This follows increased concern from US and EU lawmakers over how biometric technology is being used by companies, and Mircrosoft’s own research that resulted in a lack of consensus that the mechanism worked.
Instagram is testing new age verification tools, which could be good, however the company objective seems focused more on knowing user information than on keeping young children safely off the platform. Plans include verifying ages by 1) asking teens to submit ID, which the company would store, then later delete; 2) having teens ask three adult friends to vouch for their age; and 3) inviting them to submit a “video selfie,” which the parent company Meta would scan to “guess” ages. The second idea seems promising, but the other two... Read More >
Meta bought CrowdTangle in 2016. But rather than committing to fighting the misinformation, Meta seems to prefer not risking more PR embarrassment, since some of what was previously identified was on their own Facebook and Instagram sites.
Greater public attention to privacy has reduced trust in all tech providers, including those like Apple and Google that have positioned themselves as privacy-friendly. Apple’s rank in Jebbit’s annual Consumer Data Trust Index fell from 17 to 43, while Google fell from number 4 to 89. Amazon fell just slightly, from first to fourth place, while Facebook actually improved a bit from 97 to 88.