06 April 2018

Twitter will publicize rules around abuse to test if behavior changes


As part of Twitter’s efforts to rid its platform of abuse and hate, the company is teaming up with researchers Susan Benesch, a faculty associate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, and J. Nathan Matias, a post-doc research associate at Princeton University, to study online abuse. Today, Twitter is going to start testing an idea that if it shows people its rules, behavior will improve.

“In an experiment starting today, Twitter is publicizing its rules, to test whether this improves civility,” Benesch and Matias wrote on Medium. “We proposed this idea to Twitter and designed an experiment to evaluate it.”

The idea is that by showing people the rules, their behavior will improve on the platform. The researchers point to evidence of when institutions clearly publish rules, people are more likely to follow them.

The researchers assure the privacy of Twitter users will be protected. For example, Twitter will only provide anonymized, aggregated information.

“Since we will not receive identifying information on any individual person or Twitter account, we cannot and will not mention anyone or their Tweets in our publications,” the researchers wrote.

Last month, Twitter began soliciting proposals from the public to help the social network capture, measure and evaluate healthy interactions on the platform. This was part of Twitter’s commitment “to help increase the collective health, openness, and civility of public conversation,” Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said in a tweet.

It’s not clear how widespread the test will be. I’ve reached out to Twitter and will update this story if I learn more. In the meantime, holler at me (megan@techcrunch.com) if these rules show up for you.


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Facebook demands ID verification for big Pages, “issue” ad buyers


Facebook is looking to self-police by implementing parts of the proposed Honest Ads Act before the government tries to regulate it. To fight fake news and election interference, Facebook will require the admins of popular Facebook Pages and advertisers buying political or “issue” ads on “debated topics of national legislative importance” like education or abortion to verify their identity and location. Those that refuse, are found to be fraudulent, or are trying to influence foreign elections will have their Pages prevented from posting to the News Feed or their ads blocked.

Meanwhile, Facebook plans to use this information to append a “Political Ad” label and “Paid for by” information to all election, politics, and issue ads. Users can report any ads they think are missing the label, and Facebook will show if a Page has changed its name to thwart deception. Facebook started the verification process this week, users in the U.S. will start seeing the labels and buyer info later this spring, and Facebook will expand the effort to ads around the world in the coming months.

Overall, it’s a smart start that comes way too late. As soon as Facebook started heavily promoting its ability to run influential election ads, it should have voluntarily adopted similar verification and labeling rules as traditional media. Instead, it was so focused on connecting people to politics, it disregarded how the connection could be perverted to power mass disinformation and destabilization campaigns.

“These steps by themselves won’t stop all people trying to game the system. But they will make it a lot harder for anyone to do what the Russians did during the 2016 election and use fake accounts and pages to run ads” CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote on Facebook. “Election interference is a problem that’s bigger than any one platform, and that’s why we support the Honest Ads Act. This will help raise the bar for all political advertising online.” You can see his full post below.

The move follows Twitter’s November announcement that it too would label political ads and show who they were bought by.

Twitter’s mockup for its “Political” ad labels and “paid for by” information

Facebook also gave a timeline for releasing both its tools for viewing all ads run by Pages, and to create a Political Ad Archive. A searchable index of all ads with the “political” label, including their images, text, target demographics, and how much was spent on them will launch in June and keep ads visible for four years after they run. Meanwhile, the Vew Ads tool that’s been testing in Canada will roll out globally in June so users can see any ad run by a Page, not just those targeted to them.

Facebook announced in October it would require documentation from election advertisers and label their ads, but now is applying those requirements to a much wider swath of ads that deal with big issues impacted by politics. That could protect users from disinformation and divisive content not just during elections, but any time bad actors are trying to drive wedges into society. Facebook wouldn’t reveal the threshhold of followers that will trigger Pages needing verification but confirmed it will not apply to small-to-medium size businesses.

By self-regulating, Facebook may be able to take the wind out calls for new laws that apply buyer disclosure rules on TV and other traditional media ads to online ads. Zuckerberg will testify before the U.S. Senate Judiciary and Commerce committees on April 10, as well as the House Energy and Commerce Committee on April 11. Having today’s announcement to point to could give him more protection against criticism during the hearings, though congress will surely want to know why these safeguards hadn’t been in place already.

With important elections coming up in the US, Mexico, Brazil, India, Pakistan and more countries in the next year, one…

Posted by Mark Zuckerberg on Friday, April 6, 2018

For more on Facebook’s recent troubles, check out our feature stories:


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How to Transfer Data From Your Computer to Phone Quickly


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Your desktop computer and phone are two things you use every day. The latter is smaller and portable compared to the other but can’t hold everything your computer does. So, what do you do to transfer stuff from your computer to your phone? Here are six ways you can take your computer files with you wherever you go. 1. Save Material to Evernote, Then Access It by Phone Many people think of Evernote as only a note-taking application. However, you can save images, cool websites you find online, emails, and more. Evernote has drag-and-drop functionality that simplifies adding content front...

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How to Convert MBR to GPT Without Losing Data in Windows


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How many hard drives does your system have? One? Three? Ten? Regardless of how many drives you have, they all need one thing to keep track of what’s on the drive: a partition table. The partition table describes the partitions (sections) of the drive and helps your system find the files you need. Your Windows system uses a master boot record (MBR) or GUID Partition Table (GPT) depending on the age, operating system, and your system firmware. Sometimes it is necessary to switch between MBR and GPT, but to do that you need to wipe your drive first. Using traditional...

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Facebook plans to let everyone unsend messages, won’t let Zuckerberg until then


TechCrunch reported last night that Facebook retracted Facebook messages sent by Mark Zuckerberg and other executives from their recipients’ inboxes. That’s an ability normal Facebook users don’t have. But now Facebook tells me it plans to make an “unsend” feature available to all users in several months, and has already been considering how to build this product. Until the unsend feature is released for everyone, Facebook says it won’t unsend or retract any more of Zuckerberg’s messages.

The retractions of the CEO’s chats were never previously disclosed until Facebook confirmed the news to TechCrunch last night after we reported having email receipt evidence of messages that have since disappeared. Many users are seeing that as a breach of trust.

