Digital Information World

Comparitech’s latest report and an extended investigation from VPNMentor suggests that seven VPNs that claim the zero log policy on their sites have leaked 1.2 TB user data. The initial report claims that Asian-based UFOVPN exposed more than 890 GB of data of users, despite the VPN claims the no log policy on its official website.

The leaked data of users include login credentials, IP addresses, the OS used, VPN session tokens, and more. UFOVPN has more than 10 million downloads on Google’s Play Store. Comparitech’s report also discovered that data logs in an unsecured Elasticsearch cluster and stated that more than 20 million data entries were being added each day.

Later, VPNMentor found that six more VPNs that claim the no log policy shared the infrastructure as well as the database with UFOVPNs. This increased the leaked data to a total of 1.2 TB. All of these VPNs have downloads ranging between 100,000 and one million on the Google Play Store. These so-called free VPN apps include the UFOVPN, FreeVPN, SuperVPN, SecureVPN, FlashVPN, RabbitVPN, and FASTVPN. You may also note that the Rabbit VPN app is no longer available on the Google Play Store.

The UFOVPN did not secure the user data despite Comparitech informed it first about the leaked data, until the UFOVPN was reached out by VpnMentor’s team. VpnMentor’s team reached out to the UFO VPN nearly 18 days later after Comparitech's invetegation.

It is interesting to note that the UFO VPN’s team claims that the team was not able to secure the user data because of the coronavirus pandemic. The UFO VPN team also stated that the VPN service keeps anonymized data logs to monitor traffic. However, the team knows that the exposed data includes IP addresses, login credentials of users, and more.

Also read: The Number of Stolen Logins Circulating On Dark Web Increased By 300 Percent since the Year 2018

In fact, VpnMentor’s team stated that some data records even had home addresses of users, payment data, device information, and more. All the seven VPNs that claim the no log policy on their official websites have the same payment provider which is Dreamfii HK Limited. Moreover, few VPNs even have similar UI on their official sites. If someone uses any of these VPN services, they are recommended to switch to a better and more secure virtual private network services provider. At least you should change your login credentials if you use any of the above-mentioned VPN.

This is not the first time free VPN apps have been found to be collecting the data of users. Back in 2019, more than 20 VPN and Ad-blocking applications were found harvesting the data of users. These VPN apps had more than 35 million downloads on the Google Play Store.

Photo: Sergey Lykov / EyeEm / Gettyimages

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So, starting from heavy graphics oriented PCs to the virtual reality headsets now, the way we play games has immensely changed over time - since the world was first introduced to the concept of video games.

Within a span of just few years, the online gaming industry also sky-rocketed in terms of usage and popularity. In fact, according to the recent estimates, collectively the companies that make online games possibly will make $200 billion in revenue till 2023 and with that being said, the online gaming industry overall is also already the fastest growing in the whole world.

But how did this all happen, especially with such a humble beginning? What is the future of online gaming? These are the questions that the world wants to know the answers for and to shed light on it in a better way, we are presenting a timeline of the rise.

Rise of Online Gaming

The history of the first prototype of games goes back to the 1950s when scientists made their first attempt but the gaming console was still first introduced only in the 70s. The concept of online gaming even came more late in the 90s after the internet culture evolved.

If you look at the slowly evolving process of online gaming in the years (highlighted in the infographic below), then the first perception would be that technology stood as the backbone for it to thrive, but in reality, there were other important factors also at play throughout the evolution period.

Other Major Components of Online Gaming

A lot of people in the gaming world, for years, have remained confused between two terms “online gaming” and “eSports”. While many have always considered them as one, the truth is that eSports is just a segment of the entire online gaming market out there. The whole industry revolves around the following other components as well.

With the ecosystem well in place, there are now multiple revenue streams for all the stakeholders in the industry. And now with mobile gaming, there is more room for growth.

Why Mobile Is The Future of Gaming? (Statistically too)

Mobile as the largest gaming platform at the moment has raised a revenue of $68.5 billion in 2019. These numbers stand as 45% of the total market figures which include competitors like PC and tablet.

Despite being a new segment of the industry, nearly 2.4 billion people have played games on mobile in 2019. People are continuously enjoying the seamless user experience and engaging features which come in the form of in-app purchases or loyalty rewards.

Now as the 5G era is about to be the new norm, you can also expect the pocket-sized gaming consoles to go even bigger by introducing more innovation in entertainment.

New Mediums of Gaming Entertainment

Some of the technological possibilities associated to making the online gaming industry even better have already started taking place.

Virtual Reality:
In more recent news, Oculus and Valve have announced a cheaper VR headset option. They are doing to make the blurring line between fiction and reality more easily accessible to a wide range of audiences.

Cloud Gaming:
With fast and more reliable internet connections, gamers will now enjoy streaming the games rather than playing on consoles.

Real-time Personalization:
The world can expect games to generate content automatically based on the player data (player’s personality & playstyle to be exact) in the near future.

Once all of these technologies develop, there is one thing for sure that user experience will grow bigger than the imagination of players, there will be more opportunities for brands and advertisers. Last but not the least, many industry players will thrive while others may also fall down.

Whatever the case is, we can only expect the gaming industry to continue to dominate in times to come.

Graphic courtesy of: VC.

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The tech giant, Google, has been taking steps and introducing new features and updates to reduce data consumption for its Chrome browser on Android. During the last few weeks, the company has been making improvements to the LiteMode in the Chrome browser. The feature allows data-constrained users to opt to receive less data-intensive versions of pages as well as videos.

