A new set of unsealed documents released by a federal court in California has revealed that Facebook was snooping on Snapchat, YouTube and Amazon users. Codenamed ‘Project Ghostbusters’, the Mark Zuckerberg-owned company was intercepting and decrypting network traffic of people using Snapchat.
The documents, which are part of a class action lawsuit between consumers and Meta show how the company was analysing network traffic of users interacting with its competitors. To get around past encryption used by services like Snapchat, Facebook developed a special technology to see what users were doing on other platforms.
In an internal email dated June 9, 2016, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said, ‘Whenever someone asks a question about Snapchat, the answer is usually that because their traffic is encrypted we have no analytics about them. Given how quickly they’re growing, it seems important to figure out a new way to get reliable analytics about them. Perhaps we need to do panels or write custom software. You should figure out how to do this.’
After Zuckerberg sent the email, developers at the company suggested using Onavo, a VPN-like service that Facebook had acquired in 2013. A month later, the team working on Onavo came up with a solution that involved installing ‘kits’ on both Android and iOS devices.
In another email, Facebook said the technique, which is basically a man-in-the-middle attack, allowed “us to read what would otherwise be encrypted traffic so we can measure in-app usage.” According to the court documents, Facebook later expanded the program to snoop on YouTube and Amazon.
Meta’s Onavo unit is not new to controversies. The team has a history of using various techniques to collect user data. After acquiring Onavo from an Israeli firm, Meta had used the service to spy on its competitors via the millions of people who were using the app.
Google’s AI powered search results links to malware websites
Google’s recently introduced ‘Search Generative Experience’ feature, which uses AI to offer summarised search results seems to be recommending shady websites that redirect users to malware-packed Chrome extensions and scams like fake iPhone giveaways.
According to a recent report by Bleeping Computer, the spammy and malware-laden search results that were first spotted by SEO consultant Lily Ray might make some users fall for these scams. As it turns out, the shady websites used by SGE in search results use the .online domain, have the same HTML template and use the same websites over and over to redirect traffic.
If you happen to click one of these links, users will be redirected to several websites until they reach a scam site. The report claims that most of these redirects took users to pages with fake captchas or YouTube lookalikes that ask users to allow browser notifications.
Tag: Snapchat
-
Facebook may have used your phone to snoop on Snapchat, Amazon and YouTube
-
Snap tests new subscription feature called Snapchat+
Snap Inc, the parent company of photo messaging app Snapchat, is testing a new subscription service called Snapchat+ that would give subscribers access to exclusive and pre-release features, a Snap spokesperson confirmed on Thursday, June 16. The subscription feature, which Snap said is being tested internally, was first revealed on Twitter by a user named Alessandro Paluzzi, a mobile developer and reserve engineer according to his Twitter bio.
Snapchat+ would cost 4.59 euros for a one-month subscription or 45.99 euros for one year, according to screenshots Paluzzi posted on Twitter. It would be the first subscription product for Snapchat, which lets users post content stories, play games and scroll through a TikTok-like feature called Spotlight.
-
Twitter is getting rid of disappearing fleets
Twitter has said that it’s planning to shut down fleets, a way for users to share texts, photos and video that disappear in 24 hours, because the tool isn’t as widely used as the company hoped.
Fleets will no longer be available starting Aug. 3, Twitter said in a blog post. The move shows that Twitter is moving away from ephemeral content that rose in popularity after the arrival of Snapchat, followed by Facebook-owned Instagram introducing Stories in its apps.
“Although we built Fleets to address some of the anxieties that hold people back from Tweeting, Fleets are mostly used by people who are already Tweeting to amplify their own Tweets and talk directly with others,” Twitter said in the post.
Twitter introduced fleets in 2020 and made them globally available in November of that year.
In its post Wednesday, Twitter said it learned through its rollout of fleets that people enjoyed sharing media and that it planned to test a full-screen camera, text formatting options and GIF stickers in the tweet composer. The company also said it would continue to highlight its audio chat tool Spaces at the top of the timeline.
Twitter lets you control
replies to your tweet
Twitter is improving the conversation experience for users by allowing them more control over who can reply to a tweet after you have posted it. The option is different from the feature that was rolled out in August, that is, limiting who can reply to your tweets and that has to be set while writing the tweet. The new update allows you to change who can reply at a later time, which is a helpful way to deal with trolls.
