Facebook announced new usage milestones in its S-1 filing today: 845 million monthly active users including 425 million users who access the service on mobile devices.

The company had last claimed 800 million monthly active users  and 350 million mobile monthly active users at its f8 developer conference in September.

Overall, that means the social network has seen a 39 percent increase in monthly active users since December 2010. It saw particularly strong growth in Brazil with a 268 percent increase year-over-year and India with a 132 percent increase. Notably, both of these markets were strongholds for Orkut, an early rival social networking service from Google.

In the U.S., Facebook is starting to hit its saturation point with 161 million monthly active users, a 16 percent increase from the previous year.

It comes as little surprise that a large percentage of users return regularly. Facebook has long said that half of its users access the site daily. The social network had 483 million daily active users in December 2011, an 48 percent increase since December 2010. According to the company’s IPO filing today, 360 million users were active on at least six days a week in December 2011.

Of course, the larger Facebook gets, the harder it may be for it to grow. “We anticipate that our active user growth rate will decline over time as the size of our active user base increases, and as we achieve higher market penetration rates,” the company said in its filing today. “To the extent our active user growth rate slows, our business performance will become increasingly dependent on our ability to increase levels of user engagement in current and new markets.”

One of the last bastions where Facebook might find an additional 500 million or more users is in China — a country it has explored but never formally entered. In addition to government censorship, it would find many mature rivals there including Sina and Tencent. Prospects there do not look promising, especially considering that Google lost substantial search market share there after a disagreement with the Chinese government. “We do not know if we will be able to find an approach to managing content and information that will be acceptable to us and to the Chinese government,” the company’s statement said.

The company defines active user as a registered user who has logged in and visited Facebook through a website or mobile device in the last 30 days. Facebook also shared stats about activity on its platform. As of December 31, 2011, there were more than 37 million pages with ten or more Likes. More than seven million apps and websites have integrated with Facebook.

Ireland’s Office of the Data Protection Commissioner has found Facebook Ireland to be compliant with Irish and European Union law, and has reached an agreement that gives users even more control over privacy in the next six months.

The commissioner completed a three-month audit of Facebook Ireland following a formal complaint suggesting the social network was creating “shadow profiles” of non-users. Because Facebook’s international headquarters are located in Ireland, the commission there oversees the company’s legal compliance for all users outside of the United States and Canada. The audit found “positive approach and commitment” by Facebook Ireland to respect users’ privacy, but made several recommendations that the social network has committed addressing before a follow-up audit in July 2012.

These recommendations include increased control over tagging features, an update to the data use policy, sooner deletion of user and non-user data and more transparency and control over how personal data is used in advertising on the site.

With regard to “shadow profiles,” the commission determined though Facebook receives some non-user data, it is not being used to build profiles of those people. The report also states that the social network is “now taking active steps to delete any such information very quickly after it is received.”

The findings of the report are overall positive for Facebook, which many people mistrust because of the massive amounts of data it collects and new features that force users to opt out rather than opt in. How the company addresses individual recommendations from the commissioner remains to be seen, but it appears to be willing to make concessions on certain features to give users more control and satisfy watchdog agencies. According to a press release from the commissioner, “Taking a leadership position that moves from compliance with the law to the achievement of best practice is for Facebook Ireland to decide but if it continues to display the commitment I witnessed throughout the audit process it is certainly achievable.”

Last month, Facebook settled charges with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission so that any sharing-related privacy changes will now be up to users to opt into. This was in response to an action Facebook made in 2009, which forced all users to make some information public, including name, profile photo and list of friends.

The full report from the Data Protection Commissioner is available here. The social network responded to the report in a note on its Public Policy Europe page.

Facebook has posted a walkthrough that illustrates how apps built in Open Graph can be translated into various languages (a.k.a. making your app “I18N-ready”).

As the social network expands beyond the United States into global markets — which make up an estimated 75% of Facebook’s audience — localization becomes a key to developer success on the platform. Facebook has been increasingly aware of the need for translation and localization tools for developers, recently experimenting with a Microsoft Bing-powered “Translate” feature that allows users to view Page posts in their native language.

Automatically translating apps into various languages, however, is a function that can be performed in Open Graph. Developers need only apply Open Graph meta tags to objects with specific locales so that the app returns the correct strings for that locale. In the example posted,  Facebook demonstrates how the meta tags would be applied to translate an Open Graph object into French and Spanish:

Once the strings are returned and the object locales declared, the translation process continues in one of three ways:

1. Inline by users of the app viewing translatable strings by the app.
2. Bulk through the Translation App.
3. Bulk through the

Facebook today announced the launch of a new translation tool powered by Microsoft Bing Translate that lets users select to view Page posts in their native language. Page admins can select to show only machine translated posts, or they can select to allow Facebook users to submit their own translations. If these community translations receive approvals from other users, they’ll replace the machine translation. Currently, all Pages have been automatically opted in to allowing both machine and community translations.

