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Microsoft's LinkedIn Is Curbing Inappropriate Profiles and Content from The Platform Via AI Technology

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As technology and social media are becoming more accessible for all, problems are becoming inevitable. Research says there is more abusive and damaging content on social media than on other sites, which is the reason social media giants like Facebook, InstagramTwitter, and Pinterest are using AI-based models and machine learning to detect this issue and remove the content. Following the footsteps, LinkedIn has just highlighted how its AI-based models are detecting and filtering objectionable content that doesn’t match the criteria of their platform. Owned by Microsoft, LinkedIn has over 660 million users, making it a big market that has to deal with the issue of spamming, publishing of inappropriate content and bullying. To address this problem, the social network takes the help of an AI-based model to detect inappropriate profiles and spam content but also illegal services, advertisement and scam based content.

Previously to filter out the inappropriate content, LinkedIn was using a blocklist where certain words and phrases are to be added according to the terms of service and community guidelines. This was used for removing potentially harmful content or spamming accounts on LinkedIn. The main issue was that maintaining this blocklist was quite difficult as it required a lot of manual effort and in case the list is not maintained properly it could lead to potential damage later. There are few words with several different meanings and restricting one might end up making it difficult for the user to communicate, in short, the key is to have a filter process that understands the context first and then filter out a possible issue.


To solve this issue, LinkedIn has now adopted machine learning approach that mainly involves a Convolutional Neural Network that is mainly an algorithm class for imagery analysis. Through this AI, the content type is taken into account and the profiles are labeled as appropriate and inappropriate. This filter has been trained by spotting the inappropriate content that’s already present in the database and labeling it, this is later fed to the AI model juts to help it understand what inappropriate content seems like. To reduce biases, they also identified problematic words from inappropriate accounts and later fed it to the filter to ensure that it is able to detect the problem right away.


Photo: JasonDoiy / Getty Images

Read next: LinkedIn Added Several Exciting Feature to Facilitate Brands

The Acceptance of eSports as an Authentic Sport Discipline

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The eSports industry is gradually revolutionizing the sports world, as it was previously unthinkable to consider videogames as a sports discipline as important as the others, but thanks to the breakthrough that the eSports have achieved, its recognition throughout the world has increased, along with its influence in the sports world. However, considering eSports as a sporting discipline is still a topic debated by various organizations worldwide. That said, the facts that demonstrate the great discipline and dedication required by eSports along with the influence they have gained over time as an athletic activity will be explained below.

The structure and training those eSports players must follow

When observing in detail the main aspects and configurations of the eSports, it can be observed that these have a structure quite similar to the one that has the traditional sports, since in these games also takes into account the development of the abilities of its players in the field of game, this pursuit is made by the sport direction, which is represented by a manager that each player of the eSports possesses. The manager is in charge of managing and monitoring the physical and mental conditions of professional players who belong to a team. In addition, the professional teams that participate in the eSports have staff that is responsible for training their players with the aim of improving their physical skills, eating habits and even their condition of psychological health. Finally, eSports players must always be prepared and in good shape to perform at the highest level in competitions.

Professional electronic sports teams offer a wide variety of services to their players because they usually spend many hours a day sitting in front of the screen to train on their particular videogame, and such action can be quite exhausting for the body and mind (despite being a sedentary activity). Generally, training consists of a theoretical part and another practical part.

In the theoretical part of the training, the manager is responsible for playing videos of previous games, either games of their own players or rival players, to show them the faults they must correct and to be able to define to their players the strategies and tactics to follow in future games. While the practical part consists of the above, players must constantly train on their particular videogame to improve their performance. Although this training appears to be quite standard, it turns out that each eSports team coach uses his or her own personal methods. Some coaches even analyze the variations in the games that can be produced by the heartbeat of their players, through some medical devices.

During competition seasons, eSports players usually reside in so-called "gaming houses", residences where professional players can train and stay more comfortably. These residences can accommodate an entire team, so each of their members must live together. During their stay, players usually train approximately 10 hours a day, five days a week. But in addition to the above, the gaming house also have areas where players can train and clear their heads, so these residences usually have a gym, swimming pool, courts, among other traditional recreational areas.

The acceptance of eSports as an Olympic sport

Although the vast majority of eSports fans and spectators consider eSports to be a genuine sport, today there are still important communities that refuse to accept eSports as an Olympic sports discipline, the most prominent example of this is the strict position taken by the IOC President (International Olympic Committee), Thomas Bach, who continues to impede eSports access to the Olympic world without a doubt, this is because Bach believes that videogames are deeply linked to violence. Although this is only a personal consideration, it is sufficient for the IOC to maintain its position.

The acceptance of eSports as an authentic sport discipline is still under discussion. However, many followers of eSports are sustained by the irrefutable definition of the word "sport", which states that all physical activity is exercised as a competition, is subject to certain rules and requires training to be able to improve in that activity. Taking into account this definition, it is valid to maintain the resolution that eSports can easily be considered as a genuine sport.