For the full story on Zuckerberg’s disappearing messages, check out our feature story:

To recap, now six sources confirm that Facebook messages they had received from Mark Zuckerberg had disappeared from their inboxes. When we told Facebook we had an email receipt proving the retractions,  Facebook gave TechCrunch this statement: “After Sony Pictures’ emails were hacked in 2014 we made a number of changes to protect our executives’ communications. These included limiting the retention period for Mark’s messages in Messenger. We did so in full compliance with our legal obligations to preserve messages.”

But tampering with users’ inboxes without disclosure has struck many users a violation of Facebook’s power. Many asked why Zuckerberg and other executives had access to functionality not offered to regular users.

Facebook encrypted “Secret” messaging feature includes an Unsend option with an expiration timer. But Zuckerberg and other executives didn’t use this, and instead had their permanent messages specially retracted.

Facebook tells TechCrunch is hasn’t finalized exactly how the unsend feature will work. A Facebook Messenger spokesperson tells me only possible option is an expiration timer users can set on messages. When the timer runs out, the message would disappear from both their and the recipients’ inboxes. They tell me this is similar to how retractions of Zuckerberg’s messages work.

Facebook already offers a “Secret” encrypted messaging feature that includes an Unsend expiration timer. But this can’t be used in existing traditional Facebook message threads, and instead users have to launch a separate “Secret” conversation. Zuckerberg and other executives weren’t using this feature, and instead had their permanant, non-“Secret” messages retracted. Instagram also offers an Unsend option in its Direct messaging feature, but warns that while it can retract sent messages, the recipient may have already read them.

But in the coming months, Facebook will bring either this expiration timer or another way to Unsend messages to all Messenger threads. Facebook didn’t have details about whether recipients would be notified when a message was unsent and retracted from their inboxes.

Beyond the dubious ethics of Facebook manipulating users’ private messaging threads without consent or disclosure, Zuckerberg and other executives, there’s the question of whether and unsend feature is good for Facebook at all. It could make users more willing to share vulnerable, sensitive, or confidential professional messages. But it also might make users paranoid that messages they receive could disappear, leading to anxious screenshotting. It could also lead to abuse if users think they can send offensive content then have it retracted shortly after it’s seen.

Facebook could have announced plans for the Unsend feature at any time. It could have disclosed the retractions of Zuckerberg’s messages at any time. But waiting until it was confronted with evidence of the deletions and public backlash shows Facebook is only being transparent with users when forced.

If you have more info on this situation, including evidence of messages from other Facebook executives disappearing, please contact this article’s author Josh Constine via open Twitter DMs, josh@techcrunch.com, or encrypted Signal chat at (585)750-5674.

For more on Facebook’s recent struggles, read our feature pieces:


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Squarespace vs. WordPress: 7 Differences That May Surprise You


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In the worlds of web hosting and site building, there are few names bigger than WordPress and Squarespace. Both are popular choices that offer a lot of functionality. So how do you decide which to use? Why Squarespace vs. WordPress Isn’t a Fair Fight When comparing Squarespace and WordPress, it’s important to remember that the two have somewhat different purposes. As we’ll see, Squarespace offers highly packaged solutions for hosting sites on their own servers. WordPress, on the other hand, is a content management system that can be used on WP’s servers or downloaded and used on your own (or...

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8 Ways Linux Is Taking Over the World


linux-take-over-world

Linux doesn’t only run on home computers. You will also find it in some much more exciting pieces of kit. It’s particularly common where the proprietary nature of Windows and macOS is not suitable. Let’s take a closer look at some of the most unusual ways people and companies around the world have used Linux. 1. Large Hadron Collider The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the world’s largest and most powerful particle accelerator. It’s a 17-mile long circular tube that’s buried 175 meters below the French-Swiss border near Geneva. It’s common knowledge that the facility has been resounding success from...

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Amazon rolls out remote access to its FreeTime parental controls


Amazon is making it easier for parents to manage their child’s device usage from their own phone, tablet, or PC with an update to the Parent Dashboard in Amazon FreeTime. Since its launch in 2012, Amazon’s FreeTime Unlimited has been one of the better implementations of combining kid-friendly content with customizable profiles and parental controls. Today, parents can monitor and manage kids’ screen time, time limits, daily educational goals, device activity, and more while allowing children to access family-friendly content like books, videos, apps and games.

Last year, Amazon introduced a Parent Dashboard as another means of helping parents monitor screen time as well as have conversations with kids about what they’re doing on their devices. For example, if the child was reading a particular book, the dashboard might prompt parents with questions they could ask about the books’ content. The dashboard also provided a summary of the child’s daily device use, including things like what books were read, videos watched, apps or games played, and websites visited, and for how long.

According to a research study Amazon commissioned with Kelton Global Research, the company found that 97 percent of parents monitor or manage their kids’ use of tablets and smartphones, but 75 percent don’t want to hover over kids when they’re using their devices.

On Thursday, Amazon addressed this problem by allowing parents to remotely configure the parental control settings from the online Parent Dashboard in order to manage the child’s device from afar from a phone, tablet or computer.

The controls are the same as those available through the child’s device itself. Parents can set a device bedtime, daily goals and time limits, adjust their smart filter, and enable the web browser remotely. They can also remotely add new books, videos, apps and games to their child’s FreeTime profile, and lock or unlock the device for a set period of time.

The addition comes following last year’s launch of FreeTime on Android, and Google’s own entry into the parental control software space with the public launch of Family Link last fall. Apple also this year made vague promises about improving its existing parental controls in the future, in response to pressure from two Apple shareholder groups, Jana Partners LLC and the California State Teachers’ Retirement System.

With the increased activity in the parental control market, Amazon’s FreeTime may lose some of its competitive advantages. Amazon also needed to catch up to the remote control capabilities provided with Google’s Family Link.

There are those who argue that parental controls that do things like limit kids’ activity on apps and games or turn off access to the internet are enablers of lazy parenting, where devices instead of people are setting the rules. But few parents use parental controls in that fashion. Rather, they establish house rules then use software to remind children the rules exist and to enforce them.

The updated FreeTime Parent Dashboard is available via a mobile-optimized website at parents.amazon.com.

 


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Facebook data scandal also affects 2.7M EU citizens


Another data-point to flesh out the Facebook data misuse scandal: The company has informed the European Commission that a total of 2.7 million EU citizens had their information improperly shared with the controversial political consultancy, Cambridge Analytica (via Reuters).

