Social Media Workers Use These Tools To Get Ahead

Instagram will begin prodding users to share their birthday with the service, if they haven’t already done so. The company today announced it will now start popping up a notification that asks you to add your birthday to “personalize your experience.” But the prompt can only be dismissed a handful of times before becoming a requirement. The move is a part of Instagram’s larger goal to create new safety features aimed at younger users, the company explains. This includes the teen privacy protections introduced earlier this year, as well as Instagram’s longer-term plan to launch a version of its service aimed at users under the age of 13. This March, Instagram rolled out new features that made it more difficult for adults to contact teens through its app. Then in July, the company announced a larger series of changes to the default settings for new users under the age of 16. It will now default these users’ accounts to “private” and li...

Ba da ba ba bah, McDonald’s is capturing and storing biometric data on its customers without their knowledge or consent. Per a report from The Register, McDonald’s may be facing a class action lawsuit after an Illinois customer sued the mega-corporation for allegedly violating the state’s Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA): (The plaintiff) sued McDonald’s … on behalf of himself and all other affected residents of Illinois. He claimed the fast-chow biz has broken BIPA by not obtaining written consent from its customers to collect and process their voice data. Illinois has some of the stiffest biometric privacy laws in… This story continues at The Next Web * This article was originally published here

TikTok parent company ByteDance seems to be looking to one-up Facebook anywhere it can. After taking over the mantle of most-downloaded social media app in the world with TikTok, ByteDance is coming for Facebook’s moonshot, buying up its own virtual reality headset maker called Pico. The deal first reported on by Bloomberg last week was confirmed by the company on Monday, though ByteDance didn’t disclose a price tag for the deal. Pico had raised some $62 million in venture funding from Chinese firms, including a $37 million Series B in March. Like Oculus, they create both hardware and software for their VR devices. Unlike Oculus, they have a substantial presence in China. Pico may not hold the same name recognition as Oculus or HTC, but the company is a top VR hardware maker, selling to consumer audiences in China and enterprise customers in the Western world. With Pico finding its home now at ByteDance, two of the world’s largest virtual reality brands now reside ...

Facebook is doing a terrible job of banning Donald Trump from its platform. From its failure to hold the former president accountable for the myriad misinformation campaigns conducted on his behalf by members of his campaign team from 2015 through 2018, to the most recent nonsense, it’s apparent that Facebook’s somehow vested in keeping Trump on the social network. Up front: Facebook’s allowing “Team Trump,” a Page directly associated with numerous leadership and conservative PACs run by Donald Trump, to remain up and advertising on the site as of today, 21 June. According to a report from FWIW: The official… This story continues at The Next Web Or just read more coverage about: Facebook * This article was originally published here

Protecting Your Trademarks on Social Media Everybody uses social media these days. I mean, even my husband’s great grandma has a social media account now. It’s a great way for people to be able to connect and keep in touch with each other. However, for some people, social media is also a great way to […] * This article was originally published here

It’s been nearly a year since that unfortunately unforgettable photo of Mark Zuckerberg surfing in Hawaii looking like a White Walker surfaced. And just so it doesn’t have the chance to completely fade from memory, ol’ Zuck‘s got your back with a little video of himself on the water again — and he looks more patriotic than you will ever be. In the clip captioned, “Happy July 4th!,” Zuckerberg is surfing while majestically holding up an American flag… and it’s set to John Denver’s ‘Take Me Home, Country Roads.’ View this post on Instagram A post shared by Mark Zuckerberg… This story continues at The Next Web * This article was originally published here

Last year, Instagram unveiled Shops as part of Facebook’s larger pivot toward e-commerce. Shops is front-and-almost-center on the app’s bottom navigation bar, even more readily accessible than the button to upload a new photo. Now, after testing in the U.S. earlier this month, Instagram will introduce ads on the Instagram Shop tab globally, rolling them out in all countries where the Instagram Shop tab is available. This marks Instagram’s latest update in evolving its e-commerce platform. It previously implemented shopping in Reels to compete with TikTok, organized exclusive product Drops into their own Shop category and added affiliate features for creators to earn a commission on sales of sponsored products. Currently, items on Shops appear in a two-column grid of square tiles. Ads will appear as a tile within this structure, but they’ll be marked “Sponsored” in the bottom-left corner of the image. When the ad is clicked, it will open the Pr...