Many brands are building international fan bases for their Page, so the option to have their posts translated means they’ll be able to better engage these foreign audiences, driving more engagement and clicks to their content. While not always perfectly accurate, the free translation tool is much cheaper and faster than having a human translate, geo-target, and publish localized versions of their posts.

Currently, the Translate button only appears to users with their language set to Korean, Japanese, Russian, Taiwanese and Chinese-Hong Kong. If Facebook and Bing roll the feature out to other popular languages or allowed it to be applied to ads as well, it could become an important driver of international growth and business for all Pages. One day Bing translation could also be applied to user posts to allow people to communicate across language barriers and form more international friendships.

The launch of this feature follows tests of a machine translation option for user comments on Page posts that we spotted last month. While comment translation is not part of the Bing tool’s rollout, it shows the potential for user content to receive translation in addition to Page posts.

In the past, Facebook has worked with Microsoft to power its own internal search and to augment Bing.com search results with Like counts from a user’s friends and the Facebook population at large. More recently, Bing Maps was integrated into the new Timeline profile as well as Facebook Places. Facebook has been successful with translation in the past, originally crowdsourcing translation of the site’s interface in many languages, and later extending the crowdsourced translation tool to Facebook apps and Connect-integrated sites.

All Pages Have Been Opted In to Translation

To configure the Bing translation tool, admins can go to the Edit Page interface and select the Your Settings tab. They’ll then see a Translations From section where they can enable translations by machine; machine and community; machine, community, and admin, or they can disable the feature.

By default, Pages are set to allow machine and community translation. In most cases, admins will at least want to allow machine translations. Community translations may be more accurate, but admins will have to remember to moderate the translation submissions.

Once enabled, users with their Facebook language set to one of the feature’s current language will see a “Translate” button besides the Like, Comment, and Share buttons beneath that Page’s posts. When clicked, the text of the Page’s post will change from the language it was originally written in to the user’s selected language.

According to the Help Center, Admins will also see a “Manage Translations” link underneath their Page posts. From here they can approve or delete community-submitted translations or add their own. If admins find someone trying to submit objectionable content or spam as a translation, they can quickly block them from their Page and from submitting translations to other Pages as well.

Facebook already offers geographic and language targeting in the Page post publisher. This allowed Pages to manually translate their updates and publish them to the corresponding segment of their fans. This was a lot of work, though, especially since there is no way to hide a post from certain countries or languages. Some third-party Facebook Page management tools offer translation services, but now all Pages have access to a free, easy, and instantaneous translation tool.

Until now some brands have opted to create different Pages for each country, and assigned a team to translate the brand’s primary Page’s updates and publish them locally. This required a complicated management hierarchy that Facebook and third-parties are only beginning to support through corporate/local Page management tools. The Bing Translation feature will reduce the need to set up localized Pages because a central Page’s updates can be read by audiences that speak a different language.

Translation Could Further Facebook’s Mission

With international fans now able to read the updates of Pages the Like in a language they better understand, Pages should see their posts receiving more Likes, comments, and clicks from these audience segments. This could help brands boost the return on investment on their Facebook marketing spend. Facebook could also get brands spending more on international advertising if it offered automatic translation of ads into the native languages of the users they target.

Still, the most potentially meaningful prospect of the Bing translation tool is how it could facilitate international friendships. If Facebook’s goal is to make the world more open and connected, what better way than allowing users to share with the whole world regardless of the language they speak.

Inside Network touches down in Beijing this week to discuss mobile apps, social gaming, and monetization and distribution on global platforms.

Are you in the area? We’d like to meet you!

Mobile Monday Beijing

Inside Network’s Justin Smith and Kim-Mai Cutler will be speaking at Mobile Monday Beijing: The Evolution of Mobile Apps and SNS Games, along with a roster of leading developers and companies in the industry, including Infinity Venture Partners, Papaya Mobile, Gree, Rekoo, Tencent, TapJoy, and more. Details and RSVP here.

Thursday August 25, 2011
6:45 pm at Innovation Garden, Orange Labs, Beijing
View full agenda and RSVP here

Inside Network Developer Happy Hour

Join Justin Smith and Kim-Mai Cutler at the Grand Hyatt Beijing for casual conversation and networking with fellow mobile and social developers in Beijing. We’ll be swapping stories and making connections with no pre-set speaker agenda, so please stop by, say hello, and stay awhile.