Facebook had already revealed a breakdown of the top ten markets of affected users. But in the list of countries it published the only EU nation was the UK — which it said could have up to almost 1.08M affected users. So up to a further million EU citizens could also have had their data swiped as a result of the scandal, without their knowledge or consent.

Privacy is a fundamental right under the bloc’s legal regime so the improper sharing of millions of EU citizens’ data could have legal consequences for the company.

“Facebook confirmed to us that the data of overall up to 2.7 million Europeans or people in the EU to be more precise may have been improperly shared with Cambridge Analytica. The letter also explains the steps Facebook has taken in response since,” an EC spokesman told Reuters.

At the time of writing Facebook could not immediately be reached for comment.

The company is a signatory to the EU-US Privacy Shield framework; a mechanism which came into force in mid 2016 — replacing the invalidated Safe Harbor arrangement which had stood for 15 years — intended to simplify the process of authorizing transfers of EU citizens’ personal data across the Atlantic.

Companies on the Privacy Shield list self-certify to adhere to a set of privacy principles. However they can be removed if they are determined to have violated their obligations — with the US’ FTC acting as the enforcement authority.

The same federal watchdog is now investigating Facebook as a result of the Cambridge Analytica data misuse scandal.  Nor is this the first time the FTC has probed Facebook’s actions in relation to user privacy. In 2011 it charged the company over deceptive privacy claims.

In the subsequent FTC settlement Facebook committed to giving users “clear and prominent notice” and to obtaining their consent before sharing their information beyond their privacy settings.

Facebook will now need to explain to the FTC how its actions in 2013-2015 mesh with that earlier consent agreement.

In mid 2015 the company finally tightened app permissions’ settings for all developers on its platform. But prior to that these had been lax enough for vast amounts of personal data to be sucked out without most users being aware — because the data sharing was being ‘authorized’ by their Facebook friends (who also likely weren’t aware what they were agreeing to).

So, for example, just 558 Filipino Facebook users installed the personality quiz app that passed data to Cambridge Analytica — yet the company was able to grab personal data on up to 1,175,312 more users in that country as a result of how Facebook allowed people’s data to be shared with developers on its platform.

Yesterday Facebook admitted as many as 87 million users in total could have had their personal info shared with Cambridge Analytica after 270k people downloaded the quiz app on its platform. (Though CA has disputed the 87M figure, claiming it only licensed data from the quiz app developer for 30M Facebook users.)

Writing about the data misuse scandal in the Harvard Law Review, David Vladeck, the FTC’s former director, argues there are now only two interpretations of Facebook’s actions vis-a-vis data protection and user privacy: Cluelessness or venality.

“Facebook now has three strikes against it: Beacon, the privacy modifications it made in 2009 to force private user information public, and now the Kogan/Cambridge Analytica revelation,” he writes. “Facebook can’t claim to be clueless about how this happened. The FTC consent decree put Facebook on notice. All of Facebook’s actions were calculated and deliberate, integral to the company’s business model, and at odds with the company’s claims about privacy and its corporate values. So many of the signs of venality are present.”

“[V]ague and unenforceable promises are not enough,” he adds. “The better approach would be for Facebook to acknowledge that it violated the consent decree and to come to the FTC with specific proposals for serious and enduring reform.”

In terms of specific proposals to reform privacy rules, Vladeck suggests Facebook needs to create systems that ensure third parties do not have access to user data “without safeguards that are effective, easy to use, and verifiable”.

“When third party access is sought, users must be given clear notice and an opportunity to say yes or no – that is, the gateway must be notice and the affirmative express consent required by the 2011 decree,” he adds. “Facebook also must develop accountability systems that prove that consumers have in fact consented to each use of their data by Facebook or by third parties. And Facebook must agree to refrain from using blanket consents; after all, blanket consents are the enemy of informed consent.”

In his view the company also needs to create systems to audit third party data collection and sharing “on an ongoing basis” — and thereby “hold third parties to their promises by engineering controls and contractual lockups” — including “effective remedies when third parties break the rules – including enforceable rights to audit, retrieve, delete and destroy data improperly acquired or used, and liquidated and actual damages for violations”. Rather than taking it on trust that developers given access to masses of user data will do the right thing.

“Facebook must also be accountable to the public,” he adds. “There must be far more robust reporting to the FTC, but those reports are non-public. To re-establish trust with its uses, Facebook should consider appointing a data ombudsperson and establishing a group outside the company that have unfettered access to Facebook data and employees to ensure that Facebook is now, finally, honoring its commitments to users, and this group should periodically report its findings on Facebook’s compliance.”


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What Are Progressive Web Apps and How Do I Install One?


progressive-web-apps

Apps dominate your phone. And while apps don’t quite influence your desktop or browser in the same way, that looks set to change. Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) are growing in stature as more browsers offer support. But what exactly is a Progressive Web App and what will they do for you? Here’s everything you need to know. What Is a Progressive Web App? Progressive Web Apps are web applications that offer a regular site to users but appear as a native mobile app. PWAs attempt to bring the usability of a native mobile app to the modern browser feature set,...

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Myanmar group blasts Zuckerberg’s claim on Facebook hate speech prevention


It’s becoming common to say that Mark Zuckerberg is coming under fire, but the Facebook CEO is again being questioned, this time over a recent claim that Facebook’s internal monitoring system is able to thwart attempts to use its services to incite hatred.

Speaking to Vox, Zuckerberg used the example of Myanmar, where he claimed Facebook had successfully rooted out and prevented hate speech through a system that scans chats inside Messenger. In this case, Messenger had been used to send messages to Buddhists and Muslims with the aim of creating conflict on September 11 last year.

Zuckerberg told Vox:

The Myanmar issues have, I think, gotten a lot of focus inside the company. I remember, one Saturday morning, I got a phone call and we detected that people were trying to spread sensational messages through — it was Facebook Messenger in this case — to each side of the conflict, basically telling the Muslims, “Hey, there’s about to be an uprising of the Buddhists, so make sure that you are armed and go to this place.” And then the same thing on the other side.

So that’s the kind of thing where I think it is clear that people were trying to use our tools in order to incite real harm. Now, in that case, our systems detect that that’s going on. We stop those messages from going through. But this is certainly something that we’re paying a lot of attention to.