Now, the browsing giant is looking at reducing data usage for downloads. Google Chrome will soon get a new feature that allows you to postpone when you download any item on your device. The new feature is called ‘Enable download later’ which can be found on Google Chrome Canary experiment page, under this flag, chrome://flags/#download-later-debug-on-wifi. This can prove to be a useful feature if you do not have enough data left on your device.

In the Chrome 86 browser, when you will enable this new feature, you will be able to postpone download to when your device is connected to a WiFi connection, or a later time, and even some other day. To use the new feature, you need to enable the ‘Enable download later’ flag in the Chrome 86 browser.

According to a Reddit user Shifua, the new feature indicates that when you try and download a file on your device, the browser will offer you the options to download Now, or when the device On Wi-Fi connection, or later by opting for Pick date & time option. You can choose between these options to schedule the downloading of your file.

After the downloading of a file is completed, you will get a notification stating that the download is complete. The new data-saving feature will be especially useful for those users whose Android mobiles are their only device. It is expected that the company will also make further enhancements to the download manager on Android. For instance, Google may allow users to sort as well as search downloads to manage files more easily on the Chrome 86 browser. Currently, Chrome on Android does not offer options to sort downloaded files by date, size, and title. Users have to use a third-party manager for this purpose.

You can test the new feature in Chrome 86 Canary's latest version. It is expected that Chrome downloads page will soon add ‘Scheduled for later’ tab along with My Files as well as Explore offline options.

Also read: Google Is Testing a Security Feature to Make Sure Auto-fill is disabled on Mixed Forms for Chrome 86 To Protect Privacy of Users

Screenshot: Reddit / Shifua

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It’s been a couple of years since Instagram as well as its parent company Facebook have begun incorporating more and more ideas into Stories. This has been quite successful at supplanting the social media platform that actually invented this feature, Snapchat, and has made users prefer Instagram and Facebook over Snapchat for this particular feature since they provide a lot more functionality and can be used for more things.

The social media juggernauts are still quite focused on improving Stories, though, and Instagram in particular often makes a few changes here and there to increase the emphasis that is placed on Stories so that more and more people would start using them and consumers who might prefer other platforms would slowly be enticed into figuring out the best way to make the most of this feature and try it out at the very least.

One new feature that is being tested on Instagram Stories is animated text. According to Alessandro Paluzzi (an app researcher) Instagram, this time, experimenting with a lot of different animation styles for each font type to make text more eye-catching. The social media platform has been trying very hard for quite some time now to make text more engaging so that influencers as well as average users that are utilizing this service might just be able to figure out a way in which they could potentially end up getting the message across through text in a way that would be easier for people to concentrate on.

#Instagram keeps working on the animated text feature for the Story Text Tool 👀
There is a different animation for each font 🤩 pic.twitter.com/WWgmeQ15he
— Alessandro Paluzzi (@alex193a) July 19, 2020

There are currently quite a few different kinds of animated text that people seem to be looking into, and this is the sort of thing that can have a pretty solid impact on the number of people that are using Stories at any given point in time all in all. It will be interesting to see where Instagram goes with this because of the fact that this is a direction that might change the way Stories are used and can end up being a permanent change as well.

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Has Mark Zuckerberg cut a secret deal with Donald Trump that allowed US President’s incendiary posts to on the platform in the hope that Facebook will not become the Trump’s next target? These types of rumors have been swirling for several months. However, Zuckerberg slammed speculation that the social media giant has some sort of a deal with President Trump. In an interview, he told Axios’ Mike Allen that he has also heard this rumor, and he said that there is no deal of any kind. CEO Facebook said that the whole idea of a deal is pretty ridiculous.

The theory that CEO Facebook and Donald Trump have some understanding that allows Trump free rein on Facebook in return for looser regulation was alleged by sources in a report published by the New York Times. The report was released last month and has been gaining traction recently, specifically after the social media giant’s handling of posts made by Trump on Facebook’s platform.

After George Floyd was killed back in May of this year, a massive protest gained momentum, Trump posted on Facebook that ‘when the looting starts, the shooting starts.’ Twitter stated that this is against its policies on violence, however, Facebook CEO denied to remove or flag Trump’s posts, citing Facebook’s commitment to free speech on its platform.

However, the issue has spiraled in the weeks since, and major brands such as Coca-Cola and Microsoft pulled their ads from the platform. Furthermore, Facebook’s move has also angered civil rights groups as well as employees. Several employees and civil rights groups spoke out publicly against the company’s decision,.

Last week, CEO Facebook addressed employee displeasure at a company-wide Q&A session, states Axios. Zuckerberg noted that only because he had dinner with President Donald Trump last October did not indicate that they have some sort of deal. According to Axios, Mark Zuckerberg also stated that he meets with Donald Trump from time to time just as was with former United States President Barack Obama. Last year, NBC News reported that Donald Trump hosted Mark Zuckerberg for a secret dinner, and the dinner came just a week after Mark Zuckerberg made a speech confirming that Facebook would not fact-check political ads.

He also pointed to times in the past when the company removed posts by Donald Trump from Facebook’s platform. Zuckerberg highlighted the ways in which Facebook has been scrutinized under the current administration including antitrust investigations as well as $5 billion fine imposed on the company.

Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images

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Google Maps has been working and adding new features involving bike-share schemes for a while now.

From now on, another exciting feature has been added to Google Maps. It will now show directions and cycling routes with the help of bike-share providers like Santander Cycles in London and Citi Bike in New York City. These bike-rental services/apps are a great way to provide additional transportation options to many people at one time. This is a solar-powered bike sharing system that consists of thousands of specially designed and durable cycles that are locked in a docking station network. These docking stations are present at regular intervals all around the city.

