Monthly Archives: January 2020

On Wednesday, Teen Vogue published an article on Facebooks efforts to safeguard political speech. It had no byline and a glowing tone.

Not long after it was posted, a line appeared, in italics, at the top of the story to signal that it was a paid advertisement: Editors note: This is sponsored editorial content.

Soon after, the sponsored editorial content label disappeared. And then, the article itself vanished.

Under the headline How Facebook Is Helping Ensure the Integrity of the 2020 Election, the lengthy Teen Vogue post included question-and-answer-style interviews with five female Facebook managers who said the platform was taking steps to avoid spreading misinformation and propaganda as another presidential election drew near. The article also included a portrait of the women.

Were a different company than we were in 2016, Katie Harbath, Facebooks director of global elections, was quoted as saying. Including when it comes to elections.

Cond Nast, the owner of Teen Vogue, said in a statement, We made a series of errors labeling this piece, and we apologize for any confusion this may have caused. We dont take our audiences trust for granted, and ultimately decided that the piece should be taken down entirely to avoid further confusion.

A Cond Nast employee with knowledge of the arrangement, who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly, said the article had indeed been commissioned as sponsored content, meaning it was an ad.

Facebook pitched the idea for the article last year, when the social media network and the online magazine were in talks about the Teen Vogue Summit, a three-day event that took place in Los Angeles in November, with speakers including the YouTube star Liza Koshy and the film director Greta Gerwig. Facebook was a sponsor of the gathering.

We had a paid partnership with Teen Vogue related to their womens summit, which included sponsored content, Facebook said in a statement. Our team understood this story was purely editorial, but there was a misunderstanding.

Sheryl Sandberg, Facebooks chief operating officer, and other executives at the company shared the Teen Vogue story Wednesday morning, before it went into the digital ether.

Great Teen Vogue piece about five incredible women protecting elections on Facebook, Ms. Sandberg wrote on her Facebook page. The post went on to plug the companys attempts to stop the spread of misinformation and fight foreign interference and voter suppression.

Phillip Picardi, Teen Vogues former chief content officer, was one of the articles critics. I am so sorry to the @TeenVogue team for whatever irresponsible sales or marketing staff pushed this article into their feed, therefore discrediting all the GOOD work theyve been doing to educate their audience about the REAL threats posed by @Facebook in our election, he wrote on Twitter.

As the debate about the article made Teen Vogue a trending topic on Twitter, another online critic linked to the article and posed the question, What is this Teen Vogue? To that, the verified Teen Vogue account replied in a tweet that was later deleted: literally idk.

Facebook has struggled to shore up its reputation after a three-year string of debacles related to its handling of election interference and data privacy. Lawmakers and civil rights groups have warned that the company seems unprepared to counter the disinformation campaigns that clogged social media during the last presidential campaign.

This week, a 2,500-word internal post by a Facebook executive, Andrew Bosworth, set off discord at the company. In his post, which was obtained by The New York Times, he warned against the temptation to skew the platform against President Trumps 2020 re-election campaign and stood by the companys stance on not censoring politicians posts.

Teen Vogue started in 2003 as a pet project of Anna Wintour, the longtime editor in chief of Vogue and Cond Nasts artistic director. In 2017, as the magazine gained attention for adding articles on politics and social issues to its mix, Cond Nast shut down the print edition.

On Wednesday, the Teen Vogue home page included serious fare like No to War With Iran alongside lifestyle articles headlined How to Tell Your Crush You Like Them and The Best Under $100 Bags to Shop From Coachs Major Winter Sale.

For now, anyone clicking on the link to Teen Vogues Facebook article is met with this message: Uh-Oh. Unfortunately this page does not exist.

Kevin Roose contributed reporting.

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The Mystery of Teen Vogues Disappearing Facebook Article - The New York Times

Duncan Andison/Getty Images

Duncan Andison/Getty Images

If it seems that your Facebook feed is flooded with as many fundraising appeals for animal shelters, humanitarian groups and cancer researchers as your postbox was in December, you aren't imagining things.