That claim has been rejected in a letter signed by six organizations in Myanmar, including tech accelerator firm Phandeeyar. Far from a success, the group said the incident shows why Facebook is not equipped to respond to hate speech in international markets since it relied entirely on information from the ground, where Facebook does not have an office, in order to learn of the issue.

The group — which includes hate speech monitor Myanmar ICT for Development Organization and the Center for Social Integrity — explained that some four days elapsed between the sending of the first message and Facebook responding with a view to taking action.

In your interview, you refer to your detection ‘systems’. We believe your system, in this case, was us – and we were far from systematic. We identified the messages and escalated them to your team via email on Saturday the 9th September, Myanmar time. By then, the messages had already been circulating widely for three days.

The Messenger platform (at least in Myanmar) does not provide a reporting function, which would have enabled concerned individuals to flag the messages to you. Though these dangerous messages were deliberately pushed to large numbers of people – many people who received them say they did not personally know the sender – your team did not seem to have picked up on the pattern. For all of your data, it would seem that it was our personal connection with senior members of your team which led to the issue being dealt with.

Myanmar has only recently embraced the internet in recent times, thanks to the slashing of the cost of a SIM card — which was once as much as $300 — but already most people in the country are online. Since its internet revolution has taken place over the last five years, the level of Facebook adoption per person is one of the highest in the world.

“Out of a 50 million population, there are nearly 30 million active users on Facebook every month,” Phandeeyar CEO Jes Petersen told TechCrunch. “There’s this notion to many people that Facebook is the internet.”

Young men browse their Facebook wall on their smartphones as they sit in a street in Yangon on August 20, 2015. Facebook remains the dominant social network for US Internet users, while Twitter has failed to keep apace with rivals like Instagram and Pinterest, a study showed. AFP PHOTO / Nicolas ASFOURI (Photo credit should read NICOLAS ASFOURI/AFP/Getty Images)

Facebook optimistically set out to connect the world, and particularly facilitate communication between governments and people, so that statistic may appear at face value to fit with its goal of connecting the world, but the platform has been abused in Myanmar.

Chiefly that has centered around stoking tension between the Muslim and Buddhist populations in the country.

The situation in the country is so severe that an estimated 700,000 Rohingya refugees are thought to have fled to neighboring Bangladesh following a Myanmar government crackdown that began in August. U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has labeled the actions as ethnic cleansing, as has the UN.

Tensions inflamed, Facebook has been a primary outlet for racial hatred from high-profile individuals inside Myanmar. One of them, monk Ashin Wirathu who is barred from public speaking due to past history, moved online to Facebook where he quickly found an audience. Though he had his Facebook account shuttered, he has vowed to open new ones in order to continue to amplifly his voice via the social network.

Beyond visible figures, the platform has been ripe for anti-Muslim and anti-Rohinga memes and false new stories to go viral. UN investigators last month said Facebook has played a key role spreading hate.

Petersen said that Phandeeyar — which helped Facebook draft its local language community standards page — and others have held regular information meetings with the social network on the occasions that it has visited Myanmar. But the fact that it does not have an office in the country nor local speakers on its permanent staff has meant that little to nothing has been done.

Likewise, there is no organizational structure to handle the challenging situation in Myanmar, with many of its policy team based in Australia, and Facebook itself is not customized to solicit feedback from users in the country.

“If you are serious about making Facebook better, we urge you to invest more into moderation — particularly in countries, such as Myanmar, where Facebook has rapidly come to play a dominant role in how information is accessed and communicated,” the group wrote.

“We urge you to be more intent and proactive in engaging local groups, such as ours, who are invested in finding solutions, and — perhaps most importantly — we urge you to be more transparent about your processes, progress and the performance of your interventions, so as to enable us to work more effectively together,” they added in the letter.

Facebook has offices covering five of Southeast Asia’s largest countries — Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines — and its approach to expansion has seemed to focus on advertising sales opportunities, with most staff in the region being sales or account management personnel. Using that framing, Myanmar — with a nascent online advertising space — isn’t likely to qualify for an office, but Phandeyaar’s Petersen believes there’s a strong alternative case.

“Myanmar could be a really good test market for how you fix these problems,” he said in an interview. “The issues are not exclusive to Myanmar, but Facebook is so dominant and there are serious issues in the country — here is an opportunity to test ways to mitigate hate speech and fake news.”

Indeed, Zuckerberg has been praised for pushing to make Facebook less addictive, even at the expense of reduced advertising revenue. By the same token, Facebook could sacrifice profit and invest in opening more offices worldwide to help live up to the responsibility of being the de facto internet in many countries. Hiring local people to work hand-in-hand with communities would be a huge step forward to addressing these issues.

With over $4 billion in profit per quarter, it’s hard to argue that Facebook can’t justify the cost of a couple of dozen people in countries where it has acknowledged that there are local issues. Like the newsfeed changes, there is probably a financially-motivated argument that a safer Facebook is better for business, but the humanitarian responsibility alone should be enough to justify the costs.

In a statement, Facebook apologized that Zuckerberg had not acknowledged the role of the local groups in reporting the messages.

“We took their reports very seriously and immediately investigated ways to help prevent the spread of this content. We should have been faster and are working hard to improve our technology and tools to detect and prevent abusive, hateful or false content,” a spokesperson said.

The company said it is rolling a feature to allow Messenger users to report abusive content inside the app. It said also that it has added more Burmese language reviewers to handle content across its services.

“There is more we need to do and we will continue to work with civil society groups in Myanmar and around the world to do better,” the spokesperson added.

The company didn’t respond when we asked if there are plans to open an office in Myanmar.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – SEPTEMBER 11: Facebook Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg speaks during the TechCrunch Conference at SF Design Center on September 11, 2012 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by C Flanigan/WireImage)

Zuckerberg’s interview with Vox itself was one of the first steps of a media campaign that the Facebook supremo has embarked on in response to a wave of criticism and controversy that the company has weathered over the way it handles user data.

Facebook was heavily criticised last year for allowing Russian parties to disrupt the 2016 U.S. election using its platform, but the drama has intensified in recent weeks.

