to chat with their Facebook friends on Instagram. It remains to be seen whether or not Facebook will force Instagram users who are not on Facebook to sign up in order to continue using instant messaging. (17/08, 01Net)

* A new branch called “Facebook Financial” will be responsible for the strategy and management of all financial or payment services. Facebook distanced itself in the spring from the Libra digital currency project it had launched, but the social media giant is not giving up on its ambitions in payment services, which are essential to its primary customers, advertisers. (11/08, Le Figaro)

* Tiktok has garnered a lot of attention from policy makers, and data protection authorities are no exception. The CNIL has just corroborated information from Bloomberg indicating that an investigation is underway on the application following a complaint filed by a user in May. (11/08, ZDNet)

 * The American Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has launched an investigation against the social network Twitter for exploiting its users’ phone numbers for advertising purposes. Twitter faces a fine of $150 million to $250 million. (04/08, Les Echos)

* Google is investing a little more in connected households. ADT, a Florida company specializing in alarm systems will integrate Nest products, a subsidiary of Alphabet, into its packages. Google claims 6% of ADT a sum of $450 million. (03/08, Les Echos)

* Facebook is coping extraordinarily well in spite of a boycott among several major advertisers amid a slump in global growth. Targeted advertising, perfected by the company‘s various social networks, even allowed it to double its profits in the second quarter. (31/07, Le Figaro)

* When Facebook bought out Instagram in April 2012, was its intent to neutralise a competitor who threatened to overtake it? This is precisely what the US congressional justice commission suspects. On Thursday, they interrogated the bosses of Facebook, Alphabet, Apple, and Amazon for nearly five hours on their possible anti-competitive practices. During the process, the House of Representatives made several of Facebook’s internal documents public, which it obtained during its one year investigation. Several exchanges, by e-mail or chat, shed light on the terms of the aforementioned takeover that helped make Facebook one of the social networking giants. (30/07, Le Figaro)

* July was not a good month for Twitter. Two weeks after being the target of a large-scale hack, where hackers were able to impersonate public figures (Bill Gates, Barack Obama, Elon Musk, etc.) in order to spread a cryptocurrency scam, the social network was accused of not ensuring the privacy of its users internally. The American media outlet Bloomberg stated in a new report that Twitter employees would make a habit of spying on celebrity accounts thanks to tools made available to them for providing support to the platform’ users. (29/07, 20 Minutes)

* Facebook is concerned about the privacy of its employees. The American social network has filed a complaint with the European Union’s Court of Justice because it feels that the Commission is posing questions that are too broad, and therefore too intrusive, the company explained Monday evening. (28/07, Le Figaro)

* Could our use of smartphones say more about our personality than we think? This is the conclusion of a recent Princeton University study, according to which data collected on our smartphones could be used to predict four of the five major personality traits taken into account by the Big Five psychology model. (28/07, ZDNet)

* Slack is going after Microsoft in Brussels for anti-competitive practices. The collaborative professional messaging service is accusing the Redmond giant of taking advantage of its dominant position in the professional sector to impose its rival service Teams by combining it with its Office 365 suite. (22/07, Les Echos)

* Adored by teens and young adults, social network TikTok is back in the limelight after the latest accusations over the data it collects through its mobile apps. Already sentenced in the United States by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the US regulator of commerce, to a fine of 5.7 million dollars (4.98 million euros) in 2019 for its poor data management of users under the age of 13, it has also been placed under European radar in June. (21/07, Le Monde)

* The European Commission is concerned about the possible monopolisation of the voice-assistant sector by GAFA. Alexa, Google Assistant, and Siri are suspected by the institution of threatening the free market. This is why an investigation “into anti-competitive practices in the online consumer goods and services sector in the European Union” has been launched, relays PhonAndroid. (17/07, 20 Minutes)

* On Thursday July 16, the European Union Justice Court (CJEU) annulled the Privacy Shield agreement which provides a mechanism for tech companies to legally transfer the personal data of EU citizens into the United States. These measures are used by nearly every large American company to process their European users’ personal data (identity, online activity, geolocation, etc.). (16/07, Le Monde)

* In India, the Personal Data Law is a total steal for the GAFA web giants. Heedless personal data legislation allows companies and public authorities to both collect and process this information as they see fit. (15/07, Le Figaro)

* Google was fined a record 600,000 euros by the data protection authority (APD), the Belgian equivalent of the CNIL, for its violation of European laws on a person’s “right to be forgotten” online. (15/07, ZDNet)

* Clearview AI, a company specializing in facial recognition, is the subject of a joint investigation by the British and Australian data protection authorities into its practices on the matter, the two organizations announced on Thursday 9 July. (10/07, Le Monde)

* An irrevocable audit comes at the worst time for Facebook. In the midst of an advertiser boycott, under demands to increase its fight against racism, the company just released the results of a long investigation on Wednesday. This independent audit has concluded that the social network indeed serves as a “megaphone” for extremism, and that Facebook’s lax decisions on moderating hateful content constitute “a significant setback for civil rights.” (08/07, 20 Minutes)

* Social media giant Facebook revealed a new incident concerning user privacy on Wednesday. The company said it continues to share user data with about 5,000 developers, even after access to their application has expired. (02/07, ZDNet)

* The NGO Privacy International continues its campaign against websites that it considers untrustworthy with visitors’ sensitive personal data. It has therefore filed a complaint against the Doctissimo site on Friday June 26 with the French National Commission for IT and Freedoms (CNIL), accusing the website of several breaches against European general data protection laws (RGPD). (01/07, Le Monde)

* The Chromium-based Edge browser has caused some users to get justifiably angry. Members of the Reddit community noticed that, after the automatic installation of Edge, the program would recover personal and browsing data from Firefox or Chrome if they were also installed on the system, without asking for consent. (30/06, 01Net)

* It is rare for a company to notify journalists less than twenty minutes before its CEO delivers a public address. It was in this manner that Mark Zuckerberg’s announcements came on Friday June 26, at 8 p.m. live on his Facebook page, exposing the urgency of their situation as well as the social network’s nervousness. The company’s founder was trying to counter the rise in boycotting on the part of major advertisers like Unilever or Verizon. These multinationals have ‘halted’ their advertising spending on Facebook at least until the end of July, believing that the platform is not doing enough to fight back against hate speech as the Black Lives Matter movement is in full swing. (29/06, Le Monde)

* Is the old order of market competition laws getting overwhelmed by the digital economy? This is what MEPs Daniel Fasquelle (LR) and Valéria Faure-Muntian (LREM), co-rapporteurs of an information mission on the major digital platforms, are suggesting in any case. This is not for lack of trying, however, since the Competition Authority itself announced at the beginning of the year, to strengthen its expertise in the digital economy. Troubled by the successive takeovers made by GAFAM, including Google and Facebook, on emerging companies, the co-rapporteurs of the mission think that the time has come to place stricter regulations on these competitor buyouts. (29/06, ZDNet)

* Twitch is being boycotted to denounce the lack of anti-harassment measures. For several years, the video–game streaming service has been accused of not reacting sufficiently to harassment incidents taking place on its platform. (24/06, Le Monde)

* On Tuesday the German Federal Court, the highest court in the country, ordered the global social media giant Facebook to stop collecting data automatically and without specified consent from users of its applications like Whatsapp or Instagram. It is the end of a long legal battle and a scathing defeat for Mark Zuckerberg’s company. (23/06, Les Echos)

* The law against online hatred introduced by the La République en Marche (LRM) deputy from Paris, Laetitia Avia, has been widely criticized by the Constitutional Council. Social media mandates to remove illegal content within 24 hours have not been deemed compatible with freedom of speech. (18/06, Le Monde)

* Coronavirus: too “intrusive,” the tracking application has been suspended in Norway. According to the Norwegian data protection authority, the risks of privacy invasion that the application poses are too great compared to its proposed benefits. (16/06, Le Figaro)

* Facebook’s instant messaging service Whatsapp will make it possible for Brazilian users to send and receive money via its application “as easily as sending a message.” Brazil is the second most prominent market for Whatsapp, after India. These payments will be processed by Facebook Pay, the payment system launched by the Silicon Valley giant last November. (16/06, Les Echos)

* Apple took the position that user IP addresses, professions, advertising identifiers, zip codes, and/or even geolocations were not actually “personal” data. After four years of proceedings initiated by the association UFC-Que Choisir, Apple has been found guilty in France for unfair terms and conditions in iTunes, Apple’s music download platform. The company has been fined €30,000 in damages to the collective interest of consumers as well as legal costs. (16/06, ZDNet)

* Facebook refuses to disclose its advertising revenues with the press. The American giant justifies its refusal by the fact that information “does not generate long-term value” for its businesses. The entire world, and France in particular, have been watching the Australian showdown between the press and these two internet giants. (15/06, Les Echos)

* Did this buyout go too far? The British competition authority decided on Friday evening to suspend Facebook’s acquisition of Giphy gif bank. “The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is looking into whether this act will result in a significant reduction of competition in one or more markets in the United Kingdom,” the authority said in a statement. (15/06, Le Figaro)

* According to a study by Signs, GAFAM collects tons of data on each user, allowing them to get ever richer. The goal of the study was to find out everything Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple, and Microsoft know about their users. One word: data. Each company has tons of user data such as: names, phone numbers, email addresses, etc. (08/06, ZDNet)

* A video-conference organised by LinkedIn on the subject of racial inequality totally derailed on Wednesday, according to the American site The Verge. During the meeting, some of the group’s employees used the anonymous comment function of the video chat to make “appalling” comments in the chat window. (06/06, 20 Minutes)

* An investigation has been opened concerning a Facebook group reserved for the police, on which many hateful, racist, sexist, or homophobic comments have been exchanged. The judges can also demand to know the identity of the guilty commentators as well as the 8000 potential members of the group. The American giant has yet to agree to cooperate. (05/06, Le Figaro)

* Time spent on the Internet and social media has exploded during quarantine. According to Médiamétrie data published on Thursday, the French spent an average of three hours a day on the web in April. This is 46% more than in April 2019. The American web giants, gathered under the acronym GAFAM (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, and Microsoft), took the opportunity to establish their domination: Google, with 39 million daily visitors, Facebook (31 million) and YouTube, which belongs to Google (22), are on the winners’ podium for the most visited sites every day. Immediately after them are other social networks and instant messaging apps with WhatsApp, owned by Facebook at 16 million, Snapchat (15), and Instagram, another property of Facebook at 13 million unique daily visitors. (04/06, Les Echos)

* The video-conference app Zoom has broken all its previous records and is worth nearly $60 billion on the stock market. The company just achieved the best quarter in its history, with a turnover of over $328 million and a net profit of $27 million. Despite its many controversies related to the lack of security on its service, Zoom continues to dominate on Wall Street. (03/06, Les Echos)