It should also be noted that the co-chairman of the Paris 2024 Organizing Committees for the Olympic Games, Tony Estanguet, remarked that the inclusion of eSports cannot fail to be a possibility given the great interest of young people.

Another important statement was made by the United States, which already recognizes eSports players as professional athletes. Thanks to this, opportunities like the one received by the Canadian professional player called "Danny Le” (Shiphtur), who managed to enter the U.S. in 2013 through a P-1A visa, which belongs to a category reserved for professional athletes. After this fact, it is already common to find in the world several eSports players who have this type of visa.

Having said all this, like the business that revolves around eSports, videogames can easily host a big number of others market types, such as: the parallel business of videogame currencies, this market is very common in online games such as the MMORPG RuneScape Old School, where through gaming marketplace players can buy RuneScape Old School Gold in exchange for currency in the real world.

Finally, the acceptance of eSports as an Olympic sports discipline is still under discussion, so we must continue to look forward to the full development of the future of these competitions. The incredibly fast growth that eSports have obtained has also caused them to need different legal regulations that guarantee justice in these competitions and in their players, but this continues to be quite incomplete, so the required growth of eSports will have to continue for the time being.



Read next: The History of Gaming (infographic).

Animated Stickers and Account Transfer Feature Will Soon Come To Whatsapp, Reveals Android Beta Update

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With the evolution of stickers over the years, we can now most definitely say that stickers don’t only have the potential to stand head to head with emojis but within certain contexts of conversation, it can also most definitely speak louder than words.

Moving forward with the similar philosophy, Whatsapp is experimenting with animated stickers in Android beta app.

The report of animated stickers has come through WABetaInfo and according to them users might not have access to the animated stickers pack with the beta version of the app for now but the feature is currently under development. The publication also presented a brief overlook of how the animated stickers will suit Whatsapp with a short video.

Whatsapp updated its existing stickers with the recently released version but the changes looked subtle in terms of appearance or the feature of stickers, while also taking us to the conclusion that Whatsapp will soon come out with a bigger update and that now seem to be animated stickers. Besides that, it is also expected that Whatsapp will add more packs of stickers including ‘Moody Foodies’, ‘Bright Days’, ‘Rico’s Sweet Life’, ‘Playful Piyomaru’ and much more.

This update of stickers is definitely long due because Whatsapp last announced its set of stickers back in 2018. The platform has always been more keen on giving support to third-party sticker packs and therefore they have added very few of their own to be used within the messaging app.



Along with stickers, people have also been waiting for Whatsapp’s dark mode and as per the recent beta app release, that feature too is going through the final stages of development and will be released for all the regular users.

Similarly, WABI also shared details about Account Transfer, a recently added iOS feature on Whatsapp, that allows users to register their "WhatsApp account on a new iPhone device without asking credentials, if iCloud Keychain is enabled."

According to WABI, "WhatsApp is working on a very similar feature [like Account Transfer], but for Android... This feature uses official Google APIs (the documentation is available here) that allow to transfer your WhatsApp data on another device without the need for a new registration!"

These efforts shows Whatsapp wants to come out with a bang again with all the fancy features that you would make you love the app even more!

Read next: WhatsApp Is Now The Second Non-Google Android App To Complete Five Billion Downloads On Play Store

Twitter’s Explore Page to See New Updates – Are you Excited?

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Have you seen the magnifying icon on the bottom of Twitter app? Yes, that’s where you will find all the trending topics, hot news, and interesting content that will catch your attention in an instant.

Twitter’s Explore tab is designed to include all the latest news from your region that might interest you. For some time, Twitter is trying to improve this feature by introducing new updates, but mostly the focus of the company is to improve Explore listings of late.

If you use Explore a lot, then you might have noticed that the topic listings vanished from the main page and then showing again after a couple of days.

Well, Twitter is working on to bring new changes to the Explore tab, which is why Martin Craster– the Twitter product designer came out on the platform and tweeted asking for user’s feedback for the Explore tab. What they like to see, what improvements are they looking for, etc. and other related queries.

Explore is one way to increase engagement on Twitter due to a huge variety of content listings and showing relevant content to users. Twitter is already working to bring changes to the platform in order to increase engagement, so bringing changes to the Explore tab will be only beneficial for Twitter.

Twitter has a slow user growth; whereas, Facebook is rapidly growing even after so many scandals. This is one reason why Twitter ads are not much famous among advertisers. Twitter is working to increase daily active users (DAU) so that they can monetize the platform. Hence, the focus on increasing engagement.

Twitter’s monetizable DAU is increasing so working on improving the Explore tab might bring good news to Twitter.


