Tag Archive for: Facebook

VR Concert

The First VR Concert

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Our friends over at Mashable are reporting about the recent Oculus Venue concert from Vance Joy. Vance performed at the Colorado Red Rock Amphitheatre and it was beamed across the world as a live VR concert.

It was part of a brand new feature that’s available for the Oculus Go and Samsung Gear VR. A feature that allows users to watch live events with friends in VR! To show off this cool feature Facebook offered a free concert from Australian Vance Joy to concert goers back in May. It wasn’t pre-recorded and beamed across the world like a DVD showing. It was an actual live event. A first for Facebook/Oculus but not a brand new thing. To be eligible for this you had to have an Oculus Account, the Oculus iOS/Android App and a Oculus Go or Gear VR headset. Bad luck any of you top of the line Oculus owners, you were out of luck. Then open up the Venue section and connect to the event.

Event

Just like in real life you sit down in a stadium , albeit a virtual one, looking at the Red Rock Amphitheatre. Look around and it’s filled with other VR concert goers in avatar form. You are able to watch in both solo mode or with others in social mode too. While as you would expect social mode allows you to chat with other fans, in an attempt from Oculus to make it feel like an actual concert. Like you’re there, without actually being there. If you are wondering too, you can chat to them using your voice and not messaging one another. Though as Oculus is Facebook owned, if you share common interests with the person next to you, it will show up on screen.

VR concert: Behaviour

As is like the real world you’re going to have to behave yourself, upon entering the arena, Mashable are reporting that you are presented with a code of conduct screen. Which we’re not sure if many people will read, yet, Mashable are reporting that it states not to harass, use any offensive language or display anti-social behaviour. So like in real life at concerts. Don’t be a d*ck.

If someone is being the aforementioned body part you can click on their avatar and Facebook will look into it. While they may not get kicked out straight away, you are able to mute and block them. If only that feature could work in the real world. However, you can add them as an Oculus friend. You can turn up the music and turn down the chat volume of the crowd too. With Mashable reporting that this was a real pleasing part of the experience! To add to this experience trumping a real life concert, there are no phones in your face recording the event. People are too busy enjoying the music or talking to one another. Something that really should happen in real life in all honesty.

Is it worth it?

Enjoy music at home, without the commute home, pushing and shoving, drugged up skinny teenagers trying to sell you dodgy pills, p*ss bottles, should know better middle aged people trying to be cool or the rowdy couple who couldn’t wait to get home. While all that sounds rather inviting and pleasing, maybe that’s what concerts are all about. The experience, the atmosphere isn’t just the same as being there. That’s what it feels like, hopefully we get the chance to experience this in How To Kill An Hour towers ourselves, as it seems rather intriguing!

Click here to purchase Oculus Go or Samsung Gear

Facebook Suicide Prevention

Facebook Suicide Prevention

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Our friends over at the Daily Dot have reported on, Thea, aged 25. Thea shared a post on Facebook expressing she felt like dying. It is here where Facebook, for lack of a better term, ‘stepped in’ to prevent her suicide.

Writing that she felt “tired of living” and “exhausted” her post was flagged for feelings of suicide, within 20 minutes.

When Thea returned to Facebook, it displayed a ‘resources’ message, suggesting that she reach out to a friend or contact a helpline. Thea also felt that Facebook made her feel embarrassed. It notified people whom she didn’t interact with anymore.

What flagged Thea’s post was in fact part of a Facebook machine learning tool. Developed by AI, the tool identifies posts which express thoughts of suicide.

A spokesperson for Facebook informed Daily Dot that disagree’s which parts of Thea’s account. Stating that they don’t contact friends of people contemplating suicide. Unless they are the users who have flagged posts to Facebook.While Thea maintains that her Facebook friends were indeed contacted and to contact paramedics were also suggested.

The tool works by identifying a range of concerning words of phrases in posts, comments that show concern for the poster of content. Consequently multiple comments such as “Are you ok” or anything of that sort will trigger the tool. This will then flag it to Facebook’s Community Operations team.  Suicide prevention trained employees will then review the content and determine how to help them. Such as contacting paramedics (if a user needs immediate attention) Regardless if a user has flagged a piece of content or the AI has picked it up.

Uncertainty

Though the tool may have some slight flaws in how users feel that Facebook use their content. Thea spoke to Daily Dot and originally shared the post as she knew others on her feed could relate. Henceforth they will take comfort knowing that they weren’t alone. But after her experience with the tool, she feels anxious. She’s not entirely sure if she will express her feelings on Facebook:

“I post these things because…it makes it easier for those people to talk with you and help, because they know how to handle it,” Thea said. “With the way the AI functions, it feels like we can’t trust anything anymore, and now less people are going to speak up about their suicidal thoughts, which is more dangerous to that person.”

 

 

Facebook

Facebook positivity down to you?

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Facebook have defended itself against claims that using the site can damage your health. The impact of Facebook has come into the press recently which was discussed recently.