The company’s data privacy policy came under fire after it emerged that a developer named Dr. Aleksandr Kogan used the platform to administer a personality test app that collected data about participants and their friends. That data was then passed to Cambridge Analytica where it may have been leveraged to optimize political campaigns including that of 2016 presidential candidate Donald Trump and the Brexit vote, allegations which the company itself vehemently denies. Regardless of how the data was employed to political ends, that lax data sharing was enough to ignite a firestorm around Facebook’s privacy practices.

Zuckerberg himself fronted a rare call with reporters this week in which he answered questions on a range of topics, including whether he should resign as Facebook CEO. (He said he won’t.)

Most recently, Facebook admitted that as many as 87 million people on the service may have been impacted by Cambridge Analytica’s activities. That’s some way above its initial estimate of 50 million. Zuckerberg is scheduled to appear in front of Congress to discuss the affair, and likely a whole lot more, on April 11.

Following the Cambridge Analytica revelations, the company’s stock dropped precipitously, wiping more than $60 billion off its market capitalization from its prior period of stable growth.

Added to this data controversy, Facebook has been found to have deleted messages that Zuckerberg and other senior executives sent to some users, as TechCrunch’s Josh Constine reported this week. That’s despite the fact that Facebook and its Messenger product do not allow ordinary users to delete sent messages from a recipient’s inbox.


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Zuckerberg will also testify before the Senate


Earlier this week, the House Energy and Commerce Committee announced that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is slated to testify on the use and protection of user data in Washington D.C. on April 11. Turns out, Zuckerberg will have a busier week in D.C. than expected, with the Senate Judiciary and Senate Commerce Committees announcing a joint hearing with the Facebook boss.

The Senate hearing will go down on April 10, a day before Zuckerberg appears before the House Committee.

The hearing, convened by Senate Committee on the Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee Chairman John Thune (R-S.D.), is titled “Facebook, Social Media Privacy, and the Use and Abuse of Data.”

The hearing will take place in the U.S. Capitol Visitors Center at 2:15pm ET.

Here’s what Senator Thune had to say in a prepared statement:

Facebook now plays a critical role in many social relationships, informing Americans about current events, and pitching everything from products to political candidates. Our joint hearing will be a public conversation with the CEO of this powerful and influential company about his vision for addressing problems that have generated significant concern about Facebook’s role in our democracy, bad actors using the platform, and user privacy.

Zuckerberg brought up the possibility of speaking to congress in late March, saying: “If it is ever the case that I am the most informed person at Facebook in the best position to testify, I will happily do that.”


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5 Signs Your WordPress Site Was Hacked (And How to Avoid It)


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Your WordPress site is suddenly behaving oddly. Perhaps a drop in traffic, or a changed theme, or maybe even new content. And now you can’t log in. The answer to this mystery is simple: your site has been hacked. Here’s what to look for, and what to do about it. 1. You Don’t Recognize Your Website You have a routine, as the owner of a website or blog (WordPress is suitable for either), and it probably involves visiting it every day to check for comments, spot typos you missed, or just admire it. But if you load up your site...

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AmpliFi HD: The Best Home Wi-Fi System On The Market


Our verdict of the AmpliFi HD (High-Density) Home Wi-Fi System:Beautifully designed, easy to use, performant and reliable, the AmpliFi HD has everything you need for no-nonsense home Wi-Fi.1010With the smorgasbord of networking options on the market, choosing one that ticks all the right boxes can be tedious. Ubiquiti has established themselves as a worthy competitor in the enterprise space, but what about their home AmpliFi HD options? Let’s find out, and at the end of this review, we’ve got a complete AmpliFi HD starter kit to giveaway. We recently did an overview of Ubiquiti’s UniFi system and how it works....

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You Can Now Use Your Amazon Echo As a PA System


personalize-amazon-echo

Your Amazon Echo is now a fully functional PA system. This is thanks to a new feature called Alexa Announcements, which means you can broadcast messages to everyone within earshot of the Echo devices in your home. Which should cajole the kids into action. Your Amazon Echo is capable of so much, thanks mainly to the power endowed on it by Alexa. And Alexa’s skillset extends much further than just playing music. Her latest skill is Alexa Announcements, which could be useful, or could get really annoying really quickly. Alexa, Tell Everyone to Leave Me Alone Alexa Announcements lets you...

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Renew Your Stale Creativity With the 100 Day Project


creative-internet

Doing something creative every day for a month, for 100 days, or even for a whole year has a ton of benefits. It’s a great way to hone a skill and even has the potential to create side income. The 100 Day Project is currently underway, with a ton of highly engaged people sharing their creations on Instagram. What Is the 100 Day Project? The 100 Day Project is an online project created by Elle Luna and Lindsey Jean Thomas, but is actually based on a concept created by celebrated graphic designer Michael Bierut as a workshop at Yale. @mbierut, the...

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How to Fill Text Color With an Image in Microsoft PowerPoint


online-powerpoint

PowerPoint can be a serious graphics tool if you unleash its power. There are enough options that can help you create the perfect presentation. One of the ways is to combine text with the right images—or even better, insert a picture inside a block of text to “color” it using the image. How to Fill Text Color With an Image in PowerPoint Inserting a picture inside a block of text in PowerPoint won’t be appropriate for all slides. Try it on the opening or closing slide to stylize the main topic. Go to Ribbon > Insert > Text Box and...

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Facebook, AggregateIQ now being jointly probed by Canada, B.C. data watchdogs


Privacy watchdogs in Canada and British Columbia are combining existing investigations into Facebook and AggregateIQ. The latter being a Victoria-based ad targeting tech company that has been linked to Cambridge Analytica, the political consultancy at the center of the Facebook data misuse storm.

CA whistleblower Chris Wylie — who last month gave public testimony revealing how millions of Facebook users’ data was passed to his former employer for political ad targeting — has described AggregateIQ as the Canadian arm of CA’s parent entity, SCL. (Although AggregateIQ has denied any affiliation with CA or SCL, claiming on its website “it is and has always been 100% Canadian owned and operated”.)

“The investigations will examine whether the organizations [Aggregate IQ and Facebook] are in compliance with Canada’s Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act(PIPEDA) and BC’s Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA),” said Canada’s watchdog in a statement about the now joint investigation.

“The Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner for BC opened its investigation into AggregateIQ late last year. Last month, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada launched an investigation into allegations about unauthorized access and use of Facebook user profiles.

“The two offices decided to jointly investigate these matters as Facebook and AggregateIQ are subject to both PIPEDA and PIPA.”