On Twitter, it’s difficult to gauge the kind of tweets that can attract unwelcome attention and there have been times when trolls arrive in waves. To limit who can reply, tap the three-dot menu on a tweet and look for the option. You can make it so that everyone can reply, only people you follow can reply, or only people you mention in your tweet can reply.
The development comes close on the heels of three new features that have been proposed (but these haven’t been confirmed for development or implementation). “Trusted Friends” would let users limit the audience for select tweets, “Facets” would allow categorise your tweets when you send them and there could be an option to let users list certain phrases that they would rather not see in the replies. These three are ideas and not features.
Instagram too is working on ways to give users more flexibility. The Facebook-owned platform is said to be working on something called “Exclusive Stories”, which will allow users access to their favourite creators’ stories. The Exclusive Stories feature was uncovered by reverse engineer Alessandro Paluzzi. According to screenshots shared by Paluzzi, exclusive stories are differentiated in your feed with a purple tag and when you try to watch an exclusive story without being a fan of the person sharing, you’re prompted with a pop-up that says only fans can watch.
-
Twitter bans Donald Trump’s account, citing risk of violent incitement
Facebook, Snapchat also suspend Trump’s account
WASHINGTON (TIP): Twitter banned President Donald Trump's account citing
“the risk of further incitement of violence.”The social platform has been under growing pressure to take further action against
Mr. Trump following the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Twitter initially
suspended Mr. Trump's account for 12 hours after he posted a video that repeated
false claims about election fraud and praised the rioters who stormed the Capitol.Twitter's move deprives Mr. Trump of a potent tool he has used to communicate
directly with the American people for more than a decade. He has used Twitter to
announce policy changes, challenge opponents, insult enemies, praise his allies
(and himself), and to spread misinformation.Twitter has long given Mr. Trump and other world leaders broad exemptions from
its rules against personal attacks, hate speech and other behaviors. But in a lengthy
explanation posted on its blog Friday, the company said recent Mr. Trump tweetsamounted to glorification of violence when read in the context of the Capitol riot
and plans circulating online for future armed protests around the inauguration of
President-elect Joe Biden.Also read: U.S. Capitol breach | Democrats tell 'unhinged' Trump to step down or
be impeachedIn those tweets, Mr. Trump stated that he will not be attending the inauguration
and referred to his supporters as “American Patriots,” saying they will have “a
GIANT VOICE long into the future.” Twitter said these statements “are likely to
inspire others to replicate the violent acts that took place on January 6, 2021, and
that there are multiple indicators that they are being received and understood as
encouragement to do so."Here is the full statement from Twitter:
Permanent suspension of @realDonaldTrumpAfter close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the
context around them — specifically how they are being received and interpreted on
and off Twitter — we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of
further incitement of violence.In the context of horrific events this week, we made it clear on Wednesday that
additional violations of the Twitter Rules would potentially result in this very
course of action. Our public interest framework exists to enable the public to hear
from elected officials and world leaders directly. It is built on a principle that the
people have a right to hold power to account in the open.However, we made it clear going back years that these accounts are not above our
rules entirely and cannot use Twitter to incite violence, among other things. We
will continue to be transparent around our policies and their enforcement.The below is a comprehensive analysis of our policy enforcement approach in this
case.Overview
On January 8, 2021, President Donald J. Trump tweeted:
“The 75,000,000 great American Patriots who voted for me, AMERICA FIRST,
and MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, will have a GIANT VOICE long into the
future. They will not be disrespected or treated unfairly in any way, shape or
form!!!”Shortly thereafter, the President tweeted:
“To all of those who have asked, I will not be going to the Inauguration on January
20th.”Due to the ongoing tensions in the United States, and an uptick in the global
conversation in regard to the people who violently stormed the Capitol on January
6, 2021, these two Tweets must be read in the context of broader events in the
country and the ways in which the President’s statements can be mobilized by
different audiences, including to incite violence, as well as in the context of the
pattern of behavior from this account in recent weeks. After assessing the language
in these Tweets against our Glorification of Violence policy, we have determined
that these Tweets are in violation of the Glorification of Violence Policy and the
user @realDonaldTrump should be immediately permanently suspended from the
service.Assessment
We assessed the two Tweets referenced above under our Glorification of Violence
policy, which aims to prevent the glorification of violence that could inspire others
to replicate violent acts and determined that they were highly likely to encourage
and inspire people to replicate the criminal acts that took place at the U.S. Capitol
on January 6, 2021.This determination is based on a number of factors, including:
President Trump’s statement that he will not be attending the Inauguration is being
received by a number of his supporters as further confirmation that the election
was not legitimate and is seen as him disavowing his previous claim made via two
Tweets (1, 2) by his Deputy Chief of Staff, Dan Scavino, that there would be an
“orderly transition” on January 20th.
