Instagram to let parents see who their children are messaging
Instagram is tightening up on the privacy restrictions, particularly on “teen accounts” due to growing concerns over online grooming and sextortion, .
Under these new regulations parents/guardians of teens, under the age of 16, will have greater control over their child’s account. This includes a parental supervision tool, which will allow parents to see who their children have been in contact with within the past 7 days, although the contents of those DMs will remain private.
Other features such as curfews and automatic privatisation of accounts will also be available in the new updates. These new privacy features come under the enforcement of the Online Safety Act in the UK, which will threaten technology companies with billions of dollars in fines if they fail to protect children online.
Read more here
YouTube is testing a feature that enables creators to edit rule-breaking content in videos
YouTube has been looking for another way for creators to avoid restrictions on their accounts and maintain monetisation.
This new feature provides the opportunity to edit out portions of their content which were previously flagged as breaching community guidelines, and reupload an approved version. YouTube’s policy team can now review the content and modify the policy decision accordingly, as opposed to keeping the content demonetised with the only option of appealing.
Alongside dealing with copyright strikes and content rule violations, this update should provide another avenue to address issues, keeping creators’ content up in the app.
Read more here
LinkedIn suspends AI training using UK user data
LinkedIn believes users should have control over their own personal data in relation to AI training and has provided UK users a way to opt out of their data being used.
Social platforms can be an excellent way for AI generative tools to source information about the way people interact, live their lives or do their jobs, allowing the tool to sound more natural.
Meta and X are also amongst platforms, like LinkedIn, that want to use content on their own applications to assist in the training of AI. However, they have faced regulatory issues regarding when and how personal data can be collected.
Read more here
Snapchat showcases next generation AR spectacles
Snapchat’s new spectacles will enable AR interaction in new and divergent ways.
It will allow for the overlay of AR visuals onto your field of vision compared to the traditional AR technologies currently available, which are fully immersive and block your vision from the ‘outside world’.
Nevertheless, this product will not be available to buy for some time now as they are still within the development stage, meaning that there is still room for some adjustments ahead of their commercial release.
Read more here
Social media and online video firms are conducting ‘vast surveillance’ on users, FTC finds
FTC published a report looking into the data-gathering practices of social platforms Facebook, WhatsApp, YouTube, Discord, Reddit, Amazon, Snap, TikTok and Twitter/X. The majority of these companies collected or inferred demographic related information about their users such as age, gender, or even household income.
This information was then used to tailor personalised content onto people’s feeds in order to boost engagement on their platforms. Additionally, it was also often shared with third-party entities to produce content-specific ads.
Whatever product was used to gather the information, it was not easy to opt out of the data collection, according to FTC.
Read more here.