Different rental programs provide different ways to use these bikes. But these bikes are mostly available 24 hours a day, all around the year, on Bike Share Membership basis or an Hourly Rental basis.

So, Google Maps’ latest feature will help people with walking directions towards the closest docking station. Not only this, but cycling directions from one dock to another will also be provided to the users, and then walking directions from one dock to their destination will also be available.

This all sounds pretty interesting and extremely effective, considering that many cities are promoting cycling as a great alternative for transportation amidst the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. It is more environment-friendly, better than being confined in close quarters of a metro, or bus, or even a cab, which may increase the chances of catching the COVID-19.

Cycling also provides a great means for exercise and is considered great for the health of the lungs, which become a prime target of the novel coronavirus.

Also read: Google Will Soon Add a New Emoji Shortcut Bar to the Gboard Android App

Google has reported seeing an almost 69 percent rise in the number of requests for cycling directions made by people through Google Maps. This shows that people all over the globe are interested in using this convenient, hassle-free, alternative transportation option with the help of bike-sharing apps and various programs.

Ito World is behind this new functionality, as it provides real-time data about transportation options and will also help the users find nearby docking stations, available docked bikes, and cycling routes.

As per Google, this feature will be available for ten cities over the next few weeks, including Chicago, New York City, Washington DC, the San Francisco Bay Area, London, Mexico City, Montreal, Rio De Janeiro, Taipei and New Taipei City and São Paulo. More cities will be added in the following months.

Back in 2018 also, Google had introduced Lime Scooters and bikes, a transit option for Maps that would direct the users towards the closest shared vehicle option and would also integrate it with the users’ travel time.

This new functionality seems to be similar to the above-mentioned feature, but with more benefits and advanced systems.

Read next: Google Chrome 86 for Android Will Allow You to Postpone Downloads To Reduce Data Usage

By this point in time it’s no secret that a lot of people don't really trusts Facebook anymore, and a big part of the reason why that is the case has to do with the fact that the social media platform has made a lot of unethical decisions many of which have blown up on its face. With all of that having been said and out of the way, it is important to note that Facebook has made a few attempts to become more transparent as well as ethical in its business practices, but the fact of the matter is that a lot of people have criticized the social network saying that it is willing to talk the talk but never seems eager to walk the walk so to speak.

For example, while Facebook has certainly set up an oversight board the purpose of this board often seems pretty uncertain because of the fact that it is a committee set up by Facebook to investigate itself which very obviously creates a huge conflict of interest in spite of the fact that Facebook often touts this board as some kind of solution that would fix all of the problems that people often see in the way that it does business.

As a result of the fact that this is the case, a tech watchdog by the name of Accountable Tech which was set up back in 2017 to raise awareness for and protect the rights of internet users has called for Facebook’s oversight group to demand more power and actually do something or else shut itself down. The rationale behind this is that while the board is operational Facebook can claim that it is being cautious and responsible even though the board isn’t really doing much, so the board should either actually start to make a difference or go away so that Facebook can be held accountable through other means.

Photo: wellesenterprises via Getty Images

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The world’s largest social media platform, Facebook, has outlined several upcoming changes to the company’s monetization policies and brand safety controls. These changes are being implemented as a result of Facebook’s civil rights audit which was published recently. The new changes being introduced will include an audit of the company’s partner as well as content monetization policies. The Media Rating Council will conduct this audit, and furthermore, the company will also review its policies around hate speech across the platform, in conjunction with the Global Alliance for Responsible Media.

Recently, the company released its civil rights audit which was conducted over the past 2 years. In the civil rights audit, significant concerns were discovered in Facebook’s approach, particularly about political speech across the platform. Although the new changes will not address those issues, they will touch on many other key areas.

The new measures include an evaluation of the development as well as enforcement of Facebook’s Partner Monetization Policies. The company will also evaluate how content monetization policies enforce the 4A’s/GARM Brand Suitability Framework. Furthermore, it will also be evaluated how those policies comply with the Standards of MRC for Brand Safety.

Facebook will assess the company’s ability to apply brand safety controls to advertisements displayed within publisher content. The new changes include participation in the Global Alliance for Responsible Media of the World Federation of Advertisers to align on brand safety standards as well as definitions.

The company will also determine the accuracy of its available reporting in the above-mentioned areas. Facebook plans to report progress on the overall process by mid of August 2020. The new changes will help the social media giant to make sure that the company’s policies are more inclusive, and they are aligned with concerns raised by the industry as well as advocacy groups. Additionally, the company also announced that it will publish its Community Standards Enforcement Report quarterly. Facebook also stated that it will hold sessions with industry bodies to offer further insight into how Facebook’s teams operate to review content across the platform and enforce Facebook’s Community Standards.

Furthermore, the company also ran an information session last week on the value of increasing diverse representation in content. Although the company needs to do more in this aspect, it appears that Facebook is taking steps to address key areas of concerns raised by industry and advocacy groups.

Photo: Greg Bulla

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Recently, Snapchat introduced Minis, a new way for app developers to build utility experiences within the Snapchat app that integrate with chats. And now, the company is rolling out its first 4 Snap Minis. The Los Angeles-headquartered social media app aims to emulate aspects of the famous Chinese ‘super-app’ model.

Snap Minis are lightweight, simplifies versions of applications that live within the Chat section of the Snapchat app. They have been designed to enable quicker coordination between friends, and you can access them via the chat section or search. Built with HTML, four Snap Minis have been rolled out including Let’s Do It, Prediction Master, Flashcards, and Headspace. With these mini-apps, users can perform a range of tasks without having to leave the Snapchat app.