Photo: Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Read next: Twitter is testing several updates, a new system to identify trolls and sending money via Tweet is also in consideration

Beware of These 30 Selfie Apps in Google Play Store That Are Being Used To Collect Android Users Data With Malware

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Do you think your favorite camera apps only help you in making your face photos more fancy? Then it’s time to think again as a new spyware has been spotted in the code of nearly 30 camera apps that are available for download on the Play Store.

The news was first confirmed by CyberNews researchers and the report suggested that the malware is designed in such a way that it actually collects all the data present on your smartphone, including your locations as well. So, while you might be busy using any of the apps for taking good photos, you are actually giving your personal information without you ever getting to know about it.

However, the trouble doesn’t stop here. The apps then lead you to malicious ads and from there you land up to phishing websites as well. Surprisingly enough, the total number of downloads that belong to these apps together is 1.38 billion and going into further details, some of these apps are so popular that it was downloaded 300 million times on smartphones.

The reports further revealed that 16 out of the 30 apps were created by Asian developers have also been involved in spreading out the all dangerous Android Torjan. There is also one well-known developer on the list, Meitu who often violates the rules set up for Google Play Store. The applications which the developer has created can collect the data of Android users by automatically activating the microphone of the smartphones it is installed into, plus the app can even open up the camera without one’s knowledge. There were also other names like Coocent, KX Camera Team and Dreams Room.


Selling data to advertisers can be one of the best sources of income for app developers who choose to go for such earnings. If anything to go by the estimates is true then for millions of users, advertisers pay up to $4,000 a month which can make any developer greedy.

Here is the list of the apps which are affected by the malware and therefore you should be careful about taking your selfies with it next time.



Read next: Alert! Faketoken Virus Sends out Offensive Messages from Android Phones

Google to Start Compiling Search History into Collections

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The Google app is constantly changing and the main reason for this has a lot to do with the fact that Google is trying to make its app an all purpose solution for all kinds of needs. The latest solution that is going to be coming your way has quite a bit to do with making the web surfing process a great deal more intuitive, and a big part of this is concerned with things like using your search history in such a way that you can access the web pages you are interested in in a much more simpler and collective fashion.

The latest update that is coming to the Google app seems to be trying to do just that, and it is attempting to do so by looking into your search history and compiling it into various collections based on similarities between topics as well as other things that are all going to play important roles in this regard. In fact, there is a section in the Google app called “Collections” where you would be able to see this new feature in action, something that might just make it easier for you to regain your train of thought if you were taking part in research or something similar to this all in all.



It’s quite common to be deep in research and then to suddenly get interrupted. Life has lots of different tasks that need to be handled and sometimes it just can’t be helped. The truly annoying part of all of this is trying top pick up where you left off. Diving back into your search history can be quite frustrating because you wouldn’t really know where your search had ended previously. Now with collections all bundled up based on topics such as vacations, cooking, hobbies and the like, you can make the collections work in your favor.


If you check out the “Collections” section on your Google app you would see that a lot of suggestions are already available for you to look into, and what’s more is that you can save collections that you find to be useful. These suggestions are highly accurate, but some would not like the idea that their search history is being so closely monitored due to privacy issues which, it must be said, Google has not had a very good history with when you consider all of the privacy breaches that have occurred as well as Google’s own questionable uses of user data.
"There’s also a new collaboration feature that lets you share and work on a collection with others.", announced Mona Vajolahi Product Manager, Search. Adding further, "The ability to share or collaborate on a collection is rolling out now globally; the ability to see related content will launch in the coming weeks. Suggested collections will start to appear for U.S. English users this week. We’ll look to bring these features to more languages and regions over time."
However, this seems like a much better way to use this data all in all and it’s something that can really end up benefiting you in a tremendous way.



Read next: Google Chrome may soon block Not Safe For Work Themes and Extensions for Child Users

Microsoft Confesses to Massive Data Breach

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2019 was a year where numerous data disasters occurred, security breaches that made it so that the average internet user started to stop being so trusting of the various tech companies that were out there as well as the claims these companies were making with regards to the protection of user data as well as their overall ability to provide this level of protection in the first place. It was only a matter of time before 2020 saw its first big data breach scandal, and the time has finally come with Microsoft finally admitting that there had been a serious security breach occurring between the 5th and 31st of December.

What essentially happened was that a database that was used internally for the purposes of storing analytics pertaining to support cases consumers had filed had not been properly secured. Due to a misconfiguration of their security protocols for that database it was essentially left open for anyone to access if they tried, and this resulted in a whopping quarter billion users account details being available for anyone to steal.

An independent security researcher by the name of Bob Diachenko was the first person to spot this database and reported it to Microsoft on the 29th of December, and it took Microsoft a couple of days to patch the loophole and secure all of these accounts once again.

However, the fact of the matter is that this breach occurred over a period of 26 days which means that there was plenty of time for data to have been stolen. If you are contacted by anyone claiming to be Microsoft customer support you should be wary of them because of the fact that it is very possible that they are malicious actors using stolen data to try and trick you into downloading a virus or something even worse.