* A class action lawsuit was brought against Google on Tuesday. The technology giant is being accused of invading the privacy of millions of users without their knowledge through monitoring their activity on the Internet, even when private browsing is activated. The complaint, filed with the Northern California District Court, claims that Google is tracking user browsing data and other identifying information through Google Analytics, Google Ad Manager, and various other plug-ins, applications, and websites, such as Google applications on mobile devices or the Google connection button for websites, regardless of the navigation mode chosen. (03/06, ZDNet)

* The Microsoft takeover of health data in France worries Edward Snowden. He is not hiding his outrage in learning the alliance between the future French health platform (called “Health Data Hub”) and Microsoft, which has become the first player in the public Cloud to receive certification as a health data host. The Cnil therefore recommends that the health data platform insures hosting and data processing on EU territory. (20/05, ZDNet)

* Facebook Shops is the next official goal put forward by Facebook, to launch its new service in the United States. Above all this will allow it to become established on the e-commerce market. It is a free tool to easily create an online store and present a selection of products from your Facebook or Instagram account. Customer service is provided via Messenger, WhatsApp, or Instagram Direct. (20/05, 01Net)

* The American investigation into Google is making progress. According to several media reports, the Department of Justice is preparing a formal complaint, which could be filed this summer. The giant is suspected of having violated antitrust laws, in particular by promoting its own services to the detriment of competitors on its search engine. (17/05, Les Echos)

* The GIF king now has a new owner. Giphy, the main publisher and supplier of these animated images that decorate exchanges on many applications, was bought by Facebook. The two companies sealed the deal this Friday for a total amount of $400 million, according to the American site Axios. Nothing should change at first for the hundreds of millions of users who use the animated images on the platform every day. But in the long run? Giphy’s huge catalog will flood not only Facebook’s different apps (Instagram, Messenger, Whatsapp), but also Twitter, Pinterest, Slack, and/or Reddit who have seen their collection of GIFs pass under their competitor’s umbrella at the same time. (15/05, Les Echos)

* After being accused of spying for China, the TikTok application is now accused of being lax when it comes to supervising its young users. The social network is coming under fire once again from critics across the Atlantic. A group of privacy organizations is going to file a complaint with the US authorities this Thursday, alleging that the application, which is very popular among young people, violates the privacy of online youth. (14/05, ZDNet)

* Four anti-discrimination associations sued Twitter on Monday before the Paris court, ruling that the social network was failing in an “old and persistent” way its obligations in terms of content moderation, according to a document sent Tuesday to AFP. “Faced with a 43% increase in hate content on Twitter during the quarantine period, the UEJF, SOS racism and SOS homophobia are acting in urgent proceedings against Twitter for non-compliance with its legal moderation obligations,” they explained in a statement. According to a study they conducted from March 17 to May 5, “the number of racist content increased by 40.5% (over that period), anti-Semitic content by 20%, and LGBT-phobic content by 48%.” (12/05, Le Figaro)

* IOS 13.5 continues to refine its medical functions. The beta version of the operating system gives users the option to share their medical file automatically in the event of an emergency call. This means the information it contains will be transmitted to 911, the American emergency service. This option has not yet been confirmed for Europe. Sometimes overlooked, the medical record is accessible from the locked screen of any iPhone. IOS 13.5 will also offer the famous “contact tracing” system designed in collaboration with Google, but which will not be used in France by the StopCovid application. (07/05, 01Net)

* Similar to what Google did on Tuesday evening, Facebook has announced that the decline in advertising observed in March has ceased in April, reassuring its shareholders. But more than the financial performance of the social media giant from January to March, what Wall Street has been impatiently waiting for is the trend since mid-March, which marked the start of quarantining for most of its applications’ users. (30/04, Le Figaro)

* The US Federal Trade Commission (or FTC) accused Facebook of having misled its users about their ability to control personal information. It will therefore have to pay a fine. The record fine of five billion dollars imposed last summer by the American FTC on the company for failing to protect the personal data of its users was validated by a judge on Thursday. The commission’s decision was described on Friday as “historic” by president Joe Simons. The FTC had opened an investigation following the scandal of data leaks in March 2018 to the British firm Cambridge Analytica, which had worked for President Trump’s campaign in 2016 and hijacked the personal data of tens of millions of users worldwide. (25/04, 20 Minutes)

* Cyber security company CyberNews has found around 100 malicious apps on the Play Store. These applications, developed by a single network and downloaded more than 69 million times, hide their game well. Behind the facade of attractiveness, utility, and entertainment, these apps are actually parasites that leech the personal data of their users.  This includes photos, videos, and locations in order to resell them to advertisers and/or data brokers. They could also install malware without users’ knowledge. (24/04, 20 Minutes)

* With the mandatory quarantine, Snapchat saw its daily use skyrocket during the first quarter. As a result, social network infrastructure costs have also exploded. Its leaders have expressed optimism for the continued growth of its revenues. According to its CEO, the Snap user base is especially attractive to advertisers because “our audience is particularly well placed to help businesses recover” from the current crisis. (23/04, ZDNet)

* Amazon employees, the world leader in online shopping, are accessing product sales data belonging to its third-party sellers on its platform, only to launch similar competing products under Amazon brands. Since Amazon has insider information about competing products, it was able to posit competitive pricing as well. The practice exposed by the American daily Wall Street Journal on Thursday, April 23, contradicts official statements always held by Jeff Bezos’ company. The case clears up some suspicions from market competition authorities. (23/04, Le Monde)

* Facebook is investing $7.5 billion (€6.9 billion) to take a 10% share of Jio Platforms Limited, a subsidiary of the Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries Limited. In this nation of 1.3 billion people, Facebook is trying to further entrench its social network and its WhatsApp subsidiary. The acquisition of Jio capital is at the confluence of two strategic ambitions. First is the desire for business growth, this being an additional layer to enhance its social networks. But beyond business collaboration, a partnership with Reliance Industries means an additional, and more political interest for Facebook. In 2018, the government instructed WhatsApp to further combat the spread of rumours and false information, following hate messages that led to lynchings. In particular, this pushed the platform to limit the number of recipients in a message transfer. Most recently, the government passed a law banning cryptocurrencies, which blocked the way for Facebook’s digital currency project, Libra. (22/04, Le Monde)

* Australia has just taken the lead among countries which are trying to regulate the reach of Internet giants, and more specifically to reduce the imbalance between them and the press companies. Josh Frydenberg, the Minister of Finance, announced that the government plans to charge Facebook and Google for press articles they post on their platforms, from which they milk a substantial income. (20/04, Les Echos)

* According to Tech Crunch, Google is seeking to form partnerships with various banking establishments to launch a new payment card. Unlike Apple Card, which is a credit card, this one would function like a debit card. It would work in conjunction with the Google Pay app and could be linked to a bank account for making payments. The card will likely rely on the Visa network, but it is not yet known when it will be available or in which countries. (20/04, 01Net)

* In the United States this Monday, in an effort to better monitor the spread of the pandemic, researchers unveiled a coronavirus map based on data collected on Facebook and Google. The map is being extended to cover other countries with the help of researchers from the University of Maryland. Thanks to its community of billions of people around the world, Facebook is in a unique position. Carnegie Mellon’s researchers also rely on anonymised data from Google and other partners, as well as internet user research on experienced symptoms. This will allow them to “monitor developments over time” and therefore “anticipate Covid-19 activity several weeks in advance,” said the university statement. (20/04, 20 Minutes)

* Accounts dubbed “ficha” (which is the French word for poster “affiche” written in Verlan – a kind of French slang that inverses words) have been spreading intimate photos and videos of young girls, often minors, without their consent since the beginning of quarantine. “Close to 50 reports have already been sent to Snapchat,” Secretary of State Marlène Schiappa said in 20 minutes. Since the beginning of quarantine due to the coronavirus epidemic, this new form of porn revenge and slut shaming has swept over Snapchat and Telegram encrypted messaging. (09/04, 20 Minutes)

* Facebook is launching Tuned, a private social network for couples in the United States. Launched during the quarantine period, this new application is supposed to become a “private space” for couples on the Internet. It will be free and it does not seem necessary to have a Facebook account to be able to benefit from it, according to The Information site, cited by Phonandroid. However, users will have to accept Facebook’s data collection policy. At the moment, the application is still in the testing phase and is therefore only available in the United States on iOS. (09/04, 20 Minutes)

* Almost 60% of false information surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, having been denounced as fake news, continues to circulate on social networks. A study from the University of Oxford provides valuable insights into this issue. During the study, researchers looked at a sample of 225 fake news publications, labeled as such by journalists and other news checkers, (“fact-checkers”). The results shed new light on the real effectiveness of social media strategies developed to combat fake news. Twitter has scored the worst outcomes. At least 59% of “fake news” continues to circulate on the social network without being signalled to users. It’s much worse than YouTube (where 27% continues to circulate without being labeled), and Facebook (24%). Whatsapp is not out of the loop either. “It is astonishing that so much information which has been demonstrated to be false, continues to circulate online without being labeled as such,” said one of the study’s authors, Philip N. Howard, director of the Internet Institute at Oxford. (08/04, Le Figaro)

* Zoom, the rising star of apps has been plunged into turmoil. Taiwan, Canada, Australia, Space X, NASA, and a number of American states have announced that they will ban the use of Zoom’s videoconferencing service. Schools have also been asked to find an alternative way to provide distance learning. The issue at hand are the growing fears concerning the confidentiality and security of the application. (07/04, Les Echos)

* Since April 3rd, Google has made certain geolocation data available, so as to help monitor the Coronavirus pandemic. The Internet giant distributes its information sparingly. Visitation of shops and places of entertainment (eg, cinemas, museums, theatres) fell by 88% when quarantine was implemented, that of parks fell by 82%, and by 87% for public transportation. Food stores and pharmacies peaked in mid-March following announcements of the first quarantine measures, before recording a 72% drop in visits. On the other hand, workplaces (registered as such by Google users) saw their attendance drop by only 56%. Only places of residence show an increase of 18%. Corsica and Ile de France (that is Paris and its surrounding suburbs) are the two regions in which the rate of residential place visitation increased the most over the period, increasing by 21% and 20% respectively, compared to the 18% national average. On a European scale, the differences are greater. The Italians are more confined than the Germans for example. (06/04, Le Figaro)

* Google is going to publish certain geolocation data at its disposal. The company claimed it wanted to “help public health officials fight COVID-19.”  The reports published by the company will make it possible to assess changes in travel habits, by country or region.  This information, available since 8 AM Friday morning, should provide invaluable information on population movements, and especially, on the visitation of various place categories.  These reports will be published in 131 countries to start with. The detailed information collected by Google is fine-tuned enough to be able to find out whether park visitation has decreased, or whether pharmacy and food store visitation has increased during a given period.  An issue to keep in mind:  this is a good way to become aware of the significance of data collected by these companies, which now have a depth of information on the population sometimes even more than that of a state.  It is also an opportunity for everyone to question the nature of the information they agree to share in order to benefit from this or that service. (03/04, Le Figaro)

