• Pay to play. Attention, marketing professionals: The free ride that Facebook has been giving to advertisers is coming to end. We’ve recently discussed Facebook’s recently ban on “like” gating. Now, inspired by its users’ dissatisfaction with the prevalence of promotional content on the Facebook platform, the social media giant will start lowering the priority of marketers’ unpaid posts in its users’ news feeds next year. To prevent a post from being relegated to a place where it’s unlikely to ever be seen, a company will have to package it in the form of a paid-for ad. What, at first blush, might seem like Facebook fans’ gain and the marketing world’s loss is actually a win-win, according to Brian Boland, a Facebook vice president who oversees marketing of ad products. “An ad maker doesn’t want to serve content to people who don’t want to see those posts,” he told the New York Times. Plus, paid-for ads are easier to track than regular content. The change might nevertheless result in marketers turning more often to Twitter, which doesn’t rank posts. But, with over 1.35 billion monthly active users and ad revenue at $2.96 billion, perhaps Facebook can afford not to care.
  • Car tunes. Uber is adding an intriguing new feature to its popular ride-sharing service – music. It has teamed up with Spotify to enhance the Uber experience by allowing riders to select the tunes they want to hear during the ride. Customers will be able to pause, skip, rewind or shuffle tracks in their playlist. Uber has reportedly already begun to ask its drivers to take the steps necessary to connect their Uber-provided phone to the car’s stereo system, so as to enable riders to access songs through Spotify. This idea fits well with Spotify’s strategy of making alliances to bring its music to customers in a number of different environments. For example, Spotify has made alliances with Ford and Volvo to include its music service in those companies’ vehicles. In any event, may we suggest Billy Ocean’s “Get Out of My Dreams, Get Into My Car” and The Clash’s “Brand New Cadillac” for your Uber playlist? And, by the way, is someone giving thought to potential public performance issues here?
  • Going private. Under the Privacy Act, Americans have a way to challenge the misuse or abuse of their personal information by the federal government – a right that hit the headlines after the disclosure by Edward Snowden of the National Security Agency’s surveillance programs. U.S. citizens also have the right to challenge breaches of information privacy by governments in the European Union. But EU residents don’t have any recourse against the U.S. government under our Privacy Act – an omission that several technology firms say needs to be corrected.  David Drummond, Google’s chief legal officer, recently wrote in a blog post: “Google supports legislation to extend the US Privacy Act to EU citizens. The Obama Administration has already pledged its support for this change and we look forward to working with Congress to try and make this happen.” Indeed, outgoing Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. did indicate support for this change in a speech in Athens last summer. But will there be any legislative action? Privacy and civil liberties advocates are adopting a wait-and-see attitude.