Those birthday fundraisers you've likely seen posted by your friends, tripled over the past year, from $300 million raised for charities in 2017-18, to $1 billion a year later. It's great news for those nonprofits. But some Facebook users think it's getting to be too much of a good thing.

Vinita Kochhar, a 47-year-old marketing executive from New Jersey is one of the many who are making the fundraisers something of a new birthday tradition. When she first heard about a charity raising money for school supplies for children in India, Kochhar felt she had to help.

"It hit me in the heart," she says, "because what we take for granted every single day, I realized very quickly that there are kids that just don't have that at all. A pencil to them is a big deal."

Kochhar also realized how easily she could help; with just a few clicks on Facebook, she posted a fundraiser on her birthday right when all her friends and family would be reaching out anyway.

"I would get gift cards or clothes or whatnot. So here was my opportunity to say, 'in lieu of gifts, I'm asking for everyone to contribute to the cause that I believe in."

Before Kochhar knew it, her post raised $11,000, prompting the kids in India to send her a Happy Birthday greeting video as a thank you.

"Honestly, I probably felt more fulfilled than I did when we had a huge party," she says. "You know, it's not always just about celebration. It's about having purpose. And this gave me purpose."

Donors are apparently feeling it too.

"I guess I like the feeling that I'm putting my money where my mouth is," says Edward Grant of Berkeley, Calif. The 65-year-old finds it hard to resist when all those fundraisers pop up in his feed.

"There's the man in Colombia, who has an education group for kids who live in the garbage dumps, and there's a dancer who has cancer, and then I see the fundraiser for eradicating cervical cancer in the developing world. They're working miracles," Grant says while scrolling back through scores of causes in his feed that he's contributed to.

"Oh my goodness," he laughs. "I guess there are more than I realized."

But some Facebook users are less amused.

"It's like an avalanche," grumbles Carolyn Toll Oppenheim, a retired journalist in Northampton, Mass. "The whole thing starts to feel overwhelming."

And she says, "presumptuous."

"Don't hit me up [by saying] 'in lieu of presents,'" Toll Oppenheim says. "Who buys all their Facebook friends a birthday present?! I don't like it. There's a guilt trip to it."

Especially, she says, since everyone can see who has donated.

"That makes me cringe a little," Toll Oppenheim says. "Are they checking who gave and who didn't? I don't like Facebook making me feel lousy."

David Murphy, senior Technology Editor for Lifehacker.com agrees. He posted a "how to" for people who want to mute their fundraiser notifications.

"Those 'give me money' solicitations get a little annoying, especially when you're receiving multiple notifications about fundraisers you never actually said you were interested in," Murphy wrote last June.

There's not a way to block all fundraisers, but Murphy says silencing the notifications offers at least a bit of a reprieve.

"I feel a little Ebenezer Scrooge," he told NPR. "But it's my newsfeed, my content. I want a curated experience."

Besides, Murphy says, there's something especially off-putting about such conspicuous giving.

"It's a bit of a humblebrag," he says. "It feels a little insincere."

Lehigh Univerisity Associate Professor Jeremy Littau, who teaches about social media and social action, agrees there is an element of "slactivism" to Facebook birthday fundraisers, and it's prone to be used by those who are looking for the "flex" or who may be "doing for it the gram," in other words, for the sake of showing off on Instagram or Facebook. But Littau says the notion of "virtue signaling" is as old as giving itself.

"This is just a new evolution of something that has long existed," he says. Still he says, in the realm of social media, fundraiser fatigue is a real risk.

"Facebook cannot theoretically just infinitely grow the number of fundraisers without some sort of blowback, either in terms of users protesting, or people just getting turned off to the idea altogether," he says.

Facebook says the feedback to fundraisers is overwhelming positive, though Emily Dalton Smith, Facebook's director of Social Impact Product, says the company is constantly reviewing and updating policies, just as it did two years ago, when it eliminated fundraiser processing fees, so that 100% of birthday donations now go to the charities.

