Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin renounces American citizenship

The Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin officially defriended the United States in September, giving up his American citizenship for the more tax-friendly residency status of Singapore. 

Saverin, who was born in Brazil and has lived in Singapore since 2010, plans to remain indefinitely in the Asian island nation, where the maximum personal income tax rate is 20 percent and capital gains are not taxed. 

A spokesman for Saverin insists his client did not renounce the citizenship he has held since 1998 for financial reasons. "I have worked with him for over a year, and that never came up," said Thomas Goodman. "Obviously it was a big decision, but he's making all these investments in Europe, Asia and the U.S. It just seemed a lot simpler." 

Goodman declined to say exactly what simplifications the impending billionaire would enjoy, other than the financial. 

The renunciation, published by the State Department at the end of April and reported first by Bloomberg on Friday, became public just days before Facebook shares are expected to be sold to the public. The company is expected to be valued at more than $85 billion. 

Saverin owns less than 5 percent of Facebook, but is expected to be worth more than $3.5 billion after the public offering. The decision was made several months ago, Goodman said. "Everyone is trying to tie this to the IPO and taxes," he said. "It was never about that." 

Loss of his citizenship in September makes it likely that the process was initiated sometime around last May, according to a person with knowledge of the situation. People leaving U.S. citizenship under such circumstances typically pay an "exit tax," which is a final bill based on all assets. 

Saverin, 30, helped found Facebook while at Harvard with Mark Zuckerberg, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes, all of whom remain U.S. citizens.

Facebook buys Glancee in another mobile play

Facebook confirmed on Friday night that it has purchased Glancee, a mobile app that uses your location and Facebook login to connect you with like-minded individuals who happen to be near you in real life. Details of the deal were undisclosed but it looks like Glancee will be shutting down and some or all of the team will be joining Facebook — and they will be working on location-related features for the giant social network. Facebook confirmed the deal in a written statement: ""

We are thrilled to confirm that Facebook has acquired Glancee. The acquisition closed today. We can’t wait for co-founders Andrea, Alberto, and Gabriel (Chief Executive Officer Andrea Vaccari, Chief Operating Officer Alberto Tretti, and Chief Technology Officer Gabriel Grise) to join the Facebook team to work on products that help people discover new places and share them with friends.

On the heels of Facebook’s $1 billion buy of Instagram, this deal likely isn’t in the same league financially, but some view it as another indication that Facebook needs to ramp up its mobile experience. Ahead of its initial public offering, Facebook watchers seem obsessed with two primary stories: the glut of money that some people stand to make, and Facebook’s lack of competitiveness in the mobile arena.

Glancee does have some cool elements, and the promise of being able to connect my virtual Facebook life with my physical one using the Glancee app is certainly compelling. However, unlike its Instagram buy, where the service is staying up and running, Glancee is getting shut down. How much of what it does gets incorporated into new location features that Facebook might be working on remains to be seen.

Instagram had the benefit of not just being a cool photo-sharing app, but a viable mobile social network all on its own — and a fairly massive user base — whereas Glancee seems to be a mere tool. And so like other tools Facebook has purchased (hey remember Hot Potato or the April purchase of Tagtile?) Glancee may turn up later as a cool recommendation feature. Or not.

Facebook lets users take more data home

Facebook on Thursday began letting members of the world's leading online community take more of their pictures, posts, messages and other data home with them.

Facebook expanded the types of information its approximately 845 million members could download from their personal account histories to include data such as friend requests and IP addresses of computers used to log-in.

"This feature will be rolling out gradually to all users and more categories of information will be available for download in the future," Facebook said in a message at its Public Policy Europe page.

The move comes as the California-based Internet star works to reassure regulators, members and advocacy groups concerned about how much privacy and control of personal information people have at Facebook.

The "Download Your Information" tool was launched in 2010 to allow Facebook members to keep copies of what they share with friends at the social network.

Facebook is expected to make a much-anticipated debut next month on the technology-heavy NASDAQ exchange. Facebook in February filed to go public and could raise as much as $10 billion in the largest flotation ever by an Internet company on Wall Street.

Facebook, which is shifting operations to a former Sun Microsystems campus in the California city of Menlo Park, had a reported net income of $668 million last year.

Revenue nearly doubled to $3.7 billion in 2011, with most of it coming from targeted advertising gleaned from personal information shared by the platform's hundreds of millions of users.

Facebook's value has been estimated at between $75 billion and $100 billion.

Facebook e-commerce: the next big thing?

A group of e-commerce start-ups, backed by some of the tech world's most pedigreed financiers, are betting that Facebook Inc can become an e-commerce powerhouse to rival Amazon.com Inc and eBay Inc.

As the world's largest social network hurtles toward a $5 billion initial public offering, it will come under more pressure from Wall Street to find new sources of profit growth and reduce its reliance on advertising, which accounted for 85 per cent of its 2011 revenue.

Some entrepreneurs and investors increasingly think "f-commerce" - meaning e-commerce on Facebook - is the answer. Start-ups such as BeachMint, Yardsellr, Oodle and Fab.com are coming up with novel ways to persuade Facebook users to not just connect with friends on the social network, but to shop as well.