* Even in an ultra-connected society, the creation of an app to track the evolution of the coronavirus pandemic is making people cringe.  Thirty seven million French people share a big portion of their lives on Facebook, others have given their credit card number to Amazon, and Parisians love to be geolocated by Waze to avoid Friday night traffic jams.  According to Thierry Breton, European Commissioner for the Internal Market, a “tracking” application “shall not be implemented, it is not in our culture”. (02/04, Le Figaro)

* The State Council aligned with Google against the CNIL on Friday in a decision that essentially means the ‘right to be forgotten’ (i.e. the right to have all one’s personal data permanently removed online) does not extend beyond European borders.  The American giant was able to cancel a ruling by the French protector of private life, which had condemned it in 2016 to a fine of 100,000 euros for having limited the ‘right to be forgotten’ only to European versions of its search engine. (27/03, Les Echos)

* The sudden move to work from home has pushed hundreds of thousands of employees to find solutions for communicating with their colleagues as well as their managers.  Many have turned to video solutions like Zoom, a video meeting application, which has seen its use soar in recent weeks.  The iOS video calling app uses a Facebook API and sends usage statistics to Facebook, even if the user does not have an account on the social network. (27/03, 01Net)

* Houseparty, whose creator also developed the famous live video application Meerkat, is now one of the top favorite apps among French people during mandatory lockdown measures as  a tool to keep in touch with friends.  The application, with over 20 million users, is being criticised for its privacy policy.  Suzanne Vergnolle, PHD law student at the University of Paris-II-Panthéon-Assas warned on BFMTV however, that the service is “free to help itself to the content of all past communications via its services, including any idea, invention, concept, or technical project […] this means that personal conversations, or start-up ideas, should be avoided.” (26/03, Les Echos)

* In this current economic crisis, the majority of companies are cutting their advertising budgets.  Time spent on Facebook and Google is exploding, but the two advertising giants cannot monetise this additional use. The online search giant suffers in particular from the tourism sector crash, which makes up 10 to 15% of its advertising revenue. (25/03, Les Echos)

* Google’s legal battles are multiplying, being recently summoned to justify the legality of its practices concerning user privacy.  The company Brave, which publishes a browser competing with Chrome, filed a complaint this Monday with the Irish CNIL.  It is accusing Google of defying European laws with regards to its internal use of users’ personal data (GDPR). (16/03, Les Echos)

* Mozilla has just released version 74 of its Firefox browser. This new version brings a series of new features, starting with extension management installed by third-party applications. Firefox 74 also includes the Facebook Container function, which Mozilla had previously offered as an extension. This integrated novelty acts as a barrier between Facebook’s site and other websites, so that the social network cannot track internet users wherever they go. (11/03, 01Net)

* VPNs and ad–blocking apps offered by Sensor Tower were reportedly used to collect user data. The programs in question have been downloaded more than 35 million times on Android and iOS, BuzzFeed News revealed on Monday. The spying took place without the victims’ knowledge: the apps never specify their link with Sensor Tower, nor the fact that they communicate data to the specialist in digital analysis. This is carried out using root certificates that the software requires users to install. The tool allows the developer to access everything that goes on in the smartphones of the people concerned. (11/03, 20 Minutes)

* One of the world’s champions in targeted advertising, the French company Criteo is the subject of an investigation by the CNIL. The authority followed up on a complaint filed against Criteo by the British NGO Privacy International in 2018. The organisation had decided to prosecute seven companies practicing online advertising, accusing them of violating internet users’ privacy as well as the GDPR. The CNIL followed the footsteps of two other European data protection authorities: the Irish are currently looking into the case of Quantcast, and the British have their eyes on data brokers and specialists in customer risk assessment (credit rating agencies) including Acxiom, Experian, and Equifax. (10/03, 01Net)

* The Australian data protection authority went after Facebook on Monday for failing to meet its privacy obligations during the Cambridge Analytica scandal, the company that exploited millions of network users’ personal data to benefit Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, and the Brexit campaign. “We believe that the way Facebook is designed has intentionally prevented its users from freely choosing how their personal information is shared,” OAI commissioner Angelene Falk said in a statement. (09/03, Le Figaro)

* Private conversations on WhatsApp may not really be so private. Several media outlets have recently revealed a huge scandal concerning the privacy of hundreds of thousands of Facebook-owned email users.  Search engines, including Google or Bing, would reference the information of certain conversations exchanged on encrypted messaging.  To share access to a Whatsapp newsgroup, users can generate a link to send to people they want to join this group.  And it is this particular link that would end up getting indexed on search engines without users being aware of it, details the American site Vice.  A simple search on the address “chat.whatsapp.com” provides information on a particular discussion.  Hundreds of thousands of conversations, and thousands of telephone numbers, including those of public figures, are thus accessible in a few clicks on the Web. (23/02, 20 Minutes)

* Google and Fitbit have found themselves under European CNIL scrutiny.  The European data protection committee is alarmed by the $2.1 billion buyout of Fitbit connected watches by Google.  Many users did not imagine that their health data recorded by these devices would one day fall into the hands of an advertising group like Google. (20/02, Les Echos)

* Facebook has been investing in a new technology that can geolocate you without GPS.  It recently acquired 75% of the shares of Scape Technologies, a British start-up specializing in location systems using computer vision instead of GPS.  The transaction must have cost nearly $40 million (about 36.5 million euros), reports TechCrunch.  Questions, assumptions, and doubts multiply as to the purpose the social network has for this investment. (12/02, 20 Minutes)

 * Instagram is betting on e-commerce.  The app bought by Facebook in 2012 has been multiplying ways to get its users to make purchases. A favorite playground for influencers, Instagram has become a strategic communication tool for brands.  The photo-based application wants to convert this asset into hard-hitting sales.  Instagram is stepping up initiatives to encourage its users to buy products from brands that are members of its network.  (09/02, Le Figaro)

* Twitter crossed the billion dollar mark of quarterly revenues and is seducing Wall Street.  The micro-blogging site saw the number of its daily active users, said to be “monetizable”, increase by 21% over a year, to 152 million people.  This means that these users can be exposed to advertising on the platform.  On the stock market, the action will begin this Thursday.  (06/02, Les Echos)

* Instagram has become Facebook’s goose that lays golden eggs.  Instagram generated $20 billion in advertising revenue in 2019, according to Bloomberg.  Well above the $15.1 billion YouTube announced by Google.  This would represent a quarter of Facebook group’s total revenues.  Bought for $715 million in 2012, this photo sharing application has become very profitable.  Today it is displaying more and more advertisements. (05/02, 01Net)

* Facebook published an annual profit of 70.7 billion dollars on Wednesday, up 27% from last year. It always manages to milk even more profit from users across its various platforms. Debra Aho Williamson, analyst for eMarketer, found that Facebook has cornered 21.1% of the global digital advertising market, behind Google (32%), but far ahead of its other competitors – Chinese Alibaba leads third with 9% of the market, and Amazon follows with 3.8%. (30/01, Les Echos)

* Avast, the free antivirus software, resells its users behavioral data to large companies. Google, Microsoft, and others are paying for it. Avast counters that the data is all anonymized. In a joint survey, Vice and PC Mag explain the details of this collection. (28/01, 01Net)

 * There is a start-up that analyzes photos on social networks for the American police. The New York Times published an investigation into this company funded by Peter Thiel (Palantir, Facebook), which supplies its software to the United States police. Founded by Hoan Ton-That, 31, the company has used its software to discreetly copy billions of images published on the most common social platforms in the Western world: Facebook or LinkedIn profiles, Instagram photos or Twitter… It was thus able to constitute a gigantic database, in which a search engine by facial recognition then makes it possible to identify suspects or witnesses. This degree of efficiency on display greatly worries the defenders of individual freedoms. The company says its system finds a match in 75% of cases, but does not give the rate of “false positives” – the number of people identified in error. (20/01, Le Monde)

* There are two things that make the American tech giants drool the most: finance and healthcare. Two gigantic reservoirs of growth protected from their appetites by sectoral regulations, until now. The GAFA (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon) profiteering onslaught has increased significantly in recent months. “They milked the media cow dry, and now they are out to find another trillion dollars of combined market capitalisation elsewhere,” Scott Galloway, star professor at New York University said at the end of last year in the podcast, ‘Pivot.’  And since there are not so many gigantic countries with oil reserves that you can invade, healthcare is the next big target with 16% GDP! ” (19/01, Les Echos)

* Facebook wants ads incorporated into WhatsApp Statuses. WhatsApp, Messenger, and Instagram conversations will soon be encrypted around a common messaging system, and this project certainly prevents Facebook from achieving its goal. The WSJ explains, however, that in the mean time Facebook intends to interject advertisements between WhatsApp Status publications, equivalent to Instagram Stories. (17/01, 01Net)

* The CNIL specified to “Les Echos” its expectations regarding cookies. According to the data authority, it must be as easy for a user to refuse as to accept to be tracked online by brands. The CNIL recognizes that there will be an economic impact, but believes it is time to enforce European law. (14/01, Les Echos)

* Forgotten are the remarkable disciplinary actions from the second half of 2018 and the fears expressed after the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Mark Zuckerberg’s corporate action has returned to its peak: on Monday, it surpassed its historic record, above $221. Since January 2, 2019, it has gained more than 60%. Despite numerous scandals, investigations, and sanctions that have multiplied on both sides of the Atlantic last year, Facebook managed to convince investors that nothing had really hurt the solidity of its model, based on its ability to always attract more users and advertisers. (13/01, Le Figaro)

* Facebook will not censor political ads, even false ones. In a blog post published on Thursday by Facebook product manager Rob Leathern, the web giant confirmed that political advertisements, even false ones, will only be exceptionally censored. Facebook derives most of its revenue and huge profits from its ability to target a given audience with extreme precision. An advantage that has not been overlooked by presidential candidates, who spend large sums of money on the network, starting with President Donald Trump. (09/01, 20 Minutes)

* Google disconnects Xiaomi cameras from its Nest Hubs, they violated your privacy. One user testified on a Reddit forum after being able to view images from third party homes from their own surveillance camera integrated into a Nest Hub. After being contacted by Android Police, Google took no risk and withdrew the permissions necessary for Xiaomi to work with its Assistant. A disconnection which concerns not only the Chinese manufacturer’s cameras, but also all the devices belonging to the Mi Home Xiaomi ecosystem, such as connected light bulbs or even vacuum cleaners. (03/01, 01Net)

* Private data law: California has hit the ground running in the United States. While the US Congress is currently churning out a federal law, California did not wait to adopt its own law: the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), inspired by the European GDPR, offering new rights to consumers and obligations to companies collecting data. The bill entered into law on January 1st. In a place that’s been pumped to the brim with the oil of personal data since the arrival of social media, change is anything but anecdotal. Unlike the GDPR however, which includes all organisations, associations, and/or public administrations, the CCPA is limited to only for-profit companies whose income exceeds $25 million annually or who holds information on at least 50,000 consumers, or generates more than 50% of their turnover through the sale of data, lists the “Wall Street Journal.” This excludes from the perimeter a number of small companies who do not generate income from the ‘data business.’ According to the International Association of Privacy Professionals (an American privacy NGO), 500,000 companies remain concerned in the United States alone. (02/01, Les Echos)