Monday August 29, 2011
7:00 pm at the Grand Hyatt Beijing
RSVP here

We hope to see many of you there!

UK Officials Meet With Facebook to Stem Riots – United Kingdom officials are set to meet with Facebook, Twitter and BlackBerry regarding their corporate responsibility to not fuel riots, such as those recently plaguing London. One possible outcome: to suspend social networks when governments deem it an emergency.

NYPD Forms Social Media Tracking Unit – The New York Police Department has recently formed a unit specifically to track activity on Facebook and Twitter. Specifically information about parties, gang activity and other problems will be the focus. [Image via Facebook]

Facebook is Not Posting Phone Numbers – Facebook is responding to a viral warning that the company is “stealing” or posting users’ phone numbers for everyone to see. It says phone numbers of friends are kept private.

European Social Network Netlog Banned From Facebook – Netlog, a European social network with roughly 80 million user has been banned from the Facebook Platform after it tried to “access internal Facebook APIs and deliberately compromised intended limitations of our platform acebook has banned the European,” Facebook said.

Facebook, Ceglia, Continue to Duel – Last week Facebook announced that it had “smoking gun” evidence against would-be Facebook owner Paul Ceglia to prove that his lawsuit is frivolous. Then, it turns out, Ceglia is in Ireland and saying he’s being harassed by Facebook.

More Facebook Means More Narcissism – Facebook can lead to mental health issues for teens according to one psychology professor’s research. The American Psychological Association conference presentation included information that heavy Facebook users suffering anxiety and depression, and are more likely to be narcissistic.

Facebook Helps College Newspapers – Facebook has created a guide for college media on how to use Facebook in different ways in the newsroom. [Image via Facebook]

Our Eyes Perceive Facebook, Google+ Similarly – A study found that Google+ has a setup that allows users to perceive it almost identically to Facebook. The study from EyeTrackShop tracked the order of visual fixation for 54 users, finding high correlation between the two networks.

Google+ Set to Surpass Twitter – A study from the UK found that Google+ is set to become the second-largest social network after Facebook.

Other Announcements:

Vitrue, Clear Channel Radio Partner – Vitrue and Clear Channel Radio have announced a partnership in which all of the company’s 850 radio stations will implement Vitrue’s SRM platform.

Buckaroo Unveils Social Media Promotions – Buckaroo has announced a new way that businesses can combine social deals with email marketing, Facebook and Twitter. The technology is designed for small businesses.

Career Notify Leverages Facebook in Job Hunt – Career Notify is a recruitment and head hunting service that sends email notifications to Facebook friends and contacts whenever anyone gets a new job, promotion, or resigns.

Facebook and Vodefone will release Alcatel Lucent-manufactured feature phone called the Vodafone 555 Blue that will have a Facebook-centric operating system and dedicated physical Facebook sharing button. The companies are aiming at a $100 price point to target users in both the developing and first-world, especially teens, that want enhanced Facebook functionality without paying for a smart phone.

The lower handset cost and availability of a pay-as-you-go plan could make this Facebook phone more likely to accomplish the goal of driving international growth than past Facebook phones by INQ and HTC that all cost over $200. However, it still requires a data plan and lacks the feature and software design quality of the Facebook for Every Phone feature phone app.

This year Facebook has partnered with several handset and SIM card makers and carriers to release phones with special Facebook features. A key to Facebook’s growth strategy is getting those in the developing world access to more features, which leads to increased usage. The Gemalto Facebook for SIM is one of the cheapest, while still embedding Facebook functionality in a SIM card that can be used with almost any handset.

The Vodafone 555 Blue will deliver deeper functionality found in the higher end HTC and INQ Facebook phones, including the ability to browse the news feed, view photos, and upload photos as soon as they’re shot through an OS based on Java.

A Facebook overlay on the homescreen allows for quick access to a user’s profile, news feed, messaging and Chat. Users can press the dedicate Facebook key to reach these options, ostensibly launching the app.

Facebook content updates are synced to the phone in the background. This may work well for those that only check Facebook occasionally, as there data will already have loaded, but that’s not who this handset is aimed at. Those constantly checking may wish for the manual sync was faster, and background syncing can cause the phone’s OS to slow down at inopportune times.

MSN’s UK Tech & Gadgets blog did a hands-on report about the Vodafone 555 Blue and found while the the Facebook functionality was satisfactory, the phone’s low 200 MHZ processing power led to waits for loading, and a cramped QWERTY keyboard made it somewhat difficult to use. The photo browsing is apparently very slow as well. Though it’s considered a feature phone, the Blue include Opera Mini 5 for web browsing, which is a plus.