"We know that no product is ever perfect," Dalton Smith says. "We're always looking for feedback to understand what could be better, and I expect that the products will continue to change over time."

Ultimately, Facebook fundraisers such as Vinita Kochhar, say the good is far outweighed by the harm. It's better to be bombarded by birthday fundraisers than just a slew of birthday selfies, says Kochhar.

"It's refreshing to me to see that folks are not just focusing on themselves, but they're focusing on causes," she says. "At the end of the day, it matters not if someone's saying it looks like they're 'flexing' or any of that, in my opinion... I mean honestly, at the end of the day, if the folks that are in need are getting the money. That's all that matters... Those dollars are going for good."

And indeed, they are. Those who raise funds for hospitals, the homeless, the hungry, and the Humane Society are raking it in, thanks to Facebook. The Wayne County Humane Society in Wooster, Ohio, received thousands of dollars in the past year from birthday fundraisers, plus one wedding fundraiser.

Director Carrie Andrew says as important as getting the money, is the gift of suddenly having an army of fresh faces willing to solicit their friends.

"It absolutely is a relief," she says, for nonprofits who would otherwise have to keep making their usual appeals to their usual supporters. That, she says, runs the risk of getting a lot more annoying than Facebook fundraisers.

"We feel like we are constantly asking for donations," she says. "And we do feel like it gets old and stale, and people will begin to not want to support us because we're constantly asking. So when someone takes it upon themselves to raise those funds for us instead of us asking for it...it is very helpful."

Besides, Andrew says, scrolling past a few fundraisers on Facebook has to be less annoying than getting those dinner-time phone calls asking for money, or knocks at the door.

Read more:

Fed Up With Fundraisers On Facebook? You're Not Alone - NPR

In 2013, AHS Consulting founder Amna Shah started boosting her business'spresence on Facebook. She and her employees worked to build out a page with information about the Chattanooga, Tennessee-based company, and posted new content multiple times a week. Toattract potential customers, staffers crafted ads and paid to boost exposure of posts.

Shah knew consumer-facing brands may be better suited for Facebook's advertising and paid marketing, but assumed hers, too, could find an audience. Some existing customers interacted with the brand, and likes piled up. But Shah says no one new from Chattanooga or the nearbyAtlanta regionseemed to be finding her consulting firmthrough the platform--only some individuals from India and China.

"Over time, we started to think these were fake profiles," she says."We got no new business out of Facebook, ever." Halfway through 2018, the company stopped putting effort into Facebook marketing.

Shah is far from alone. In a November survey, Inc. asked CEOs and other high-ranking executivesfrom fast-growing companies what they think about Facebook from a business perspective. Thirty-two percent said they are now getting less for their marketing dollars with Facebook than they used to, while 27 percent said they mistrust Facebook's use of their business data. In follow-up interviews, several of the survey takers said theyhave slowed their use of Facebook marketing and advertising. Afew, meanwhile, have pulled the plug altogether.

For years Facebook has pouredenergy into targeting and educating small businesses, growinga team of publicists and outreach employees.As of 2018, more than 140 million businesses globally used Facebook, at least 90 million of which were smalland midsize businesses, according to the company. Veronica Twombly, the head of communications for Facebook Small Business, says SMBsare a "top priority" for the platform.

"We are trying to elevate our free and paid solutions to make sure these small- and medium-size businesses know all of the tools at their disposal to help grow their customers," Twombly tells Inc. The company offers digital training for businesses, and held more than 100 in-person training sessions in the United States in 2019.

Facebook in the past has acknowledged the growing cost of its advertising for business, even as user growth has slowed. Finance chief David Wehner said in an investor conference call that in the fourth quarter of 2017 alone, the average price per ad climbed 43 percent, while the number of ad impressions served increased just 4 percent. Still, Twombly says the company is continuing to see growth in monthly active advertisers.

Several of the executives who told Inc. theyhave stopped advertising on Facebook over the past year were from business-to-business companies, which often can findcustomers more reliably on LinkedIn or through other marketing channels. Butothers outside of the B2B realmhave followed suit.One example is Jack Wight, the founder ofan electronics reseller thatadvertisedaggressively to individuals on Facebook in 2018but pulled the plug on the effort the following year.