The second Tweet may also serve as encouragement to those potentially
considering violent acts that the Inauguration would be a “safe” target, as he will
not be attending.
The use of the words “American Patriots” to describe some of his supporters is
also being interpreted as support for those committing violent acts at the US
Capitol.
The mention of his supporters having a “GIANT VOICE long into the future” and
that “They will not be disrespected or treated unfairly in any way, shape or
form!!!” is being interpreted as further indication that President Trump does not
plan to facilitate an “orderly transition” and instead that he plans to continue to
support, empower, and shield those who believe he won the election.
Plans for future armed protests have already begun proliferating on and off-
Twitter, including a proposed secondary attack on the US Capitol and state capitol
buildings on January 17, 2021.
As such, our determination is that the two Tweets above are likely to inspire others
to replicate the violent acts that took place on January 6, 2021, and that there are
multiple indicators that they are being received and understood as encouragement
to do so.Facebook also banned Trump indefinitely.
"We believe the risks of allowing the President to continue to use our service are
simply too great," Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said as he banned Mr. Trump
from Instagram too.
Facebook banned President Donald Trump from the platform "indefinitely" due to
his efforts to incite violence at the U.S. Capitol, chief executive Mark Zuckerberg
said on January 7.Mr. Zuckerberg said the 24-hour ban announced on January 6 on Mr. Trump's
accounts including on Instagram was extended because of Mr. Trump's "use of our
platform to incite violent insurrection against a democratically elected
government".The Facebook CEO added: "The shocking events of the last 24 hours clearly
demonstrate that President Donald Trump intends to use his remaining time in
office to undermine the peaceful and lawful transition of power to his elected
successor, Joe Biden."The announcement came the day after the outgoing U.S. leader was locked out of
all major social media platforms due to his false claims about the legitimacy of his
loss to Mr. Biden, and for inciting the angry mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol."We believe the risks of allowing the President to continue to use our service
during this period are simply too great," Mr. Zuckerberg wrote on his Facebook
page. "Therefore, we are extending the block we have placed on his Facebook and
Instagram accounts indefinitely and for at least the next two weeks until the
peaceful transition of power is complete."Snapchat suspension
Snapchat confirmed on January 7 that it locked Mr. Trump out of the photo sharing
platform amid concerns over his dangerous rhetoric.The social media announcements came after Mr. Trump's supporters stormed the
U.S. Capitol on January 6 in an unprecedented attack that led to one woman being
shot and killed by police, interrupting the normally ceremonial procedure to certify
Mr. Biden's election victory.Mr. Trump, who had addressed the mob and urged them to march on the Capitol,
later released a video on social media in which he repeated the false claim of
election fraud — even telling the mob "we love you".YouTube removed the video in line with its policy barring claims challenging
election results.Twitter said Mr. Trump's messages were violations of the platform's rules on civic
integrity and that any future violations "will result in permanent suspension of the
@realDonaldTrump account".The messaging platform said Mr. Trump's account would be locked for 12 hours
and that if the offending tweets were not removed, "the account will remain
locked."Critics of the online platforms argued they moved too slowly as the January 6
violence was organized on social media, directing their ire at Mr. Zuckerberg and
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey."You’ve got blood on your hands, @jack and Zuck," tweeted Chris Sacca, an early
Facebook investor who has become one of its harshest critics. "For four years
you’ve rationalized this terror. Inciting violent treason is not a free speech exercise.