Facebook is looking to create a standalone advisory committee for election-related policy decisions, according to a new report from The New York Times . The company has reportedly approached a number of policy experts and academics it is interested in recruiting for the group, which could give the company cover for some of its most consequential choices. The group, which the Times characterizes as a commission, would potentially be empowered to weigh in on issues like election misinformation and political advertising — two of Facebook’s biggest policy headaches. Facebook reportedly plans for the commission to be in place for the 2022 U.S. midterm elections and could announce its formation as soon as this fall. Facebook’s election commission could be modeled after the Oversight Board , the company’s first experiment in quasi-independent external decision making. The Oversight Board began reviewing cases in October of last year , but didn’t gear up in time to im...

Dark Web Monitoring Tools Are Crucial in Stopping Fraud Criminals from Benefitting When it comes to online safety, for both businesses and their clients, organizations around the world need to take responsibility for protecting data and ensuring sensitive information does not land in the hands of criminals. With the use of a dark web monitoring […] * This article was originally published here

Cash flow is the lifeblood of your business, but it can be a challenge to keep that cash flowing with all the other delays, downturns, and other economic challenges you face. While it’s easy to say something trite about just “making it work,” the realities you’re facing in our current economic climate have already been […] * This article was originally published here

Four days after the Jan. 6 insurrection on Capitol Hill, a member of the “Not My President” Facebook group wrote in a post, “remember, our founding fathers were seen as terrorist [sic] and traitors.” A fellow group member commented, “I’ll fight for what’s right, this corruption has to be stopped immediately.” Three months later, Facebook recommended the group to at least three people, despite Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s repeated promise to permanently end political group recommendations on the social network specifically to stop amplifying divisive content. The group was one of hundreds of political groups the company recommended to its… This story continues at The Next Web Or just read more coverage about: Facebook * This article was originally published here

Just days after Elastic announced the acquisition of build.security, the company is making yet another security acquisition. As part of its second-quarter earnings announcement this afternoon, Elastic disclosed that it is acquiring Vancouver, Canada based security vendor CMD. Financial terms of the deal are not being publicly disclosed. CMD ‘s technology provides runtime security for cloud infrastructure, helping organizations gain better visibility into processes that are running. The startup was founded in 2016 and has raised $21.6 million in funding to date. The company’s last round was a $15 million Series B that was announced in 2019, led by GV.   Elastic CEO and co-founder Shay Banon told TechCrunch that his company will be welcoming the employees of CMD into his company, but did not disclose precisely how many would be coming over. CMD CEO and co-founder Santosh Krishan and his fellow co-founder Jake King will both be taking executive roles within Elastic. Both...

To celebrate its 10-year anniversary, Messenger today announced a handful of new features: poll games, word effects, contact sharing and birthday gifting via Facebook Pay. But beyond the fun features, Facebook has been testing a way to add voice and video calls back into the Facebook app, rather than on Messenger. “We are testing audio and video calls within the Facebook app messaging experience so people can make and receive calls regardless of which app they’re using,” a representative from Facebook told TechCrunch. “This will give people on Facebook easy ways to connect with their communities where they already are.” Although earlier in Facebook history, the Messenger app had operated as a standalone experience, Facebook tells us that it’s now starting to see Messenger less as a separate entity — more of an underlying technology that can help to power many of the new experiences Facebook is now developing. “We’ve been focused more on real...