"We weren't making any money on those people by the time we paid for the advertising," says Wight, the chief executive of Buyback Boss, which is based in Tempe, Arizona. "The marketing cost was just higher than other channels."

Wight estimates his company spent about $20,000 on Facebook ads over the course of a year,before giving up on Facebook about seven months ago. For 2020, his company is using a strategy of SEO and Adwords to find people who type in, for example, "sell my iPhone 10" on Google.

A Buyback Bossemployee who had been handling the company's Facebook presence and advertising now focuseson search marketing. Wight says he's open to resuming ad spending onFacebook--but only after he's scaled the other marketing channels he's found more effective.

"We put some money into it, we risked some money to experiment," he says, "and it just didn't work."

Published on: Jan 10, 2020

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Facebook Used to Be an Essential Marketing Tool. These CEOs Are Doing Just Fine Without It - Inc.

Rachell "Valkyrae" Hofstetter is among the latest video game livestreamers to leave Amazon-owned Twitch to stream on a rival service.

Source: YouTube

YouTube announced on Monday exclusive livestreaming deals with three popular gamers, its latest talent acquisition in the booming market for watching skilled video gamers stream their feats online.

The three Rachell "Valkyrae" Hofstetter, Lannan "LazarBeam" Eacott and Elliott "Muselk" Watkins will move to Google-owned YouTube after years of streaming on Amazon's Twitch. They're the latest players in a battle that has heated up over the past few months, as streaming companies lock in the biggest stars.

Twitch has dominated livestreaming, particularly video games, beginning with its founding as Justin.tv in 2011 and through Amazon's 2014 acquisition of the company for nearly $1 billion. Since then, tech rivals YouTube, Facebook and Microsoft's Mixer have angled to carve footholds in the livestreaming hype with their own platforms amid a booming market and the shift to a more digitally based entertainment industry.

The race got more heated when superstar streamer Tyler "Ninja" Blevins moved to Mixer in August. That was followed by Michael "Shroud" Grzesiek, whose 7 million followers was third-highest on Twitch with 7 million, moved over to Mixer in October.

These efforts have eaten into Twitch's lead in livestreaming. The company saw its dominance in the worldwide market for livestream hours watched drop from 67.1% in 2018 to 61% in 2019, according to data from gaming services StreamElements and Arsenal.gg.

YouTube saw its share grow from 27.5% in 2018 to 27.9% in 2019. Facebook Gaming, while much less popular, saw the most dramatic growth, leaping from 3.1% in 2018 to 8.5% in 2019.

Facebook jumped into the streaming market in January 2018 with the launch of Facebook Gaming, where creators can livestream their gameplay to users of the social network anywhere around the world.

Facebook Gaming's Vivek Sharma is leading the company's effort to attract more video game livestreamers.

Facebook

The company declined to say how many people use Facebook for the specific purpose of watching gaming livestreams but claims more than 700 million users who play a game on Facebook, interact in a Facebook gaming group or watch a gaming video each month.

Nonetheless, Facebook believes it has a big opportunity on its hands.

"It's easy to assume that because it's gaming and because Facebook is so big that perhaps this is a niche," Vivek Sharma, Facebook's gaming head of product, said in an interview last month. "But the 700 million people that engage every month that's a huge number even at Facebook's scale. And we know that number is growing rapidly."

Facebook is trying to use its global reach to get a leg up on Twitch, promoting Facebook Gaming in markets like Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines, Indonesia, Brazil and Mexico. "We feel that gaming is a borderless activity," Sharma said.

That global reach has attracted creators like Amanda Oto, who goes by "Eithieen" in her streams.

Oto is a gamer in Spain who began streaming on Twitch in 2013. For Oto, streaming is a full-time gig, but after streaming on Twitch for so long, she felt she was hitting the limit of her potential audience. Oto decided in September to switch to Facebook Gaming in hopes of reaching more viewers.