The Headspace Mini allows users to take short meditation activities as well as send encouraging messages to their friends on Snapchat. The Prediction Master Mini allows friends to test each other’s knowledge about what may happen in the future, while the Let’s Do It Mini enables groups of Snapchat friends to make decisions. Lastly, Flashcards enable you to create flashcard decks.

Mini apps are HTML5 for app developers, meaning they are easy-to-build for developers for Android as well as iOS. Moreover, Mini apps have the potential of reaching the audience of more than 229 million daily users of the Snapchat app because they are plugged directly into the existing Snapchat audience across the globe.

The four Mini apps mentioned-above were rolled out globally on Monday. However, three Snap Minis unveiled by Coachella that would allow Snapchatters to plan festival trips, Atom’s movie ticketing, and Saturn, are yet to go live.

This is not the first time an application is implementing mini in-app experiences. Although the concept is relatively new in the United States, and the United Kingdom, the mini-applications model is quite well-known in Asian markets. WeChat, a popular Chinese messaging application has several mini-apps that offer various functionalities to users. In the Indian market, smartphone payment services such as Paytm and PhonePe have released several such applications that enable users to book flights as well as movie tickets, and order food and cabs.

Previously, Snapchat stated that its relationship with Tencent has been influential in the company’s decision to replicate the super-app model. The strategy will help Snapchat to boost user engagement, and developers will be able to cater to a whole set of a new audience.

Recently, it has been reported by 9to5Mac that Twitter is working on some new features for iOS users. Twitter has been sending out surveys for the members of the Twitter Insiders Program with a choice of four different app icon designs that iOS users may use on their app’s Home Screen.

Twitter is trying to get feedback on the new designs for its logo to see which ones are more preferable by the users.

This is the same principle on which many third-party iOS and iPadOS developers work. They create different icons and logo designs for different apps and give the choice to the users to pick whichever design they want. This gives more customization options to the users and better control over their Home Screen features.

Apollo keeps updating its library of icon designs for the popular apps. Twitter is also aiming towards such a goal, it seems, but if Twitter will provide these customizable options for its users, it will be official, and the members may find them more desirable too.

Apart from this, as per 9to5Mac’s report, Twitter is also working on a new splash screen.

A splash screen is a graphical control mechanism that comprises a window containing an app’s logo, the current version of its software, or an image. This splash screen often appears when an app, a game, or a website is launching. It is usually the introduction page on a website or for a program.

The public reaction on seeing the four app icon designs and on hearing about the splash screen does not appear so enthusiastic at the moment. Many people are finding these things superficial and useless and are demanding for more information density options and incremental space to fit in more tweets on the screen. Some people even think that a blinding splash screen may not be a great idea for marketing purposes and that Twitter should instead show an empty user interface instead of a flashy, eye-catching splash screen.

Also read: Twitter's Executive Bemoans Current Machine Learning Limitations

While some people may have their reservations about these changes, one thing to remember is that these are only being tested at the moment. These features may not even pass through these tests and they may not make it to the official app anyway. As with many changes before as well, Twitter may decide to not implement any of these features in the end.

Right now, Twitter is giving importance to the public feedback regarding these changes, and that is a good move. Let us wait and see if and when these changes will roll out officially, and how the public will react once the actual thing comes in front of them?

These days the kind of camera that a smartphone has is the sort of thing that can mean the difference between people wanting to buy it and people not wanting it at all, and a big part of the reason why that is the case has to do with the fact that people use these cameras to capture their daily lives and many people use them in a professional capacity as well which would indicate that this is a factor that no smartphone manufacturer can skimp out on if they truly want their product to be as successful as possible.

With all of that having been said and out of the way it is important to note that Google managed to get a lot of success with its Pixel smartphone, and the reason behind this is that it had a really good camera. However, with the release of the Pixel 4 and the criticism surrounding it, Google started facing trouble with its Chief Camera Engineer for Pixel, namely Marc Levoy. Levoy was instrumental at changing the way people thought about Pixel phones, but at the end of the day there seems to have been a lot of discontent coming from him because of the fact that his LinkedIn profile page now reveals that he has started working for Adobe.

His job title will be “Vice President and Fellow” and his main job will involve working on a camera that Adobe is trying to develop called the Photoshop Camera. This indicates that Google might not be keeping some of its most important employees as happy as they need to be, and it will interesting to see if any other top executives end up being poached by competitors. This will also indicate an end to Google’s enormous monopoly which will completely change the course of the future for the entire tech industry.

Photo: Google.

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As the coronavirus pandemic spread across the globe earlier this year, Facebook went into action to tackle potentially dangerous misleading information on its platform. The company started to label misleading information, suppress misinformation, and even removed false theories related to the pandemic. Facebook redirects users to authentic sources including the CDC and WHO website. However, it appears that the company is not making enough effort to stop the spread of some types of misleading information raising concerns about the role of Facebook in such, and what exactly are the motivations of the company, for taking a more lazy approach in some specific situations.

Popular Information (PI) published a report stating that the company removed fact-check markers on viral climate change denial content. The report was published on Monday, and states that Facebook quietly removed fact-check markers despite Facebook’s fact-checking partners found the content to be ‘partly false.’ It appears that the markers were removed after intervention by Facebook management.

According to Popular Information, Michael Shellenberger is the author of the article which was published on The Daily Wire. 12 facts are written in the article to argue that concerns related to climate change are overblown. However, Facebook removed fact-check labels without explanation. If someone wants to share the article today, they will not see any warning or link to the fact-checking site. PI reported that the article has been shared more than 65,000 times on Facebook’s platform.