Those in developing markets who often lack consistent broadband web access and who may have used Facebook’s free 0.facebook.com may be enticed by to use the service more and invite their friends thanks to the Vodafone 555 Blue. These users may be better served by one of 2,500 handsets capable of downloading the Facebook for Every Phone app, and those in the first-world may not be willing to endure the shorter feature set and long load times.

Facebook Set for Another Oregon Datacenter – Facebook announced this week that it would build another data center on its Prineville, Oregon campus. Construction is set to begin in October.

Facebook to Expand in Seattle – Facebook is currently looking for more office space in Seattle, according to GeekWire. The company wants as much as 40,000 square feet more that might accommodate about 200 more people (the office is currently at about 40).

Privacy Glitch Makes Videos Public – TechCrunch reported that this week Facebook’s video privacy settings stopped working, allowing users to see listings, names, thumbnails, descriptions and tagged users in others’ videos. The company reported it had addressed the issue.

Alleged Facebook Owner Ceglia’s Case gets Complicated – Paul Ceglia is the man who claims to own half of Facebook. His lawsuit against Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg is playing out in New York, and he recently lost a fourth law firm in his case. Edelson McGuire just withdrew from the case, according to AllThingsD, as did DLA Pipe, Lippes Mathias, Wexler Friedman and Connors & Vilardo earlier this year.

Also, a Scathing Profile of Paul Ceglia – The Buffalo News wrote a scathing and very unflattering profile of would-be Facebook co-owner Paul Ceglia. Acquaintances and classmates basically call him a con artist, shyster, joke, grifter, lowlife and more. [Image Via Facebook]

User Ads Generated by Ad Companies – John Battelle wrote an interesting post this week detailing how he found out a company (AppSumo) that wasn’t Facebook was using his likeness in an ad, and that this apparently violated Facebook’s terms of service, promoting the social network to look into the issue.

Topps Buys Facebook Gift Card Provider – AllThingsD reported this week that Topps, the trading card company, purchased GMG Entertainment, the company which makes Facebook Credits gift cards. The terms of the purchase were not released.

Vodafone Releases Facebook Phone – Vodafone’s 555 Blue is a “Facebook phone” designed to be popular in emerging markets like India. The phone allows users to logon to Facebook when the phone is turned on, and open an account if they don’t already have one. [Image Via Vodafone]

LivingSocial Shutters Visual Bookshelf – AllFacebook reported this week that, after four years, LivingSocial is closing its Visual Bookshelf app and encouraging users to export their accounts to GoodReads.

Other Announcements:

Migrate Facebook to Google+ – Lifehacker reported this week on how to migrate your Facebook profile data to Google+.

North Social Releases Facebook Faux Pas – North Social released a series of 11 “fan Page fail” videos this week featuring the hapless Jonny Like who demonstrates what not to do to grow your Page’s community.

Trulia, Real Estate Social Search – Trulia.com is a social recommendation service using Facebook to leverage word-of-mouth when it comes to buying and selling real estate.

Shoutlet Releases 4.0 Analytics – Shoutlet released the 4.0 version of its platform this week with better analytics and the ability to take these and transform them into graphics.

Facebook Spent 320K on Lobbying in 2Q – TechCrunch reported this week that Facebook spent $320,000 on lobbying in the second quarter; the company has already surpassed its 2010 total lobbying spend in the first two quarters of this year.

Judge Dismisses Second Winklevoss Lawsuit –  Reuters today reported that Facebook was awarded a dismissal of a second lawsuit filed by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss. The suit, filed in Boston, had sought to bring the twins more money on top of the $65 million settlement they had already received as the outcome of a suit claiming they came up with the idea for Facebook.

Facebook Testing a Phonebook App – VentureBeat reported that Facebook may be testing a phonebook app for mobile users, allowing them to see their contacts on Facebook as a phonebook and then dial them directly from the Facebook app on their phones. However, this could have been developed by Google to deepen the integration of Facebook with its mobile OS.

“Who Owns Facebook?” Website - Venture capital directory publisher Massinvestor has launched a website called “Who Owns Facebook?” that features profiles of all of Facebook’s biggest stock holders.

Fraction of Facebook for iPhone Users Complaint About Bugs – The Financial Times reported this week that there is a “revolt” amongst Facebook for iPhone users regarding bugs in the latest version of the app. In fact, the 20,000 users complaining make up just a tiny fraction of the app’s 84 million monthly users, and therefore does not represent widespread discontent.

