Data privacy is important to many people in the tech industry. To them, we say: It’s time to get off of X/Twitter.

A new privacy policy is arriving for X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, and it gives the company the right to scoop up a ton of sensitive personal data.

Your biometric information, your school history, and your employment history are just a few of the details on the list.

What X/Twitter’s New Terms of Service Require

The new TOS goes into effect on September 29, so you’ll have until then to keep your biometric data secure, since the current privacy policy will leave it alone.

Here’s a small slice of the updated TOS, which can be read in full here:

• Biometric Information. Based on your consent, we may collect and use your biometric information for safety, security, and identification purposes.
• Job Applications / Recommendations. We may collect and use your personal information (such as your employment history, educational history, employment preferences, skills and abilities, job search activity and engagement, and so on) to recommend potential jobs for you, to share with potential employers when you apply for a job, to enable employers to find potential candidates, and to show you more relevant advertising.

The new policy doesn’t get any more specific than that for many of the categories of data that it wants you to allow it access to. What kind of biometrics can be harvested? Face scans, for unlocking the app? How long will they keep your employment history? Can it be bought or sold to third parties?

These questions have kept IT professionals concerned all across the tech industry for decades. Facebook’s lax standards on which companies it allowed to access user data have been tied to shadowy political movements around the world, for instance.

Other tech companies including Google, YouTube, Fitbit, and many telecom giants have all gotten in hot water for their data collection policies. So has Twitter, even under its previous owners and its less intense TOS.

Last year, the TikTok head of global security, Roland Cloutier, stepped down over questions about what one report termed the platform’s “excessive” levels of data harvesting. It’s a serious concern that remains a hot topic.

What’s Next for X/Twitter?

Say what you will about the social media platform, there’s no escaping the exhaustingly rapid-fire news cycles that X/Twitter manages to stay in the center of.

Recently, we’ve seen news about: The announcement that headlines will be removed from news articles posted on the service, the $350,000 that the DOJ fined the company for delaying a data handover, a bill from San Francisco city authorities for installing a since-removed “X” sign on its building, and a lawsuit from the oldest news agency in the world over failing to pay for its services.

And that’s just news that broke this month.

I guess if we think about the screentime we’ve collectively donated in order to read all these stories as a type of biometric data, we’re losing plenty of it to X/Twitter already.

Microsoft is allowing European customers to buy its Teams business communication platform without shelling out for a bundle that includes the rest of the Microsoft Office suite.

Why won’t US customers get the same benefit? Well, it’s happening in the wake of an EU antitrust probe, and there isn’t a US counterpart forcing Microsoft’s hand.

The change will go live starting on the first day of October this year, and any Microsoft customer based in the EU will be able to take advantage in a few different ways.

How Can Customers Save Money (Aside From Being European)?

Once the unbundling option is available to the public across the EU, enterprise users will be able to buy Teams all by itself for €5 (that’s about $5.4) per month.

Meanwhile, the EU enterprise customers who were already paying for everything will now have the option to drop €2 or about $2.2 per month off of the price tag for Microsoft 365 and Office 365 — as long as they chose to drop access to Teams.

Small businesses and “frontline workers” in the EU will also be able to get similarly unbundled deals, although no exact prices have been revealed.

In a blog post announcing the unbundling, the tech giant’s vice-president for European government affairs, Nanna-Louise Linde, explained the reasoning behind the change, saying “We believe these changes balance the interests of our competitors with those of European business customers, providing them with access to the best possible solutions at competitive prices.”

Competitors Like Zoom and Slack Now Have an Opportunity

The real winners here are the competitors that Microsoft seems to have been trying to shut out from its software suite: Zoom, Slack, and other huge communications platforms often used by businesses.

Customers can now easily keep using other Microsoft products while skipping Teams in favor of their favorite video or chat communication service.

The EU investigation was actually triggered by Slack, in fact, since that company was the first to allege, back in 2020, that Microsoft had illegally restricted Teams by packaging it up with the rest of its business software.