* Brazil fines Facebook for 1.5 million euros. The world’s top social network has been sanctioned for “abusive practices” by the Brazilian authorities, as Cambridge Analytica would have had access to the personal data of 443,000 Brazilian internet users. (02/01, 01Net)

* Facebook’s instant messenger, which could be used before with just a phone number, now requires a Facebook account. In recent months, Facebook has shown several signs suggesting that it could unify access to all of its services. Last summer, the social network confirmed as much when it wished to stick the mention “by Facebook”, on its WhatsApp and Instagram sites. (27/12, 01Net)

* ToTok, the fake TikTok that spies on its users. Hidden behind this popular app is actually a Trojan horse from the United Arab Emirates, reveals the “New York Times”. The application would siphon a lot of data to transmit it to the UAE intelligence services. Now banned from Apple and Google application stores, ToTok was able to reap a nice return in just a few weeks, in the Middle East but also in the United States where it was among the most downloaded social networks. (23/12, Les Echos)

* Google penalised (again) to the tune of 150 million euros for abuse of power. The search engine was fined on Friday, December 20, by the Competition Authority. The amount adds up to less than 1% of its profits, but the sanction is intended to be exemplary. The indictment concerns the rules imposed by the American company on advertisers who use the services of its advertising agency, Google Ads. Google has already been the subject of several sanctions from the European Commission for anti-competitive practices, notably with regards to its advertising management. (21/12, 01Net)

* Facebook is working on creating its own operating system. At the moment, little information is circulating as to the exact use of the OS developed by Facebook. But the virtual reality headset Oculus Quest and the screen connected Portal could be part of the first devices to take advantage of it, both of which currently run a modified version of Android. (20/12, 01Net)

* Facebook tracks the location information of its users, even if they have disabled geolocation. Facebook responded to two US senators who asked for accounts on how the app collects data from its users. Doubting that Internet goers will “like” this information. “Even if you turn off the geolocation option, they continue to track your location to make money [by sending you advertisements],” Josh Hawley commented on Twitter. No control over your personal info. (…) That’s why Congress must act.” The Californian company collects personal data of all kinds on its 2.2 billion daily users on its platforms (Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp, Facebook). This forms the basis of its business model: the commercial exploitation of consumer profiles via ultra-sharp advertising targeting, on a very large scale. In the United States, only California has ratified a law to protect consumer privacy and personal data. (18/12, 20 Minutes)

* American anti-trust wants to avoid further integration between Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger. The FTC is seeking to prevent the growth of Facebook’s power. It says it is ready to take action. According to the Wall Street Journal, Facebook could be subject to a preliminary injunction, led by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which regulates trade and competition in the United States. The reason? The readiness of the social network to strengthen communication between its different services. The FTC fears that such a move would jeopardize Facebook users’ private data. Facebook has already been strongly criticized on the matter after the Cambridge Analytica scandal revelation. The American competition authority would also like to ensure that these applications are compatible with competitors: someone who does not use Facebook must, according to them, be able to access these other services regardless. (13/12, Le Figaro)

* Some companies will track you even if you refuse their cookies. The National Commission for Information Technology and Liberties (CNIL) have their work cut out for them; Cdiscount, AlloCiné, and Vanity Fair websites have all had a complaint filed against them this Tuesday morning by the European Center for the Defense of Digital Rights (NOYB). The organization pinpointed a violation of European data protection law on their part. Founded by Max Schrems from Austria, the organization specializing in privacy protection on the Internet explains how it identified an illegal cookie repository on the pages in question, in violation of European law. “Cdiscount, AlloCiné, and Vanity Fair websites transform a clear cookies refusal into ‘false’ consent”, the organization denounced in a press release. Gaëtan Goldberg, a lawyer specializing in data protection, explains the process: “If someone goes to the settings in the banner and makes an effort to reject the cookies and other tracers, these three sites still mark their consent anyway and transmit authorization to a group of advertising companies.” Among these players, we find in particular the sector giant, Facebook, as well as AppNexus and PubMatic, two American target advertising companies. They are the ones who place cookies illegally for advertising purposes based on flawed consent of users, explains NOYB. And ultimately, they allow internet users’ online activity to be tracked regardless of user opposition. (10/12, Les Echos)

* TikTok is being accused of sending our personal and biometric data to China. A student from Palo Alto (USA), Misty Hong, filed a lawsuit against the application’s publisher in a California court. The application would send private data to China without its users’ knowledge, even if they haven’t opened an account and published anything on the social network. The complaint indicates that ByteDance would have used various tactics to hide this confidential data transfer. Even if the app was closed, TikTok would continue to collect private and biometric data from its users. TikTok knows a lot about its users now: phone contacts, social network accounts, email addresses, IP address, and/or geolocation. Most importantly, the videos show faces close-up often, an ideal place to apply facial recognition technology, to which everyone knows the Chinese government is very partial. (03/12, 01Net)

* The European Commission said on Monday that it has started a “preliminary investigation” into Google and Facebook, to find out how the web giants are collecting personal data from their users and for what purpose, implying that they’ve stayed in the crosshairs despite record fines in recent years. “The Commission has sent questionnaires as part of a preliminary investigation into Google and Facebook’s practices regarding user data use,” a spokesperson for the European executive said in an email to the AFP. “These investigations focus on how data is collected, processed, used, and monetised, including for advertising purposes,” added the spokesperson. (30/11, Le Figaro)

* Faced with the giant’s refusal to negotiate, the French press has gone up against the search engine before Antitrust Authorities. A “deadly choice” between “plague and cholera” is how Jean-Michel Baylet, head of the French newspaper, Dépêche du Midi, and president of the General Information Press Alliance, describes the choice given by Google to press publishers concerning the application of neighbouring laws. Several complaints have just been made with Antitrust Authorities. (21/11, 01Net)

* Facebook and Google are a “threat” to human rights, denounces Amnesty International. In a report on Wednesday the NGO strongly criticised the economic model “based on surveillance” the internet giants hold over the net, calling it a “systemic threat to human rights.” Their free online services have become indispensable to billions of people, but the personal data collected through them is used for targeted advertising, thus threatening freedom of opinion and expression. “Their insidious control over our digital lives undermines the very foundation of privacy and is one of the major human rights challenges of our time,” said Kumi Naidoo, Amnesty’s general secretary in a statement. (21/11, 20 Minutes)

* According to the Wall Street Journal, the US Department of Health wants to ensure that the agreement between Google and the Ascension Health Network complies with the law. A project that will collect and analyze the medical data of tens of millions of patients, ranging from identification (name, date of birth, address, family …) to medical history and lab results, to prescription drugs. And this, according to the project‘s promoters, in order to help doctors better determine treatments and ensure better administrative continuity. Google Health executive David Feinberg insisted that no data was being used for Google’s artificial intelligence research. The sharing of health data however is clearly a very lucrative market in the UK. According to the Financial Times, nearly eight out of ten online health sites in the country share data (including diagnoses made, prescribed drugs, etc …) with many commercial companies such as Google, Amazon, Facebook or even Oracle. All to allow them to better target their ads. (13/11, Les Echos)

* California is suing Facebook and demanding more transparency. After eighteen months of noncompliance, the American State has gone after the social network in court in order to obtain documents regarding personal data processing. The Attorney General took legal action on Wednesday (November 6th) to force Facebook to provide the required documents as part of an investigation into its privacy practices. “In a year and a half, we have made seven requests for documents and answers from Facebook,” Xavier Becerra, the California Attorney General, told a news conference. (08/11, 01Net)

* How Facebook wanted to snuff out its competitors under the cover of privacy protection. More than 7,000 pages of internal documents, published as part of a lawsuit filed by a developer (Six4Three) for Facebook, expose the existence of the “Switcharoo” plan. Or how the platform actually sought to prevent the emergence of potential rivals. In a mail dating from 2013, the applications are sorted “into three categories: competitors, potential competitors, [or] developers who are in step with our business model.” Those who saw the rug pulled out from under them are the ones considered to have been the most serious threats, like Vine, the short video sharing application. Conversely, some partners such as: Netflix, Lyft, or Badoo among others, have privileged access to personal data, as always without the knowledge of consumers, and well after the changes made in 2015, according to a first draft of the internal documents submitted by Six4Three in 2018 to the British Parliament. (07/11, Les Echos)

* Facebook has recognized a new private data leak. Over a hundred applications can collect members’ personal data in Facebook groups, even though this access should have been blocked for over a year following the ‘Cambridge Analytica’ scandal. Eleven of them have even been able to collect this type of information during the last 60 days. This data leak was revealed after an internal security audit. (06/11, 01Net)

* Facebook announced that it has adopted the same policy as Google for posting rich links to news articles. A policy that greatly displeases press professionals. French press editors have denounced “Facebook’s attitude,” which tends to “degrade article posting” rather than “engage in fair negotiations on compensating their dues,” in a statement sent to AFP this 27th of October. (28/10, 01Net)

* Twitter changes advertising strategy. After announcing mixed financial results on October 24, the social network has decided to change how advertisements are displayed in our timelines. In recent weeks, some users have complained that there are many more ads than usual in their feed. Others have raised targeting issues: some ads did not seem to fit their lifestyle at all. According to CNBC, a spokesman for Twitter said the increase in advertising was due to a change in strategy. (25/10, 01Net)

* Facebook’s boss had come to defend his digital currency project Libra, but he ended up battling it out with congressional officials. He quickly realised how much the people have trust issues with him; and the American elected officials did not hesitate to remind him of that fact. Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez called him out by bringing up how Facebook had promised that WhatsApp would remain separated: “Do you understand that we are worried about your liabilities? Have you learned not to lie anymore?” she asked. Freshman New York representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez heatedly grilled Mark Zuckerberg on all of his work at the head of Facebook. In a tense five-minute exchange, Zuckerberg responded several times with “I do not remember” (with regards to the Cambridge Analytica timeline), and struggled to explain the company’s standards on political ads. (24/10, 20 Minutes)

* The antitrust investigation against Facebook is gaining momentum. 45 American states are now investigating whether the social network is guilty of abusing its dominance. It’s also looking into personal data management and Facebook’s business practices, which are already subject to several investigations under authorities in the United States. The coalition that launched this broad investigation in early September now has 47 Attorney Generals, “all worried that Facebook may have jeopardised consumers’ data, reduced the quality of choices available to them, and increased the price of advertising,” said Letitia James, New York State Attorney General, on Tuesday. (22/10, 20 Minutes)

* Google and Facebook hold over 75% of the digital advertising market in France. The stranglehold of the two California giants passed this milestone in 2018, according to calculations from the research firm eMarketer. Facebook and its golden egg Instagram, which garnered $55 billion in advertising revenue in 2018, wield an unmatched expertise in user-targeting, and are the largest sellers of advertising on social networks. (17/10, Les Echos)

