It's complicated ~ Facebook's terrible 2018

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/ng-interactive/2018/dec/24/facebook-2018-timeline-year-in-review-privacy-scandals

Establishing identity is a vital, risky and changing business

https://www.economist.com/christmas-specials/2018/12/18/establishing-identity-is-a-vital-risky-and-changing-business

Instagram: from Facebook's 'best hope' to Russian propaganda campaign tool

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/dec/18/instagram-facebook-russian-propaganda-ira

Facebook's privacy problems: a roundup

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/dec/14/facebook-privacy-problems-roundup

Facebook disclosed on Friday that a bug may have affected up to 6.8 million users, allowing app developers to see photos that users had uploaded but never posted – but this was hardly the first mea culpa the social media giant has had to send out regarding data and security as of late.

Facebook admits bug allowed apps to see hidden photos

 

Read more

Here’s a quick look at Facebook’s recent issues with user privacy:

• A whistleblower came forward in March to reveal that Cambridge Analytica improperly harvested the personal Facebook data of 50 million people in order to profile and target users for political advertisements. After five days of silence, Mark Zuckerberg apologisedfor his company’s “mistakes”.
• A bug in June caused a glitch that publicly published the posts of 14 million users that were intended to be private. Erin Egan, Facebook’s chief privacy officer, apologised for the “mistake” and said the company has since fixed the glitch.
• Hackers were able to access and steal personal information in nearly halfof the 30m accounts affected in a September security breach. The company initially believed that 50 million users were affected in an attack that gave the hackers control of accounts.
• Mark Zuckerberg faced accusations in a lawsuit filed by the software firm Six4Three in May that he “weaponised” the ability to access user data. The company has rejected all such claims, and has repeatedly made motions to have the case dismissed.
• It was this same lawsuit that led to a cache of internal communications coming out after the UK parliament obtained the documents in an extraordinary move to hold Facebook and Zuckerberg accountable. The documents were under seal by a California court, and Facebook’s attorneys and the judge in the case have both criticized Six4Three’s legal team for turning over the confidential papers.
• These documents revealed that Facebook staff did discuss selling access to user data to advertisers in 2012 before deciding to restrict such access two years later.
• The documents also led to Facebook finally agreeing to a hearing in front of the House of Commons, which took place in November. Facebook sent a representative, the former Liberal Democrat MP Richard Allan. During hours of questioning, it was revealed that an engineer had warned the company in 2014 that users apparently based in Russia were collecting large amounts of data each day. A company spokesperson later commented that the matter was properly investigated and deemed not a data breach.
• In March, users realized that the company had collected text messages and phone calls through smartphone apps without their consent. Facebook immediately issued a “factcheck” claiming “people have to expressly agree to use this feature” and “uploading this information has always been opt-in only”. But the “factcheck” did not acknowledge that some previous notification screens did not warn users that call and text history would be uploaded.
• This has since led to a class-action lawsuit alleging that, in doing this, Facebook “presents several wrongs, including a consumer bait-and-switch, an invasion of privacy, wrongful monitoring of minors and potential attacks on privileged communications”. Facebook has said it asks for users’ permission to enable the feature that gives access to call logs.
• Facebook said it stopped giving third-party app developers access to user data in 2015. But the Wall Street Journal reported in June that the social network continued to share users’ data with third-party developers even after the date that executives claimed the practice would stop. Facebook officials confirmed this report.

Vice & Marlboro Man

https://www.economist.com/business/2018/12/15/the-biggest-brand-in-digital-media-has-lost-much-of-its-lustre

Vice and other formerly hot digital media properties are on a losing streak, as Google and Facebook have squashed all competitors in the digital-advertising marketplace. The duopoly commands the majority of the $100bn internet advertising market in America; Vice, BuzzFeed and Vox combined get less than 1% of that market. Vice fell well short of its total sales target for 2017, of $800m, and will fare little better in 2018, with perhaps $700m in revenues. Previously profitable, Vice is losing money. 

https://www.economist.com/business/2018/12/15/a-tobacco-giant-hashes-out-a-deal-with-a-cannabis-company

As demand for cigarettes has fizzled, Altria has increased its prices and cut costs to try to drive profits. A move into cannabis, which was recently legalised in Canada, is no quick fix but the long-term prospects for the cannabis market, if and when the drug is more widely legalised in America, are tempting. At present recreational cannabis is legal in just ten states. Some reckon the total market could be worth between $40bn-70bn, equivalent to America’s spending on wine or spirits. Altria’s revenues in 2017 were a little over $25bn.

Can Huawei survive an onslaught of bans and restrictions abroad?

https://www.economist.com/business/2018/12/15/can-huawei-survive-an-onslaught-of-bans-and-restrictions-abroad

‘If Bobbie Talks, I’m Finished’: How Les Moonves Tried to Silence an Accuser

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/28/business/les-moonves-bobbie-phillips-marv-dauer-cbs-severance.html

A trove of text messages details a plan by Mr. Moonves and a faded Hollywood manager to bury a sexual assault allegation. Instead, the scheme helped sink the CBS chief, and may cost him $120 million.

