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TikTok forced to Stop Grabbing Data from User Clipboards

TikTok caught red-handed again! TikTok has been having lots of controversies lately, and many users have complained about the way it spies on their data and information or snoops on the data they have on other applications.

Thanks to ios14, iOS’s latest update, the developers have provided a new feature where an alert in TikTok lets the users know if an app is pasting from the clipboard.

How Tiktok’s data snooping was exposed

It all started when Jeremy Burge of Emojipedia posted a tweet yesterday, showing exactly how iOS 14 alerts the tiktok data snooping process. As It is obvious in Jeremy’s tweet, iOS is trying its best and is repeatedly sending a notification at the top of the screen, and it informs Burge that ‘TikTok pasted from Instagram’ as he types in the app.

As social media today best describes the process, the process works like this – when you have something that you’ve cut from someplace else (like a section of text or a URL), it sits on your clipboard, from which you can paste it into another app. The latest version of iOS (14) now informs you when this happens. The process has been happening for years in the background; in various apps, users just haven’t been made aware of such till now.

TikTok is not the only app that was exposed to data snooping and security risks, but since TikTok was being complained about a lot lately, this issue became a huge disaster for the platform.

After the exposure, TikTok was forced to announce that it is going to remove this feature. Now TikTok has said that it will remove this feature, which reads data from the clipboard on user devices as they use TikTok. Such hidden behaviors of TikTok and how it spies on its users have made the politicians and people in so many regions to complain against TikTok or even totally ban the app. We really appreciate the high-security level of the new iOS version. One important security feature included in this new version is that the apps will require permission from the user before tracking them.

Facebook rolls out beta Dark Mode on iOS

Facebook dark mode has always been one of the most wanted features of all time. Today Facebook released some good news for all the users out there who have been awaiting this feature for a long time.

Facebook rolled out the Facebook dark mode earlier today on iOS on both iPhone and iPad. Yes, Finally, the popular dark mode is now available. But the unfortunate thing is that not all users have access to the feature.

The dark mode is rolled out to a small percentage of mobile users and is being tested now, so some users are now able to switch to dark mode in the mobile app, and the others need to wait for an unknown time for Facebook to globally roll out the feature to every one of its users and make their old Facebook wish come true.

It is still a wonder why it took Facebook so long to start testing this feature since the Dark mode is already available on many other apps of the Facebook family, including Messenger, Facebook Lite, WhatsApp, and Instagram. The dark mode is even available on Facebook’s recently expanded desktop app refresh.

The first picture of how the dark mode looks like on the Facebook app was published on titter by posted by user @NotFridayCraig.

How to enable Facebook dark mode?

In order to see if you are one of those lucky users who got the dark mode on its beta version, all you have to do is to follow the steps below:
Open the Facebook app on either your iPhone or iPad
Tap the Menu icon (both iPhone and iPad)
Find the “settings and privacy” option and tap on it
If you are given the dark mode, it’d then appear as the fourth option after ‘Your Time on Facebook’ and before ‘App Language’

At the end of the day, whether you’ve been included in the test roll-out of the dark mode or not, it is very good news that after a really long time, all of us are going to have the dark mode on our accounts early in the upcoming future.

TikTok marketing made possible. TikTok launches TikTok For Business

Good news for marketers and business owners. TikTok can now be used as a marketing platform for all kinds of brands and businesses. TikTok has officially announced the launch of its new platform, which is dedicated to marketers and advertising.

TikTok For Business is where you can unleash your brand’s creative side. A fully immersive no judgment world where there’s an audience for every voice.

No matter how big or small your Business, no matter what you’re making or selling, we believe your brand deserves to be discovered here.

Many marketers and social media managers have been seeking ways to make use of TikTok as a platform for running ads and promotions. That dream came true today as TikTok has decided to make that happen.

“TikTok For Business” is made for brands to manage their ads and marketing campaigns on tikTok.The platform is open to everyone and all kinds of businesses as a solution for marketing.

TikTok for Business Includes different options, which are best explained by Tech Crunch. At launch, the site will include access to TikTok ad formats, including its marque product, TopView, which is the ad that appears when you first launch the TikTok app. Other products under this TikTok for Business umbrella include Brand Takeovers, In-Feed Videos, Hashtag Challenges, and Branded Effects.