Which Web Conferencing Tool Is Actually the Best?

If you really want to ditch Teams, our top pick for video conferencing apps specifically is RingCentral, due to its high call limits, customizability, and decent price tag.

But we’ve got more guides for the discerning customer, as well: Check out the Best Video Conferencing Equipment for a look at the hardware setups that can power video or audio meetings, or dip a toe in the options available for the Best Conference Call Services.

We analyze options like Zoho Meeting, GoTo Meeting, and Webex alongside trusted names like Zoom — all to track down the best pros, the worst cons, and the most accurate prices to expect.

Shopify and Amazon are two big competitors in the ecommerce industry, which is why their new team-up might raise a few eyebrows: Shopify merchants can now add a “Buy with Prime” option to their Shopify stores.

The tool helps customers buy Shopify products with their Amazon wallet.

This helps the customer, who receives a faster, easier checkout process (including that famous fast and free Amazon delivery). It helps Shopify, since they get the money. And it even helps Amazon, which gets to cement its Amazon wallet payments system as a one-stop solution for any online shopping.

How the New “Buy With Prime” Button Works

The button is an app, released by Amazon and soon to be available through Shopify’s integrations store. Once installed, the feature can be used only by US-based merchants who already use Amazon’s fulfillment network.

These stores can offer Buy With Prime to users within their Shopify Checkout, and it will be processed by Shopify Payments.

Shopify notes in its announcement that this allows merchants to “maintain 100% control of their brand and their customer data in Shopify’s admin,” and Shopify president Harley Finkelstein sums up the benefits, saying that more choice “means more opportunities to succeed as an entrepreneur; and that’s what we are powering here at Shopify.”

That final line is admirable — even if it doesn’t seem to have always been Shopify’s official stance.

Is the Shopify/Amazon Rivalry a Thing of the Past?

Shopify and Amazon have long competed over the same audience base: Small-time ecommerce store operators. In fact, just one short year ago, Tech.co covered Shopify’s very vocal objections to the very tool that it now supports. Here’s how I explained it at the time:

“Shopify is laying down the law: Ecommerce sellers must use Shopify Checkout and can’t opt for Amazon’s ‘Buy With Prime’ checkout integration. In fact, using anything other than Shopify Checkout is against the ecommerce giant’s terms of service.

Shopify’s reasoning cites several security concerns — the potential for stolen data and the lack of Shopify’s own fraud protection. Is Shopify concerned about security or more interested in keeping Amazon from growing its lucrative stake in the ecommerce space? Whatever the case, the two companies remain giants in the industry, so this isn’t a clash that any small business owners who sell online can ignore.”

At the time, Shopify went as far as to warn users if they had the Amazon button, saying “You have a code snippet on your storefront that violates Shopify’s Terms of Service.” Fast forward a year, and Shopify has fully reversed this decision. But why?

There’s one likely explanation, embodied in the adage “if you can’t beat them, join them.” Amazon is a the 800-pound gorilla of ecommerce, and it wants to expand into offering up Amazon wallet funds across the internet, even if the shopper isn’t on Amazon.com itself. Shopify initially resisted, but a smaller slice of the ecommerce pie is better than nothing.

Customers and Merchants Both Benefit From Extra Payments Flexibility

This change works out well for merchants, who can combine the wide-reaching scope of Amazon’s payments system with the undeniable benefits of operating a Shopify store.

After all, we rank Shopify as the number one website builder for anyone who needs to sell products online, thanks to features, ease of use, and pricing.

Some recent policy changes at Shopify and Amazon are keeping the pressure on small-time ecommerce owners with extra hoops to jump through such as added fees and reduced benefits. But their new collaboration indicates that customers and sellers can still benefit when the two decide to work together.

Meta has deleted thousands of fake accounts being leveraged by a Chinese network to spread disinformation across its social media platforms, which has been dubbed “the largest known cross-platform covert influence operation in the world”.