If you work at those companies, it’s on you too." -
SNAPCHAT’S GROWTH STALLS IN FACEBOOK’S SHADOW IN 1Q REPORT
SNAPCHAT’S GROWTH STALLS IN FACEBOOK’S SHADOW IN 1Q REPORT
Facebook has been bent on copying Snapchat ever since the social media giant tried unsuccessfully in 2013 to buy what was then an ephemeral photo-messaging app.
Now, the company behind Snapchat is hoping to copy some of its larger rival’s own practices, at least with respect to courting new users — and, with them, advertisers. But it’s not going so well.
On May 10, Snap Inc. announced a massive loss and a continued slowdown in user growth, while revenue fell below Wall Street’s expectations in its first earnings report as a public company. Just a week earlier, Facebook posted double-digit revenue growth for the first quarter — much as it has consistently since its initial public offering in 2012. Snapchat reported 166 million daily active users in the latest quarter, an increase of just 36 percent from a year earlier. In its first post-IPO report in 2012, Facebook also disappointed investors when its daily user base grew by only 32 percent. But at that point, Facebook had 552 million regular users, more than three times as many as Snapchat.
Where the money went
Almost $2 billion of Snap’s $2.2 billion
loss in the January-March period involved stock compensation costs related to the company’s initial offering. Facebook had similar costs of roughly $1.3 billion. But Facebook’s revenue was $1.18 billion in its first quarter as a public company. Although Snap’s revenue nearly quadrupled in the latest quarter, it only rose to $150 million. And that still undershot the $158 million analysts polled by FactSet had expected. Snap’s stock fell $5.50, or 24 percent, to $17.48 in after-hours trading.Copycats
Growth in Snapchat’s user base began to slow down last year after Facebook’s Instagram copied Snapchat’s “stories” feature, which lets users post short video clips that disappear after 24 hours. Not to miss out on the trend, Facebook also launched disappearing stories this year.
And let’s not forget about WhatsApp, the Facebook-owned messaging service that came out with “status,” which lets people post photos and videos that disappear after 24 hours. See a trend here?
All about the messaging
Matt Britton, CEO of social media marketing company Crowdtap and an expert on millennials, believes Snapchat has “gotten ahead of itself” in pushing out new features, when what it does best — and what it’s most used for — is one – on- one messaging.
“If you ask any teen how they use Snapchat, (most) say they use it to text people,” Britton said. He said he’s seen a lot of teens replace the telephone icon at the bottom of their phones’ most-used apps with the Snapchat app. Why call when you can snap, after all?
Not a social network
Snapchat’s Stanford-dropout CEO, Evan Spiegel, has long insisted that his company is not a social network but a “camera company.” Unlike Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, Snapchat isn’t connecting networks of people. You could use it with just one other person, if you wanted.
Britton sees challenges for Snapchat’s non-messaging features, such as stories and a “discover” option that lets users keep up with news, sports or celebrities. These features aren’t what many users go to Snapchat for.
Snapchat, like Facebook, is also experimenting with augmented reality, a blending of the virtual and physical worlds, but it’s still hard to tell how that will make money or have broad appeal.
In Wednesday’s conference call with analysts, Spiegel sought again to distance Snapchat from the likes of Facebook, pointing out that its main focus was not to get as many users to sign up as possible.
“If we had just in the beginning encouraged snapchatters to add all their friends in (their) contact book instead of just few of them, they might be really uncomfortable creating snaps and adding them to their stories,” he said, according to a transcript of the call.
Source: AP
-
Is live video the next big thing?
If you spend hours navigating various social media platforms —and that’s all of us, really — you may have noticed something oddly familiar. All of them — Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, and Instagram — have been quietly rolling out features that push you to go live and share your experience with the world.
The latest is Instagram’s update to its stories feature, which lets you go live from any location, and as soon as you are done, the video disappears. “When you’re done, your live story disappears from the app, so you can feel more comfortable sharing anything, anytime,” the photo sharing app said in its blog, earlier this week. The feature is yet to be rolled out to all regions.
But the question begging to be asked is: why has video suddenly taken over words, even as little as 140 characters?
The answer lies in numbers. According to Facebook, users are already watching 100 million hours of video per day on the social media platform. And that’s just Facebook. As of March 2016, over 200 million broadcasts have been created on Twitter’s Periscope. According to a 2015 report by Cisco, video content will account for 80 per cent of global internet traffic by 2019.
