Facebook testing new 'Discover' feature for public and private groups: Reports

Facebook is now testing a new feature for iOS and Android, dubbed "Discover", which will reportedly allow users to peruse public and private groups and see which friends are in local groups.According to a report by International Business Times, "Discover" will be found found in the Facebook app under the "More" tab and then "Groups." The page displays more than 25 categories, including parenting, school and education and sports. Each category lists suggestions for Groups based on Facebook interests, activity and friends.[caption id="attachment_313657" align="aligncenter" width="365"] Image: International Business Times[/caption]Facebook wants users to join more relevant groups, which will in turn, increase their time spent on the social media platform. The groups will be divided into categories for different interests such as parenting, networking and food respectively. In conversation with Mashable, Facebook said that only a select group of people have the feature right now and it will roll out more broadly in the near future. According to the company, Facebook had one billion users participating in groups as of January.Recently, Facebook lost the first round in a court fight against some of its users who sued the social networking company, alleging it “unlawfully” collected and stored users’ biometric data derived from their faces in photographs. The judge presiding over the case in a California federal court turned down Facebook’s motion seeking dismissal of the suit.Facebook filed the motion arguing that the users could not file a complaint under Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) as they had agreed in their user agreement that California law would govern their disputes with the company, and that BIPA does not apply to “tag suggestions.” The court found that Illinois law applies and that the plaintiffs have stated a claim under BIPA.