Posts Tagged: profiles

Meta sues a site cloner who allegedly scraped over 350,000 Instagram profiles

On July 5, 2022 by Michelle Turner With 0 Comments - Tech

Meta is taking legal action against two prolific data scrapers. On Tuesday, the company filed separate federal lawsuits against a company called Octopus and an individual named Ekrem Ateş. According to Meta, the former is the US subsidiary of a Chinese multinational tech firm that offers data scraping-for-hire services to individuals and companies.

Octopus also sells software people can use to carry out their own data collection campaigns. According to Meta, this program first compromises the Facebook and Instagram accounts of the user by providing their authentication information to Octopus before proceeding to scrape all the data accessible to that individual’s accounts. The software can then obtain phone numbers, dates of birth and other personal information about every Facebook and Instagram friend connected to a particular Octopus customer. Meta alleges Octopus violated its terms of service and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act by offering an automated scraping service and attempting to avoid detection by the company.

“Companies like Octopus are part of an emerging scraping industry that provides automation services to any customer — regardless of who they target and for what purpose they scrape,” Meta said. “This industry makes scraping available to individuals and companies that otherwise would not have the capabilities.”

As for Ekrem Ateş, the individual Meta sued, the company says he used automated Instagram accounts to collect information on more than 350,000 Instagram users and later published that data on a series of clone sites where one could view the data of those individuals without their consent. Since the start of 2021, Meta says it has taken multiple enforcement actions against Ateş, including sending him a cease and desist letter and revoking his access to its services. This isn’t the first time Meta has used legal action to try and stop data scraping. In 2020, for instance, the company sued a Turkish national who scraped more than 100,000 Instagram profiles. 

Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics

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Instagram is testing pinned posts for profiles

On April 26, 2022 by Michelle Turner With 0 Comments - Tech

For a while now, Instagram has allowed you to pin your favorite Stories to the top of your profile as a way to save them beyond their expiry date. And the company may soon allow you to do the same with posts to ensure they stand out in their own way.

As noted by TechCrunch, Instagram recently began testing a feature that allows users to highlight specific posts above their photo grid. If you’re among the people the company has enrolled in the trial, you can access the feature by tapping the three dots icon at the top of a post and selecting the new “pin to your profile” option. “We’re testing a new feature that lets people feature posts on their profile,” Instagram told the outlet.

Evidence the company was considering adding a way to highlight regular posts was first spotted in January by reverse engineer Alessandro Paluzzi. A handful of other social media platforms – including Twitter and TikTok – allow you to highlight posts in much the same way. As you can imagine, it’s a feature that’s particularly helpful for people who post a lot and want to showcase their best work.

Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics

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Instagram cracks down on app that snoops on private profiles

On November 18, 2019 by Michelle Turner With 0 Comments - Tech

Instagram is taking action against a stalker-friendly app that makes Like Patrol seem modest. The social network confirmed to Android Police that it was sending a cease and desist request to Ghosty, an Android app built to show you private Instagram…
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Introducing kid profiles, new parental controls, and a new exciting look for kids, which will begin rolling out today!

On November 4, 2017 by Michelle Turner With 0 Comments - Tech

After talking to parents all over, we know that kids who love the YouTube Kids app are getting older and want a platform that’ll grow with them. Whether kids are watching Monster High, DC Kids, LEGO, learning their ABCs, or picking up the latest tricks in Minecraft, we want YouTube Kids to help. Here’s what’s new with YouTube Kids:

When you sign in with your Google account, you get:

  • Kid profiles to customize your kids’ experience: Now you can create a profile for each of your kids. Even better, kid profiles work across all different devices!
  • App design tailored to your kid’s age: When you enter a date of birth on the kid profile, YouTube Kids changes the way the app looks. Younger kids will get less text, while older kids will get more content on the home screens.
  • A new setup process: The new app parent setup process will give you detailed information to help you make the right choices for your family before your kids use the app.
  • Passcode for kids: Kids can set a secret passcode to get into their profile (and keep their brother or sister out). Don’t worry, you can always override their passcode.

Remember, our systems work hard to filter out more mature content from the app. But no system is perfect. If you find a video that you think should not be in the app, you can block it and flag it for review. This helps make YouTube Kids better for everyone.

YouTube Kids is now live in 37 countries, has more than 70 billion views in the app, and more than 11 million weekly active viewers.

We’re looking at ways to build an even better experience for families. Coming soon, we’ll give parents the option to have more content available in the app experience for their child. Our team is working to identify the most relevant content categories for tweens to make the app even more awesome.

*Not available in all markets. Kid profiles are available in the following markets: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Ghana, India, Jamaica, Japan, Kenya, Malaysia, Mexico, Nepal, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Uganda, United States, Zimbabwe.

Balaji Srinivasan, YouTube Kids Engineering Director, recently watched Can you solve the magnet riddle? ft YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki.


YouTube Blog

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By the numbers: Pew Research profiles ride-hailing customers

On May 21, 2016 by Michelle Turner With 0 Comments - Tech

A Pew study of the digital economy shows that age, education, income, and geography all impact ride-hailing service usage. Younger adults located in urban areas are more likely to use the services.

The post By the numbers: Pew Research profiles ride-hailing customers appeared first on Digital Trends.

Mobile–Digital Trends

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