Brand Takeovers are the 3-5 second ads that can be either a video or an image. In-Feed Videos can be up to 60 seconds in length and run with the sound on. Hashtag Challenges allow brands to participate in the user community by inviting TikTok users to create content around a hashtag of their choice. This includes Hashtag Plus, which also adds a shopping feature to this experience.

Meanwhile, Branded Effects allow brands to insert themselves more directly into the content creation experience.

The effects allow a brand or product to be added to a video in a 2D, 3D, or now AR format in either the foreground or background of the video. These can also be combined with Hashtag Challenges to boost engagement with the brand With the emergence of this new app, thousands of marketers are going to turn to TikTok for their marketing purposes, and TikTok would once again become a Rival to platforms such as Instagram and Facebook, this time in marketing and attracting businesses.

Brings all your social media privacy settings into one app with Jumbo

It has been almost a year since Jumbo was first released. Jumbo has news for us. First, the company has released a major update of its app that protects your privacy on online services. Second, the company has raised an $8 million Series A funding round.

Ever worries about the exposer of your data and privacy when using social media apps such as Facebook and Instagram? With the latest security and privacy scandals, users are now trusting the big tech companies less than before. But there is now somehow for safer use of social media platforms with Jumbo. Want to know how Jumbo would help you to keep privacy in social media? Keep up with me.

What is Jumbo, and how it can help our privacy on social media?

Jumbo is an app that brings all your social media privacy settings into one app, trying to fix all the gaps and issues on the social media privacy setting these days. Jumbo can be used in both iPhone and Android and in two paid tiers, Jumbo Plus and Jumbo Professional.

Jumbo syncs with your social media accounts and scans your privacy settings to let you know which ones you should consider changing. It can guide you through things like locking down your Facebook profile, deleting your Alexa recordings, and archiving your old tweets. Do not take it wrong. Jumbo does not store any of the users’ personal information or login data or collect them.

Jumbo is not Free all the way. The company is opting for a “pay what you think is fair” model that allows users to pay anywhere from $2.99 to $14.99 a month for Jumbo’s premium features.

How does Jumbo work?

The first thing you need to do to get Jumbo working for you is to connect it to the social media platform you want Jumbo to control. Jumbo does not have any user accounts, and when you open the app, it sets you a unique ID to send you notifications.

Tech Crunch makes some good examples such as, For instance, if you connect your Facebook account, you can remove your profile from advertising lists, delete past searches, change the visibility of posts you’re tagged in, and more. On Google, you can delete your history across multiple services — web searches, Chrome history, YouTube searches, Google Map activities, location history, etc.

Some of the options Jumbo can provide us are:

It provides help for Instagram and Messenger
Jumbo Professional does all that and provides LinkedIn and ad-tracking prevention
Jumbo Professional additionally comes with integration with Spycloud
Lets you delete and archive old tweets, Messenger conversations, and old Facebook posts.
The app can regularly scan your accounts and delete everything that is older than a certain threshold
It helps you understand the settings you can change for each service, thanks to simple toggles and recommendations that you can accept or ignore.
Thousand more options for each of your social media platforms

In the days that lots of people are fed up with how their information is being managed online Jumbo has made it easier for us to trust social media platforms and to work with them.

Facebook Launches New App Called ‘Forecast’

Another Facebook surprise! Facebook has announced the launch of a new app that nobody has ever thought of before. “Forecast” is the new Facebook app, not like all other the apps and features Facebook has previously rolled out.

Today, the NPE team from Facebook is announcing an invite-only beta for Forecast, a community centered around crowdsourced predictions. A platform for predictions and forecasting everything. Interesting, isn’t it?

Keep up with me to know what exactly the new Forecast app is and what is the purpose if its emergence.

What is Forecast, by the way?

As Facebook has officially explained itself:

“Forecast is a place to ask questions and use in-app points to make predictions about the future. All questions are submitted by the community and then moderated for clarity, using Forecast’s moderation guidelines and Facebook’s Community Standards.”

So, we can assume that Forecast is a place for debates and opinions. People can guess what comes next. The questions in Forecast, first need to be approved by the moderators and then will be shown to users.

Since the app is still in its Beta mode, it will be limited to users in the US and Canada for now.

Source: www.socialmediatoday.com

What can we do on Forecast?

We are all humans, and our nature makes us very curious creatures. People are increasingly searching for information to help them understand what the world might look like tomorrow, next month, and beyond. Forecast is there to help us with this need. With Forecast we can:

Ask questions on the topics you care about
make predictions about the future
Learn from the community of forecasters
Share knowledge, and encourage discussion among peers

How to join Forecast?