PI reported that it obtained Internal Facebook documents and found that fact-check of The Daily Wire’s article was specifically brought to the attention of the company’s top executives including Nick Clegg, Facebook’s VP of Global Affairs & Communications, VP of Global News Partnerships Campbell Brown, and Joel Kaplan, the company’s VP of Global Public Policy. The incident raises questions about Facebook’s integrity of the fact-checking process, and it seems that this incident ultimately lead to the removal of the fact-check marker.

The company’s own research shows that the fact-check label is an effective tool in combating the spread of misleading information across the platform. Additionally, the report also notes that the company was asked by the office of Congressman Mike Johnson (R-LA) to reverse the fact-check marker.

Last month, reports emerged that the company was letting some climate misinformation posts remain on Facebook’s platform by prompting its staffers to render such content ineligible for fact-checking by deeming the content ‘opinion.’ Why Facebook does not combat other types of misinformation in a way it is combating misinformation about the virus?

Some theories suggest that Facebook benefits from such discussions across the platform. Recently, Bill McKibben of The New Yorker wrote that Facebook’s core business is to get maximum users to spend maximum time on its site, so the company can sell the attention of those people to marketers.

TikTok has risen quite fast in the world of social media, and a big part of the reason why that is the case has to do with the fact that it has managed to crack a market that most western social media platforms tended to fail in to a certain extent, that of developing countries. Hence, for the first time in the history of social media there is a highly popular application that has not come from America, and this has caused a lot of waves to erupt in pretty much every facet of this industry.

After conquering several major markets such as India, TikTok turned to the US planning an aggressive expansion into the market. This has sent US companies scrambling to provide competitor services, and this is coming at just the right time since it turns out that people are using TikTok a lot more than they are using Instagram and the like. While Instagram might have more individual accounts on its platform, TikTok users are spending a lot more time on the app whenever they use it and this is very important to take into account because of the fact that the raw number of users doesn’t matter nearly as much as how much time they are spending on the platform.

According to insights provided by Cowen (a financial services firm), TikTok has seen a marked rise in engagement this year, rising from 37 minutes on average to 41 minutes. If you compare this with Instagram, the Facebook subsidiary gets only 33 minutes of usage on average per day from each user. This seems to indicate that TikTok is improving its engagement potential, and this is the sort of thing that could lead to an even bigger rise that would be far more impressive in the near future.

This data comes in at a time where TikTok is facing a lot of opposition both from American companies as well as the American government, with the Trump administration essentially launching a full on trade war with China. The American government is attempting to prevent TikTok from gaining a foothold in the country entirely, or at the very least force the American version of TikTok to sever its ties from its Chinese parent company.

Many are commenting on how similar this is to China’s own banning of western social media platforms and websites, something that was often criticized in the west as a form of censorship and a manner in which China was depriving its people of access to the real world. It remains to be seen where something like this goes, but the rise in popularity that TikTok has seen has most definitely been quite impressive.

Also read: On Average, US Adults Will Spent 88% of Their Mobile Time within Applications

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Did you know that there is a way for retailers to leverage their stores to fulfill their customer's needs? Well, customers can order items online but pick them up in-store. Indeed, Buy Online, pick up in-store (BOPS) trend, has gained much popularity. This strategy seems to wow huge retailers who boast of an extensive network of physical locations to send items. Many retailers have adopted this strategy since it has many peeks linked to it and the fact that most people are now working from home while most are receiving local and international retail news at home. The approach must have proven to increase profits as well as efficiency in customer service. Here are the most significant perks related to the use of BOPS. But before the perks, take a peek at this article in order to learn how to leverage this opportunity with Shopify.

Fewer Returns

Retailers face a lot of challenges when thousands of items have to be returned. The process is quite expensive, and this means losses to the company. It also wastes valuable time when returning the products. But if the product is picked from a store, the customer can check it properly before leaving the premise and ascertain that it is the same item they ordered. The items can even be swapped quickly, which reduces return rates. The swapping also translates to huge savings since the product does not have to be returned from the client directly to the distribution center.

Chances of an impulse buy increases

A long time ago, you would have to drive to the physical stores to view and buy various products. In the process of viewing the items on catalogues, they would come across other beautiful products that they bought out of impulse. However, the rate at which typical shoppers buy items impulse has reduced due to the inception of online stores. In most cases, you only order what you need. It is hard to make impulse buys since you are not at the store.

Thus, retailers have to process higher volumes of orders which bear typically small profits for each item. This leads to high product processing costs since various people make small orders, and they have to be delivered in different locations. But BOPS get shoppers into the store where they can still view other products. This makes it easy to convince customers to purchase additional products. They achieve that by upselling or placing strategic adverts to lure store visitors. However, this could be slowed down by the fact that most people now prefer to work from home.

Decreased Shipping Time

Customers are growing more impatient than before. Most retailers have adopted strategies that offer speedy delivery. However, in some cases, the same or next day deliveries happen to be costly on the retailer's side. But with the BOPS, the big and small retailers can serve their customers better and offer quick deliveries without getting trapped into providing free shipping. So, anyone who wants to collect their items from a nearby store finds it easy and convenient. Also, those who can wait for direct delivery can wait for the delivery to be made. This way, any retailer can keep all its customers happy and even regain loyalty, which seems to have reduced drastically over time.