Read next: 12 Reasons to Strengthen Your Security Posture Now (And How to Do It)

Chrome for Android Will Now Show Favicons of URLs in the Omnibox, As On Chrome for Desktop

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Around 11 years ago, when Chrome was introduced, Omnibox was among the signature design features of the browser. Till date, new features are added every now and then and recently a new feature was tested where favicons in the autocomplete dropdown were shown in the unified address bar of Chrome on Android.

When a query is entered or a URL is typed in the Omnibox, up to five suggested queries or autocomplete suggestions are shown. Next to each suggestion, favicons are being tested by Google. The search queries have a magnifying glass next to it, whereas links have favicons, a star is shown for a bookmark or a globe is shown generally.

If the same query has been searched already on the device, a historical marker is shown.

Chrome for Mac, Windows, Linux and Chrome OS have the same feature. Displaying favicons in the Omnibox help to identify the nature of the query. Also, in the recent releases, Google has worked to show more results in the Omnibox directly.

Now answers to queries related to sports score, weather and translation are directly shown in the Omnibox.


The new update of showing favicons for URLs in autocomplete has not been rolled out widely yet but users can manually enable or disable it.

To enable or disable it, go to chrome://flags/#omnibox-ui-show-suggestion-favicons

This setting in Chrome will enable Omnibox UI to Shows favicons instead of generic vector icons for URL suggestions in the Omnibox dropdown

Read next: Google Chrome for Android working on a feature that recommends closing extra tabs

You Can Now React to Twitter DMs, Just Like Facebook

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Twitter has been hard at work adding more and more new features to their roster, and most of these features are unique to Twitter as a platform due to this social media service’s own approach to the field as well as the various specifics that need to be addressed in this regard. Many of these updates are also a way for Twitter to play catch up with its competitors because of the fact that over the years Twitter has most certainly fallen woefully behind and this is a big part of the reason why it stagnated and did not end up growing to the heights that Facebook attained.

The latest feature that has been added to the micro-blogging platform involves the ability to react to direct messages. Reactions are something that have been going around for quite some time now. Facebook famously changed things up immensely by making it possible for people to react to posts with something other than a like, and soon this ability came to messages as well allowing you to show people what you thought of a message without having to type something out.

Twitter now has this feature as well, and its reception has been positive but there has been some mixed opinions about it as well. People are appreciating the wider emotive capabilities of the new reactions and it is certainly having an impact on Twitter’s culture but there are those that feel like it goes against the spirit of Twitter and that the platform is trying too hard to be like Facebook which doesn’t bode well for the future of the platform.

One unique thing is that on Twitter you can react with emojis rather than static reactions which gives more potential for you to be as creative as possible. Who knows, you might even be able to react to tweets someday too although this might be too big of a change for them to make.



Read next: Twitter is testing several updates, a new system to identify trolls and sending money via Tweet is also in consideration

Google Researchers Shed Light on Security Flaws in Apple's Safari Browser

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No tech company is perfect, in fact it would be fair to say that they are truly far from it in pretty much every single way. This is why it is important for them to keep each other in check, and through the release of numerous transparency reports and the like these companies do help to shed some light on security flaws that are being discovered in various areas. Google has been doing this for quite some time now, and it turns out that its team of researchers uncovered some security flaws in Apple’s Safari browser last year.

The vulnerability ironically came from an extension that was meant to boost user security. It basically would have allowed any malicious actor to take a look at your browsing activity which is obviously the sort of thing that would put you at a great deal of risk all in all. The Intelligent Tracking Prevention tool is what was responsible for this breach, and Google informed Apple immediately after discovering it so that the vulnerabilities could be patched.

Apple did indeed fix the problem quite quickly, and this goes to show how cooperation between various corporations is the sort of thing that can lead to a safer online environment for pretty much every single person that is involved in this sort of thing all in all.

This should also tell you that you should be wary because of the fact that sometimes the tools that are created for your protection ironically end up becoming the very thing that puts you at risk. Tech companies need to try harder to protect consumer data and privacy because they are the ones that have taken the responsibility of safeguarding it from the various malicious actors that might want to try and use it for their own personal gain.


Photo: NurPhoto via Getty Images

Read next: Apple takes Action to Support Legal Authorities – Drops the Encryption Plan of iCloud Accounts Data

Netflix Will Remain Ad Free In Times To Come, Says The CEO

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The investors demanded for it and rumors created even more pressure on the company, but in the end, Netflix has been brave enough to avoid the tide of adopting advertisement based business model for more revenues.

The CEO of Netflix Reed Hastings confirmed the news himself on Tuesday during the Q4 earnings call and stated that it won’t be easy for Netflix to make money with advertisements, especially when the decision would also make them stand head to head with Google, Amazon and Facebook. Moreover, by doing so, Netflix would only ruin the viewing experience for its customers, which the company cannot afford - considering the competition that is about to come.