As mentioned previously, Forecast is now being tested and is now globally rolled out. But you can be one of the users to test the app now if you are excited.

All you have to do is to join the waitlist by requesting access to Forecast Beta Testers Facebook group and the try to download the app.

Instagram Reels: The new TikTok Rival

On June 23^rd, Instagram officially announced a new feature for Instagram stories, which excited a lot of people. “Reels” is the new Instagram story’s function, which is a video-music remix feature just like TikTok. The feature is now accessible to Limited users in countries such as Germany, France, and Brazil on both iOS and Android.

The emergence of “Reels” would most probably be huge harm to TikTok, and it would soon be considered as the biggest TikTok rival around.

What exactly is Reels, and how does it work?

Reels is a video feature for Instagram stories that enables users to create, record, edit, and share 15-second videos (reels) with your followers, simply in feed or via “Explore.” You can add creative audio tracks or cool effects or even give your multi-clip videos your very own touch!

Now that we know what this exciting new feature is, it’s time to get to know how it works and how to work with Reels.

According to Bravo website, There are three different ways to record a Reel :

One by one so that together they make a series.
A complete video that you record from start to finish.
Upload a video from the gallery.

How to share my Reels?

It does not matter whether you have a public or private account; you can share the reels in three sections. Instagram stories, the close friend’s list of Instagram DMs.

Obviously, if your account is private, your Reels would only be seen by your followers and only in your own feed. On the other hand, If you are public, you can share your reels in a special area in ” Explore “! There they are visible to the entire Reels community.

Another interesting thing about Reels is that If you provide and share reels with certain songs, hashtags, or effects, your reels will also be shown on the marked pages as soon as someone clicks on the respective song, hashtag or effect.

Another point to note is that users can add their Reels to their highlights even after 24 hours and when the story expires.

In my opinion, Reels can change Instagram’s culture to one where we’re comfortable looking stupid, and finally, it could beat TikTok’s talent competition in no time.

What do you guys think about this new TikTok-like feature of Instagram stories? Share your opinions with us below.

Helping More Businesses and Creators Sell on Instagram

Instagram has announced new Commerce Eligibility Requirements that expand access to Instagram Shopping to more types of businesses, including creators, so they can connect with shoppers and sell their merchandise on Instagram.

Whether you are a candle business making a foray into e-commerce, a musician selling merchandise, or a food blogger, you can sell on Instagram. Any eligible company or creator account with at least one qualified product can use shopping tags to drive people to their Instagrambsite to make a purchase. US businesses that are part of the Instagram checkout test on Instagram can encourage people to purchase directly in the app.

The updated requirements go into effect on July 9, 2020, in all countries where Instagram Shopping is supported. They will provide greater transparency for people and businesses and a more trusted shopping experience.

With this new policy, businesses must tag products on Instagram from a single Instagrambsite that they own and sell from so that people have a consistent and trusted shopping experience. Instagram will also update the sign-up flow to give more precise guidance to businesses and offer more transparency into the types of companies that they are best suited to support, like creators who wish to grow their business on Instagram.

When businesses sign up for Instagram Shopping, they will be notified as soon as they are approved and ready to start tagging products. If a company is not endorsed, Instagram offers an apparent reason so they can take the necessary action or appeal.

New businesses will go through their updated onboarding flow, and existing businesses will receive an in-app notification in the coming Instagrameks with instructions about how to comply with it.

The updated Commerce Eligibility Requirements are available in their Help Center. In the future, these requirements will apply to all businesses that sell products on Facebook commerce surfaces.

To learn more about how to enable Instagram Shopping, visit their setup guide.

Source: https://business.instagram.com/blog/upcoming-changes-commerce-eligibility-requirements/

Google Adds Fact Check alerts to Image Search Results

Fact-checking has become an important focus of the internet world, such as social media and search engines. As another step on fighting misinformation, Google Adds ‘Fact Check’ Label to Image Search Results from today.

From now on, when you search for an image that is edited or is providing false information, you’ll see a label beneath it, declaring that you should not believe what you see.

The purpose of this change is to help people navigate issues around determining the authenticity of images and make more informed decisions about the content they consume.

Google has explained the fact check labels like this:

“Now, when you search on Google Images, you may see a “Fact Check” label under the thumbnail image results. When you tap one of these results to view the image in a larger format, you’ll see a summary of the fact check that appears on the underlying web page.”