Since making the switch, Oto said, she's reaching about 80 to 100 viewers per Facebook Gaming livestream, which is down from the 100 to 300 she averaged on Twitch.

However, she added, her follower count is now around 10,000, up from the 1,000 followers she had on Twitch.

"A platform change is always scary. You don't know what's going to happen," Oto said in Spanish. "But I didn't get this wrong. I made the right choice."

Amanda "Eithieen" Oto left Amazon's Twitch for Facebook Gaming in September.

Facebook

YouTube has also done its fair share of wheeling and dealing. Google's video platform has historically relied on video on demand as opposed to games livestreaming. In fact, YouTube launched YouTube Gaming in 2015 as an answer to Twitch, and merged it with the main site in May.

YouTube's focus on video on demand gives creators another avenue for their content to live online. YouTube managed to swipe Jack "CouRage" Dunlop and Lachlan Power from Twitch for exclusive livestreaming deals last fall.

Measured based onlive streams and on-demand videos, YouTube claims the most unique users in the U.S. with 47% of the market, according to research firm IDC. In second is Twitch with 25%, followed by Mixer's 15% and Facebook Gaming at 13%, according to IDC.

"The beauty of YouTube is the combination of different tool sets," YouTube Global head of gaming Ryan Wyatt told CNBC. "That makes us stand out."

WATCH: Here's how to see which apps have access to your Facebook data and cut them off

Link:

YouTube signs three video stars to combat Amazon's Twitch and fast-growing Facebook in game streaming - CNBC

The draw for UEFA eEURO 2020 will be live streamed on the UEFA EURO 2020 Facebook page from 20:00 CET/19:00 GMT on Wednesday 15 January.

The 55 participating national teams will be divided into ten groups of either five or six teams for the next phase of the competition, which will be contested between March and May. The teams will play two games (one v one) against each of the other teams in their qualifying group, with the winner of each group and the best six runners-up qualifying for the 16-team final tournament, which will take place in London on 9 and 10 July.

The first edition of the UEFA eEURO is the largest ever efootball national-team competition. In November 2019, all 55 UEFA national associations started their search for their countrys top players. Many associations some taking their first step into the world of efootball organised online tournaments, nationwide tours and bootcamps, to enable players to be trained and assessed by experts.

The team crowned the winner of eEURO 2020 will receive tickets to the final of UEFA EURO 2020 as well as a cash prize.

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UEFA eEURO 2020 draw to be streamed live on Facebook - UEFA.com

Kindness can be found in the strangest of places. We often have people touch our lives in miraculous ways and they are lost to us and we feel a void that we can never thank them personally. Many communities have Facebook forum pages where residents can post things like new traffic patterns or find lost pets, but Facebook can help us find the strangers that reward us with kindness too.

According to seacoastonline Luann Sayer of Kingston was involved in a horrific accident just after New Years Day on her way to work in Exeter. A truck hit her vehicle and it overturned leaving her trapped and panic-stricken in the car. A young man named Alton stopped and talked to her until emergency services arrived. Sawyer says he just constantly talked to me. I was glad he did that. He could have just kept on going. Alton let her use his cellphone to call her boyfriend. When the Exeter firefighters arrive, Alton could see she was in good hands and went on his way.

Seacoastonline says Luann felt a deep need to thank Alton for staying with until emergency services arrived. She posted a picture of the accident scene of Facebook and thorough the wonders of the internet, someone recognized Alton Veroneau and she was able to reach out and thank him.Sure, there are trolls and some hate being posted on Facebook but there is also a side that allows communities to connect with each other in a deeper way. Im looking for more positive news in the new year and this story touched my heart.

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There is a lot of Negative on Facebook, but a lot of Positive too - wokq.com

If, like most people these days, you have a Facebook account, the company is collecting data about you.

In fact, even if youre one of the people who participated in the mass exit a while back, and you deleted your account, its still collecting data about you.

Sorry to tell you this, but it looks like leaving Facebook is harder than leaving a cult.

