Messenger

Users of Amazon’s Alexa digital assistant can now request that recordings of their voice commands delete automatically. Amazon says it saves such commands to improve the service. But the practice has raised concerns with privacy experts who say the recordings could get into the wrong hands, especially as Amazon and other companies use human reviewers rather than just machines.

Soon, you could get fewer familiar ads following you around the internet — or at least on Facebook. Facebook is launching a long-promised tool that lets you block the social network from gathering information about you on outside websites and apps.

A Massachusetts teacher who authorities say had videos of young girls being sexually abused on his computer has pleaded guilty to child pornography charges.

“You can panic,” reads the subject line of one fake sextortion email. Another has a victim’s real password in the subject line, in an attempt to establish authenticity. These low-tech frauds spiked in 2018, according to the FBI’s Internet Crime Compliant Center (IC3), netting millions for scammers. Last year, electronic extortion complaints rose 242% to 51,146 reported crimes, with total...

Facebook says two of its top executives are leaving the company. Chief Product Officer Chris Cox and Chris Daniels, who heads messaging app WhatsApp, are departing. It isn’t clear what future plans the executives have....
Cox was in charge of Facebook’s apps including its flagship social media site, as well as Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger. He joined 13 years ago and...

Mark Zuckerberg’s abrupt Wednesday declaration of a new “privacy vision ” for social networking was for many people a sort of Rorschach test. Looked at one way, the manifesto read as an apology of sorts for Facebook’s history of privacy transgressions, and suggested that the social network would de-emphasize its huge public social network in favor of private messaging between...

Facebook, which grew into a colossus by vacuuming up your information in every possible way and using it to target ads back at you, now says its future lies in privacy-oriented messaging that Facebook itself can’t read. Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder and CEO, announced the shift in a Wednesday blog post apparently intended to blunt both criticism of the company’s data...

Facebook asked users to add their phone numbers as an extra security measure, but now users are learning their numbers are being used as a way to look up their profiles and even target them with ads, without the option to opt out. TechCrunch first reported the feature after Jeremy Burge, who runs the site Emojipedia, called it out in...

Facebook Messenger now gives anyone the option to delete a regretful or mistaken message from their chat history. Facebook initially promised the feature after TechCrunch reported in April that multiple people said Facebook messages they received from CEO Mark Zuckerberg later appeared to have been deleted while their own messages remained. At the time, Facebook told TechCrunch Zuckerberg’s messages were...

The state of the union is dark. A large majority of Americans say they are pessimistic about the state of the country and few expect things will get better in the year ahead, according to a poll released Tuesday by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. A week before President Donald Trump delivers his assessment of the nation...

Family members of a UPS worker who was found dead late last month said someone has been sending them suspicious messages pretending to be their beloved father and brother in a “cruel prank” following his death.

Watchdog groups in Massachusetts reported Tuesday the election was going smoothly, for the most part, in the Commonwealth by mid-afternoon. There were minor issues with voting machines breaking down in Boston, Lawrence and Lowell. Pam Wilmot, the executive director of Common Cause, told the NBC10 Investigators election officials responded to calls to fix or replace the machines.

The NBC10 Boston Investigators will be watching Tuesday’s races very closely to make sure every vote counts. Our journalists have teamed up with the ProPublica Electionland Project which aims to track problems that prevent people from voting.

NBC 10 Boston and necn are committed to making sure your vote counts in the Nov. 6 midterm election. We’ll have a team of journalists digging into any reports of problems that prevent eligible voters from casting ballots. But we need you to be our eyes and ears at the polls. If you see problems at a polling place —...

European and Japanese space agencies said an Ariane 5 rocket successfully lifted a spacecraft carrying two probes into orbit Saturday for a joint mission to Mercury, the closest planet to the sun. The European Space Agency and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency said the unmanned BepiColombo spacecraft successfully separated and was sent into orbit from French Guiana as planned to...

Facebook is launching the first electronic device to bear its brand, a screen and camera-equipped gadget intended to make video calls easier and more intuitive. But it’s unclear if people will open their homes to an internet-connected camera sold by a company with a questionable track record on protecting user privacy. Facebook is marketing the device, called Portal, as a...

A hoax that is gaining some ground on Facebook has some worried about a new possible hack of the social network. Facebook says to disregard the message. The hoax works by targeting a user’s inbox on Messenger, with the message making it appear like the user could have a cloned profile.

Facebook Marketplace is celebrating its second anniversary Wednesday, and announcing new technology to propel its growth and empower Facebook’s 2.23 billion monthly users to buy and sell goods. Los Angeles-based lifestyle blogger Meredith Greenberg makes about $500 per month flipping goods she purchases on Facebook Marketplace. She takes old items and turns them from shabby to chic. “I use Marketplace...

Summer is the perfect time to enjoy a cold, refreshing treat! NBC10 Boston’s Jackie Bruno found three places that have extra special desserts you need to try.

Twitter’s stock plunged 20.5 percent after the company said monthly users decreased in the second quarter.