* The OECD details the outline of the future Gafa tax. The organization unveiled Wednesday its proposals to address the issue of taxing digital giants. It unveiled its proposals to reform international taxation in order to solve tricky cases of big digital groups that largely escape taxes. The approach is intended to be unified and simple to implement as it concerns the digital activities of all major multinationals. The G20 Finance Ministers will debate it next week in Washington. (09/10, Les Echos)

* Google has suspended a controversial program that would improve its facial recognition software. According to a New York Daily News survey, Google would have selected a team to walk the streets of American cities and offer passersby a facial scan. Participants would receive $5 gift certificates. Scanners were encouraged to specifically target black people, and even homeless people, so that they would not reveal the operation to the media. They also targeted students without telling them they were working for Google. The company suspended the program. (06/10, Le Figaro)

* PayPal announced Friday its decision not to take part in Facebook’s digital currency project, Libra, which is scheduled for launch in mid-2020, but which is facing increasing opposition from many stakeholders and regulators worldwide. They are particularly worried about Facebook’s bad reputation when it comes to privacy and personal data protection. (05/10, La Tribune)

* Criteo filed a complaint against Facebook with the French Market Competition Authority. The French AdTech champion believes that the social network has unfairly excluded them from its platform, just like other companies. Criteo calls for “clear rules” to encourage the US giant not to favor its own services at the expense of third parties. (01/10, Les Echos)

* For some time now, Facebook has been in the crosshairs of the powerful Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which is investigating potential violations of fair competition in the social media sector. According to the Wall Street Journal, Snap has collected a slew of facts and clues about Facebook’s supposedly malicious strategy against it. All this information was presented to the FTC under the name of “Voldemort Project,” referring to the famous evil wizard of the Harry Potter saga. Thus, to detect the economic potential of Snapchat, Facebook would have relied on, among others, Onavo Protect, a VPN application that the company offered on Android and iOS. It was presented as a software for security and personal data protection. But in fact, it allowed Facebook to detect user trends, by collecting the list of applications installed on the device and by analyzing the network data feed. This subterfuge would have made it possible to see how long a user was spending on Snapchat and how many messages they were sending. Apple removed Onavo from its App Store in August 2018. Facebook ended up removing it from Google Play in February 2019. (24/09, 01Net)

* Mark Zuckerberg’s visit to Washington consisted of private meetings with elected officials and an interview at the White House with the 45th President of the United States. Before the US Congress on the same day, Mark Zuckerberg rejected the idea of selling Instagram and WhatsApp, said Josh Hawley, a Republican senator who suggested it to him. “I challenged him to do two things to demonstrate that Facebook is serious about issues of impartiality, privacy, and competition,” Senator Hawley added on Twitter: “1) Sell Whatsapp and Instagram, 2) Submit to an independent, external audit on the issue of censorship. He said no to both,” said the senator, who had already pursued the network with his wrath when he was Attorney General of Missouri. (20/09, 01Net)

* Roger McNamee invested in Facebook in his early days and is a former mentor to Mark Zuckerberg. He’s offering to help concretely dismantle the social network. “The 2006 Facebook was extremely promising. At the time, Facebook was not threatening public health, democracy, privacy, and innovation. There were signs of problems along the way, but I misinterpreted them. The best way to address public health, democracy, and privacy concerns would be to eliminate the exchange of personal data by third parties, especially data relating to financial transactions, health and well-being, location, and Internet activity. No company should be allowed to take advantage of “voodoo dolls” built from personal data. Google’s smart cities projects and Facebook’s cryptocurrency project “Lybra” are terrible escalations of corruption. From this point forward, it is the government backed by user support that must force them to change. (20/09, Le Figaro)

* Facebook might know everything about your menstrual cycle. The information collected by certain menstrual monitoring applications could be communicated to outside companies without consent from the users in question. MIA Fem and Maya are among the platforms that do not respect this very intimate personal data. These applications have notably transmitted ovulation dates, most recent sexual intercourse, and latest periods, reveals a survey from the British NGO Privacy International relayed by Buzzfeed. The transmission of this data is done using Facebook’s Software Development Kit (SDK). This set of tools allows developers to facilitate interactions between their apps and Facebook, including targeting ads. (13/09, 20 Minutes)

* Your Instagram and Facebook photos are not as private as you think. Photos and videos published using these social networks are accessible through public addresses that can be shared with anyone, Buzzfeed has just revealed. (10/09, 01Net)

* There is yet another element in a complex investigation opened in the spring by the Irish Cnil on Google’s noncompliance to its obligations under the General Regulation on Data Protection (GDPR). And it is potentially explosive. A small competitor of the American giant has provided the Dublin Constable with evidence of what it deems as a mechanism for circumventing privacy protection of Internet users. The company Brave, which has a browser competitor to Chrome and “respectful of privacy,” detailed its accusations on Wednesday in a blog post, revealed earlier in the day by the Financial Times. According to Brave, Google uses a system of hidden web pages, called “Push Pages”, assigned individually to each user. These allow its advertising customers to better target their ads, without users knowing about it and against Google’s engagements. The 8.4 million sites that use Google’s real-time bidding system could thus cross and exchange sometimes sensitive information (location, political orientation, sexual orientation, religious orientation, health status, etc.). (04/09, Les Echos)

* A new conflict is emerging. Google is coming under imminent threat of a major antitrust investigation in the United States. According to the Washington Post, over half of American states could join forces and officially open an investigation next Monday, which would be responsible for determining whether the web giant is guilty of abusing its dominance. In the United States, the mariage between Silicon Valley and elected officials has exploded after repeated scandals on personal data, from Cambridge Analytica to users being listened to by their connected speakers. (04/09, 20 Minutes)

* When you surf the web, maybe you’ve already seen sharing buttons to WhatsApp below some blog posts or articles. If you value the confidentiality of your conversations on WhatsApp, it is advisable not to use them. Contrary to what you might think, these buttons do not respect the end-to-end encryption principle advocated by the Facebook subsidiary. According to security researcher Nadim Kobeissi’s analysis, the shared link is sent first to a WhatsApp server before being integrated into the mobile application. “Facebook can then correlate this information with the IP address from which you connect to WhatsApp and find out which links you share and with whom,” the expert explained on Twitter. After being questioned by 01net.com, WhatsApp tried to minimize the researcher’s words and, most importantly, to confuse us. (02/09, 01Net)

* During an interview with NBC News, Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook operations manager, expressed that she had excluded the arrival of a tool allowing users to block the transfer of their personal information to advertisers because “it would be a paid product.” (31/08, 20 minutes)

* Facebook, Google, and Amazon all united against the French GAFA tax as a “disturbing precedent”, “discriminatory tax”, and “brutal break of long-established rules”: the online giants are not afraid of resisting this tax. In Washington, representatives of Amazon, Facebook, Google and other digital actors were heard on Monday, August 19, during hearings as part of an investigation opened by the US Trade Representative (USTR), concerning the French tax on digital services. (21/08, 01Net)

* Facebook has been discreetly listening in on its users’ conversations on Messenger. In doing so, the social network paid hundreds of subcontractors to listen to anonymous extracts and transcribe them in text format, as a way to check if the messaging application’s AI was interpreting these conversations appropriately. Facebook is not the first company to practice this kind of listening by human ears. Since April, Amazon, Google, Apple, and Microsoft have confirmed that their subcontractors listen to audio conversations. Except that users had never been warned that another person could listen to their conversations. This set-up is all the more alarming because some of the audio was extracted from medical consultations, confidential business discussions or even sexual dialogue. (14/08, 01Net)

* Twitter has been using personal data for advertising purposes since May 2018 without the explicit consent of implicated users. The social network admitted to it on Tuesday night August 6th to Wednesday the 7th. (08/08, 20 minutes)

* Libra: Facebook required to guarantee personal data protection. In a four-page joint statement released on Monday, several data protection regulators in the United States, Europe, the UK, Canada, and Australia are sounding the alarm concerning a cryptocurrency project expected for 2020. They fear abuses on Facebook’s part, as already displayed in several cases (Cambridge Analytica) and its partners. (06/08, Les Echos)

* The Federal Trade Commission suspects that Mark Zuckerberg’s company is seeking to dissolve competition by buying up potential rivals. The commission recently fined the social network a total of $ 5 billion for failing to enforce its privacy commitments. The FTC was looking into the external growth efforts carried out by the company Menlo Park, reports the Wall Street Journal. Facebook has made some 50 acquisitions since 2004, most notably Instagram (2012) and Whatsapp (2014). Authorities are especially concerned about the opportunities that consumers might have been deprived of because of anti-competitive practices. (01/08, Les Echos)

* An Australian cybersecurity specialist has discovered that Facebook adds a secret code to photos uploaded by users. The goal being to track images. The traceability allowed by this hidden data reaches “a shocking level,” said Edin Jusupovic on Twitter, July 11th. Facebook “can potentially track photos outside its own platform with a disturbing level of accuracy as to who put the photo online first (and much more),” says the programmer. According to him, this process makes it possible to attach data to images without any possible detection. The primary goal being to identify the owner of the rights to a photo more easily, but also the interactions that exist between users who share an image between them. Thanks to this system, the social network has the capability to develop more adapted and even more personalized commercial and advertising strategies. (18/07, 20 minutes)

* The FaceApp mobile application allows you to modify photos of your face using filters. Though many people are unaware that using the app is not without consequences on privacy. FaceApp collects a lot of data, like most applications: IP addresses, advertising identifiers, and other metadata collected via a dozen behavioral advertising tracers, a subject at the heart of many privacy scandals. FaceApp specifies in its general conditions of use, that image sharing means giving up ownership rights. In addition, FaceApp’s privacy policy does not comply with applicable European laws. Indeed, it is specified that the data collected by the app may be transferred outside Europe where FaceApp has infrastructure, therefore being subject to the laws in these states. However, the principle goal of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in Europe is precisely to ensure that each European citizen has the same level of privacy protection regardless of which country their data is transferred. (17/07, Le Figaro)

* The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) voted to fine Facebook around $5 billion, according to the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post. This would be the highest penalty ever imposed on a tech company in the US. The decision, which is not official yet, must be confirmed by a judge. This is an amicable agreement that would end the FTC’s investigation into Facebook’s privacy violations, including the Cambridge Analytica scandal. The fine would be accompanied by new government regulations whose details are unknown. However, if Facebook has accepted this compromise, it means nothing will fundamentally threaten the way the company runs its business. (12/07, 20 minutes)

* A year after the scandal, the Cambridge Analytica case remains a big thorn in Facebook’s side. On Friday 28 June the Italian guarantor for personal data protection placed a fine on the social network of one million euros for its involvement in the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Last December, the Italian antitrust authority had already fined Facebook 10 million euros, accusing it of selling users’ data without informing them properly. (01/07, 01Net)