Which Facebook Employees are on Google+? – AllFacebook reported this week that a slew of Facebook employees are on Google+, including CEO Mark Zuckerberg and several members of the executive team. Here’s a list of some of them.

Harvard President Slams Winklevoss Bros – Larry Summers, who was president of Harvard University when the Winklevoss twins had their spat with Mark Zuckerberg over the founding of Facebook, seems to have been no fan of the brothers. He basically called them a vulgar name, hinting that they are jerks.

Talenthouse to Develop Fan Skill Competition Apps - Talenthouse is a platform for running promotions on Facebook where fans can compete to donate their skills, such as blogging or video editing, to help complete projects for their favorite celebrities. AllThingsD reports that the company has signed a deal to provide apps for Universal Music Group artists.

Facebook Report: Engaging Readers on Pages – Facebook released an analysis of user engagement with posts by the Pages of news organizations Pages, noting the influence of thumbnail images, post length, photos, questions and more. This study fell in line with one we reported earlier of journalist Pages.

Other Announcements:

Buddy Media Expands to Europe – Buddy Media announced this week that it would open a European headquarters in London.

myYearbook, Quepasa Merge – myYearbook and the Quepasa Corporation agreed to merge this week, bringing the social game developer and Latino social network together. The $100 million deal reaches across Latin America, includes 70 million registered users, 2.2 million mobile app installs and 11.5 million mobile game installs.

French MXP4 Opens US Office, Signs Deal – French developer of music-based social games MXP4 will move business operations of its Bopler Games unit to a new office in Los Angeles, closer to US record labels. The week prior, MXP4 signed a deal with EMI to bring the music of the record label’s artists into Bopler Games.

Wispor Launches Using Faceboom Comments Plugin – Wispor is a newly launched discussion-based social network where users can start conversations about any topic. The site is built on top of the Facebook Comments Box social plugin in what appears to be the deepest integration of the commenting widget to date.

Third-Party Facebook Photos App Pixable Adds Video – Pixable, a Facebook app we’ve previously covered that helps users sort through all the photos their friends upload, now allows users to browse videos uploaded or shared by their Facebook friends.

RootMusic BandPage Launches Social Touring Feature – BandPage, a Facebook app that allows bands to set up a profile and stream their music, has launched an integration with concert date tracking services Songkick, Bandsintown, and SonicLiving. The Social Touring feature allows musicians to automatically have their tour dates imported to their BandPage from these services.

Facebook hired more interns this week, in addition to software engineerings, recruiting staff, platform ops, client partners, developers, data center staff and marketing professionals, according to listings removed from the company’s Careers Page and hires noted on its LinkedIn feed.

New hires per LinkedIn and Other Sources:

• Matthew Cin, Securities Associate Intern – previously worked as a teacher’s assistant at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business.
• Judy Wang, Client Partner and APAC Landing Team Lead - formerly a Business Analyst at A.T. Kearney.
• Daniel Spijker, Client Partner, Marketing Solutions - previously worked as a Digital Marketing Manager at Sukar.com.
• Kendra Cook, Recruiting Coordinator – recently did similar work at Google.
• Filip Cristian Buruiana, Software Engineer Intern – formerly a teaching assistant at the Politehnica University of Bucharest.
• Elliott Slaughter, Software Engineer Intern - formerly did similar work at Google.
• Tsung-Hsien Lee, Software Engineer Intern – previously a graduate research assistant at the University of Texas at Austin’s Department of Computer Science.
• Francis Korzak, Software Engineer - previously worked in Sv+ solutions at TOTVS.
• Alex Şuhan, Software Engineer – formerly a teaching assistant at the Politehnica University of Bucharest.
• Camille Yan, Business Analyst Intern – previously worked in private wealth management at Merrill Lynch.
• Andy Fang, Software Engineering Intern.
• Divyanka Kapoor, Analyst, Platform Operations – formerly an intern at the Mathematical Sciences Foundation.
• Bhaavan Merchant, Verifed Facebook Developer – previously an intern at Hindustan Aeronautics Limited.

Prior listings now removed from the Facebook Careers Page:

• Manager, Data Center Operations (VA)
• Recruiting Coordinator – Contract
• Manager, Applications
• Oracle Applications DBA
• Partner Engineer (Mobile) – Dublin
• Director, Accounting 1106003 (Menlo Park, CA)
• Client Partner (Hamburg)
• Client Partner (Milan)
• Account Manager (Hamburg)
• Marketing Communications Program Manager
• Marketing Communications Copywriter

Who else is hiring? The Inside Network Job Board presents a survey of current openings at leading companies in the industry.