The statement does not go into any new detail about the investigations as it notes they are ongoing.

The OPCC’s Facebook investigation, which was launched on March 20, followed a complaint against the company. Facebook has since confirmed that more than 620k Canadian users had their data scraped and passed to CA — the majority of whom would not have consented or even known their information was being shared in this way.

Meanwhile AggregateIQ’s role in the UK’s 2016 Brexit referendum vote has been the subject of increasing scrutiny in the country, following a lengthy investigation by the Observer of London looking at links between the various entities involved and how money was spent by different groups campaigning for the UK to leave the European Union.

The company received £3.5M from leave campaign groups in the run up to the 2016 referendum, and has been described by leave campaigners as instrumental in securing their win.

AggregateIQ is now among 30 companies being investigated by the UK’s data watchdog, the ICO, as part of an ongoing (and now almost year-long) investigation into the use of data analytics for political purposes. Facebook and Cambridge Analytica are also part of that probe.

Giving an update on the investigation yesterday, the ICO said it looking at “how data was collected from a third party app on Facebook and shared with Cambridge Analytica”.

The watchdog secured a warrant to enter and search the London offices of CA last month.

The UK’s Electoral Commission is also investigation Brexit campaign spending — and has previously asked Facebook, Twitter and Google to provide information about ad spending linked to Russia.

Earlier this month Facebook revealed it had removed 70 Facebook accounts, 138 Facebook Pages, and 65 Instagram accounts run by the Russian government-connected troll farm the Internet Research Agency.

The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the now joint Canadian and British Columbian data probe.

Facebook is also facing shareholder lawsuits and a probe by the FTC into the data misuse scandal, among others.


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How to Transfer a Domain Name With Zero Downtime


Transferring your domain name to a new provider can be a daunting experience. If something goes wrong, your website could be offline for hours, if not days. And if your page gets a lot of visitors and/or is the primary way your company brings in new business, that could have disastrous consequences. Luckily, it’s easy to transfer your domain name to a new registrar; you just need to do everything in a particular order. If you’re wondering how to transfer your domain name with zero downtime, keep reading to find out more. How to Transfer a Domain Name With Zero...

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How to Keep a Windows Laptop Awake With the Lid Closed


While your laptop obviously works great on-the-go, you can use it at home too. By connecting an external keyboard, mouse, and monitor, a laptop can function like a desktop. But there’s one problem: By default, Windows puts your laptop to sleep when you close the lid. This means that even if you don’t want to use your laptop screen as a secondary monitor, you still have to keep it open to keep your computer awake. Or do you? Thankfully, you can change this behavior. Here’s how. How to Keep a Closed Windows Laptop Awake Image credit: Ben Richards/SuperUser You’ll need...

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Facebook retracted Zuckerberg’s messages from recipients’ inboxes


You can’t remove Facebook messages from the inboxes of people you sent them to, but Facebook did that for Mark Zuckerberg and other executives. Three sources confirm to TechCrunch that old Facebook messages they received from Zuckerberg have disappeared from their Facebook inboxes, while their own replies to him conspiculously remain. An email receipt of a Facebook message from 2010 reviewed by TechCrunch proves Zuckerberg sent people messages that no longer appear in their Facebook chat logs or in the files available from Facebook’s Download Your Information tool.

When asked by TechCrunch about the situation, Facebook claimed it was done for corporate security in this statement:

“After Sony Pictures’ emails were hacked in 2014 we made a number of changes to protect our executives’ communications. These included limiting the retention period for Mark’s messages in Messenger. We did so in full compliance with our legal obligations to preserve messages.”

However, Facebook never publicly disclosed the removal of messages from users’ inboxes, nor privately informed the recipients. That raises the question of whether this was a breach of user trust. When asked that question directly over Messenger, Zuckerberg declined to provide a statement.

Tampering With Users’ Inboxes

A Facebook spokesperson confirmed to TechCrunch that users can only delete messages their own inboxes, and that they would still show up in the recipient’s thread. There appears to be no “retention period” for normal users’ messages, as my inbox shows messages from as early as 2005. That indicates Zuckerberg and other executives received special treatment in being able to pull back previously sent messages.

Facebook chats sent by Zuckerberg from several years ago or older were missing from the inboxes of both former employees and non-employees. What’s left makes it look the recipients were talking to themselves, as only their side of back-and-forth conversations with Zuckerberg still appear. Three sources asked to remain anonymous out of fear of angering Zuckerberg or burning bridges with the company.

[Update: Recent messages from Zuckerberg remain in users’ inboxes. Old messages from before 2014 still appear to some users, indicating the retraction did not apply to all chats the CEO sent. But more sources have come forward since publication, saying theirs disappeared as well.]

None of Facebook’s terms of service appear to give it the right to remove content from users’ accounts unless it violates the company’s community standards. While it’s somewhat standard for corporations to have data retention policies that see them delete emails or other messages from their own accounts that were sent by employees, they typically can’t remove the messages from the accounts of recipients outside the company. It’s rare that these companies own the communication channel itself and therefore host both sides of messages as Facebook does in this case, which potentially warrants a different course of action with more transparency than quietly retracting the messages.

Facebook’s power to tamper with users’ private message threads could alarm some. The issue is amplified by the fact that Facebook Messenger now has 1.3 billion users, making it one of the most popular communication utilities in the world.

Zuckerberg is known to have a team that helps him run his Facebook profile, with some special abilities for managing his 105 million followers and constant requests for his attention. For example, Zuckerberg’s profile doesn’t show a button to add him as a friend on desktop, and the button is grayed out and disabled on mobile. But the ability to change the messaging inboxes of other users is far more concerning.

Facebook may have sought to prevent leaks of sensitive corporate communications. Following the Sony hack, emails of Sony’s president Michael Lynton who sat on Snap Inc’s board were exposed, revealing secret acquisitions and strategy.

Mark Zuckerberg during the early days of Facebook

However, Facebook may have also looked to thwart the publication of potentially embarrassing personal messages sent by Zuckerberg or other executives. In 2010, Silicon Valley Insider published now-infamous instant messages from a 19-year-old Zuckerberg to a friend shortly after starting The Facebook in 2004. “yea so if you ever need info about anyone at harvard . . . just ask . . . i have over 4000 emails, pictures, addresses, sns” Zuckerberg wrote to a friend. “what!? how’d you manage that one?” they asked. “people just submitted it . .  i don’t know why . . . they “trust me” . . . dumb fucks” Zuckerberg explained.