Unfortunately, theres no way to stop them from collecting this data. I have a theory that personal data is to (real human person and definitely not a robot) Mark Zuckerberg what blood is to a vampire.

You can, however, control how it uses it.

Per WIRED:

How hard you want to pull back depends to a certain extent on how much you trust Facebook. The social network behemoth says it uses your data to show relevant ads and keep you safe; if someone signs into your account from a country youre not usually in, for instance, Facebook can flag the activity as suspicious.

However, this is not a company with a good track record when it comes to looking after your data. Irrespective of how Facebook itself has used your information, its certainly been careless in the ways that information has been shared with third parties.

Youll want to watch the doccie about the Facebook / Cambridge Analytica scandal to really get a feel for how careless the social media platform has been.

If you want to control your data, here are three ways that Facebook tracks you and how to limit it:

On The Web

When you signed up for Facebook you gave it permission to access your personal information and that includes which groups or events you click on and the pages you follow.

How To Limit It

You cant really stop Facebook from collecting this information, but you can limit how it affects the advertising that you see. Visit the Ad Preferences page in your account. Open up Your Interests to get an idea of what Facebook thinks youre into. It might have assumed things that arent true.

Go to Ad Settings and make some changes to what is Allowed and Not Allowed by selecting those options. You can also hit up the Your Information Tab to find out exactly how and why Facebook is targeting you with specific content (relationship status, job title, etc).

Marketing Firms And Ad Networks

Facebook isnt only tracking you on Facebook, because it also partners with a wide range of marketing firms and ad networks. This means that activities on other sites, including but limited to PornHub (not a joke), are being recorded.

How To Limit It

When this info came to light, people were naturally quite upset about it, so Facebook introduced Off-Facebook Activity which will supposedly disconnect this data from what you actually do on Facebook.

Its a comprehensive solution, but still not widely available.

On Mobile Devices

Much of what weve said about how Facebook tracks you on the web applies to the mobile app as well, with a few additional ways to collect information. The app allows Facebook to track which mobile Wi-Fi networks youre connecting to, the type of phone that you have, and the other apps that youve installed.

How To Limit It

The easiest way to limit tracking is not to install the mobile app at all. If you insist on having the app, you can go to Apps and Notifications, and then block Facebook from accessing your phones location, contacts, microphone, and camera.

Unfortunately, even with location tracking turned off, the company can still make note of the location where you access the web via your IP address.

While its impossible to completely stop the company from tracking you, there are ways to ensure that youre using the platform with maximum privacy.

Considering the companys past, you might want to get on that.

[source:wired]

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Facebook Is Always Tracking You Here's What You Can Do About It - 2oceansvibe News

McDonalds Big Mac

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Wall Street analysts say there's no shortage of high quality stocks with upside for investors as 2020 gets underway.

Many analysts named their top picks this week and CNBC looked at the most recent research to find the best picks. Stocks include Verizon, McDonald's, Estee Lauder, Facebook, Simon Property Group, and ViacomCBS.

McDonald's will be at the forefront of marketing and innovation this year, and that's just one reason that Evercore ISI said the company is its top pick in 2020.

The firm said in a note to clients it sees a stronger breakfast focus along with McDonald's first new advertising campaign in many years. In addition, the company is testing out what Evercore says is an "improved premium chicken sandwich."

The company also continues to be innovative on the technical front by launching a digital customer engagement team to better interact with customers.

"As a result, we believe McDonald's offers the most favorable risk/reward in our coverage into 2020," analyst David Palmer said.

Disney, Apple, and Netflix may be getting all the attention in the streaming wars, but there's another media company one analyst says not to overlook.

"With 2020 now upon us, we are making the newly-formed ViacomCBS our top pick," Imperial Capital analyst David Miller said.

While the company continues to produce content for Netflix and Amazon, the firm notes that ViacomCBS has the ability to retain programming for later use on its own platforms such as its over-the-top subscription streaming service like CBS All Access and Showtime.