The accounts – many of which have operated on Facebook and Instagram for years – were mainly targeting users in Australia. Meta said there was ample evidence that the campaign extended across YouTube, Medium, X/Twitter, and various other sites. 

The operation has been tracked for over four years, referred to as “Spamouflage Dragon” or just “Spamouflage” by social media analytics firm Graphika and the Australian Strategic Policy Group since 2019, who were among the first to spot it.

Meta Deletes Thousands of Fake Accounts

Meta has deleted over seven thousand Facebook accounts and almost one thousand pages present on the social media platform, as well as 15 Instagram accounts and 15 Facebook groups, the company said in its Q2 Adversarial Threat Report, released this week.

Over half a million people followed at least one of these pages or groups, while around $3,500 was spent on advertising across the accounts.

The campaign primarily targeted users in Australia, as well as Taiwan, the US, Australia, the United Kingdom, Japan, and Chinese speakers living abroad, Meta told the Guardian.

What Was Spamouflage Designed to Achieve?

Spamouflage has been running since around 2018, according to the research teams and analytics firms that have been tracking operations since then.

The content being posted by the spam network was incredibly low quality and largely consisted of flattering commentary of China, negative portrayals of US and UK policies, and attacks on journalists and activists who have publicly criticized China.

Graphika’s 2019 report – which includes extensive examples of YouTube accounts used by these sorts of spam networks – shows how propaganda was interspersed with waves of unrelated content, in an effort to “dilute” the posts.

In its own report, Meta notes that the method of releasing specific articles across a myriad of different platforms simultaneously decreased the chances that the article would be flagged for takedown.

It was after this reporting that the operation sought to diversify its channels, moving from larger platforms like Facebook to blogging networks like Medium, as well as platforms like SoundCloud.

Operations were carried out by a number of different actors across a range of locations in China. However, content direction – as well as internet infrastructure – seems to be coming from a more centralized location. The report also found at least one shared location where a lot of activity seemed to be originating.

Spamouflage Doesn’t Appear to Have Been Successful

Unlike other disinformation campaigns, the quality of the posts was extremely low. One, for instance, suggested that Queen Elizabeth II’s death had been quickened due to former UK Prime Minister Liz Truss’s appointment.

Another post attempted to spread the false accusation that Covid-19 actually originated in the US – which included a fake research paper riddled with spelling mistakes.

With this in mind, it’s hard to say that the campaign had any quantifiable impact on the social media users it was supposed to be targeting.

What’s more, Meta says that many of the 560,000 accounts following pages maintained by the spam network were themselves bots, which would likely have been the case when the pages were acquired. A lot of the engagement on the posts – such as comments – were often left by accounts linked to the network itself.

Although it seems the operation failed to have the desired effect, it’s a grim reminder of the ways that social media networks can be leveraged during disinformation operations by political actors and that these sorts of tactics will persist for years to come.

Artificial research company OpenAI has just launched ChatGPT Enterprise — a business-focused chatbot with enhanced privacy and data analytics features, as well as unlimited access to GPT-4.

The package, which has been in development for just under a year, also boasts faster load times and broader context limits than standard ChatGPT, making it more adept at keeping track of recent conversations.

This new product is being marketed as a powerful one-size-fits-all chatbot for larger businesses. But with a recent report from Analytics India Magazine predicting that OpenAI could go bankrupt by 2024, is the launch of ChatGPT Enterprise enough to bring the company out of the red?

OpenAI Releases Swiss Army Knife for Businesses: ChatGPT Enterprise

Silicon Valley AI lab OpenAI has just released ChatGPT Enterprise, in the company’s biggest move since the launch of its flagship chatbot.

According to OpenAI’s chief operating officer Brad Lightcap, the chatbot has been designed to help employees learn new concepts and skills — like coding and data analysis — and runs up to twice as fast as the paid version of ChatGPT.

