Facebook is closing its App Directory, with users now expected to find applications solely through search, the company said in ablog post. Carl Sjogreen, the post’s author, says that less than 0.5% of all app installations come from the App Directory, with search driving a “significant number.” There’s now a “Submit to Search” link in the Developer pane for apps. Facebook says that while it can take up to 72 hours to appear in search listings, there is no approval process at all for Facebook apps to appear in search results....

A German data regulator has banned Facebook from processing personal data from WhatsApp users in the country, saying that the app’s controversial new privacy policy update is illegal. The Hamburg Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information (HmbBfDI) issued a three-month emergency ban on Tuesday, which is permitted under the General Data Protection Regulation. The watchdog will now seek a binding decision covering the whole EU from the European Data Protection Board (EDPB)....

Facebookrevealed that about 20,000 children are kicked off the social networking site every day for lying about their age, according to a report fromThe Telegraph. Despite efforts to enforce the age limit policy, many underage children join the site by pretending to be older than they are. Mozelle Thompson, Facebook’s chief privacy adviser, told the Australian Federal Parliament’s cyber-safety committee: “There are people who lie. There are people who are under 13 [accessing Facebook]....

Ad.lyhas done an admirable job of selling celebrity endorsement over social media. It’s arguably one of the more successful campaigns on Twitter, and its Facebook product has had good traction as well. That is, until Facebook told Ad.ly to shutter the product. The problem, according toMedia Memo, is that Facebook doesn’t want people to sell anything on their personal pages, since that’s part of the use that Facebook sees for User Pages....

NetworkWorldreports that Facebook has not only blocked KDE apps from uploading without warning, but it has also deleted photos that have been uploaded using the KDE plugin. TheKDE Image Plugin Interface(KIPI) is an open source Facebook plugin that lets users upload and download photos with Facebook. It is used by applications such as digikam and gwenview, among others. It is still uncertain if Facebook will be able to retrieve the photos, or what the reason behind the ban of the application is, but asJoe Brockmeierputs it, it’s not new and it almost certainlywon’t be the last timethat the world’s biggest social network mistakenly blocks a legitimate app or fumbles user data....