Advanced system integration

An immediate inventory management system must be put in place for BOPS, an advanced approach to work well. In addition to that, a good warehouse management system must be established. Otherwise, it would be very hard for the sellers to keep the inventory visible across various channels. Truly, these advanced systems will definitely need a bit of investment. However, its returns are way much higher than the initial capital injected. It will also bring in more perks such as being able to anticipate stock-outs, put losses sat bay, and stock up inventory logically.

Increased Consumer Choice

Over time, customers have become more adapted to more excellent choices in how they shop. See, customers want to receive the orders as they wish. It does not matter how they did the shopping. They could have gone to the physical shop after reading online reviews; they could have ordered online or bought online but picked up from a nearby store. They want to enjoy the freedom of receiving orders as they wish. So, the BOPS has made a significant improvement in the retail industry. Customers are now happy, and the trend seems to get better.

Conclusion

You have seen how Buy Online, pick in-store, has impacted how retailers and shoppers relate. Retailers are not receiving many returns since they can be swiped right from the store set for picking. Also, same-day delivery or next-day delivery, it can now smile since it has been made easier by BOPS. Also, it has increased consumer choice with a significant margin. You can even set up your store for customers to pick items shipped to it by big retailers.

Facebook’s Messenger app, a widely used platform for communication. During the coronavirus lockdowns, the usage of the Messenger app has further increased, and more users are using the app to share words with their loved ones. While people love this app, they also demand enhanced security and privacy. To make users’ wish come true, Facebook is testing new lock options for the Messenger app on iOS. You will soon be able to unlock your Facebook Messenger app via touch ID and face ID.

Matt Navarra, a social media app researcher, shared screenshots on Twitter that the social media platform is now rolling out touch ID and Face ID lock options for the iOS version of the Messenger app. However, it is expected that Android users will soon be able to use the new features.

The new options will stop individuals from additionally snooping on your chats in the Messenger app. After you have enabled the new lock options, you can choose how long it takes before the app needs to be unlocked again with a face ID or touch ID. You can choose a specific period that can be either be one minute or one hour before the authentication is required or you can also define whether the authorization will always be required when someone opens the Messenger app.

The new features do not work for individual chats, and if the social media app adds such options, it will give relief to many users. The new lock options will add an extra layer of security to Messenger chats. Another user also shared a video on Twitter of the process in action on opening the Messenger app.

As reported by Engadget, the social media platform has been working on new features over the past few months. Engadget shared screenshots of the in-development feature early last month. The new addition is in line with the company’s gradual shift towards enhancing messaging security. The company plans to eventually enable end-to-end encryption as the default setting for all its messaging applications.

Facebook’s plan to enable end-to-end encryption has come under intense scrutiny by many government agencies. The government agencies believe that this plan will facilitate increased criminal activity in Facebook’s messaging applications. Several authorities have already raised concerns over end-to-end encryption in Facebook’s WhatsApp messaging app.

But the company seems to be determined to push ahead its plan, and while locking your Messenger is a smaller element in this broader plan, the addition to the Messenger app is another indicator of user demand for more security and privacy, with their personal interactions. You may also note that the already existing ‘Secret’ chat mode in Messenger is entirely encrypted.

Update: Facebook officially introduced the Messenger app lock and new privacy settings in a blog post. "App Lock lets you add another layer of security to your private messages and helps prevent other people from accessing them.", announced Jay Sullivan, Director of Product Management, Messenger Privacy and Safety. Adding further, "This optional feature gives you the confidence to know that if a friend or family member needs to borrow your phone, they won’t be able to access your chats." Sullivan also explained that its team is working on several other features, he stated in a blog post that "We’re working on new controls so you can decide who can message or call you directly, who goes to your requests folder, and who can’t message or call you at all. This will be similar to the message controls on Instagram, and we’ll share more details when we start testing these controls.", announcing further. "We’re also exploring more ways to protect your privacy and safety when someone you don’t know sends you a message. We’ll be testing a feature similar to what exists on Instagram and WhatsApp that blurs images in your message requests folder. This way, you have the choice to view an image from someone you may not know before replying to the message or blocking or reporting the account."

Read next: Facebook’s Oversight Board Gets Ultimatum from Tech Watchdog

Apple and Facebook are often seen at opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to user privacy. Facebook tends to be less focused on this particular element than they might want to admit, and a big part of the reason why that is the case has to do with the fact that it is profitable for them to provide data to advertisers that would allow them to target specific sets of users and make it so that their advertising ends up becoming far more effective than might have been the case otherwise.

Apple on the other hand does not really get much out of compromising on the privacy of its users in any way, shape or form, and it is important to note that this tech giant usually puts more emphasis on user privacy than a company of the same caliber like Google and the like.

In order to make the most of the advertising that it provides to its various clientele, Facebook utilizes a resource known as an IDFA (Apple's Advertising Identifier) which was essentially installed by Apple on its phones and it allows for more accurate tracking of users which can help make advertising very focused and direct.

However, the fact of the matter is that Apple is slowly starting to move away from IDFA and it is making it a lot easier for users to disable it on their phones due to the reason that the company wants to start focusing more on privacy in a lot of different ways. While the option has always been there to disable IDFA, it was hidden away quite a bit so much so that not all that many users were utilizing it on a regular basis.

Now, however, Apple is going to start emphasizing the option to disable it even more, and this spells trouble for Facebook. Because of the fact that the social media giant relies so much on accurate targeted advertising for its most valuable ads, the fact that so many users will be able to turn the option for them to offer such ads off at will would mean that Facebook won’t be able to sell these high priced ads quite as much and they would instead need to rely quite a bit on their generalized ads which tend to be far lower in quality.