The firm also praised the company's upcoming movie slate calling it "as good as we have ever seen it" with titles like "Mission Impossible 7" and "Top Gun Maverick" from Paramount.

"We believe investors long this stock will enjoy a number of unique catalysts throughout 2020," the analyst said.

As the election season heats up, Facebook is another top name to watch, according to Canaccord.

The company said this week it would let people see fewer political ads, but it has continued to face criticism after it said it wouldn't fact-check political advertising on the social media giant's website.

Still, Canaccord believes that political advertising spending may give the company a boost leading to earnings beats in 2020. In addition, the firm said it thinks Facebook's Stories, a live video feature, will also lead to more viewing of ads.

"Looking forward, we think Facebook likely has the biggest upside to estimates in 2020, given the ongoing transition to Stories monetization and likely conservative outlook," they said.

Here are other top picks by analysts this week:

"We favor VZ's current strategy and plan which aligns very closely with its core roots as a network and connectivity provider. The proverbial 'elevator pitch' of VZ is a simple one --- > it is all about the network! The company has kept this disciplined focus, even while its peers around it venture into new silos (such as media and content). While we acknowledge it is difficult to identify near-term tangible catalysts, we believe 2020 will be a year of important milestones for the company. In our view, VZ's ambitious fiber roll-out is laying the hardest and most necessary building blocks for a premium 5G network experience."

"In 2019, EL shares increased 59% easily outperforming a 29% gain in the S&P 500. As we look forward, we continue to see an attractive case for outperformance from here and reiterate EL as a top pick. We expect continued strength in China, travel retail, and skincare to continue driving above-peer top- and bottom-line delivery. On a relative basis, EL's valuation is now off a multi-year high, and we continue to believe a premium valuation is warranted."

"SPG continues to have the strongest balance sheet of any large-cap REIT, generating over $1B annually in retained free cash flow which it is using to redevelop select assets in the portfolio, to generate accretive returns, and to bolster long-term stability in the portfolio. The shares have underperformed as a result of the relentless negative narrative that argues that e-commerce growth will lead to wholesale mall failures. While tenant failures have been elevated, SPG's properties continue to operate at a strong level with stable occupancy rates and higher average rental rates over the last several quarters."

"McDonald's is our top pick entering 2020. ... As a result, we believe McDonald's offers the most favorable risk/reward in our coverage into 2020. Next year, we believe the US story will be more about 'blocking and tackling' and would not be surprised to see a combination of: 1) higher value and breakfast focus, 2) improved suggestive selling and personalized marketing with loyalty, 3) a new advertising campaign, 4) a new and improved premium chicken sandwich, 5) sharper price actions with the help of Deloitte, 6) an improved focus on drive-thru speed with the help of technology to better measure car throughput, and 7) higher delivery growth with Doordash and Grubhub onboarded."

"The election year should be a tailwind as the majority of digital political ad spend lands on Facebook's properties, although candidates vocalizing around privacy may impact sentiment. ... Meanwhile, candidates advocating increased regulation around privacy and anti-competitive behavior could prove to be a headwind to sentiment for a number of larger companies. ... Looking forward, we think Facebook likely has the biggest upside to estimates in 2020, given the ongoing transition to Stories monetization and likely conservative outlook."

"We believe investors long this stock will enjoy a number of unique catalysts throughout 2020. ... We believe investors have placed too much importance on subscribership to CBS All Access and Showtime OTT and have forgotten that the new VIAC will also produce a panoply of content for third parties, which we appreciate because it gives the combined company optionality in retaining the series for exploitation in later windows within its own platform. ... In addition, the upcoming F2020 Paramount movie slate is as good as we have ever seen it, with titles that include The Rhythm Section, A Quiet Place 2, another Spongebob movie and the big one, Top Gun Maverick, which could be a rare $1 billion grosser for VIAC's Studio line."

Read the rest here:

Wall Street analysts say invest in these top stocks in 2020 including McDonald's & Facebook - CNBC

Facebook Preventive Health targets users in broad strokes using only two data points: age and gender. If you opt in to the feature, Facebook will send you checkup-reminder notifications and suggest nearby sites for flu shots, cancer screenings, and blood-pressure tests, among others. In an October blog post, Abnousi said the feature will also suggest free clinics for the uninsured.