According to Hastings, Google, Facebook and Amazon have always been more successful with advertisements only because they are collecting important user data from many sources. Besides that, their model requires business cost as well which result into more targeted ads, while ensuring that they will dominate the game for a very long time.

So, if Netflix has any plans of growing $5 billion to $10 billion through advertisements, then they would have to earn it from the existing providers and one can surely imagine how challenging it would be to steal advertisement business from Google, Amazon or Facebook.

However, that is also not all of the trouble. The CEO is also well aware of the fact that ad business comes with controversies of collecting users personal data without their consent. To make things possible, Netflix will also have to keep a keen eye on the subscribers, including their location, so making the strategic decision of not exploiting the users was backed with a strong reason, obviously.

Netflix has always been about streaming and customer pleasure, which together might make the business model look simple, but their trick has certainly worked for them in all these years.

Going beyond the decision, although the CEO of Netflix sounds nice and fair, do you know the claim is not entirely true? Netflix does track our data but only to an extent that helps their help in determining which shows to continue with or the ones that need to be dropped. The analysts also keep an eye on trends to inform producers about the programs that can really work on the platform.

Once this all sounds too much, you should also thank Netflix again for the way they also track the interactions of users to help them set up their Netflix Home Screen with the kind of shows they like.

In the similar fourth Quarter, Netflix also came out with a new viewership metric and gave it a title of “Chose to Watch”. It was aimed at making users know how many people watched the show for more than two minutes.

But all in all, Hastings still believes their viewership tracking efforts to improve the experience for their viewers is nothing when compared to Facebook, Google and Amazon’s data collection practices.


May be Hastings is right with his point because if we look at the bigger picture, then Netflix will remain to be the only platform where users would be able to enjoy whatever they want to watch without facing the fear of getting tracked. Hence, this can indeed get them to bigger revenue, larger profits and market capital as well.

Unfortunately for the CEO, this isn’t the first time that he had to clarify the company’s stance on ad business. The debate goes way back to the Q2 of 2019 where he wrote a letter to Netflix’s shareholders mentioning how not allowing ads will actually add more value to the overall brand proposition. So, this time Hastings blatantly told that any speculations regarding Netflix coming to the ad-business would only be a rumor and not initiated by them, of course.

When we go deep down into the dynamics of competition, that is going to be severe very soon with Disney+ and Apple+ coming into the game, this increased push by the shareholders seemed reasonable on their behalf. Numerous analysts are still making predictions regarding how Netflix can earn a billion more per year with the ads and therefore the investors want to make more before the market gets saturated.

Besides that, we have also seen how other TV streaming services are already relying on ads for a part of their revenue and the list does include big names like Hulu and CBS All Access. There are also a number of ad-supported emerging services like Roku’s The Roku Channel, Amazon’s IMDb TV, TUBI, Viacom’s Pluto TV, and others.

Will Netflix’s call to skip ads really help the platform in retaining and gaining more subscribers? And does it really matter for the viewer that they want ad-free streaming platforms? We will have to wait and see until the competition grows with mobile streaming services as well like Quibi, WarnerMedia’s HBO Max, and NBCU’s Peacock.


Photo: Juan Naharro Gimenez | Getty Images

Read next: Consumers Are Not Ready to Spend Too Much for Steaming TV

Google Drive Debuts as Progressive Web App

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The way the internet works is changing quite a bit, and part of this change involves various online platforms and applications changing to progressive web apps (PWA) as opposed to the browser based extensions that were generally available previously if you wanted to try and use these services on a web based browser rather than through some kind of a smartphone. The only problem here is that a lot of PWAs are currently being developed, and they are yet to show up available for you to download and use.

Google seems to be spearheading this change by launching some of the first progressive web apps that are going to be available for the average consumer to use. This can be seen particularly in their launch of their own first progressive web app, namely the Google Drive app, as spotted by AP. This means that you won’t just be able to use the service as a browser extension, now you would probably be able to figure out a way to look into having the platform available as more of a native app that you can access through your desktop, something that will certainly make it a great deal more convenient for you to use all in all.

Basically using the app will feel more like a native experience with no address bar or other tabs to distract you. This sort of thing is perfect for people that want to be able to use the platform without worrying about the various ways in which they could get distracted by other tabs that they have left open since they would be leaving the browser behind entirely.

We definitely need a lot more progressive web apps coming out. The experience is far superior and is definitely the sort of thing that would facilitate a high degree of efficiency on your part.