The social media giant have now said in a blog post that whilst there is evidence to suggest that the site can damage wellbeing. Facebook can also be a positive experience. Use the site positively, get a positive return. Kinda like how Karma works. If Karma is a thing.

Internal Debates

David Ginsberg, Facebook’s director of research, has allegedly said that there are continuous internal debates of how their users are using their website. While discussing how the time spent on their website was in fact good/bad for people:

“Just like in person, interacting with people you care about can be beneficial, while simply watching others from the sidelines may make you feel worse.” 

So, that being said, be more active and positively engaging with the people in your social network helps a user to feel better.

Ginsberg also stated that the social media giant are working on ways to turn users into active users. While not being just social media voyeurs.

Facebook Emotions

Dr Bernie Hogan, a senior research fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute, has called into question, Facebook’s theory. Hogan has researched extensively Facebook’s effect on it’s users and doesn’t see how Ginsberg’s theory will work.

“They are saying that the solution is more interactivity, more personal feedback and less broadcasting. The problem is that they are engineering tools for more broadcasting.”

Hogan’s daming response to Ginsberg’s suggestion to use Facebook positively to feel positively, does make sense. It does raise a few questions as to how it will work.

The only way to see, is to do it in practice.

So we’ll see.

Episode 277 Kermit Zuckerberg

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Facebook Listening

Facebook Isn’t Tapping Your Microphone

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There’s been a lot of information and news around Facebook lately. Most of it is about data, our personal data. However, earlier on in the year, Facebook drew criticism for allegedly listening to our conversations. Facebook listening to us sounds like a crazy idea. Facebook listening to us sounds horrifying! But is it actually true? The guys over at the Verge went ahead and done some myth busting around the whole thing!

Mark Zuckerberg even had to state during his privacy hearing in congress that the whole idea of Facebook listening to it’s users was a ‘conspiracy theory’

Facebook are said to have been listening to us, as we, as users. Have seen ads for the stuff we have been talking about with friends. Yet according to the Verge it’s not down to listening at all. It’s all down to very clever ad targeting. They know everything you do. It’s all because of you too. You’re the one giving Facebook this information, so don’t be surprised when you get super accurate ads.

  • They know your browsing history because of cookies and trackers. Facebook has their own inhouse one called Facebook Pixel.
  • The ‘Like’ button you may use on a news website. Information is fed back to facebook.
  • What you look like (uploaded photos)
  • Where you like to spend your free time (location data when you tag yourself in places)
  • The things you buy! (the Facebook ads you click on and then consequently purchase)

Facebook knows more than you think. It’s not down to eavesdropping that would violate a ton of wiretapping laws. It’s all down to you. You’re the one giving them this information. It may look creepy, but their just feeding back the information you gave to them back to you. Think of it as a gift from a loved one. You forget about it and then, as you forgot, act all surprised that they remembered what you wanted for your birthday. Think of Facebook ads like that.

The reason why it appears to appear on your screen right after you spoke about it? All psychological. Andreas Andrietta of the Electronics Frontier Foundation, stated in the Verge’s report something interesting. That ad may have been running there the whole time, but as you are more aware of it, after speaking about, your more inclined to notice the ad.

You provide Facebook with so much data, they don’t need to tap your microphone. Even if they could. They could. They have the tech to do it. Nigel Cannings of Intelligence Voice, states that the tech is super simple. But it requires a lot of differing factors to identify you. Such as geometric data and geofencing, which with Facebook, you give out that data. This would work simply on a very very very small scale. However, Facebook has huge numbers of people on their platform, there are just simply too many people to do this feasibly.

Even if they could do it anyway, there’s too many of us and B, it’s highly illegal to do so.

For a more detailed look at this head on over to the Verge and check out their video on the subject, it’s very interesting!

Listen to the guys chatting about this by clicking here! 

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WhatsApp ban

WhatsApp banned for Under16

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So there’s going to be a WhatsApp ban. WhatsApp are raising the age of the minimum age of it’s users to 16 across Europe. The current age limit for the messaging app is 13. However, the company are enforcing stricter rules ahead of the new data privacy rules due to be enforced in Europe in May. Yet, if you’re from outside Europe, the age is still 13.

The messaging service will ask for EU users to confirm their age before accepting new terms of service. The WhatsApp ban is unknown as to how it will affect the number of users. As the service which has 1.5billion users from January. Furthermore WhatsApp have confirmed that they will not be asking for any more rights to their personal data.

WhatsApp Ban: Facebook

Facebook, which owns WhatsApp, are introducing a similar data policy. With users aged between 13 and 15 having to get permission from a parent or guardian for them to share information on the platform. If no permission is given, the teen will not see a fully personalised version of Facebook.

To listen to the guys chatting about this please click here!

Download WhatsApp here: Apple / Android

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cambridge analytica

Cambridge Analytica: How to tell if your data was shared

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You may have heard about the Facebook data breach by Cambridge Analytica the past couple of weeks. Now Facebook are about tell us Brits if your data has been compromised in the data breach.