Victoria’s Secret gets ready for a makeover

https://www.economist.com/business/2018/12/08/victorias-secret-gets-ready-for-a-makeover

Sex sells, and it sells few things better than lingerie. 

'The idea was to change Pirelli': photographer Albert Watson's 2019 calendar

https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2018/dec/05/the-idea-was-to-change-pirelli-photographer-albert-watsons-2019-calendar

After the retail apocalypse, what next for the high street?

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/dec/01/everything-must-go-what-next-for-the-high-street-new-retail-empty-shops

Why we stopped trusting elites

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/nov/29/why-we-stopped-trusting-elites-the-new-populism

How a good review can destroy a restaurant

https://www.theguardian.com/food/2018/nov/28/you-need-to-prepare-yourselves-how-a-good-review-can-destroy-a-restaurant

Break out the blue paint! Will James Cameron’s Avatar sequel tank?

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/nov/26/break-out-the-blue-paint-is-james-cameron-avatar-sequel-going-to-tank

Rise in gambling ad spend fuels fears over impact on children

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/nov/24/rise-in-gambling-ad-spend-fuels-fears-over-impact-on-children

The £1.5bn total means that gambling adverts account for 8% of the total UK advertising market, which according to market research group Nielsen is valued at £19bn.

It is also more than seven times the annual advertising spend of Proctor & Gamble, the company behind brands including Pampers and Gillette, which is the UK’s biggest single advertiser – and 150 times the £10m that gambling firms give via a voluntary levy to GambleAware, the main recipient of funds for addiction treatment and research.

Facebook should heed the lessons of internet history

https://www.economist.com/business/2018/11/24/facebook-should-heed-the-lessons-of-internet-history

The charge of the chatbots: how do you tell who’s human online?

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/nov/18/how-can-you-tell-who-is-human-online-chatbots

Butch Cassidy and Princess Bride scriptwriter William Goldman dies aged 87

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/nov/16/butch-cassidy-and-princess-bride-scriptwriter-william-goldman-dies-aged-87

"Nobody Knows Anything"

Across the West powerful firms are becoming even more powerful

https://www.economist.com/special-report/2018/11/15/across-the-west-powerful-firms-are-becoming-even-more-powerful

more

Spitting Image creator says times are right for US revival

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2018/nov/14/spitting-image-creator-says-times-are-right-for-us-revival

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puppets_(TV_series)

Billboards are an old but booming ad medium

https://www.economist.com/business/2018/11/08/billboards-are-an-old-but-booming-ad-medium

Where the streets have no change: how buskers are surviving in cashless times

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/nov/08/where-the-streets-have-no-change-how-buskers-are-surviving-in-cashless-times

HBO will lead AT&T’s challenge to Netflix

https://www.economist.com/business/2018/11/03/hbo-will-lead-at-and-ts-challenge-to-netflix

Big Tech’s sell-off ~ The Economist

https://www.economist.com/business/2018/11/03/big-techs-sell-off

Business booms and busts follow a pattern. They start with an exciting change in the economy. Managers and investors collectively create a story about it, which begins as an explanation, then morphs into an extrapolation, and then into an exaggeration. Eventually the data contradict the narrative, boom turns to bust, and a bout of austerity follows. A rout in internet firms’ share prices since August has led plenty of people to ask if the tech industry is experiencing this sequence of hope, hubris and hurt for the second time in two decades. The answer is: to a degree, yes. The level of hype is particularly high, and some of the numbers are decidedly soft. That matters because tech firms are now so big and so spendthrift that a slowdown could damage the economy.

Amazon’s ambitious drive into digital-advertising

https://www.economist.com/business/2018/10/27/amazons-ambitious-drive-into-digital-advertising

Will the World Cup change anything for Russians? Simon Kuper

https://www.ft.com/content/829e6060-8491-11e8-96dd-fa565ec55929

https://www.ft.com/content/e069fa9c-741f-11e8-aa31-31da4279a601

Battle rejoins between TV’s two biggest stars: Netflix and Amazon

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2018/oct/13/netflix-amazon-battle-rejoins-tv-biggest-stars-romanoffs-making-a-murderer

Google at 20: how two 'obnoxious' students changed the internet

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/sep/24/google-at-20-larry-page-sergey-brin-internet

Comcast outbids Rupert Murdoch’s Fox to win control of Sky

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/sep/22/comcast-outbids-rupert-murdochs-fox-to-win-control-of-sky

The auction marks a dramatic end for Sky as an independent company. The broadcaster began life in 1989 when Murdoch launched a standalone business offering four channels from an industrial estate in west London. The company was making enormous losses and soon merged with rival British Satellite Broadcasting to form BSkyB. Under Murdoch’s leadership the combined business hit on a winning formula of selling subscriptions on the basis of film and football rights, helping to transform the British media industry and become a highly profitable business.