Former US president Donald Trump’s family businesses are in jeopardy. His financial future is in flux. And the entire world’s waiting to see if he or one of his children will be charged with a crime soon. It’s safe to say he isn’t having his best week. And, of course, that means he’s filed a frivolous lawsuit to rile up and distract his base of sycophants from the reality of his unfolding legal situation. As TNW’s Thomas Macaulay reported earlier today, Trump’s filed a class suit against the CEOs of Google, Facebook, and Twitter. He’s alleging they violated his Constitutional… This story continues at The Next Web Or just read more coverage about: Facebook * This article was originally published here

Solo Entrepreneurs: Are You Ready to Hire Employees? Even if you operate a one-person business and enjoy the freedom of working alone, the day will likely come when you can’t handle all the incoming jobs. At that point, you have a major decision to make. Either choose to remain as a solo operator or expand […] * This article was originally published here

Day of Shecurity Announces Fall 2021 Conference Day of Shecurity, a series of conferences that provide cybersecurity skills and career development to women at no cost, announced it will host a virtual conference on October 28-29, 2021. This announcement comes after its highly successful March 2021 pivot to virtual events. With such a strong response […] * This article was originally published here

Following its announcement late last month, Facebook’s new 128GB model of the Oculus Quest 2 is now available to buy. You can purchase the VR headset from the company’s website for the same $299 price as the previous 64GB base model. “Long story short? We’ve created this 128GB model so that players can easily store and access more games and apps on a single device,” Facebook says of the new variant. Facebook announced the 128GB model at the same time it issued a voluntary recall of the Quest 2 to address an issue with the original face insert that came with the headset. The company temporarily stopped selling the Quest 2 for about a month so that it could add a new silicone face cover inside the box of each new unit. If you’re a current Quest 2 owner, you can request Facebook send you the new silicone cover by visiting the My Devices section of the account settings. The new 128GB model also comes with the silicone cover inside the box. Editor’s note: This post originally app...

EU policymakers recently proposed a sweeping set of regulations called the Artificial Intelligence Act (AIA). If made law, the AIA would offer European citizens the strictest, most comprehensive protections against predatory AI systems on the planet. And big tech is terrified. Up front: The Center for Data Innovation published a report on Sunday titled “How Much Will the AIA Cost Europe?” According to the organization’s research: The AIA will cost the European economy €31 billion over the next five years and reduce AI investments by almost 20 percent. A European SME that deploys a high-risk AI system will incur compliance… This story continues at The Next Web * This article was originally published here

The Fundamentals of Banking in Hong Kong Opening a business bank account in HK is one of the most crucial things you can do when you get started in HK. Commercial bank accounts play a key role in growing your business by protecting your business and yourself. Business expenses, simplified tax returns, and payments on […] * This article was originally published here

8 Skills You’ll Need For A Successful Career in Credit Control Are you thinking about making a move into a credit control job role? Then read on to find out 8 characteristics that could make you perfect for the role… Credit control might not necessarily have been the job of your dreams as a child, […] * This article was originally published here

Subscription newsletter platform kingpin Substack shared today that they’ve acqui-hired the team behind Cocoon , a subscription social media app built for close friends. We covered the Y Combinator-backed startup’s initial $3 million seed raise led by Lerer Hippeau back in November 2019, shortly before the pandemic dramatically reconfigured how people used social media to communicate with the people nearest and dearest to them. Cocoon’s initial pitch was for a social network for your closest friends, something that could level-up the text group chat you may have been stuck using before; over time, Cocoon evolved its platform’s dynamics to allow for more open social circles that users could fine-tune at will. With the app, users could share text and photo updates while also using passive data from sources like mobile location data or fitness stats to deliver automatic updates to Slack channel-like feeds for specific groups of their friends. The app was co-founde...

One of the most iconic scenes of the Star Wars film franchise is the moment lovable droid R2D2 rolls up to Obi Wan Kenobi and offers him a virtual reality helmet. Oh you don’t remember that scene? It’s the one where Kenobi fiddles with the straps of his headset for three full minutes on screen before mumbling “hang on, it’s blurry. Wait. What am I supposed to be seeing? Is that Jabba the Hutt? Where’s the slider-thingy that makes the image clear? What side is it on? Oh. There it is. Ah! That’s Leia.” Then, inside the virtual Star Wars… This story continues at The Next Web Or just read more coverage about: AOL * This article was originally published here