* A bipartisan bill between Democrats and Republicans was proposed in the US Senate. It obligates the web giants to report to the SEC the financial profits gained using data, as well as to be transparent in how they use it. Technically very complicated, answered the platforms. It is no secret that these social giants base their business model on the collection of personal data, monetized through targeted advertising. In return, Facebook, Google and others make their services available on the Web “for free”. But for Democrat Mark Warner and Republican Josh Hawley, this implicit agreement between the user and the platform is biased. “People are not aware of the amount of data they collect and do not realize the value of that data,” Warner said. (25/06, Les Echos)

* A report released on Thursday by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the British equivalent of the CNIL, threw a brick in the water. After examining how real-time advertising space (RTB) is sold online, the results conclude that users’ personal data is being widely exploited without consent. Including when it comes to sensitive data on race, sexuality, health and/or the political opinions of users. This means that companies in the sector are operating illegally. (21/06, Les Echos)

* According to the Wall Street Journal, emails implicating the involvement of Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg in the problematic policy of exploiting user personal data were unveiled as part of an ongoing federal investigation in the United States. The exchanges, dating back to 2012, show that Facebook never kept its commitments in the agreement concluded that same year with the Federal Trade Commission. This is precisely what the American Commission criticizes in the Cambridge Analytica case. These e-mails could blast Facebook’s defense, since in April 2018 Mark Zuckerberg admitted a “serious error” before the American justice. (13/06, 01Net)

* There are still a few months left for WhatsApp users to take advantage of the ad-free messaging service. As of 2020, the “Status” page of the application will host advertising on iOS and Android, reports Tom’s Guide. Following Instagram, the Facebook group now intends to turn a profit from WhatsApp and its 450 million monthly users. (25/05, 20 minutes)

* Anniversary of the RGPD (general regulation on data protection): The giants of the Web continue to “market personal data”. The general public has become aware of the amount of personal data collected by them. The RGPD, in a year, has nearly 145,000 individual complaints, 440 investigations open in Europe, and … in France, 50 million euro fine imposed on Google by CNIL, following a group action notably carried out by La Quadrature du Net. (25/05, 20 minutes)

* Google keeps track of all online purchases made by Gmail users. The California giant uses confirmation or billing emails from online shops to their customers’ gmail addresses, says CNBC. Purchases of various items are involved, as well as travel reservations. When asked about this little known tool, Google responded with a statement explaining that the purpose of the feature was “to help you easily view and keep track of your purchases subscriptions, and reservations all on one page. (21/05, 20 minutes)

* A new opposing voice came out Thursday, May 9 against Facebook: one of its co-founders, Chris Hughes. “It’s time to break-up Facebook,” he wrote in a New York Times column. In a lengthy critical op-ed, he called for separating the social network from Instagram and WhatsApp, as well as imposing strict control over it. Chris Hughes accuses Facebook of sacrificing user privacy protection for click profit and eliminating competition without any hesitation. According to Hughes, Mark Zuckerberg alone could configure Facebook’s algorithms to change what users see on their newsfeed or privacy protection settings. (15/05, 01Net)

* New York State Attorney Letitia James announced on Thursday the opening of an investigation into Facebook’s unwarranted upload of 1.5 million contact lists attached to email accounts, revealed last week. “The time has come for Facebook to be held accountable for its mistreatment of consumers’ personal data,” said prosecutor James, quoted in the statement released last Thursday. For her, the platform “displayed its lack of respect for users’ personal information while benefiting financially from it.” And if 1.5 million email accounts have been harvested, Facebook therefore has access to information about “hundreds of millions of individuals” contained in the contact databases of these email accounts, said the prosecutor. The New York State Attorney’s Office had already opened a Facebook investigation in March 2018, the latter concerning the British firm Cambridge Analytica’s acquisition of user personal data on the social network. (26/04, 20 minutes)

* Facebook’s misfortunes continue. An NBC survey, based on 4,000 pages of documents, has shown how the company shared its user data only with some companies and not with others. Companies such as Amazon, Sony, Microsoft, or Tinder could exploit the personal data of millions of Facebook users worry-free, while some Facebook clients were simply denied access because their business was sometimes too similar or competing with the social network. These e-mails, chats, presentations or summaries of meetings were put forward particularly following a complaint filed in 2015 by Six4Three against Facebook. The social network has been in turmoil ever since the Cambridge Analytica case reveal, after which, a week can barely go by without revealing some new information on user data sharing with third-parties, something that Facebook continues to deny. The data could be used for a multitude of purposes, such as in Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, the candidate’s team could have used it to target some people more than others. (17/04, 01Net)

* The UFC-Que Choisir (an association for consumer protection) is pleased to announce, after 5 years of legal proceedings, the Paris court of law has severely sentenced Facebook following judgment on April 9, 2019 (with possibility for appeal). Following Twitter last August, and Google in February, this massive victory (430 clauses deemed abusive and illegal) completes the series in the association’s fight towards obliging the leading social networks to respect their obligations regarding personal data. Facebook is also condemned to pay the UFC-Que Choisir a sum of 30,000 €. (10/04, QueChoisir.Org)

* Is Facebook facing a new scandal like Cambridge Analytica? It looks a bit like that. For a long time, Mark Zuckerberg’s business has allowed third-party companies to access its user data without really monitoring what these external partners could see, or what they were doing. According to a statement released Wednesday by the computer security company UpGuard, two applications developed by third parties ‘Cultura Colectiva and At the pool’ stored the data of 540 million Facebook users on Amazon S3 storage spaces open to all. A fresh blow for the American giant, which admitted two weeks ago that employees had logged unencrypted password data for hundreds of millions of Facebook users. (04/04, 20 minutes)

* A former Facebook security officer revealed in an interview how Mark Zuckerberg was able to make good business choices over the long term thanks to all the data he has on us. At a technology conference organized by the Washington Post, Alex Stamos, former Facebook security director, explained Zuckerberg’s ability to make decisions that seemed irrational at the time but successful in the long run. The problem being his explanation also calls to mind a more troubling reality: “Zuckerberg has more data on what people are doing online at his disposal than anyone else in the world,” he conceded as well, naturally. That bitter observation however, serves as a reminder of the frequent peril our private lives are in. (29/03, 01Net)

* An NGO (non-governmental organisation) has criticised Facebook because it didn’t ask for “free and informed consent” from Facebook and Whatsapp users. Internet Society France will file a complaint against Facebook in the French courts this September. This is one of the first group actions using the new European legislation protecting personal data. The NGO also accused Facebook of collecting data on people who are not Facebook members, but who consult the social network. It also claims that Facebook does not secure all the information it has. (26/03, 20 minutes)

* Facebook has been storing hundreds of millions of unencrypted passwords in its servers, some as far back as 2012. The social network admitted that between 200 and 600 million user IDs have been accessible, in some cases for several years, to more than 20,000 of its employees. This is further proof of Facebook’s lack of care for user personal data which comprises the engine of its economic model. The announcement is still very embarrassing however, being almost a year to the day since the “New York Times” and the “Guardian” revealed the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Despite Mark Zuckerberg’s promises, Facebook continues to neglect basic computer security precautions. (22/03, Les Echos)

* In the United States a criminal investigation was opened against Facebook, accused of having misused hundreds of millions of users’ data with 150 partners like Apple, Microsoft or Netflix. The case is supervised by New York district attorneys. A grand jury calls for internal documents from at least two major smartphone manufacturers. The reality of these partnerships was revealed at the end of last year. In particular, third parties had access to contact details and friends of Facebook users without their consent. Don’t forget the company is currently negotiating a record fine with the Federal Trade Commission following the Cambridge Analytica scandal. (14/03, 01Net)

* But why does Facebook need our phone numbers so badly? Jeremy Burge’s jab on Twitter has revived the controversy over Facebook’s telephone number use. When creating a profile, Facebook requires the user to provide a phone number ‘for security’ reasons. But, according to influencer Jeremy Burge, this would allow the social network to link this number to ‘a unique identifier able to identify you on any other platform and share it with advertisers’. (06/03, 20 minutes)

* Facebook is being blamed for its lobbying practices. The firm has targeted political leaders around the world with promises of investments for influencing data protection laws. This is the extent of the operation employed by Facebook on the verge of the RGPD implementation, considered a ‘critical’ threat to the health of the company. Two joint investigations, published Saturday by the Guardian and Computer Weekly, detail this strategy. (04/03, Les Echos)

* In the United States, Facebook is trying to avoid a fine totalling several billion dollars. Negotiations with the US administration continue, but Facebook still hopes to reduce the fine that it incurred after violating its commitment to protect the personal data of its users, in reference to the Cambridge Analytica scandal. At least that’s what the Washington Post says. (15/02, Les Echos)

* An umpteenth scandal yet again tarnishes Facebook’s image. Former security agents say the company has a blacklist of dismissed employees and vindictive users. The most threatening of whom are geolocated and monitored through Facebook web services. The CNBC news channel is revealing this story today. More than a dozen witnesses have confirmed the practice. Since 2008 Facebook has a list of around one hundred people that is updated about once a week. They are recorded by name, photo, place of residence and the reasoning for their presence in the file. Facebook has the ability to track people’s location by using location data from their smartphones that is collected via the mobile app or by relying on their IP addresses when connected to the website. The means used seem largely disproportionate, and a total infringement of the European general regulation on data protection. It remains to be seen if Facebook is also engaged in such practices on our continent … (15/02, 01Net)

* Germany restricts Facebook from exploiting its users data. According to the German police of competition, Facebook can no longer oblige users into accepting a virtually unlimited collection of their data. On Thursday, it placed a ban on Facebook from automatically linking user data collected mainly from its affiliates Whatsapp and Instagram to their Facebook profiles. This is meant to limit the exploitation of personal information that the American giant can do. “Facebook can no longer compel its users to accept an almost unlimited collection of their data putting itself in a dominant position,” concluded the director of the German Anti-Cartel Office, Andreas Mundt, at a press conference. (07/02, 20 minutes)

* After all the bad press, Mark Zuckerberg wants to rebuild his reputation. Therefore, the founder and CEO of Facebook has offered up a column published in the Wall Street Journal and several European titles, including Le Monde in France. In it, he defends the free model of the social network. He describes the company’s ideal function: a platform that allows brands to display their ads to customers whose profiles are a good match. But the Facebook boss is forgetting all the deep dysfunctions that the social network has known for over a year. The Cambridge Analytica case, for example, totally contradicts one of the principles put forward by Mark Zuckerberg in his column. According to him, brands do not have access to user data, since Facebook is precisely there to interface between advertisers and users. Mark Zuckerberg also does not explain how Facebook gets non-registered user data to create ghost profiles based on their behaviour. Their geolocation and phone numbers recorded in their contacts can be collected, including their interactions with friends that are using Facebook. Furthermore, Zuckerberg does not clarify why Facebook has done nothing for years to prevent children from spending money on their parents online games such as Angry Birds, PetVille or Ninja Saga. Some have been able to spend up to $ 6,500 without having to get their parents’ permission, and without a refund. (25/01, 01Net)

