Facebook today confirmed that it was using private phone numbers to target Facebook users with advertisements. Not just any phone number, but the 2FA (2-factor authorization) phone number you give the company in confidence to further strengthen your Facebook login process. In attempting to keep yourself more securely private, you've just opened yourself up to less privacy.
Google has just recently taken on some heat about how it was handling, or rather misrepresenting, its location tracking options. “No” doesn’t always mean “no”, as far as the turning location tracking off. Privacy advocates, however, may have something bigger to worry about. Because according to sources familiar with the matter, Google and Mastercard inked a deal that could link online ads with what people buy in stores, allowing Google to offer advertisers deeper insight into how effective their digital ads really are.
Following criticism, Facebook has announced the removal of 5,000 ad targeting categories that made it possible to discriminate against individuals based on ethnicity and similar things. Facebook has previously been called out about these ad targeting options, which critics say have been used to discriminate based on race.
The heavy emphasis placed on smartphone cameras these days are sending companies scrambling to prove theirs is the best, be it in camera hardware, AI features, or both. Huawei, who has partnered with famed camera lens maker Leica for its premium models, naturally wants to give buyers of its mid-range smartphones the same assurance. It did everything it can to advertise the newly-launched Nova 3 and Nova 3i’s DSLR-like performance, including actually using a DSLR camera to pretend that it came from the phone.
This week the folks at Snapchat responsible for advertisement monetization are pushing "Storytellers" for social media influencers. It's a program which unites advertisers with the social media titans who would sell their products for them for a fee, in a creative way. In other words - sarcastic hooray! It's time for more advertisements that come to Snapchat users in the form of videos they won't realize are advertisements until it's too late!
This week the folks behind Apex Launcher just completely lost their minds. Or they completely lost their minds if you ask their many thousands of users, many of whom just dropped majorly negative reviews on their app on the Google Play app store. This isn't entirely without precedent, but it's a good time for a reminder. When you update your Android launcher, you're going to want to be careful not do erase user settings in the process.
Google is making it easier to see just what conclusions its ads have come to about you, revamping Google Ad Settings to make it clearer to check - and adjust - the demographic data it uses to personalize the adverts you're shown. The move comes as tailored advertising becomes both more topical and more controversial, as internet users realize just how much information they're giving away about themselves.
A new feature on Snapchat makes 6-second advertisements unskippable. They're real, they're here, and they're not going away any time soon. As such, it's time to discuss once again how to delete an app - namely Snapchat. It's actually pretty easy when it comes down to it. If you just want to get rid of notifications, we've got a guide for that too.
Google has announced new election advertisement policies rolling out this week. The change follows the company's promise last year to help make political ads more transparent. Initially, Google says it will require extra verification from the buyer when they attempt to buy an election ad in the US, among other things. That's just the start, though, as the company plans to launch additional transparency efforts this summer.
A new leak on how Facebook uses AI to predict users most susceptible to advertising has thrown trust in the social network back into the spotlight. The company has not been shy in discussing its work on artificial intelligence, which it uses in numerous ways to filter what it believes its users will be most interested in - and will keep them coming back for more.
Earlier this month, Twitter announced its plans to begin cracking down on cryptocurrency spam accounts. If you're a regular Twitter user, you've likely encountered them before: accounts that exist for no other reason than to part gullible people from their cryptocurrency. As it turns out, that isn't the only thing Twitter is going to do to cut back on the amount of cryptocurrency spam on its platform, as it will soon be restricting certain ads as well.
Facebook's call records, SMS, and contacts collecting are the headline of the day - but that's old news to you. You knew a long time ago that Facebook was harvesting your data, and you don't care. What would anyone want with your info anyway? You're just an everyday average person, after all, surely there's no reason to worry that Facebook workers would take the time to read your boring old communications and contact list, right?