It’s no secret that Facebook use your personal data for their own use and sometimes for something you may not like. And of late Facebook’s public image has deteriorated from those that created the epic trend of social media to the villains that take your personal data and use it for their own gain.

Recently it came to light that in 2012 Facebook carried out a research where they were literally altering users’ emotions by showing them negative stories on their time lines to see if this would affect their posts. This triggered uproar but the slick Facebook avoided any serious repercussions saying the terms of service agreement allows them to carry out such a research.

But they cannot get away with everything they do because now 25,000 Facebook users have come together to launch a class action suit against the social media giant.

Facebook user, Max Schrems, who started the suit alleges that Facebook had been violating users' privacy and as a result started a campaign to get support for the law suit but did not expect to get as much support as he did.

"We hoped for broad support, but the number ... has exceeded my most optimistic expectations," said Austrian law student Schrems, who launched his class action only last Thursday. He’s now been forced to close the list of plaintiffs because of the huge number.

Schrems is claiming damages of 500 euros ($667) per user for alleged data violations by Facebook, including by aiding the U.S. National Security Agency in running its PRISM program, which mined the personal data of users of Facebook and other web services.

It is now that many Facebook users are not happy with the service and their blurred lines when it comes to privacy. Recently Britain's data watchdog has begun investigating the legality of a Facebook experiment on unwitting users in 2012.

[PROPS REUTERS]

For more than a week now lawmakers in Parliament have been haggling in an on and off debate on the suffering of patients stranded in public hospitals due to shortage of medicine.

The crux of the matter, it is explained, is the government’s failure to pay over 90bn/- it owes the Medical Supplies Department (MSD).

To redress this situation, some of the MPs last week went to the extent of proposing that the current Bunge sessions be postponed and the money accruing from their allowances, well to the tune of 100m/-  to each, daily, be channelled to buy medicines for the needy patients.

Sensing that their clamours were yet to be heard, on Monday, they came up a bit louder, demanding government’s emergency plan to be put in place to save Tanzanians suffering and dying due to the shortage of medicines in hospitals.

This showdown however has not been in the failure to supply medicines alone.

Constructions of some buildings meant to boost the state of health delivery in the country have often gone unfinished for years.
Irked by the situation, MPs told the august House on yesterday that the leading regional hospital in the designated capital of Dodoma, needs only 600m/- to finalise construction of a maternal and child health building that has remained dormant for at least eight years.

Yet people have always been denied the services that would have been offered by such a facility were it to be completed on time.

Well such are some of the burgeoning challenges that some of our people have to grapple with because of the manner in which we manage our institutions.

But one may ask, if a leading public hospital like Muhimbili National Hospital in the county’s blossoming commercial hub and a regional hospital in the state’s designated capital would go without the basic health needs like medicines, beds and equipment, then how could the situation in dispensaries and health centres in the villages look like?

We are compelled to ask such difficult questions particularly when keeping in mind that 80 per cent of Tanzanians live in rural areas where medical facilities are nonexistent and where they exist, they have always gone without medical supplies.

Apparently, the problem that the parliament, government and MSD are haggling about is not that medicines are not available in country.

They are galore. The state run distributor, Medical Store Department (MSD) has only refused to release them on grounds that the government should pay 90bn/- owed to the former. The argument is fecund and principled given the prevailing market circumstances.

There is no way out, but the government should pay. But while it is aware of this it has only embarked on half-baked measures which may in the final analysis ruin the very rationale of medicine supplies by MSD.

Bewilderment come to the reign when the same hospitals that lack medicines, staff and even beds are the very ones told by the government to give up the little revenue they garner from cost sharing.

The question is all arguments put forward, who should therefore rescue the patients from this quixotic predicament?

It looks as if the way the government is taking up this matter, there no ready solutions to it at the moment. But shall we be made to believe that truly there are no solutions to this problem?
We believe there are. The government should immediately source for money and pay the debt to have the patients secure medical supplies. This should not be allowed to take long.

It is a situation many of us have been in. You send an important message on WhatsApp and then eagerly wait for a reply.
One little tick appears to your message. Then two. Then nothing. Your heart sinks.
The important message has been ignored - or has it?

Up until now many users incorrectly thought the double check indicated a message had been seen.
Actually it meant that a message had been received by the handset, not its human owner.

However, WhatsApp's official website has confirmed the messaging service has a new feature, so you'll know when someone has definitely read your message.
We introduce to you, the double blue tick!

If a group of people are chatting, the two blue ticks will appear when everyone in the group has read the message.
Two grey check marks will show up when everyone has received the message.
You can also find out the time a message was delivered and read by pressing the message with the double tick - then holding it for a couple of seconds, before selecting "info".
Other messaging services already have similar types of notifications to show when someone has seen a message, like Facebook.
In 2013, instant messaging apps like Apple's iMessenger, WeChat and Viber overtook the traditional SMS text message for the first time.
Research company Informer found almost 19 billion messages were sent on chat apps in 2012, compared to 17.6 million texts.
Newsbeat has contacted WhatsApp for an official response. But we're still waiting for the double blue tick...