Don’t be surprised if, someday, all you see are videos on your social media feeds, instead of personal status updates.
The lure of live
For decades, television has taken us closer to live action: be it sporting events, the Gulf War, or the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai. Now, with the way social media is influencing our consumption, the live action is slowly shifting online. Take, for instance, Cheddar, an online news start-up that’s betting big on Facebook’s live feature. Every day, its anchors go live from the New York Stock Exchange floor, with the latest news on business, technology, and start-ups. Think of it as an informal CNBC for millennials.
Globally, Buzzfeed is a leader in video content creation. In April this year, the web publishing giant made a video of two employees trying to make a watermelon explode with rubber bands. And at one point, more than 8,00,000 people were watching it live on their phones and desktops. Another video that went viral was of a police officer talking a man down from an attempted suicide, somewhere in the US. Posted by NowThis, a video network for the mobile generation, it got 46 million views.
Source: HT
-
Indian American Senior Executive At Twitter To Quit
NEW YORK: Baljeet Singh, Twitter’s product lead in charge of video, will quit the company early next month, a media report said quoting a Twitter spokesperson.
Mr Singh, who works as a senior product director, joined Twitter two years ago after working with video sharing platform YouTube for more than five years, Re/code tech website reported on Wednesday.
Mr Singh will be the latest product leader to leave Twitter after Glenn Brown, an ad executive who was handling Twitter’s video ad push and left the company in October.
Twitter has recently been jolted by the departure of several top executives over the past six months, highlighted by the departure of three key product executives in June.
Video has been an important tool in the social media realm. Facebook and Snapchat are building their businesses around video.
Many content creators go to YouTube and Facebook to share their work.
-
Indian American Prerna Gupta Develops 1000 Words Per Book App – Hooked
With more and more teenagers giving up books for Facebook and Twitter, an Indian American businesswoman-cum-author has recently launched an app that features short fiction for young readers or what she calls the “Snapchat generation”.
Each book on the app called Hooked will be roughly 1,000 words and is designed to be read in about five minutes.
Prerna Gupta, who envisions the app as being like “Twitter for fiction,” turned to some of the top MFA programs to recruit alumni writers.
“We listed that we had paid creative writing opportunities and the response was overwhelming,” Gupta said.
While she wouldn’t disclose actual figures, Gupta said pay varied by story but was very “competitive.”
Initially, the app will only feature content from screened contributors. However, eventually users will be able to submit content of their own.
The app is free to download and features one free story a day. Readers can unlock more stories with the subscription service. A week of unlimited stories costs $2.99. A month is $7.99 and a year is $39.99.
There are currently over 200 stories and Gupta said they add more every day.
Telepathic, the company Gupta founded with her husband, Parag Chordia, has raised $1.9 million and closed its first round of funding.
Ms Gupta was co-founder and CEO of Khush, the leading developer of intelligent music apps like Songify, an app that turns speech into music. Gupta and Chordia, who met at Stanford in 2004, founded Khu.sh, a startup that built music apps. The duo sold Khu.sh to competitor Smule in 2011 for several million dollars and decided to write a science fiction fantasy trilogy.
-
Snapchat CEO sorry for misogynistic mails
Snapchat’s chief executive and co-founder, Evan Spiegel, has apologised for his “idiotic” behaviour after a series of misogynistic university e-mails with references to oral sex, drug use and peeing on women were leaked online. In the messages, obtained by Gawker’s Valleywag blog, Spiegel described female students as “sororisluts” and discussed plans to buy marijuana and “roll a blunt for whoever sees the most tits tonight”.
In an e-mail, he told a fellow student: “Hope at least six girl [sic] sucked your d** k last night cuz that didn’t happen for me.” In a separate exchange, he wrote: “Did I just pee on Lily while assuming the big spoon position? The back of her shirt is soaked. She’s going to be super irritated.
This is gross.” Spiegel also made references to alcohol, cocaine, hot b**** s and drunk sex. He sent the emails to fellow members of the Kappa Sigma fraternity at Stanford University. In a statement, Spiegel said he was “mortified” that his “idiotic” conversations were made public, adding the e-mails “in no way” reflect how he views women today.