Backed by tens of millions of dollars from venture capital firms like Accel Partners and Andreessen Horowitz, and other big investors like Goldman Sachs(GS.N), these start-ups are pushing out shopping apps, hosting online garage sales and testing out new business models on Facebook.

"E-commerce is a huge category with very strong tailwinds and it's a natural move for Facebook," said Sam Schwerin of Millennium Technology Value Partners, which owns Facebook shares and has a stake in BeachMint.

Amazon revolutionized online shopping by crunching lots of customer and purchase data to come up with relevant, personalized recommendations. In the same vein, Facebook's combination of data, analytics and payment technology could fuel the next generation of e-commerce, Schwerin said.

Harvard MBA David Fisch, a former executive at eBay's StubHub online tickets business, oversees Facebook's e-commerce efforts, working with retailers to build social commerce businesses on the platform.

"People have always shopped with their friends; now they expect it online," Fisch wrote in a December blog. "Companies who think differently about social will find success."

Fisch declined to comment, but investors said Facebook understands the importance of having an e-commerce strategy.

"It's a big imperative for them," said Theresia Gouw Ranzetta of Accel Partners, an early backer of Facebook. "They understand it's an important strategic benefit for them to make e-commerce players successful on the platform."

If Facebook were built today, It would be a Mobile App

James Pearce, head of mobile developer relations for Facebook, likes to point out that 'you and your friends don't always have the same devices' or even use the same mobile platforms.
That's a problem for the company, as it has to support all the major platforms, from Apple iOS to Google Android and beyond - often putting it in the position of benefitting its competitors. But it's also a huge opportunity for Facebook itself to shape and dominate that common platform.
At a small lunch with reporters on the social media giant's luxe new Silicon Valley campus, Pearce explained that the mobile issue is far from trivial.
'Mobile is the epitome' of social, Pearce claimed. 'If Facebook were built today, it would be a mobile app.' He had numbers to back it up: Facebook currently has 425 mobile users (compared to 825 million total users).
But those millions are fractured among native apps running on specific mobile platforms and browser-based mobile Web apps. Surprisingly, according to Pearce, Facebook's mobile Web app usage outweighs that on Android and iOS combined.
Mobile Web apps give the company the opportunity to be the glue for that common platform, if it can convince developers to use technologies like HTML5 to create mobile Web apps that tie into Facebook for distribution and sharing, instead of relying on native platforms (and their individual app stores and ecosystems).
The problem is that HTML5 still has many weaknesses - no access to the phone's camera and other hardware, no DRM support, streaming and performance issues, and more - compared to native apps, so the company is working hard on many fronts to overcome those objections and convince developers - especially smaller ones - to see HTML5 as a valid option.
Those efforts include OpenGraph, which gives mobile developers a structured way to control how their apps interact with Facebook. And support for the Core Mobile Web Platform Community Group, or coremob.org, of the W3C - which brings together developers, carriers, phone makers and browser developers - is also underway to prioritize which HTML5 issues to work on first and test 'which browsers have a chance in hell of supporting what [developers] are trying to build.' Members of the Core Mobile Web Platform Community Group
The situation is complicated by the fact that many potential participants have conflicting interests. Apple and Google have so far declined to join, for example. 'As a browser vendor, I can't see why you wouldn't want to maximize the number of apps that run in your browser,' Pearce - a former schoolteacher - asked rhetorically. But Apple and Google also have giant mobile device businesses they want to protect, and Facebook's promotion of mobile Web apps over native apps could cut them out of the loop.
Pearce admitted that today, at least, there's no one answer as to whether it's better to develop native apps for mobile Web apps. It depends on what the app does, he said, and how much the developer wants to broaden its footprint. 'We present the decision tree, and we will be there for them whatever they choose. We won't choose for them.'
He also acknowledged that the choice isn't binary, with many 'hybrid' apps combining native and mobile Web functionality. And that approach is core to Facebook's own approach.
'We go through the same process' for Facebook's own apps, Pearce said. But whenever possible, Facebook 'uses the mobile Web app' and 'we work hard to make the mobile Web experience similar' to the native app experience. So, it creates hybrid mobile apps that rely on the browser as the primary rendering engine but use a native 'shell' to access device functions that a browser can't reach on its own.
Facebook, Pearce said, wants to be the platform of choice for mobile developers - if not a technology platform, then a distribution and discovery platform. The company clearly doesn't want to remain beholden to the iOS and Android app stores for how people find, buy and share mobile apps.
Facebook wants to be at the center of that ecosystem. That's why HTML5 and mobile Web apps are so appealing to the company - and so threatening to Apple, Google and any other company tied to its own devices and platforms.