This week, more than 1 million British people will receive a detailed message on their news feeds. Within this post it will tell users if they are one of the huge 87 million users that have had their data breached. Therefore, used improperly, Facebook will then go one step further to help their users.

So, what is this help? All of Facebook’s 2.2 Billion users, that’s billion with a B! Will receive a notice from them that’s called ‘Protecting your information’. Within this notice will be a link that sends them to a page which tells users which apps have access to their data. Furthermore this page will tell them what information they have shared with said apps. From here users are able to go through the apps and deny access to their data if they wish. You can even go one step further and block any third parties from accessing this data.

Mark Zuckerberg had admitted that he made a huge mistake in realising how much of an affect Facebook had on the outer world. Not fully acknowledging Facebooks wider responsibilities to it’s audience. Facebook’s responsibility is so huge, that, he’s set to testify in front of Congress next week.

Cambridge Analytica: How?

The number of those affected was originally reported as 50Million, however, that number has said to have risen to 87million people. So, how did they get so much data? A personality quiz app called ‘This Is Your Digital Life’ created by Aleksander Kogan is said to be the culprit behind the breach. Kogan allegedly paid 270,000 people to take the quiz. As a result, all of the data of those that took part was breached. But this isn’t the worse part. Due to Facebook’s loose restrictions, data from the friends of the 270,000 people was too breached. Including data which was set to ‘only me’

As a result of this lapse of judgement, Facebook cracked down and limited the data that apps can access. Yet it seems that the damage has already been done.

To download Facebook please click here Apple / Android

Listen to the guys chatting about this by clicking here! 

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Facebook Lists

Facebook Lists

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Facebook are trying to find out more about you in a way that looks less obtrusive. It’s called Facebook Lists and they’re totally customizable to make them whatever you wish them to be. For example you can have, ‘My 2018 Goals’ or ‘Things to do before I’m 30’ or even ‘Who inspires me the most’

Like with customizable status updates, you can change the background colour, or even add emojis to it to spruce it up a little.

To make things interesting you can copy someone else’s and make it better (or worse) or even straight up copy and see who achieves the most.

Why Facebook Lists?

The whole idea behind this relates to Facebook pushing down company pages content and promoting users content. They want their users to make more original content and thus making people engage more and more with one another. Therefore engaging less with company ‘engagement’ bait style posts.

This alongside Facebook’s recent update at the end of last year (gradually rolling out to more and more users) is the “Did you know” status or “Fun fact about me” style updates. Whereby users would write a question for example “My favourtie food is” and then listing it.  Is Facebook’s push to make each other more friendly and interact more.

This is getting a huge push with Facebook allegedly promoting posts from friends and family as well as prioritising local news in the news feed. Even pushing to including a dedicated local news and events section on their site. (Though this is limited to 6 cities in the US)

Facebook Lists is currently only available to Android users. If you’re on iOS you can see lists but you cannot create them just yet. (No news on when it will arrive to iOS either)

To listen to the guys chatting about this please click here!

To download Facebook please click here Apple / Android

 

 

 

 

Facebook baiting

Facebook baiting – A thing of the past?

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Facebook baiting, it’s the annoying trend on our Facebook newsfeed. Facebook baiting is basically those posts and pages that get you to comment/and/or do a bunch of things to get you to interact with their content.

Basically those posts that say “Like” this if you like Bread. “Share this” and Bill Gates will give you $10,000. Posts which offer a chance to win something as it has been opened. These 15″ 2017 Macbook  Pro’s have been opened and cannot be sold comment “Win” and “Share” the post for your chance to win one!

Those cringeworthy and annoying posts are going to be less of an annoyance thanks to Facebook machine learning! As, it will learn what these posts are and dump them so far down your newsfeed you won’t read them. So, Facebook is de-prioritising these types of posts from your newsfeeds so they don’t waste anymore of your time. While it’s not only the posts that will be affected. Facebook pages are going to be demoted too.

Looking at you Fortafy!

Genuine Causes

While this is certainly going some ways to clean up your newsfeed. Facebook are planning to not punish posts that are genuinely asking for help and/or are trying to support beneficial causes. As a result posts like asking for help to locate a missing child or raise money for a charity won’t be affected.

 

Facebook Safey Check Permanently ‘ON’

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Facebook is turning on it’s safety feature, the ‘Safety Check Hub’ that allows friends and relatives on your Facebook know that you’re safe in times of danger, conflict and terrorist attacks. It should reach everyone within the next few weeks as Facebook starts rolling it out. It won’t be a prominent feature and you’ll have to dig into the list of Facebook’s secondary features to find it via for lines in the far right hand side of the screen.

Why this has been turned into a permanent feature is anybody’s guess, but a cynic could argue it’s the sign of the times we are living in today.

Download Facebook here: Apple / Android