Facebook bombarding users with notifications to desperately lure them back to the platform
FACEBOOK has been caught desperately bombarding inactive members with emails and notifications to get them to log back into the site and the part-time users are not happy.
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FACEBOOK has been caught desperately bombarding inactive members with emails and notifications to get them to log back into the site.
However the social media website has been met with harsh feedback as users claim the alerts are for updates on inane subjects or friends they’ve long since stopped communicating with.
The social media giant and its founder Mark Zuckerberg have been in damage control following the Cambridge Analytica data scandal, where the information of 87 million Facebook users, including more than 300,000 Australians, was harvested and potentially used to influence the 2016 US election.
In recent weeks, inactive users have been spammed with a stream of emails, pop-ups and notifications for something as trivial as an acquaintance commenting on someone else’s photo.
“Since limiting my Facebook usage they seem to be trying increasingly desperate tactics to try and lure me in to opening the app. Just had a notification saying “x updated his status”. So f-----g what?” one Twitter user wrote.
“@facebook you must be really desperate! I only log into my account once a month and seldom receive notifications. I received 21 today. And all past stuff ... needing activity much?” another commented. Inactive users were also prodded with messages telling them to log in.
“The best part is Facebook keeps sending me reminder messages to log into my accounts and see what I am missing lately,” one woman wrote on Twitter.
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The increase is partly linked to a new privacy drive. Among major changes, Facebook last month announced it would place a notice at the top of users’ news feeds showing how they can review data they’ve agreed to share.
The company also said it would ramp-up fact-checking around elections, with “clearer notifications to page admins and greater clarity around the appeals process”.
Cyber safety expert Susan McLean said security preferences could dictate notifications.
“I don’t think it’s everyone that’s seeing new notifications about their friends ... it’s got to be to do with the security settings and what you’ve opted for,” she said. “It also gets down to you the user ... you should be securing your information.”
A Facebook spokeswoman directed The Daily Telegraph to Facebook’s newsroom link regarding questions about increased notifications.