Screenshot: Androidpolice

Read next: Google Chrome may soon block Not Safe For Work Themes and Extensions for Child Users

New Facebook AI Could Revolutionize Point to Point Robot Travel Accuracy

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Robots have become a surprisingly common part of our every day lives, and the fact of the matter is that chances are high that eventually they would become even more thoroughly incorporated into our daily routines. That being said and out of the way, there are still a few roadblocks associated with the use of robots in order to help us accomplish everyday tasks that we might think are not all that important for us or don’t seem to be all that high up on our list of priorities and yet are still tasks that generally need to be worked on.

The major roadblock that robots are facing these days are, well, actual road blocks. What we mean is that there is a problem with accuracy as well as efficiency. Robots can get from point A to point B but it takes them a long time to figure out how to get there, and their ability to predict obstacles as well as figure out a way to bypass these obstacles is not optimal by any stretch. Additionally there is a problem associated with computing power. A lot of the computing power robots have goes into handling the task that has been assigned, and getting to a certain place efficiently requires more computational power that is unfortunately not available.

Facebook has been working on an AI that might just make it a great deal easier for robots to move around accurately and efficiently. The new AI uses an algorithm that helps robots move around with the need of a map, and that too with only a 3% chance of the robot not taking the optimal route each time. This can truly revolutionize robot mechanics as field and vastly change the potential these machines have in the future economy.



Read next: Facebook's Top Executive Gets Tough Question From Amazon's CTO at DLD Conference, Reveals Details Regarding Facebook's Preparation for US Presidential Elections Too

Twitter tells AI Company to stop taking images from their platform

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Twitter sent a letter this week to the AI Company called ‘Clearview’ and demanded that they stop taking images and other data from their website. They also asked them to delete any previously taken photos from their database.

According to a Twitter spokesperson, Clearview has taken hold of more than three billion photographs from various social media networks including Facebook and Twitter. The FBI, Department of Homeland Security, and more than 600 other law-enforcement agencies around the world use these images to identify suspects.

However, Twitter claims that its privacy policy has been violated and request Clearview to delete the collected data. As per the micro-blogging platform’s guideline, the information taken from their social network may not be used by the public sector for surveillance purposes.

But the New York Times states that the Clearview app includes programming that allows users to match images using augmented-reality glasses with the name and address of anyone they come across.

As of this writing, Clearview has not responded to the allegations.

The revelations set off angry protests by US senator Ron Wyden who claimed that the protocol followed by Clearview was disturbing. He also said that the users of Twitter should be made aware that their images are being used in a discreet manner.


Senator Edward J Markey also showed his disapproval by sending a letter to Clearview where he said that the company is encouraging dangerous behaviors and limiting the individuals’ ability to live anonymously.

In this regard, the European Commission is also considering the implementation of a ban on the use of facial recognition in public areas. According to Reuters, the ban would be proposed for at least five years and would give the authorities sufficient time to carry out a plan that would prevent the abuse of this technology.

Besides America, many other countries have also expressed their concerns over the use of facial-recognition technology. Particularly the Chinese are reluctant to use the form of technology in many areas. In fact, a recent survey by the Beijing research institute concluded that 74% of Chinese want to use traditional identity verification methods instead of tech-assisted.



Read next: Apple takes Action to Support Legal Authorities – Drops the Encryption Plan of iCloud Accounts Data

Except For Google Other Tech Giants Including Facebook And Apple Increased Their Lobbying Spending In 2019

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In 2019, Google cut almost half of its lobbying spending than in 2018, as the government has been increasingly investigating tech companies in Washington and all over the country.

A filing was recently released which showed that Google was the only company among the big four tech giants that have been going through inspection due to lower trust level, which reduced its year-over-year spending.

The overall spending by the tech companies has only increased except for Google. In 2018, Google spent $11.8 million and last year a 44% decrease was noticed. Whereas, Facebook spent $16.7 million in 2018 and the next year there was a 32% increase in it. Amazon’s total spending was $16.1 million which had a 14% increase and Apple with $7.4 million spending in 2018, also increased their spending by 10%.

Justice Department and 50 attorneys general throughout the country are inquiring Google regarding antitrust. The company had to pay a $170 million settlement when YouTube was questioned by the Federal Trade Commission in 2019 about the violation of child privacy laws.

Google is the prominent business unit of Alphabet and is therefore accountable for all the revenues and profits earned. In the last quarter of 2019, it lobbied on online child safety, the privacy of mobile location, encryption standards and others.


According to The Wall Street Journal, Google fired around six firms that represented around half of its lobbying bills, which resulted in a clear reduction in spending. It happened after several changes in the government affairs and policy operations of Google.

However, Facebook amplified its year-over-year spending the most, although it also is facing a federal antitrust probe from FTC and a state-level probe by almost 47 attorneys general all over the country.

Last year, Facebook had an engaging approach as CEO, Mark Zuckerberg had private meetings with lawmakers for tech regulations and openly discussing the cryptocurrency plan of the company. In the last quarter, it lobbied the government on encryption, content policy, integrity etc.