* Facebook wants to combine the direct messaging systems of Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram. This is the project launched by Mark Zuckerberg himself: to allow interoperability between the three messaging services he owns. The company has indeed spent billions of dollars on WhatsApp and Instagram, but the bulk of its revenue is still to the credit of just Facebook. In 2017, the European Commission fined Facebook 110 million euros. The company had been accused of combining data from WhatsApp and Facebook users in 2016. Two years prior, Facebook had promised the Commission that this was impossible and would never happen. (25/01, 01Net)

* The National Commission for Information Technology and Freedoms has fined Google 50 million euros, criticising the US giant of not sufficiently informing its users on all the uses for their personal data. This decision comes after two complaints filed against it by None Of Your Business (NOYB) and the Quadrature du Net, at the end of May 2018. (21/01, 01Net)

* Facebook: Germany wants to require the social network better protect user personal data. The Federal Office for Combatting Cartels wants to prevent Facebook from delivering our data to third-party actors or applications … This decision comes after a three-year investigation by the German organization, reports 01.net. (15/01, 20 minutes)

* Apps share your data with Facebook (even if you do not have an account). Personal data communicated to certain Android apps is also shared with Facebook, whether or not the user has an account on the social network. This is what two specialists from the NGO Privacy International revealed during their recent speech at the Chaos Communication Congress, a conference on organised piracy in Germany. The two researchers, Frederike Kaltheuner and Christopher Weatherhead, explained however that it is currently “impossible to know how personal data is being used”. They were focused on 34 of the most popular apps on Android devices finding that 61% of them “automatically transmit data to Facebook”. The information is sometimes “incredibly detailed”, alerted the two experts. Like that collected by the travel booking app, Kayak which sends searches and information on purchased services to the social network. The NGO also discovered that some apps sent advertising identifiers to Facebook. These identifiers allow advertisers to benefit from a detailed “portrait” of each user: activities, interests, health, religion, etc. (31/12, 20 minutes)

* Facebook : photos belonging to 6.8 million users have leaked due to a bug. Hundreds of third-party applications were able to access photos that they were otherwise unauthorised to see. The Irish Data Protection Authority has started an investigation. “Please excuse us for the inconvenience,” writes Facebook again on its website. The social network has indeed revealed a problem in its data sharing functions. This data leak involved more than 1500 third-party applications, and impacted 6.8 million people between this past September 13th and 25th. This is not the first time Facebook is facing a data leak, the most notorious case being that of ‘Cambridge Analytica’. (17/12, 01Net)

* Personnal data : Facebook considered marketing our information even in 2012. Its executives questioned very early on the potential merits of selling personal information… Facebook internal documents reveal that the social network had considered selling user personal data to third parties as early as 2012. The exchanges in question were seized by the British Parliament during a lawsuit procedure involving the Six4Three Society, reports the Presse-Citron. This information is corroborated by e-mails dating from 2012 to 2014, retrieved by the Wall Street Journal. (30/11, 20 Minutes)

* Google was accused of manipulating users in order to ‘spy’ on them and follow their every movement. According to European consumer associations, Google collects data and tracks users through their ‘location history’ and ‘Web activity & Applications’ settings, announced the European Bureau of Consumer Unions (BEUC). A complaint to this regard has been filed in Norway, the Netherlands, Poland, Greece, the Czech Republic, Slovenia and Sweden. (28/11, 20 Minutes)

* An investigation is being imposed on Facebook for its management of recent scandals. According to the New York Times, the network has hired Republican lobbyists as well as the company ‘Definers Public Affairs’ to disparage critics … ‘Delay, deny and deflect’ is the title of the long investigation into Facebook and its crisis management over the last two years, notably ‘Cambridge Analytica’ and the Russian interference in the American presidential election. (16/11, 20 minutes)

* The NGO Internet Society France is launching a group action against Facebook for ‘non-compliance with the RGPD’, which would have resulted in ‘recurrent attacks on privacy’. It sent a formal notice to Facebook requesting a response to the seven main grievances. (09/11, 20 Minutes)

* Whatsapp, now owned by Facebook, will soon introduce advertising in the ‘status’ section reports the specialised site Presse-Citron. The information was confirmed by Chris Daniels, Vice President of the firm, on the sidelines of a recent event in India. ‘We will put advertisements in the ‘status’ section. This will be the main mode of monetisation for the company and an opportunity for other companies to reach Whatsapp users, he said in an interview with the Indian magazine Outlook India.(02/11, 20 Minutes)

* Facebook is setting up a feature to retrieve Instagram users’ geo-locations! A way to further refine their profiles and better target their ads. (05/10, 01 Net)

* A study conducted by Gizmodo, revealed this week (27/09) that Facebook uses phone numbers and/or email addresses, which are only supposed to secure accounts, to sell more targeted advertising space… (27/09, Gizmodo)

* Snapchat has just launched (26/09) a visual search engine in association with Amazon, which will soon be available in Europe. It will allow shopping by camera, reports the daily journal Les Echos. The app will look like a kind of ‘shopping Shazam’. (26/09, Les Echos)

* Google advocates for ‘flexible’ protection of personal data. The web giant has just published a document (Framework for Responsible Data Protection Regulation) that describes what should be, from its perspective, a good law for personal data protection. Not surprisingly, the European RGPD does not really conform to this ideal.

* How will Dating work, the Facebook dating site? A first version of the service has just been launched in Colombia. Users who wish to take advantage of this service must first fill out a rather lengthy profile, different from the existing one! (Real age and location, job, religion, size … A series of photos and answers to personal questions such as: What does a perfect day look like for you?). A new wealth of information that will allow the social network to increase its advertising revenues later …

* Facebook (19/09) was accused of having distributed job offers only to men. Thanks to its targeting tools a dozen employers were able to distribute their job offers to male users only according to an NBC article relayed by Slate. The ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union), the Communications Workers of America, and a law firm have filed a complaint with the Commission for Equal Opportunity Employment.

* Facebook wants to put users in contact with others who share the same city of residence, place of birth, or past school. Dubbed as ‘things in common’, a test is currently underway in the USA. This obviously raises the question of data confidentiality.

* Linkedin (560 million members) will share its users’ personal data with researchers. Owned by Microsoft, it intends to become a leader in the field of economic studies and management in years to come. This approach is part of the Linkedin Economic Graph Research Program (EGRP). A risky move only a few months after the ‘Cambridge Analytica’ scandal!

* Google is being sued for misusing geolocation. A Californian has filed a lawsuit for ‘violation of privacy’. According to an Associated Press investigation revealed last week (21/08), Google tracks the whereabouts of its users even upon deactivating the ‘location services’ setting.

* The latest Facebook Messenger update on IOS tries to force users to sync their contacts. As for notifications, a first refusal to comply generates a second reminder to activate them. The social network absolutely wants to gobble up your contacts: this is a somewhat scary observation that comes with the latest Messenger update (178.0) on IOS (11.4.1). These forced procedures are no longer deceiving anyone though!

* The French organisation, UFC-Que Choisir, is taking action against Twitter in France. The consumer protection association has obtained from the French justice that Twitter removes 256 clauses considered in opposition to its terms of use.

* The United States: in recent months, Facebook has approached major US banks (Chase, JP Morgan, Citigroup, and Wells Fargo) to make a deal with them for their customers’ data to offer new services. In exchange, the banks would get a place on Messenger.

* Advertising will soon come to Whatsapp, making its first appearance on the social network, as is currently the case for Messenger. Facebook’s goal: to finally profit from this application that despite its massive use, hasn’t been bringing any gain. In 2014, Facebook bought Whatsapp for more than 16 billion euros.

* After the Cambridge Analytica scandal, Wired revealed that Mail.ru had greater access to data from social network users after tightening its terms of use for developers in 2015. The Russian billionaire Yuri Milner, former CEO of Mail.ru, has been a Facebook shareholder since 2009.

* Facebook revealed (04/07) 118 companies with special access to your data. The social network provided US congressmen a list of companies with which it has special agreements on user data. A comprehensive document in which ’01Net’ has identified 52 so-called ‘integration’ partnerships. These companies can access Facebook API and therefore user data, or even their friends’ data. The problem is that users are not informed about this sharing.

* And what if Cambridge Analytica is just the tip of the iceberg? Data from nearly 120 million Facebook users has been endangered by the quiz application, Nametests.com. Inti De Ceukelaire, a security researcher, discovered that anyone could access registered users’ Facebook profile information through one of the many quizzes circulating in the application.

* Facebook- get ready, video ads are coming to Messenger. Starting on June 25th, video ads will be inserted between conversations. This was confirmed in ‘Recode’ by Stéfanos Loukakous, in charge of Messenger management.

* Apple is going after Facebook, their consumers should see their personal data better protected. Apple has just made ‘Safari’ the anti-Facebook browser.

* 26 million users in Spain are targeting Facebook in a collective complaint.

* Just one day after implementing the RGPD in the European Union, a complaint was filed against Facebook and Google. At its origin: Max Schrems, an Austrian attorney for private data protection. He accuses them and their affiliates (Instagram and Whatsapp) of practicing a ‘forced consent’ strategy. Users have two choices: accept or delete their account! Facebook has even blocked user accounts that have not given their consent. The stance is shared in France by the association ‘la Quadrature du net’.

* Whatsapp says it wants to share 100% of its data in the future with its parent company Facebook!

* Cambridge Analytica is the company that has extracted data from 50 million users on Facebook without their consent by means of a third party application downloaded on it, in order to predict and influence the voters during the last US presidential election.

* Facebook records user phone calls… By downloading all of his Facebook data, one user found that the social network had kept track of his phone calls and text messages. All this independent of the use of Facebook and Messenger applications!

* On March 6th, the American giant Facebook validated a patent design for a new robot that could follow you everywhere at home to take pictures … This technology however raises ethical questions, especially regarding the protection of personal data. And for good reason, the robot can film and record everything that happens in the home. This could allow Facebook to retrieve extremely accurate and useful information about users.

* Facebook spams its users who have chosen to secure their account by activating double-factor authentication (2 FA) via SMS. The social network seems to take advantage of this security feature to generate traffic and interactions on its site. A curious mix of motives that does not please users at all.

* Consumer protection! The European Union expects more from Twitter, Facebook and Google+. It asks social media operators to redouble their efforts in putting their terms of use in line with community law, in terms of confidentiality and respect for the rights of their users. The latter regretted that they have only partially responded to not only EU legal liability requirements, but also to the way in which users are informed of a possible withdrawal of content or contract termination.

* Instagram started recommending publications in your news feed. The social network has decided to rely on an algorithm that suggests accounts to follow. After introducing advertising it abandoned the chronological thread for recommended publications. A change that annoys users and did not seem to please those who already had access to the novelty.

