April 11, 2018
FACEBOOK will consider charging users a fee to not receive advertisements based on what they have shared with friends on the social media platform.
Mark Zuckerberg confirmed the contentious strategy to possibly make Facebook users pay for their privacy at today’s Capitol Hill appearance, as he revealed his biggest regret was not acting sooner to stop Russia using his platform to try to influence foreign elections.
Senator Bill Nelson asked how Facebook users who did not wish to see targeted ads, such as their favourite type of chocolate, could stop the product placements from flooding their feed.
“Are you actually considering having Facebook users pay for you to not use that information?,” Senator Nelson asked.
“In order to not run ads at all we would need some kind of business model,” Mr Zuckerberg said.
“I am going to have to pay you in order not to send me using my personal information, something that I don’t want?” Senator Nelson said.
“Yes, Senator,” he replied.
“You consider my personally identifiable data the company’s data and not my data, is that it?”, he asked, to which he answered no.
He said that while the ad-free product did not yet exist, the only way for Facebook to remain a viable business was to run advertisements or charge for use of the site, and stepped back from his previous pledge that the platform would always be free.
“There will always be a version of Facebook that is free,” Mr Zuckerberg said.
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A Sydney couple Sydney’s east has been charged with child neglect after allegedly feeding their toddler a strict diet, reports AAP.
The girl was taken to Sydney Children’s Hospital a month ago after having a seizure.
Police were told the toddler was malnourished, suffered rickets – a preventable bone disease, and her height and weight were markedly low for her age.
Following an investigation, police arrested a 31-year-old woman and a 33-year-old man at a house in Sydney’s east on Friday.
The couple has been charged with failing to provide for a child causing danger of serious injury and reckless grievous bodily harm.
“Police will allege in court the girl’s parents fed the child a strict diet, which was severely deficient in nutrients for her to thrive,” NSW Police said in a statement on Wednesday.
The parents were granted conditional bail and will re-appear at Waverley Local Court on Wednesday.
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Stock markets around the world have rallied after Chinese President Xi Jinping promised to reduce import tariffs, easing concerns about a trade war erupting between China and the United States.
US markets surged, with Wall Street finishing sharply higher on Tuesday — as did European and Asian markets.
The S&P technology sector was one of the strongest performers, gaining 2.3 per cent, while the Nasdaq index, which is heavily weighted towards tech stocks, jumped 2.1 per cent.
The S&P 500 rose 1.7 per cent, while the Dow Jones index soared by 1.8 per cent, or 429 points, to 24,408.
“With [Xi’s comments], we got the signal for ‘risk on’ in trading today,” said Mariann Montagne, portfolio manager at Gradient Investments, Minnesota.
“That’s why we’ve seen tech and biotech performing very strongly today.”
Facebook had its largest single-day gain in almost two years, surging 4.5 per cent to $US165.04, after its chief executive Mark Zuckerberg began his testimony before US Congress.
Mr Zuckerburg was grilled about Russia’s alleged meddling in the 2016 presidential election, and the recent privacy breach of 87 million users’ profiles.
His testimony aimed to strike a conciliatory tone in an attempt to blunt possible regulatory fallout from the privacy scandal engulfing his social network.
Facebook stocks reached a high of $US193.09 per share in early-February, but have dropped by about 11 per cent in the past month.
But it was oil that stole the limelight overnight, with Brent crude prices surging by more than 3.5 per cent to $US71.10 a barrel.
This led to the energy being the best performing sector on the S&P 500, gaining 3.3 per cent.
As for whether China will deliver meaningful reform, NAB’s head of foreign exchange strategy, Ray Attrill, remains sceptical.
“Seeing is believing of course … but for now the market chooses to believe that Xi’s words will prove to be more than mere platitudes in coming months,” he said
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