Just like Facebook, Amazon also had a similar amount of increment in its lobbying spending and faces an antitrust probe from the FTC. The company lobbied in the fourth quarter on facial recognition technology, cloud computing and other related issues.

The antitrust scrutiny faced by Apple is about the App Store and about the encryption devices from the Justice Department. In the fourth quarter, it lobbied the government on music licensing issues, mobile payments and more.



Read next: Does Big Tech Have Too Much Power? [Infographic]

Google Desktop Search Display got the attention of critics, The search giant re-thinking the new look

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Recently, Google introduced a new display format for its desktop search result listings, but the critics are not happy about it. The aim behind the update was to bring the desktop search in line with the mobile layout, but it somehow backfired. Google started to add favicons, URLs and everything with the search result, but in reality, the update blurs the line between an ad and an organic search result.

The new update is making people click more on the ads rather than on the hard-earned search results, and it is only benefiting Google Ads.

Digiday reported that a lot of advertising agencies have noticed a surge in the click-through rate with an increase up to 10 percent. It shows that only Google Ad business is profiting from the new desktop search format. Google might be benefiting from the update right now, but it can lead to severe consequences in the future with trust issues with Google to be on top.

However, the search giant has laid their eyes on the criticism and has tweeted that they are likely to bring the new updated format into consideration.

Although Google tweeted rather conflicting statements with one showing that they will consider changing it and the other showing that the update received positive feedback in the beginning.


We can’t really say right now if Google will actually roll back the new feature, but Google’s intentions are clear that they want to benefit from the update. Confusing users can also lead Google to face charges of ambiguous results, but that’s in the future.

If you check Google’s search engine results updates since the beginning, as highlighted by Searchengineland, you will see a significant change over time; however, this time the change is quite confusing. We can say that if Google decides to stick with the new format, then they might face trust issues from their users, which is not good for any tech company.

Google Desktop Search Display got the attention of critics, The search giant re-thinking the new look

Read next: Google to Start Compiling Search History into Collections

TikTok starts testing Dark mode in the App, users can give a sigh of relief

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We have seen a lot of social media apps going cahoots over the new dark mode, which is enabled on many apps including Instagram. It’s in the news that WhatsApp is also trying to release their dark theme update in their app, so that users can enjoy it.

Just like other apps, TikTok is also playing with the dark theme, which is currently in the testing phase. According to the tweet by Matt Navarra, TikTok is adding a new Light/Dark Mode toggle switch in the settings, which is soon to hit the app.

Dark mode has officially become the favorite feature of users due to the feasibility of working appropriately in the low-light environments. The dark mode is pleasant on the eyes and does not burden them which can be considered a good sign for eye health.

A dark theme gives an exclusive look to the overall app, which is loved by users. If you continuously use TikTok, then you must be thrilled to know that TikTok has finally taken the dark theme seriously.

You can find the dark mode section in the general settings right after the language section. You can simply click on the option to open the interface from where you can choose the theme for your TikTok.

It is simple and easy to activate and takes no time.

The users seems to be happy about the update with some posting that this makes TikTok appears as Douyin. For those who don’t know, it is a Chinese version of the TikTok app that is used in China.


With this new update, the TikTok app is expected to become much more interesting and aesthetically beautiful, but it is yet to see.

From other applications, it is seen that dark mode has made the interface much beautiful than before, so we can expect the same from the TikTok as well. The company will soon launch the update for its users, so they can finally enjoy their favorite social networking app in dark mode.

The update seems promising, but we have no clear idea how the interface is like. Also, no one knows when the update will release for general users, so we can count on it to release as soon as possible.



Read next: TikTok now Allows you to Hide Certain Videos from your Feed; a New Search Page on the Horizon?

Despite Instagram's efforts, Influencers fraud is still around

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Instagram is a large market place for both brands and influencers and using misleading stats isn't something new, but recently analysts have seen a rise in the fraud.

Instascreener, an analytical company, came out with a report that says that influencers engagement frauds are again on the rise, despite Instagram's efforts to reduce scams on the platform.

According to the report, as cited by Digiday, Instagram deleted all the likes and comments of users received from the third-party apps which dropped the engagement rate of fake influencer accounts by 1.7% to 1%.

Although, from September to December, the engagement rate of those accounts jumped back from 1% to almost 1.2%.

It happened because some influencers who reported earlier were able to overcome Instagram's algorithm.

As per brand marketers, this occurs because the engagement rate is considered as the best metric for the success of influencer marketing campaigns, however, it should only be seen as one out of many key performance indicators.

Instead of relying on only the engagement rate, they should also do extensive research to find out the best working marketing strategies.

Also, the agreement should involve points that insist influencers to share the audience responses and other data with the digital marketing agencies.

Instagram can't solve the fake engagement issue completely as whenever they come out with a new algorithm, artificial likes and comments providers start working on other methods to keep their business going, said Sean Spielberg, co-founder of Instascreener.