* Whatsapp was ordered by the CNIL to supervise the data transfer to Facebook. The CNIL also found that Whatsapp transmits data to Facebook concerning its users, including phone numbers and information on usage habits, without having first obtained their consent. As a result, CNIL President Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin gave Whatsapp one month to comply with the law. Whatsapp feels that it is unable to respond, as it considers that it’s only subject to United States law where it’s based.

* Mobile advertising boosted Facebook’s earnings by 79% in the 3rd quarter. Some figures from the US online advertising market (in billions of dollars): Google 35, Facebook 17.4, Microsoft 3.6, Oath 3.6, Amazon 1.7, Twitter 1.2, Yelp 0.7, Snapchat 0.6, Lac 0.4.

* Facebook started tracking user geolocation to offer targeted advertising. The social network informs advertisers of their trips and tells them which stores they visit in order to better target their ads. At the same time, one of your friends who has never been to this store could receive a promotional offer for new customers!

* Facebook was fined € 1.2 million in Spain for a violation of privacy.

* The social network giant Facebook profits from Onavo (a service used by millions of Internet goers around the world, that’s supposed to ‘protect you as well as your data’), a free VPN bought back in 2013 for between 100 and 200 million dollars, to siphon and analyse the traffic of its users, and learn a lot about competitors in the process. A purchase that the network boasts little. As soon as you browse after activating Onavo’s services, it provides all navigation data to Facebook. A strategic data mine for the company. The information collected by Onavo has been used countless times for strategic decisions (Whatsapp buyout in 2014, calculated video plays and newsfeed stories, etc.).

* Facebook announced advertising coming to ‘Messenger’ starting on July 11th. Its messaging app has 1.2 billion users. An ad can be inserted between conversations and redirect you to an external site. Eventually, Facebook hopes to make ‘Messenger’ an essential platform for customer relationship. The goal is to capitalise on a new personal database and strengthen this business model.

* Snapchat deployed ‘Snap Map’, a feature to locate friends without interruption. An approach that does not bode well for the future. The app has 300 million users worldwide, 1/4 of whom are under 17 years old. So we can potentially track the movements of millions of miners worldwide. A situation that has led local police to issue warnings to alert parents.

* A survey from the ‘Guardian’ tells us some more about the motives behind Facebook post moderation. They are not all treated the same way, ex: a threat to kill the US President would be removed, but similar content against an average person would only be considered credible if the comments suggested that the threat was going to be carried out! The credibility of a threat is measured by the choice of victim, ‘hit a redhead’ or ‘let’s go beat up some fat people’ would be tolerated by Facebook because the victims are not of public interest. In the documents revealed by the ‘Guardian’, Facebook believes that ‘people use violent language to express their frustrations online’, and so do not have to be taken seriously when using the network.

* The European Commission fined Facebook for € 110 million because the American company provided inaccurate information during the EU’s investigation into its purchase of the mobile application Whatsapp. In August 2016, Facebook had changed the privacy policy of Whatsapp, allowing the data collected on it to be used to provide targeted advertising on other applications (Facebook, Instagram).

* The daily newspaper ‘The Australian’ obtained a secret document from Facebook, in which the social network explains that its algorithms allow it to identify ‘times when young people need a boost of confidence, when they feel anxious, nervous, stupid or useless’. This confidential report was in fact intended for its Australian and New Zealand advertisers. The document advises advertisers and encourages them to plan their campaigns around ‘teenage bad luck’, specifically 14 year olds, ex: an overweight teenager wanting to lose weight, etc.

* Germany repeatedly threatened Facebook and Twitter with heavy fines for not doing enough to curb the hate speech and false information posted on these two networks. A bill is being drafted, if it is adopted, the networks could be fined € 53 million if they do not take action to suppress this speech.

* Facebook is rapidly improving facial recognition technology. You publish photos and tag your loved ones, and doing so you allow friends of your friends to access those photos. This is actually a service to the social network: you add some data (faces associated with identity) to the already astronomical base that it has. Your face can be spotted among 800 million photos, why? Because it is like a fingerprint, a biometric feature increasingly used for identification. Anonymity in public could be a thing of the past!

* Facebook will stop at nothing to attract advertisers. In a document published on February 3rd on the site ‘Facebook IQ’ which is dedicated to advertisers, the social network explains how to take advantage of breakups to find new customers. Users who change statuses from ‘couple’ to ‘single’ spend significantly more time on Facebook. Recent singles are more inclined to ‘try new experiences and travel’.

* Facebook wants to further integrate advertising in its videos, after adding them to live videos last August. Advertisers will be able to choose video categories in which they would like to see their ads appear, and specify which ones they want to avoid.

* Instagram goes e-commerce, the app is about to offer users the possibility to buy ‘more easily’ visible products on its platform. A system of personalised recommendations will be put in place according to subscribers’ tastes.

* Facebook intentionally overestimated user viewing time of its video-ads in order to charge advertisers more, by ‘omitting’ to count views under 3 seconds. As a result, viewing times have been inflated by approximately 60 to 80 percent.

* Whatsapp shares its data with Facebook, and changes its charter of use. Bought-out by Facebook in 2014, the messaging app had previously made respect for privacy its cornerstone … Users’ phone numbers allow Mark Zuckerberg’s social network to propose even more targeted advertisements.

* Facebook published its list of the 98 types of user personal data (age, sex, place of residence, school, medical purchases, house size, ethnicity, type of credit card, etc …) that the network sells to advertisers!

* Bad news for the 200 million Internet goers who use ad-blockers worldwide. Facebook announced its intention to disable all ad-blocking software of users connecting to its service.

* Facebook- a lawsuit was instigated in New York by Israeli and American victims of the Middle East. The plaintiffs argue that the network makes its communication platform available to Islamists in violation of US anti-terrorism law.

* Facebook admitted to using members’ geolocations to suggest friends in the ‘you might know’ section, in conjunction with centers of interest, etc … A number of users are shocked and find it to be an invasion of their privacy.

* Snapchat embarks on sponsored content, having attracted more than 150 million users in 5 years, it’s inevitable. In order to reap income, the application has chosen to turn to advertising. And one more falls in line!

* Targeted geolocated advertising appeared on Google Maps, even when just searching.

* Revealed by an internal report, Facebook’s users shared less personal information on their wall, due to the proliferation of ads and media publications that caused a ‘change in atmosphere’ to the newsfeed, logically rendering a less ‘intimate’ network.

* Facebook is on the German justice’s radar. An investigation into its abuse of power and infringement of data protection laws was opened. Indeed, it suspects Facebook of using its size in the market to impose conditions on its users that violate data protection laws.

* The Belgian justice gave Facebook 48h to stop tracking its users without their consent. It uses cookies that remember if a user has visited a Facebook page, but also pages belonging to stores chains, etc … It keeps cookies on potential interests and preferences of Internet users, for 2 years, and Facebook can consult them whenever users visit one of its pages or a site they can ‘like’.

* Google will reference Facebook app content, official pages or events, the social network now allows Google to index the public content of its app in the mobile version.

* Google rejected the ‘right to be forgotten’ as defined by the CNIL and resorted to confrontation. The US giant announced that it refuses to fully comply on the issue of the ‘right to be forgetten’ imposed by the National Commission for Computing and Freedoms. It received several thousand requests from Internet users, but declined to erase over half of them!

* The young lawyer Max Schrems filed a new complaint against Facebook, the Austrian justice will examine the collective appeal of 25 000 Europeans on April 9th, 2015. Here are the important points concerning the misuse of users’ personal data:
• an invalid data usage policy under EU law,
• lack of effective consent to many types of data use,
• Support for the NSA’s Prism monitoring program,
• tracking users on websites outside Facebook,
• monitoring and analysis of user behaviour through big data systems,
• the unlawful introduction of graph search,
• unauthorised transmission of user data to external applications.

* Facebook now examines time spent reading publications, the social network wants to know which content is the most relevant to each of its users. It was already dissecting all their clicks and habits.

* Twitter will target ads in line with smartphone applications, the company seeks to grow its revenue. One advertising tool that helps target ads to users based on their mobile applications, will be launched on the social network. Twitter announced that it will make new analytical data on applications that its users are installing available to all advertisers, in order to improve the effectiveness of ad targeting.

* On May 6th 2015, Tf1, M6, C+, France Tv, and the Association against Audiovisual Piracy (ALPA), sent a letter to Mark Zuckerberg CEO of Facebook, and Dick Costolo CEO of Twitter, to complain about having seen their content (videos / audios) uploaded without authorisation (intellectual property rights).

* The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed recourse against Snapchat. The agency accused it of misleading users. Their ephemeral publications were really not as ephemeral as that. The FTC also accused Snapchat of having collected the contacts of users owning an I-phone, I-pad, or I-pod without any forewarning.

* The FTC filed recourse against the purchase of Whatsapp by Facebook, because it created a concern among users who feared their data would be marketed. Whatsapp built a user base around the commitment to not collect data about its users for advertising purposes, but Facebook exploits information about its users for advertising!

* Firefox will display targeted ads based on browsing history, the Mozilla Foundation wants to diversify its revenue sources. This can come as a surprise from a non-profit organisation!

* It’s official, Gmail is scanning emails to better target its advertising. Google updated its Terms & Conditions on April 14th, 2014 to make it clear that emails received and sent by users are being read by the software for ad targeting, and moreover with the arrival of Gmailify.

* Facebook was accused of scanning private messages to sell data to advertisers. Two Americans (Matthew Campbell & Michael Hurley) complained to the San José court because their privacy was violated. Facebook was again brought to court, being accused of scanning private messages sent between users. Its goal? Look for URL links that lead to other websites and share data with advertisers, a behaviour that undermines the privacy policy advocated by Facebook.

* UFC-Que Choisir gave an ultimatum to Facebook, Google and Twitter: ‘we must act so that Internet users maintain authority over their personal data’, because these networks are not transparent in their data treatment and use. Twitter even allows itself to edit and delete data without first obtaining user consent. UFC designated them to the High Court in Paris for unfair terms (their general terms & conditions are still inaccessible / illegible).

* User browsing history will allow Facebook to better target its ads. In 2011, Mark Zuckerberg had vowed that he would never do like Google, 3 years and an IPO later, he changed his mind. Facebook will use data collected on external sites that users visit to better target the advertising it offers on the network.

* Snapchat launches “Discover” in partnership with 11 media outlets for broadcasting videos and news articles. The goal, of course, is to keep its 100 million users online longer and make more money. The content will be accompanied by advertisements through which Snapchat will earn commission.

* Twitter makes the move to video ads, just like Facebook. It unveiled an offer for advertisers, that should, as Wall Street hopes, boost income. At first it self-identified as ‘one of the most fervent supporters of freedom of expression’!

* Advertising is widespread on Instagram, already established in the US, the practice of inserting photo & video advertising will spread to other countries by the end of 2014. The good times are over, having been put under Facebook management in April 2012, ad sales are accelerating.

* Video ads on auto-play showed up in Facebook, 15 second slots (if the user clicks on it). Shareholders appreciate it, but users not so much. Advertisers will be able to target their audience: age, gender, geographical location, time of day, etc.

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