Facebook will most likely have to alter its approach quite a bit if it wants to maintain its current profit margins and stop being so dependent on the cooperation of other companies in order to keep itself as sustainable as possible once all has been said and is now out of the way.

Facebook has finally decided to do something about the allegations that it often faces in terms of racial bias. As per the recent report, Facebook is now forming several internal teams which will be dedicated to studying Facebook app and website, along with Instagram for any signs of racial bias that their algorithms might be coming across, or worse, causing any sort of harm or under-representation to Black, Hispanic and some other races too.

The new Facebook's Inclusive Product Council team will be responsible to make sure that no racial bias takes place anywhere on the famous social media platform and Instagram. The task of this team will also be to ensure that fairness, equality, and equitable product development are the core of every action these social media platforms take for people. To achieve their purpose, they will work closely with Facebook's Artificial Intelligence team to keep a close eye on the algorithms too, so that early detection of any racial prejudice or bias does not go unnoticed.

All these actions are being taken in response to the racial justice movements going on all over America after George Floyd's death in May 2020. Facebook has never taken a firm stance against racial bias before, and that has led it to become a target of various allegations, bans, and even protests.

Even with the issue of advertisement boycott under the #StopHateForProfit movement which was organized by certain civil rights groups including the Anti-Defamation League, Color of Change, and the NAACP, Mark Zuckerberg's response remained bland and quite disappointing throughout the movement. His approach and unjustified silence caused a lot of backlashes as he was called 'shallow' when he was meeting with the organizers of the boycott movement recently.

Previously, Facebook was found to have allowed advertisers to exclude certain races and minorities when ads were being made for federally regulated markets of housing and jobs. Many other times, Facebook has not shown a lot of sensitivity to the Black, Hispanic, and other under-represented groups and has faced a lot of criticism because of that.

Facebook only took some serious notice when ProPublica and other media outlets made outrageous coverage unveiling Facebook's lack of empathy with the minority groups. All that action finally made Facebook disable ad targeting options for jobs, housing, and other markets, along with credit ads after it had to make a legal settlement with civil rights organizations.

However, now Facebook has not only decided to make internal teams to study its algorithms for racial bias across both Facebook and Instagram, but it has also decided to donate around $200 million to support businesses owned by the Black community. It also pledges to give more employment chances to the minority groups by the year 2023 while letting more of them have leadership roles in the teams also.

Instagram's CEO Adam Mosseri has also pledged to solve the problems of Instagram's Black employees and to give more representation to other minority groups across its platform too. He especially believes that certain areas like harassment, account verification, algorithmic bias, and content distribution on Instagram need to improve for the sake of Black users and employees.

This kind of racial justice movement by Facebook and Instagram holds a special significance and will become a torch-bearer for other apps too.

Read next: Apple’s Dedication to User Privacy Might Soon Start Hurting Facebook’s Wallet

Recently, Snap Inc, the parent company of the famous social media app Snapchat, announced the financial results of their second quarter of the year 2020.

The good news is that even amidst the global coronavirus pandemic, Snapchat’s popularity has remained unaffected. There has been a notable increase in the operating cash flow from $29 million to $67 million. Not only this, but the influx of daily active users has increased by 17% too, which makes almost around 35 million newly added active daily users from all over the globe.

However, the anticipated influx of these daily active members by the financial analysts of Snap Inc. was around 20%, instead of 17% in the second quarter. This means that instead of the anticipated 239 million users in total, Snapchat has now 238 million total users.

In business, a slight change in figures matters a lot, and this drop of percentage from the anticipated value shows that the business did get slow for Snapchat after all during the ongoing pandemic. But that does not mean that it is some kind of alarming situation, because on the other hand, if the stats of one year are taken into account, it is clearly shown that Snapchat saw a revenue increase by 17% in the second quarter of the year 2020, which is greater than what it was last year. However, the net loss this year is also greater, as compared to the previous year.

More users are inclining towards Snap’s Discover content since last year too with a 40% increase in users above the age of 35 years old who are engaging with the Discover.

The CEO of the company, Evan Spiegel is not worried about these stats at all, and he still believes that Snapchat is doing an amazing business even during the trying time of COVID-19. He also told the press that he and his team will be bringing in new, more exciting, and far more thrilling experiences for the Snap community soon.

Also read: Snapchat Is Beta Testing Brand Profiles with 30 Advertisers, Plans To Expand the Feature to All Brands by the End of This Year

While he was at it, Evan Spiegel mentioned a little about these new upcoming features in Snapchat in the press release. Some of these innovative features include a voice scan option that will allow the users to activate their Augmented Reality Snapchat Lenses with their voices.

Amongst other features, some new camera partners have been added by Snap in PlantSnap, Dog Scanner, and Nutrition Scanner to provide exciting experiences to the users.

Snap has also included some local lenses with an option that allows them to share virtual reality experiences throughout the world. Apart from this, a music lenses option to add songs and music to the lenses has also been included.

Some other innovative features include a complete Camera Kit for the developers to access the AR features and machine learning models for the creators through a feature called SnapML. Snapchat is also partnering with Google’s Depth API to bring in more depth in its lens templates.

Read next: Snapchat Rolls Out Minis, 4 Mini Apps Have Been Added On the Social Media App

Google is constantly introducing innovative new features for Google My Business to help local as well as international brands to make the most of their listings. Now, it seems that the search giant is introducing another feature to Google My Business. Currently, it has been seen that Google is displaying local panels when a business last updated its business hours with Google. The new feature will be very useful, however, it seems that the company is currently testing the feature with small set of users.

