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The proof is in the pudding when it comes to suggested end-to-end encryption of a single messaging system between Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. Today a statement from Facebook suggests that they're "working on making more of our messaging products end-to-end encrypted and considering ways to make it easier to reach friends and family across networks." But it's not that sentence that's important - it's the one that comes right after it that tells me what I suspect is probably true.

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Just when you thought Facebook couldn’t sink any lower, a new discovery might have just added one more nail to its coffin. Then again, it’s really no surprise and Facebook doesn’t at all concerned about keeping it a secret. It turns out that even after you’ve turned off all possible location-tracking features and removed all location data on Facebook, you’ll still get ads related to your location. What makes it worse, however, is that the social networking giant doesn’t and probably won’t provide a way for users to opt out completely.

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Google's latest update on Online Security for apps seems to suggest that they mean serious business. They've recently taken targeted action against a set of fraudulent app developers and codes that've been collecting ad bounties in ways that are ... basically just not cool. These developers in this case were guilty of App Install Attribution Abuse - which is basically like tricking companies into paying cash for app installs when they've installed no such thing.

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YouTube is starting to stream movies for free. No, we don’t mean those “low-production” indie movies or, worse, unauthorized copies of copyrighted films. We’re talking about older, but not too old, classics like “Terminator” and “Rocky”. The video on demand giant has silently been flipping the switch for dozens of its full-length videos in its YouTube Movies catalog. But like with anything on the Internet, you pay the price of free by being interrupted and watching ads.

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Facebook today confirmed that it was using private phone numbers to target Facebook users with advertisements. Not just any phone number, but the 2FA (2-factor authorization) phone number you give the company in confidence to further strengthen your Facebook login process. In attempting to keep yourself more securely private, you've just opened yourself up to less privacy.

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Google has just recently taken on some heat about how it was handling, or rather misrepresenting, its location tracking options. “No” doesn’t always mean “no”, as far as the turning location tracking off. Privacy advocates, however, may have something bigger to worry about. Because according to sources familiar with the matter, Google and Mastercard inked a deal that could link online ads with what people buy in stores, allowing Google to offer advertisers deeper insight into how effective their digital ads really are.

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Following criticism, Facebook has announced the removal of 5,000 ad targeting categories that made it possible to discriminate against individuals based on ethnicity and similar things. Facebook has previously been called out about these ad targeting options, which critics say have been used to discriminate based on race.

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The heavy emphasis placed on smartphone cameras these days are sending companies scrambling to prove theirs is the best, be it in camera hardware, AI features, or both. Huawei, who has partnered with famed camera lens maker Leica for its premium models, naturally wants to give buyers of its mid-range smartphones the same assurance. It did everything it can to advertise the newly-launched Nova 3 and Nova 3i’s DSLR-like performance, including actually using a DSLR camera to pretend that it came from the phone.

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This week the folks at Snapchat responsible for advertisement monetization are pushing "Storytellers" for social media influencers. It's a program which unites advertisers with the social media titans who would sell their products for them for a fee, in a creative way. In other words - sarcastic hooray! It's time for more advertisements that come to Snapchat users in the form of videos they won't realize are advertisements until it's too late!

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This week the folks behind Apex Launcher just completely lost their minds. Or they completely lost their minds if you ask their many thousands of users, many of whom just dropped majorly negative reviews on their app on the Google Play app store. This isn't entirely without precedent, but it's a good time for a reminder. When you update your Android launcher, you're going to want to be careful not do erase user settings in the process.

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Google is making it easier to see just what conclusions its ads have come to about you, revamping Google Ad Settings to make it clearer to check - and adjust - the demographic data it uses to personalize the adverts you're shown. The move comes as tailored advertising becomes both more topical and more controversial, as internet users realize just how much information they're giving away about themselves.

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A new feature on Snapchat makes 6-second advertisements unskippable. They're real, they're here, and they're not going away any time soon. As such, it's time to discuss once again how to delete an app - namely Snapchat. It's actually pretty easy when it comes down to it. If you just want to get rid of notifications, we've got a guide for that too.

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