Apple confirmed Thursday it would press ahead with mobile software changes that limit tracking for targeted advertising -- a move that has prompted complaints from Facebook and others.

The iPhone maker said it was moving ahead with updates to its mobile operating system to give users more information and control on tracking by apps on Apple devices.

Apple earlier this year delayed the changes to give online advertisers time to adapt.

But in a letter to the nonprofit group Ranking Digital Rights, Apple said it planned to move forward next year "because we share your concerns about users being tracked without their consent and the bundling and reselling of data by advertising networks and data brokers."

The letter from Apple privacy chief Jane Horvath noted that Apple intends to support online ads but without "unfettered data collection" and noted a split with Facebook, which had expressed concerns about the new policy.

"Facebook and others have a very different approach to targeting," Horvath said in the letter, verified by AFP.

"Not only do they allow the grouping of users into smaller segments, they use detailed data about online browsing activity to target ads.

"Facebook executives have made clear their intent is to collect as much data as possible across both first and third party products to develop and monetize detailed profiles of their users, and this disregard for user privacy continues to expand to include more of their products."

Facebook earlier this year said the mobile software move by Apple would "hurt many of our developers and publishers at an already difficult time for businesses."

Facebook reports progress on curbing hateful, abusive content
San Francisco (AFP) Nov 19, 2020 - Facebook said Thursday it has made progress in curbing hate speech and other abusive content on its platform with improved automated tools complementing its human reviewers.

Releasing its transparency report for the third quarter, the social media giant said it took action against more than 70 million pieces of content on its core social network and Instagram which included hate speech, bullying or harassment, graphic violence, child sexual exploitation and suicide or self-injury.

Facebook for the first time released a statistic on "prevalence" of hate speech, amounting to 0.10 to 0.11 percent of viewed posts on the platform.

"You can think of prevalence as an air quality test," said Guy Rosen, vice president of integrity at Facebook, in a conference call with journalists.

Rosen said Facebook chose this metric as a gauge of the health of the platform because "a small amount of content can go viral and get a lot of distribution."

The release comes with Facebook under rising pressure from governments and activists to crack down on hateful and abusive content while keeping its platform open to divergent viewpoints.

Facebook said it took action on some 22 million pieces of hate speech content in the July-September period, up from 15 million in the prior quarter. It said it increased enforcement for other kinds of violations as well.

Rosen said automated systems using artificial intelligence have become more effective and now detect some 95 percent of hate speech.

But he noted that human reviewers are still needed for finding more subtle forms of abusive content which may not be detected by computerized systems.

The news comes a day after some 200 Facebook contract moderators signed a petition calling for better safety conditions as Facebook begins to call workers back to the office amid the global pandemic.

Rosen said that "the majority of our review workforce is still working from home" but that Facebook is not asking these people to review the most offending content.

"This is really sensitive content. This is not something you want people reviewing from home with their family around," he said.

Rosen said a major effort in content moderation this year involved misinformation about the US election and the Covid-19 pandemic.

He said Facebook removed some 265,000 posts between March 1 and the November 3 election for violating voter interference policies and displayed warnings on 180 million posts whose claims were debunked by independent fact-checkers.

Facebook also took down some 12 million posts between March and October "containing misinformation that may lead to imminent physical harm" including on fake coronavirus cures or treatments, Rosen said, and displayed warnings on another 160 million pieces of content.

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Huawei sells off budget phone brand as US pressure bites
Shanghai (AFP) Nov 17, 2020
Chinese telecom giant Huawei announced Tuesday it has sold its Honor budget phone line to a domestic consortium in a move it said was necessary to keep the brand alive amid "tremendous" supply chain pressures caused by US sanctions. Honor has been purchased by a group of 40 companies comprised of agents, distributors and other businesses dependent on the brand's survival, Huawei and the consortium said in separate statements. Huawei, which earlier this year became the world's top mobile phone se ... read more