Read: Googles totally creepy, totally legal health-data harvesting

A spokesperson for Facebook denied that the Preventive Health tool is related to the Building 8 data-sharing proposal. Preventive Health, like many of the health initiatives led by Silicon Valley, doesnt fall under the purview of HIPAA, the 1996 federal law protecting private patient information. Many experts say HIPAA is outdated, because its narrow definition of data collection does not cover the way tech companies collect and process health information.

Physicians swear an oath to keep an individuals data confidential, Jesse Ehrenfeld, chair of the American Medical Association Board of Trustees, told me over email. Theres currently no such obligation for technology companies and data aggregators or the data brokers to whom they might sell information.

When reached for comment, Facebook referred me to two October blog posts explaining that the Preventive Health tools data are never shared or sold to third parties. (A notable exception, however, is if users like a specific health-care provider, drug, or hospital. Those data are added to the companys ad-targeting machinery.)

But for Facebook, the real value of the tool isnt in direct monetization. Its in becoming an integral part of yet another facet of users lives. Historically, this appears to be Facebooks operating strategy: Move into a largely unregulated space, leverage the platforms unmatched ubiquity to create a highly convenient product within that space, and then turn convenience into dependence into more time spent on the platform. Facebook hastened its ascent by monetizing social data and turning likes into massive ad revenue. Then it launched new products like Messenger, and grew its empire by acquiring Instagram and WhatsApp, both of which generated ever more data. What started as a spin on an online yearbook became new products, which attracted new users, and on and on it went. As Facebook moves into health care, its future success will probably look like its past success.

The Preventive Health tool is launching at a time when not nearly enough people have consistent access to preventive care. Many people usually wait until theyre sick before seeing a professional. As recently as 2015, only 8 percent of adults received the recommended high priority health screenings, according to a study from the Department of Health and Human Services Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Most people get some essential screenings, but very few receive all of them. The poorest Americans, especially those living in rural communities, have the least access.

See the article here:

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Motor vehicle agencies in Maryland and Virginia experienced major technical issues Monday linked to what was called a nationwide system outage.

Motor vehicle agencies in Maryland and Virginia experienced major technical issues Monday linked to what was called a nationwide system outage.

The technical glitches prevented agencies in Maryland and Virginia from providing a host of services, including issuing drivers licenses and vehicle titles, for several hours Monday.

The issues stemmed from the outage of a third-party system, operated by the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators, which connects motor vehicles agencies across the U.S. to each other and to various verification services.

In a statement, the Arlington-based group said between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Monday, the network experienced an outage, which prevented most states from issuing or renewing drivers licenses and vehicle titles during that time.

As of 2 p.m., the network appears to be operational and stable, a spokeswoman for the group said in an email to WTOP.

Claire Jeffrey, the spokeswoman, said the group continues to monitor the network and will conduct a full analysis to determine the root cause of the outage.

In Virginia, the Department of Motor Vehicles tweeted shortly after 1:30 p.m. that its systems were up and running again, after being down for several hours, but that due to the large volume of transactions in the queue, offices across Virginia are still experiencing slow processing times.

Marylands Motor Vehicle Administration, which also experienced issues, tweeted shortly after 2 p.m. that its services were back online. The agency had tweeted earlier in the day that services had been restored before having to alert customers that systems went down again.

D.C.s Department of Motor Vehicles never alerted customers to any issues, but the agency was also affected by the nationwide glitch.

During the height of the outages, accounts on social media and local news outlets across the U.S. reported DMV outages in New York, Tennessee and Rhode Island, among others.

During the same time as the outage affecting drivers licenses, the D.C. DMV alerted customers that a system used to schedule road test was also down, but an agency spokesman said it was not related.

WTOPs Megan Cloherty contributed to this report.

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DMVs in DC area hit by service outages linked to nationwide glitch - WTOP