However, this doesn't mean that Media buyers guide their clients to stop working with influencers.

According to Instascreener, in 2019 alone, companies spent over $1.9 billion on influencer marketing in Canada and the U.S, and out of that, $1.4 billion went into the pockets of influencer marketers on Instagram.


Although with billions of dollars going to influencer marketing on Instagram, some of it, $255 million to be precise, was spent on accounts with fake followers.

A marketer who works at a company that uses influencers, says that even though misleading engagement stats are a problem, it's never an issue that stops marketers from working with big creators.

Instead of being scared, brand marketers are still only considering engagement rate as a significant factor for selecting influencers.

Kristin Maverick from 360i, said that engagement is an essential element as it shows whether the influencers are engaging the followers with our brand.

We also check the comments to analyze if the audience is even compatible with our brand or not.

But, instead of depending on engagement rates and likes, we look for other elements as well for example discount codes, paid social results, monitoring sales data and analyzing client's e-commerce websites.

While other media buyers suggest that agencies should keep a long-term approach and use influencers to have a better understanding of their brand's audience and what they want, told Lauren Dubinsky, who works as the director of social media for The Variable.



Read next: Tired of Instagram Stories Pacing at the Speed of Light? You Will Soon Be Able to Pause Them Without Any Hassle

Facebook Messenger rolls out Ignore Messages feature for Desktop Beta Users

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Facebook is one of the many apps that keeps sending updates for better user experience. Recently, Facebook sent an update for its Desktop Messenger (Beta) app and took its app to the version 350.3.122.0. The update stormed Messenger with a useful feature that will be beneficial for the users in the long run.

As spotted by Aggiornamentilumi, now you can easily disregard a chat on Messenger by simply clicking on the Ignore Message feature that you will find by doing a right-click on the chat and from the pull-down menu.

We all are pretty tired of receiving unwanted messages in Facebook Messenger and want to get rid of it. Now, you can actually do this. By ignoring one message, you can get rid of the messages from the same person forever. If  a user messages you again, it will directly go to your message requests section, hence, no bothering whatsoever.

Apart from it, Messenger also comes with a renewed splash screen along with updates for sending video clips and documents from the app. Also, the full-screen mode, updates emoticons, new icon, and the Dark Mode further improves the Messenger’s UI.

If you have not checked the updates yet, go get a look. You will be amazed!

Facebook Messenger rolls out Ignore Messages feature for Desktop Beta Users

Read next: Now you can’t use Facebook Messenger without a Facebook Account

Using Old iOS and Android phones can get your data hacked

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As reported by many cybersecurity experts, using an old smartphone (either Android or iOS) can put your data on hacking risk.

Security researchers urge users to upgrade from their old phones, (particularly that don't receive software updates anymore) to new safer devices and operating system, to stop any potential hacking attempt.

Hacking attempts can include spying and theft of users personal data.

According to Brian Higgins, who works as the security specialist at Comparitech, says that software and gadgets which has no more assistance from their companies are remarkably vulnerable.

Every day hundreds of devices stop getting updates from their companies as it's not possible to update all gadgets forever.

Also, the unsupported devices can't be protected using antivirus software as these devices don't accept current security patches.

Brian further told that not only users should upgrade to new safer devices but also make sure to delete all the personal data from the old smartphones, as keeping the personal information in old devices is basically an invitation to the hackers.


Most hackers look for pictures, contacts and banks credentials to get their hands on to make money, as these details are essential and easily accessible.

In the case of Apple phones, iPhone 6 and apple's previous phones won't get any software update.

Since they'll be stuck with old software versions, those devices could become hackers primary choice.

But when it comes to Android phones, things get even more dangerous as many phones stop getting support after two or three years (some, even more, earlier) and then are left vulnerable.

Javvad Malik, who is a security awareness advocate and works at KnowBe4, describes such devices as "asbestos in the home".

Just like a home that contains "asbestos", which is extremely dangerous and to prevent any casualty, it must be abandoned, an old phone acts in the same way.

In both cases, the risk is too severe to ignore.

As per Ciaran Byrne of Edgescan, mobile phones with no support, makes it very easy for hackers to spy and steal information.

Hackers can use various tactics to attempt hacking, for example, they can try to connect to your device via Bluetooth, can send malicious content through Whatsapp or SMS, or there are fake apps on the Google and Apple store.

However, new devices have built-in mitigation in the code that stops hackers.

The useful life of mobile phones should now be determined by how long the company will provide software support to it, instead of how long it will work without any functional glitches.

The outdated phones are so vulnerable that as much as browsing the internet can get you hacked.

Cybersecurity experts recommend replacing old mobile devices that don't get updates anymore and keep checking for new updates if the user owns an updated device.



Read next: The Annual Mobile Shipment Is Expected To Grow Over the Next 2 Years Due To 5G Devices: Report
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