The New Yorker later confirmed the messages with Zuckerberg, who told the publication he “absolutely” regretted them. “If you’re going to go on to build a service that is influential and that a lot of people rely on, then you need to be mature, right? I think I’ve grown and learned a lot” said Zuckerberg.

If the goal of Facebook’s security team was to keep a hacker from accessing the accounts of executives and therefore all of their messages, they could have merely been deleted on their side the way any Facebook user is free to do, without them disappearing from the various recipients’ inboxes. If Facebook believed it needed to remove the messages entirely from its servers in case the company’s backend systems we breached, a disclosure of some kind seems reasonable.

Now as Facebook encounters increased scrutiny regarding how it treats users’ data in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, the retractions could become a bigger issue. Zuckerberg is slated to speak in front of the U.S. Senate Judiciary and Commerce committees on April 10 as well as the House Energy and Commerce Committee on April 11. They could request more information about Facebook removing messages or other data from users’ accounts without their consent. While Facebook is trying to convey that it understands its responsibilities, the black mark left on public opinion by past behavior may prove permanent.

If you have more info on this situation, including evidence of messages from other Facebook executives disappearing, please contact this article’s author Josh Constine via open Twitter DMs, josh@techcrunch.com, or encrypted Signal chat at (585)750-5674.

For more on Facebook’s recent troubles, read our feature pieces:

 


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Facebook retracted Zuckerberg’s messages from recipients’ inboxes


You can’t remove Facebook messages from the inboxes of people you sent them to, but Facebook did that for Mark Zuckerberg and other executives. Three sources confirm to TechCrunch that old Facebook messages they received from Zuckerberg have disappeared from their Facebook inboxes, while their own replies to him conspiculously remain. An email receipt of a Facebook message from 2010 reviewed by TechCrunch proves Zuckerberg sent people messages that no longer appear in their Facebook chat logs or in the files available from Facebook’s Download Your Information tool.

When asked by TechCrunch about the situation, Facebook claimed it was done for corporate security in this statement:

“After Sony Pictures’ emails were hacked in 2014 we made a number of changes to protect our executives’ communications. These included limiting the retention period for Mark’s messages in Messenger. We did so in full compliance with our legal obligations to preserve messages.”

However, Facebook never publicly disclosed the removal of messages from users’ inboxes, nor privately informed the recipients. That raises the question of whether this was a breach of user trust. When asked that question directly over Messenger, Zuckerberg declined to provide a statement.

Tampering With Users’ Inboxes

A Facebook spokesperson confirmed to TechCrunch that users can only delete messages their own inboxes, and that they would still show up in the recipient’s thread. There appears to be no “retention period” for normal users’ messages, as my inbox shows messages from as early as 2005. That indicates Zuckerberg and other executives received special treatment in being able to pull back previously sent messages.

Facebook chats sent by Zuckerberg from several years ago or older were missing from the inboxes of both former employees and non-employees. What’s left makes it look the recipients were talking to themselves, as only their side of back-and-forth conversations with Zuckerberg still appear. Three sources asked to remain anonymous out of fear of angering Zuckerberg or burning bridges with the company.

[Update: Recent messages from Zuckerberg remain in users’ inboxes. Old messages from before 2014 still appear to some users, indicating the retraction did not apply to all chats the CEO sent. But more sources have come forward since publication, saying theirs disappeared as well.]

None of Facebook’s terms of service appear to give it the right to remove content from users’ accounts unless it violates the company’s community standards. While it’s somewhat standard for corporations to have data retention policies that see them delete emails or other messages from their own accounts that were sent by employees, they typically can’t remove the messages from the accounts of recipients outside the company. It’s rare that these companies own the communication channel itself and therefore host both sides of messages as Facebook does in this case, which potentially warrants a different course of action with more transparency than quietly retracting the messages.

Facebook’s power to tamper with users’ private message threads could alarm some. The issue is amplified by the fact that Facebook Messenger now has 1.3 billion users, making it one of the most popular communication utilities in the world.

Zuckerberg is known to have a team that helps him run his Facebook profile, with some special abilities for managing his 105 million followers and constant requests for his attention. For example, Zuckerberg’s profile doesn’t show a button to add him as a friend on desktop, and the button is grayed out and disabled on mobile. But the ability to change the messaging inboxes of other users is far more concerning.

Facebook may have sought to prevent leaks of sensitive corporate communications. Following the Sony hack, emails of Sony’s president Michael Lynton who sat on Snap Inc’s board were exposed, revealing secret acquisitions and strategy.

Mark Zuckerberg during the early days of Facebook

However, Facebook may have also looked to thwart the publication of potentially embarrassing personal messages sent by Zuckerberg or other executives. In 2010, Silicon Valley Insider published now-infamous instant messages from a 19-year-old Zuckerberg to a friend shortly after starting The Facebook in 2004. “yea so if you ever need info about anyone at harvard . . . just ask . . . i have over 4000 emails, pictures, addresses, sns” Zuckerberg wrote to a friend. “what!? how’d you manage that one?” they asked. “people just submitted it . .  i don’t know why . . . they “trust me” . . . dumb fucks” Zuckerberg explained.

The New Yorker later confirmed the messages with Zuckerberg, who told the publication he “absolutely” regretted them. “If you’re going to go on to build a service that is influential and that a lot of people rely on, then you need to be mature, right? I think I’ve grown and learned a lot” said Zuckerberg.

If the goal of Facebook’s security team was to keep a hacker from accessing the accounts of executives and therefore all of their messages, they could have merely been deleted on their side the way any Facebook user is free to do, without them disappearing from the various recipients’ inboxes. If Facebook believed it needed to remove the messages entirely from its servers in case the company’s backend systems we breached, a disclosure of some kind seems reasonable.

Now as Facebook encounters increased scrutiny regarding how it treats users’ data in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, the retractions could become a bigger issue. Zuckerberg is slated to speak in front of the U.S. Senate Judiciary and Commerce committees on April 10 as well as the House Energy and Commerce Committee on April 11. They could request more information about Facebook removing messages or other data from users’ accounts without their consent. While Facebook is trying to convey that it understands its responsibilities, the black mark left on public opinion by past behavior may prove permanent.