Marc Benioff is the latest tech billionaire to buy a famous magazine

https://www.economist.com/business/2018/09/22/marc-benioff-is-the-latest-tech-billionaire-to-buy-a-famous-magazine

What's worrying Bill Gates

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2018/sep/18/the-african-youth-boom-whats-worrying-bill-gates

British TV drama for autumn 2018: water-cooler moments are back

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2018/sep/14/british-tv-drama-autumn-2018-bodyguard-succession-killing-eve

How social-media platforms dispense justice

https://www.economist.com/business/2018/09/08/how-social-media-platforms-dispense-justice

‘Bigger than MTV’: how video games are helping the music industry thrive

https://www.theguardian.com/games/2018/aug/22/video-games-music-industry

How TripAdvisor changed travel

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/aug/17/how-tripadvisor-changed-travel

How the internet has changed dating

https://www.economist.com/briefing/2018/08/18/how-the-internet-has-changed-dating

Peak social media? Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat fail to make new friends

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2018/aug/10/peak-social-media-facebook-twitter-and-snapchat-fail-to-make-new-friends

Apple becomes world's first trillion dollar company

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/aug/02/apple-becomes-worlds-first-trillion-dollar-company

Fluffed it! The truth about Build-A-Bear's day of mayhem

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/jul/23/fluffed-it-the-truth-about-build-a-bears-day-of-mayhem#comment-118600055

“From now on, leading-edge companies – whether they sell to consumers or businesses – will find that the next competitive battleground lies in staging experiences,” wrote its authors. “An experience is not an amorphous construct; it is as real an offering as any service, good, or commodity … Businesses must deliberately design engaging experiences that command a fee. This transition from selling services to selling experiences will be no easier for established companies to undertake and weather than the last great economic shift, from the industrial to the service economy.”

The billionaire who bought the LA Times: 'Hipsters will want paper soon'

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2018/jul/21/los-angeles-times-new-owner-patrick-soon-shiong-interview

Netflix is moving television beyond time-slots and national markets

https://www.economist.com/briefing/2018/06/30/netflix-is-moving-television-beyond-time-slots-and-national-markets

How do you market weed when you can't market weed?

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jun/06/canada-weed-legalisation-cannabis-marijuana-vendors-marketing-tactics

Teens are abandoning Facebook in dramatic numbers, study finds

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/jun/01/facebook-teens-leaving-instagram-snapchat-study-user-numbers

Russia uncovered: writers on the World Cup host nation

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/may/20/russia-uncovered-world-cup-special-report-racism-pussy-riot

Partisanship at Eurovision is becoming more blatant

https://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2018/05/daily-chart-7

Shrinking working-age populations ~ Economist

https://www.economist.com/news/international/21741534-there-are-things-they-can-do-mitigate-dangers-many-countries-suffer-shrinking

Avengers: Infinity War – Hollywood has admitted defeat in its war with box-set TV

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/may/01/avengers-infinity-war-hollywood-tv-box-sets

Of course, by becoming an episode of television, Infinity War falls prey to many of television’s flaws – we know which actors still have films on their contracts, which removes the permanence from some of the movie’s events – but that doesn’t really matter in the big scheme of things. Because movies might be copying television now, but it’s television that we still pay £10 an episode to watch. Maybe Marvel has just discovered the future.

Big tech is growing, but so is investors’ caution

https://www.economist.com/news/business/21741189-years-american-tech-giants-were-treated-single-asset-class-no-more-big-tech

How Amazon became the world's biggest retailer

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/ng-interactive/2018/apr/24/bezoss-empire-how-amazon-became-the-worlds-biggest-retailer

Sir Martin Sorrell leaves WPP in a sorry state ~ Economist

https://www.economist.com/news/business/21740766-worlds-biggest-ad-company-may-end-up-being-broken-bits-sir-martin-sorrell-leaves-wpp

WPP: breaking up world's top advertising group could net £22bn

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/apr/16/wpp-breakup-advertising-sir-martin-sorrell

Martin Sorrell steps down as head of WPP advertising agency

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/apr/14/martin-sorrell-steps-down-as-head-of-wpp-advertising-agency



https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2018/04/14/advertising-titan-sir-martin-sorrell-quits-wpp-three-decades/

Movies that have grossed more than a $1bn – ranked!

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2018/apr/13/movies-grossed-billion-dollars-ranked-blockbusters-dory-dark-knight-bond-potter-titanic

Mad Men Adrift ~ The Economist

https://www.economist.com/news/business/21739758-advertising-agencies-are-under-pressure-change-archaic-and-inefficient-elements-their