That is like a relief for lots of people who have been tricked by fake image edits and been pranked this way. Google is now there to help you find out about an image’s true story.

Take the example of the pictures which went viral a few weeks ag of some huge sharks swimming on a highway in the middle of Houston. I’m sure, so many naïve people thought of these images to be real and were shocked. With Google’s new fact-checking labels, you’ll not be pranked by editors or fake news anymore.

Now when you search the image of sharks swimming in Houston, you’ll see Google has added the “Fact Check” label below the thumbnail.

To see the true story behind the image, just tap on the preview of the image to see the larger size. Then, Google will display a summary of the information contained on the web page where the image is featured.

After Twitter, we have google now, which has provided its users with powerful fact-checking options which would surely have a great impact on the spread of misinformation all over the world.

Run Instagram Ads without a Facebook Ad Account Connection

Good news for social media marketers, business or brand owners, and the whole Instagram user community. There is no need to link to a Facebook account and use the Facebook ad manager to run ads on Instagram anymore!

Today, Instagram has officially announced a piece of great news, which relieved most of the advertisers from having to link their Instagram to face boon in order to run a simple ad. Advertising on Instagram is now much easier.

However, there is a point to be noted here that these options are only available to brands and creators that have not previously promoted posts. This does not mean that the users who had previously run ad campaigns cannot create ads anymore. If you’ve already promoted posts on Instagram, you’ve most likely already linked your Instagram and Facebook accounts and won’t have the option to disconnect the Instagram profile from the Facebook Page but will still be able to run ads.

Here is what Instagram has to say about the new option in their support center:

“You can now create Instagram ads without having a presence on Facebook. If you are promoting a post from your Instagram business account for the first time, you won’t have to connect to a Facebook ad account or Facebook Page.

At this time, you can’t connect your Instagram account to a Facebook ad account. You’ll be able to manage your ad campaign and track ad performance on Instagram. You won’t need to manage your Instagram ads on Facebook Ads Manager. “

How to promote posts on Instagram without connecting to the Facebook ad manager?

To use the new Instagram independent advertising, follow the steps below.

Go to your profile
Choose the post you are willing to promote
Find “Promote” at the bottom of the post
Choose your preferences and set the desired settings and goals for the ad. Things such as ‘Destination’ (where to send people), ‘Audience’ (who you want to reach), ‘Budget’ (how much you want to spend daily), and ‘Duration’ (how long you want your promotion to run). Tap ‘Next’ once you’ve completed these details
‘Create Promotion’ under ‘Review,’ and you are done.

So, if you have a business account and are willing to promote posts, you can now run ads like never before without having to be a Facebook user anymore. Thanks to Instagram, the ad campaign is now independent of Facebook.

Twitter’s audio tweets feature revealed an accessibility issue

As a lot of you might have noticed by now, Twitter has rolled out a different feature, the one none of us has thought of before, the Audio Tweets, the ability to record audio snippets, and attach them to your tweets.

The new feature has been rolled out to only a limited group of iOS users and might soon be available to other users, including desktop and android users. Now, there would be no limit of 280 characters, and everyone can record up to 140 seconds of what they want to share with Twitter and the world.

Although we all became Interested as the new feature emerged, it turned out to have a huge issue. The accessibility issue.

The accessibility issue

The new audio tweet feature seems to be getting good feedback, and most of the users are using and enjoying the feature. But unfortunately, Twitter has overlooked some groups of people, and every one could partake in the fun.

The feature has raised the voice of some accessibility advocated and made them complain about the feature to the world. Twitter is now criticized for not being considerate of its users who are deaf or hard of hearing when launching audio tweets. On the other hand, all other platforms such as YouTube or Facebook YouTube or Facebook provide for those with disabilities to make sure that they consume the content posted on the platforms completely.

Meanwhile, Twitter has tried to make excuses for this issue on a tweet stating that the problem has taken place because the audio tweet feature was an early release of the product. This tweet has provoked even worse reactions than before.

Twitter then apologized in a tweet and confessed that Accessibility should not be an afterthought. And it seems like it has made a promise to fix this accessibility issue as fast as possible. The company is now allegedly working on improving its accessibility review and exploring the possibility of building that “more dedicated group” to focus on the problem.

We hope to hear good news from twitter on solving the audio tweet accessibility issue as soon as possible so that everyone can enjoy expressing their thoughts and opinions freely with 140-second audio tweets on twitter.