If you have more info on this situation, including evidence of messages from other Facebook executives disappearing, please contact this article’s author Josh Constine via open Twitter DMs, josh@techcrunch.com, or encrypted Signal chat at (585)750-5674.

For more on Facebook’s recent troubles, read our feature pieces:

 


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Facebook admits its data drama has ‘a few’ advertisers pressing pause


In an interview with Bloomberg, Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg disclosed the fact that ongoing privacy revelations around Cambridge Analytica have some advertisers skittish.

When asked about how many advertisers had paused their ad spending, Sandberg would only get as specific as saying that “a few” had done so, leaving plenty of room for interpretation. She told Bloomberg that Facebook was engaged in “reassuring conversations” with advertisers with concerns about data privacy.

The slight chill is just one more way that the Cambridge Analytica scandal is shifting Facebook’s relationship to the advertisers at the core of the company’s business model.

In the interview, Sandberg reiterated that Facebook’s proactive measures around privacy and security — like doubling its safety and security team from 10,000 to 20,000 workers — will negatively affect profitability in the short to medium term.

“We also didn’t build our operations fast enough, and that’s on me,” Sandberg said.

She admitted that Facebook has historically addressed problems on the platform as isolated incidents, an approach that allowed more systemic issues to remain unaddressed.

“What we didn’t do until recently, and what we’re doing now, is just take a broader view, looking to be more restrictive in ways data could be misused,” Sandberg said.

“This is going to be a long process… we’re going to find more things, we’re going to tell you about them, we’re going to shut them down.”


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The Chmod Command and Linux File Permissions Explained


chmod-command-linux

So you’ve sliced your way through all the common misconceptions about Linux, found a flavor of Linux that you like, but now you’re confused because you haven’t the faintest clue about terminal commands and Linux file permissions? Or maybe you have a website that’s hosted on a Linux server and you’ve run into some file permission issues that can only be solved with some command line magic. Regardless, one of the most essential Linux commands to learn is a small but powerful command called chmod. But before we explain what the command does, we have to first understand a little...

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Tap Bio’s mini-sites solve Instagram’s profile link problem


You only get one link on Instagram, but Tap Bio lets you point that to a customized landing page full of all the sites you want to share. Rather than constantly change your Instagram profile URL, you can easily add slides equipped with links to your Tap Bio corresponding to your latest Instagram posts. Tap Bio could be a powerful tool for social media stars, digital entrepreneurs, or anyone trying to market themselves via Instagram.

Tap Bio is About.me for the next generation.

It’s a deceptively simple idea, yet one that the big website creation platforms like Squarespace, Wix, and Weebly have missed. It’s dumbfounding that there’s no popular mobile-first site builder, though an app called Universe was one of the hottest companies that graduated from Y Combinator’s accelerator this month. But by starting with an obvious problem, the bootstrapped Tap Bio could gain a foothold in a business dominated by heavily funded startups, and angle to become the center of your online identity. People interested can sign up for the private beta here.

The whole reason for Tap Bio’s existence is a brilliant decision of Instagram’s. You can’t post links, and you get just one link in your profile. URLs in post captions don’t hyperlink and can’t be copied. That means the focus is on sharing beauty, not driving clicks. But promoters gonna promote, so the “Link in bio” trend began. Instagrammers change their profile link to where they want to send people, then mention that much-derided phrase hoping their followers will open their profile and click through. Unfortunately, though, anyone reading one of their older posts might be confused when the “link in bio” has changed to point somewhere unrelated.

The fact that you can’t link from posts has contributed to the quality of the experience” says Tap Bio CEO Jesse Engle. “But it’s created a major pain point for people who are promoting something, which is a lot of people.”

Engle is experienced with filling social platform gaps. He co-founded Twitter scheduling and multi-account management app CoTweet in 2008, which sold to ExactTarget in 2010 and eventually became part of SalesForce. Over the past few years, him and Tap Bio co-founder Ryan Walker who just left Apple have been running Link In Profile, a more basic but similar tool that just recreates your Instagram profile but with links attached to each post.

With Tap Bio, you set it as your Instagram profile link, and then create a different cards to show on your mini-site. One can show two columns of your recent Instagram posts that instantly open whichever link you want to pair with each. Another offer’s a more visual full-screen profile with links to your other social media presences on like Twitter and YouTube. There’s a focused, single-link call to action page if you’ve got one big thing to promote. And Tap Bio is adding more card styles.

Tap Bio is “forever free” if you only want one profile card and one of any other card. $5 per month gets you three extra plus analytics, while $12 per month grants unlimited cards across up to three Instagram accounts — though there are discounts for yearly billing. It will compete with traditional site builders and less polished alternatives like Linkin.bio and Linktree.

But the biggest risk for Tap Bio isn’t competition, but its host platform. Instagram could always shut down links out to Tap Bio. After all, it did just suddenly kill off a big part of its API three months ahead of schedule as part of Facebook’s big data privacy crackdown. Luckily, Engle says “we’re mitigating this risk by building a close relationship with Instagram, openly sharing our plans and offering whatever value we can to them. They’ve been very helpful in sharing their plans, and we are confident that we’ll continue to play a role in this space well into the future.”

Tap Bio’s potential goes far beyond Instagram, though. It could become the hub for your web presence. About.me is outdated, Twitter’s too temporal, Facebook’s too personal, LinkedIn’s too formal, and Instagram’s too informal. Unless you have your own full-fledged website, it’s unclear what one link your should give people you meet online or off. If Tap Bio plays it right, it could become your digital calling card.


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The Best OTA Antennas and TV Tuners Money Can Buy in 2018


best-tv-antennae-2018

With cord cutting on the rise, many people are learning how to ditch cable and satellite. Yet while streaming sources thrive, over-the-air (OTA) antennas have also witnessed a resurgence. According to DSL Reports, 20 percent of broadband homes still receive TV from an OTA antenna. Using an OTA antenna and a TV tuner, it’s simple to make a do-it-yourself DVR. This allows for free television programming from local broadcast stations. Check out the best OTA antennas and TV tuners available, and learn why this is essential cord cutting hardware. Cord Cutting: Why Use an OTA Antenna? Cutting the cord can...

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