For the past couple weeks we’ve been doing a recap of Facebook’s weekly news stories and have been receiving great feedback. As such, it’s now going to be a regular part of this blog. This past week was another big week for Facebook with the announcement of new privacy policies that will have a significant impact on platform applications. There were a number of other big announcements this week, all of which are included in our weekly roundup!

Facebook Announces New Privacy Policies

On Thursday morning, Facebook announced that they would be rolling out new privacy improvements in response to recommendations submitted by the Canadian Privacy Commissioner. The changes involve granular permission settings for applications. The new settings will serve as a natural evolution of digital identity authentication. The estimated time for implementation according to Facebook will be approximately 12 months.

Facebook To Upgrade Their Ad Publishing Tools

On Thursday evening, Facebook sent us an update to let us know that the company will be testing out two new features for advertisers. The first feature is an updated Ads Manager that will include in-line editing abilities, improved navigation, and search abilities. A small group of advertisers will also be testing out a new bulk ad upload tool. This sounds somewhat similar to the Facebook ads API that I previously wrote about.

Zong Begins Testing Payment Integration With Facebook

On Wednesday, the payments views blog noticed a new Zong payment feature integrated into Facebook Credits. The new service is the first to provide a mobile payment option for Facebook credits. Facebook also stated that they are in the process of testing out alternative payment methods with developers. Expect to see other payment methods to integrate with Facebook Credits over the coming weeks and months.

Spotify Partnership Rumors Emerge

After Mark Zuckerberg posted a status update stating that “Spotify is so good”, rumors emerged that suggested Facebook is in the process of forming a partnership with Spotify. While it was mistakenly assumed by a few that this meant an acquisition, it appears that this is more of a partnership that is in the works. Spotify has been highly buzzed about but within the U.S., the company still doesn’t have licenses with record labels so they can’t provide service just yet. We’ll have to wait and see what comes about from these rumors.

David Recordon Leaves Six Apart and Joins Facebook

A leader in the open identity movement, David Recordon, decided to come on board Facebook this past week as the “Senior Open Programs Manager”. The company appears to be on a hiring binge as was suggested by Spencer Ante. While company spokespeople dismissed the hiring as being overly aggressive, it was no coincidence that news about new hires came out on the same day Bloomberg published a report that the company had now surpassed 1,000 employees.

Non-Profits Participating In Facebook Gift Shop Opening

On Friday, Randi Zuckerberg told the audience of Mashable’s Social Good Conference, that the Facebook gift shop would now be re-opened for charity gifts from non-profits. This is a continuing part of the company’s decision to open up the gift shop to developers, something that could prove to be a giant monetization opportunity for the company.