Currently, Google only displays local panels for some businesses. The feature was first spotted on Twitter when Casey Bryan shared a screenshot with Barry Schwartz of Search Engine Roundtable. Schwartz states that the feature seems to be an upcoming nifty update to Google My Business.

In the screenshot shared by Casey Bryan, it can be seen that Google now shows that a particular business had updated its working hours with Google My Business two weeks ago. Google also shows that the brand itself updated the business hours. You will see this information at the bottom of Google's sidebar card on desktop devices.

Back in May of this year, Google allowed business owners to add links to their Google My Business listing that consumers can tap on to buy gift cards, or make donations. The company introduced this feature to help businesses during the coronavirus lockdowns. Moreover, in June of this year, the company introduced a new feature that allows businesses to add more hours in their Google My Business listing for those services that are not offered at all times of the day by the business.

With the More Hours feature, if the hours for a specific service differs from the regular working hours of a business, they can easily display that information to their consumers. The new feature spotted by Bryan can be super useful for consumers when they want to know if they can rely on the working hours of a particular business.

As the coronavirus lockdowns have impacted mostly all businesses around the world, their working hours are also impacted. So, the new feature will be very beneficial for customers during the pandemic. As it seems that the company is currently testing the new feature will some businesses, it is not yet clear when the feature will be officially rolled out. Moreover, Google has not yet confirmed that it is testing this feature. Hopefully, the feature will be released soon if Google finds any potential in it.

On Tuesday, Facebook-owned photo-sharing app, Instagram, announced that it is introducing a new way for users to raise money for personal causes. The social networking platform announced that it is rolling out a new tool to raise funds for users’ personal causes directly within the Instagram app. Starting today, the Personal Fundraiser feature will be tested in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Ireland on Android, announced Facebook team in a blog post. The feature will soon be rolled out on iOS too.

The recent update brings Facebook’s own personal fundraiser program into the Instagram app by enabling users to create their own campaign on the Instagram app or donate to a cause without the help of any third-party platform or an external link. Currently, the existing donation stickers allow users to raise money for nonprofit organizations. However, the new tool allows users to raise funds for themselves, a friend, or a business, given that the new feature falls into one of many categories.

The approved categories by the social media platform range from helping a struggling business, and paying tuition fee or for educational supplies, to covering the medical or funeral cost, and even funding a hobby. The Personal Fundraiser tool follows the same guidelines as Facebook’s personal fundraisers.

You should be at least 18 years old to create a fundraiser on Instagram, and the fundraiser runs for thirty days, however, the length can also be extended. Users cannot create fundraisers for selling items in exchange for a donation. The restrictions also include funding political campaigns or violation of Instagram’s Community Standards.

While donating to a fundraiser, you will see the username of that person who created the personal fundraiser, their name that appears on their Instagram profile, and the amount of donation. To get started with the Personal Fundraiser tool, you will need to tap on the ‘Edit Profile’ option,’ and then click on Add Fundraiser. Lastly, tap on Raise Money, and you can now choose a photo. After selecting the category and entering further details to tell the story to encourage donations, your fundraiser will be created.

Users also need a Stripe account to process the payments, and while the company dropped fees for fundraising for charity back in 2017, Facebook still collects payment-processing charges and taxes. Facebook does earn a profit from personal fundraisers, and in the United States, the fee is 2.6% plus thirty cents from each donation.

The company states that all fundraisers go through a review process to make sure that the campaign is for an eligible cause. However, Facebook did not detail what the review process entails. Facebook states that after the initial tests, it will expand the feature with tools for sharing the fundraiser in Stories and news feed.

Check out some ways people plan to use personal fundraising on Instagram. pic.twitter.com/TRnboVwh9E
— Instagram (@instagram) July 21, 2020

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Online Gaming: How The Concept Thrived Into A Multi-Billion Dollar Industry Throughout The Years (infographic)

Rise of Online Gaming

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Why Mobile Is The Future of Gaming? (Statistically too)

New Mediums of Gaming Entertainment

Google Chrome 86 for Android Will Allow You to Postpone Downloads To Reduce Data Usage

Instagram is Experimenting With Animated Story Text

Mark Zuckerberg Says That the Idea That Facebook Has Some Sort Of a Secret Deal with Trump Is Pretty Ridiculous

Google Maps has begun showing cycling routes and directions with the help of docked bike-sharing services

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Facebook Outlines Several Upcoming Changes to the Its Monetization Policies and Brand Safety Controls, Being Implemented As A Result Of Civil Rights Audit

Snapchat Rolls Out Minis, 4 Mini Apps Have Been Added On the Social Media App

Twitter is working on some new features including a blinding Splash screen and customizable app icon for iOS users

Google Loses Chief Camera Engineer to Adobe

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New Data Reveals Users Spend More Time on TikTok Than on Instagram

What Are the Benefits of Buy Online, Pick Up in Store?

Fewer Returns

Chances of an impulse buy increases

Decreased Shipping Time

Advanced system integration

Increased Consumer Choice

Conclusion

You Will Soon Be Able to Use Face ID and Touch Id Lock Options On iOS Version of Facebook’s Messenger App

Apple’s Dedication to User Privacy Might Soon Start Hurting Facebook’s Wallet

Facebook is forming new internal teams that will determine whether its algorithms are racially unbiased or not

The second-quarter results of Snapchat show a small decline in business, but nothing alarming so far amidst the coronavirus pandemic

Google Tests Improved Local Panels To Highlight When A Business Last Updated Its Working Hours

Instagram Users Will Now Able To Create Personal Fundraisers through the App