Social media mean less and less

16.09.2018/11.13

Above: I must report and block dozens of Instagram accounts a day, not unlike getting over the 200-a-day mark on Facebook in 2014. For the last few days, I made my Twitter private. It was the only time in 11 years of being on the service where I felt I needed that level of […]

Neil Gaiman on JY Integrity on his UK paperbacks

09.07.2018/10.52

When Neil Gaiman pays you a compliment about one of your typeface families (JY Integrity, which I designed in 1993), you gratefully accept. They are glorious. Thank you so much for making the font. — Neil Gaiman (@neilhimself) July 7, 2018 You may also like You never know where your interests will take you A […]

As the most experienced long-video Instagrammer, welcome to the club

21.06.2018/10.00

It appears my friend Justin was spot on: I probably was part of a test group trialling longer Instagram videos since April. Today, Instagram announced that people could upload 10-minute videos, and an hour for those with big followings. This news article (hat tip to Cachalot Sang on Twitter) says there’ll be a […]

Instagram videos of between 2′50″ and 7′03″: it can be done, but some are hidden

26.04.2018/10.38

As you saw in the previous post’s postscripts, it is possible to upload videos of longer than one minute to Instagram, but Instagram may or may not let the public see them. If you want people to see your videos for sure, then keep them to the standard minute. But if you want to chance […]

Zuckerberg was either wilfully ignorant or lied during his testimony about ad data collection

17.04.2018/22.42

Either Mark Zuckerberg is woefully ignorant of what happens at his company or he lied during his testimony to US lawmakers last week. As reported by Chris Griffith in the Murdoch Press, Zuckerberg said, ‘Anyone can turn off and opt out of any data collection for ads, whether they use our services or not.’ […]

Facebook’s ad preferences’ page and user archive tell totally different stories about their tracking

28.03.2018/08.23

I decided there’d be no harm getting that Facebook archive since I was no longer using it. And while I didn’t see phone logs as Dylan McKay did (I only had the app for about a month or so in 2012), what I did find was entirely in line with the privacy breaches I had […]

Business as usual at Facebook: Mark Zuckerberg comes forth, tells us nothing we didn’t already know

22.03.2018/21.40

Yesterday, Mark Zuckerberg came out and made a statement on Facebook that had no apology (though he gave a personal one later on CNN) and, at a time when people demanded transparency, he continued with opaqueness. First, he told us nothing we didn’t already know about the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Secondly, he avoided […]

Facebook and Cambridge Analytica: the signs were there for years, if one only looked

20.03.2018/09.14

Facebook’s woes over Cambridge Analytica have only prompted one reaction from me: I told you so. While I never seized upon this example, bravely revealed to us by whistleblower Christopher Wylie and reported by Carole Cadwalladr and Emma Graham-Harrison of The Guardian, Facebook has shown itself to be callous about private data, mining preferences even […]

Kylie Jenner Tweets, Snapchat’s value down US$1,300 million

23.02.2018/02.05

All it takes is a single Tweet from Kylie Jenner—and Snapchat’s value drops 6 per cent, or US$1,300 million. (Hat tip to Sarah Lacy of Pando.) sooo does anyone else not open Snapchat anymore? Or is it just me… ugh this is so sad. — Kylie Jenner (@KylieJenner) February 21, 2018 Speaking for myself […]

Of course Facebook knew about stolen accounts, even back in 2014: I told them

17.02.2018/11.48

Official White House photo by Pete Souza In Wired today: ‘Russian trolls stole US identities to hide in plain sight’. This included hacking to steal Social Security details, then create social media presences using real identities. I could have told you about the fake Facebook presences in 2014. Hang on, I did. There was […]