Top 5 Facebook Privacy Tips

Frequent Facebook users have a love-hate relationship with the world's largest social network. It's hard not to worry about how Facebook is using the information we so freely feed it, yet the platform itself is so fun and enjoyable to use, oftentimes it's easier to overlook the bigger privacy picture for in-the-moment fun. Parents share images of their kids with friends and distant relatives. Artists trade links and images on Facebook, collaborating and curating ideas and interests. Yet the social networking comes with a price, as evidenced by the controversy caused by the Girls Around Me App, which uses public Foursquare and Facebook location data to map women nearby. And of course, it's easier to freak out about apps like this than to seriously consider what dumping your personal information onto Facebook itself means.

Facebook users need to be aware of what they're sharing and with whom, especially the young and vulnerable. To get a better idea of five ways to better protect your Facebook privacy, ReadWriteWeb talked to Sarah Downey, a privacy analyst for Abine, the maker of Do Not Track Plus.

Be aware of what you share on Facebook, but also keep an eye on social-sharing apps that let your friends share your information. If you are worried about the information that you've made available on Facebook, limit with whom you share it.
1. Limit Sharing to Friends Only

This suggestion is diametrically opposed to Zuckerberg's famous 'the age of privacy is over' declaration in 2009 in which he decided that everyone should share everything they posted on Facebook with everyone else. Later he retreated on this statement. The FTC stepped in, especially as the Timeline era approached. Facebook users can set the default to 'friends only,' and that's exactly what Downey suggests.

'If you're sharing with 'friends of friends,' you're exposing your info to an average of 150,000 people,' says Downey. 'When your data is open to the public, it can - and does - end up anywhere: the Girls Around Me app or Spokeo.com are two creepy examples.'

To change the settings to friends-only, go to Privacy Settings, and select 'Friends' or 'Custom.' Adjust the settings according to whom you would prefer sees your posts. Note that if you check the 'Friends of those tagged' box, you are allowing Facebook to share the post on your wall with the friends of the person tagged.

2. Don't Let Your Friends Share Your Info

Pay close attention to requests from random Facebook social apps like BranchOut. (Plus, do you really want to do 'career networking' on Facebook? Casual networking is one thing, but for purely professional connecting, go to LinkedIn.)

'BranchOut requests your basic info; your email address; your profile info: education history, location and work history; and your friends' profile information, including their education histories, locations and work histories,' says Abine. 'Even without your permission, BranchOut can access your friends' permission.'

This is not only intrusive, yes, but also indicative of something more important: As soon as you become Facebook friends with another user, you are allowing them to access a great deal of information about you. This is even more reason to watch what you share on your Facebook profile and who you become friends with.

To change this setting, go to Privacy Settings > Apps, Games and Websites. Then select 'How people bring your info to apps they use.' Go through and uncheck information about yourself that you don't want your friends to share via social apps and games.

3. Take Care of Your Taggage

That's right, I said taggage, not baggage. It's all kind of the same these days, though. Unlike Google+, which asks users if they'd like facial recognition turned on in photos, Facebook offers 'tag suggestions.' This means that when a photo that looks like you is uploaded to the network, Facebook suggests adding a tag. It says that this helps 'save time,' especially when many photos are uploaded from a single event. It does not tag you automatically, but this sort of thing does count as facial recognition. If you would like to opt-out of this feature, change the 'who sees tag suggestions when photos that look like you are uploaded' option to 'no one.'

If you don't mind keeping it within friends, select the 'friends' option. You can also adjust the Timeline and Tagging options, turning on the review tags and review posts friends tag you in.

4. Limit Audience for Past Posts

The switch to Timeline caused many to promptly wipe and clean up their Facebook profiles, making them shiny new and pristine for friends. Changing the privacy settings on old posts means that you're making a conscious decision to share even past posts with only your current Facebook friends. This includes posts you've previously made public, or posts you've shared with people who you may not be friends with anymore. It poses an interesting question - do you want to change your Facebook past? That photo of an ex that you've since Facebook defriended, or perhaps a friend that you needed to unfriend for a time? If those photos represent memories, is it really necessary to go for a one-size-fits-all vision of your Facebook past?

'Think of this button as a one-stop shop to edit visibility of all your past Facebook posts,' says Downey. 'Anything that was open to the public or friends of friends will change to friends only.'
5. Make Your Subscriber Search Private

Do you want your Facebook profile to be a community space, or a subscriber-based stream of you? Removing the public Subscribe option will help keep random strangers out of your publicly facing community.

Facebook Considers Adding The Hate Button

In 2010, TechCrunch broke the news that Facebook was going to release a “Like” button for the whole darn Internet. Now, TechCrunch has learned Facebook is considering a “Hate” button as well.

According to Facebook’s S-1 filing, users are now generating 2.7 billion Likes and Comments per day. With the Hate button, Facebook expects to at least double that. The S-1 noted “popular Pages on Facebook include Lady Gaga, Disney, and Manchester United, each of which has move than 20 million Likes.” Many inside the company think the Hates could easily top that.

When the original Like button was announced, Mark Zuckerberg made a bold prediction there would be over 1 billion Likes across the web in just the first 24 hours. Sources at Facebook say Mark is estimating 2 billion Hates on the first day. Facebook studies have shown the sad fact that people hate things on the Internet more than they like things. There’s also an internal debate on whether the new button should be called “Hate” or “Dislike.”