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Facebook says it was hacked, claims member data safe

Facebook today admitted that its systems were hacked last month when staffers unknowingly installed malware to laptops. The social network called the attack sophisticated, but claimed that no user data was compromised.

"This attack occurred when a handful of employees visited a mobile developer website that was compromised," Facebook said in a statement posted today on its security blog. "The compromised website hosted an exploit which then allowed malware to be installed on these employee laptops."

The social network identified the attack as a "zero day" Java exploit that allowed the website in question … Read more

Facebook wins German case on pseudonym ban

Facebook has won an important ruling on its ban of pseudonyms across its social network.

A German court yesterday ruled that it had no jurisdiction over Facebook because its European headquarters are in Ireland and therefore, could not offer an opinion on the social network's pseudonym use. The Associated Press was first to report on the court's ruling.

The court's ruling comes just two months after data protection agency Unabhaengiges Landeszentrum fuer Datenschutz (ULD) in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein ordered Facebook to allow for its users to employ pseudonyms. The company has a policy that … Read more

Facebook's Graph Search bars adults snooping for minors

Facebook is taking preventative measures to make sure parents don't get up in arms about their children's privacy when Graph Search is rolled out to the public.

The social network said today in a blog post that it implemented specific Graph Search rules for teenagers. These rules dictate that if an adult does a search that could display a minor's location or age, the only results that will be returned are that person's friends. If a minor is searching, only friends and friends of friends also between the ages of 13 and 17 will be shown.… Read more

Facebook grabs most attention among social sites

The U.S. population is enamored with Facebook. The social network ranked as the top Web destination in December 2012, with a 10.8 percent share of total time spent online during the month, according to analytics firm ComScore.

ComScore, which today published a white paper on digital trends, found that while Google sites commanded the largest audience in December, 191.4 million people in the U.S. to be exact, Facebook continues to demand the most attention.

In addition to edging out Google properties, which collectively managed to garner 10 percent of time online, Facebook also accounted for 5 … Read more

Facebook lets users pay to promote friends' posts

Facebook says it's rolling out a new feature today that lets users pay to promote their friends' posts.

That means you can push your friend's post up to the top of the news feeds of users within their network. To promote a post, just click on the menu button on the top right corner of a post, according to images of the feature provided by Facebook. Only people with fewer than 5,000 friends or subscribers can use the feature.

Facebook thinks people will want to use this feature to promote charity fundraisers and events, or help friends … Read more

Facebook embraces Valentine's Day to hawk gifts

There's no escaping Valentine's Day -- especially on Facebook. In addition to catching countless updates from friends loving or lamenting the day, you'll find that the social network has morphed into a last-minute V-day gift shop.

Facebook is today showing members a customized Valentine's Day prompt that encourages them to surprise friends or loved ones with a not-too-late little something purchased from the social network's Gifts online marketplace. The promotion is live atop the Facebook News Feed for a large percentage of U.S. users, a company spokesperson confirmed to CNET.

Facebook members who have … Read more

Co-founder Moskovitz holds 7.24 percent stake in Facebook

Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz, who left the social network in 2008 to launch web collaboration tool Asana, still maintains 7.24 percent of the company he created with Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg from a Harvard dorm room.

Moskovitz holds 124.6 million shares in the social network, good enough for the 7.24 percent stake, according to a regulatory document filed today with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Meanwhile, Moskovitiz's former roomie, Zuckerberg, owns 29.3 percent of the company.

Last year, Moskovitz went on a mini spending spree from late August through early September, when Facebook's stock … Read more

Instagram seeks dismissal of lawsuit over TOS change

Instagram has asked a federal court to dismiss a lawsuit over controversial terms-of-service changes the popular photo-sharing service announced last year.

The lawsuit, which was filed in December and seeks class-action status, accused the service of breach of contract and trying to "grab for customer property rights" after announcing revisions to its terms of service that many feared gave the service perpetual rights to sell users' photographs without payment or notification.

After a user backlash, Facebook-owned Instagram soon backpedaled on the changes and announced that the terms would revert to the version in place since the service launched … Read more

Judge tosses some shareholder suits over Facebook's IPO flop

Things may be looking up for Facebook in the dozens of lawsuits it's facing from peeved shareholders over its botched initial public offering.

U.S. District Judge Robert Sweet ruled in favor of Facebook today and dismissed a group of these cases, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The social network became embroiled in this extensive legal battle shortly after its $16 billion IPO last May. The company's stock opened on the Nasdaq priced at $38 a share and, aside from a slight uptick right at the start, proceeded to plummet in the days and weeks following. Defendants … Read more

Mark Zuckerberg owns 29.3 percent stake in Facebook -- SEC filing

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg now owns 29.3 percent of the company, according to the latest company filing with the SEC. Zuckerberg now owns 632.6 million shares, making him the largest stakeholder in the social network. During the company's May 2012 IPO, Zuckerberg sold 30.2 million shares just below the offering price of $38. However, he went on record last September saying that he would not sell any shares during a 12 month period.