With the research company recently getting in hot water for its opaque data collection practices, Lightcap has also reassured businesses that user data will be encrypted and that no information will be used to train language models GPT-3 or GPT-4.

“We do not train on your business data or conversations, and our models don’t learn from your usage.” – OpenAI blog post

The product launch is focusing on large corporations, but the company says it will be releasing another version for smaller businesses soon. Since the chatbot is tailored towards bigger enterprises, prices for the service will be determined on a case-by-case basis, unlike with the ChatGPT’s Plus plan that costs $20 per month.

ChatGPT Enterprise has been in development for several months and was developed with the help of over 20 companies. Beta users include major names like Block, The Estée Lauder Companies, PwC, and Canva.

This product draws many comparisons to Bing Chat Enterprise, an AI-powered business chatbot that was launched six weeks ago. This awkwardly places OpenAI in direct competition with Microsoft, its commercial partner, and biggest financial backer.

But what exactly does ChatGPT Enterprise do differently — and why should businesses opt for the new release over ChatGPT’s free service or ChatGPT Plus?

How Does the Chatbot Differ From Other ChatGPT Tiers?

ChatGPT Enterprise offers a number of business-orientated perks compared to its free and Plus chatbot tiers, including:

• Unlimited access to Advanced Data Analysis (FKA Code Interpreter)
• New admin console with single-sign-on options and domain verification
• Priority access to GPT-4 (including no usage caps and x2 loading speeds)
• Credits to OpenAI’s API platform
• Longer context windows (32,200-tokens) for processing longer inputs
• Enhanced customizability options
• Enterprise-grade security and privacy protocols
• Sharable chat templates to build common workflows

Read OpenAI’s recent blog post to learn more about the company’s new Enterprise solution.

Is ChatGPT Enterprise Enough to Rescue OpenAI?

ChatGPT became the fastest-growing app globally back in 2022. But as the initial buzz surrounding AI simmers down and users flock to copycat alternatives, the future of the AI powerhouse no longer looks secure.

According to a recent report from Analytics India Magazine, it’s costing the company an eye-watering $700,000 per day to keep its flagship product, ChatGPT, running. Combine this with the chatbot’s dropping user numbers — which fell by 21% from May to June —and you’ve got a recipe for bankruptcy on your hands.

However, the company’s not ready to throw in the towel just yet. OpenAI is still benefiting from a very lucrative partnership with Microsoft and still serves around 200 million active users.

Moreover, with almost half of businesses reporting to use ChatGPT in some capacity, and this percentage expecting to rise going forward, it’s likely that OpenAI’s new Enterprise chatbot could be a major golden goose for the AI lab.

Multiple reports suggest ChatGPT is down, with issues plaguing users of both the standard chatbot and the API today (Tuesday, June 2024).

ChatGPT updated its status page at 00:21 PDT to inform users that they’re investigating a major outage. It was updated again an hour later to say that OpenAI has identified the issue and is working to mitigate it. However, it’s now been several hours since ChatGPT went down, and the issue is still reportedly unresolved, according to the OpenAI product status page.

When ChatGPT is down, it can be irritating. While you wait for OpenAI to fix ChatGPT, there are lots of things you can do if ChatGPT is down. This includes trying out some of the other chatbots on the market that have similar capabilities, such as Google Bard and Claude 2.

November ChatGPT Outage Runs Into “Thousands”

Over 3,000 users in the United States reported issues with ChatGPT via downdetector.com over the last 24 hours, with thousands of their UK counterparts doing the same. Worldwide, a huge number of people seemed unable to access ChatGPT. Users in other countries are also reporting issues.

Source: Downdetector.com

However, we’ve just tried to log back into ChatGPT and, at the time of writing, there seems to be no issue on our end. However, OpenAI says in its status update that the outage is only impacting a proportion of the chatbot’s users for now. Some sources have claimed the chatbot has become incredibly slow, taking minutes to answer basic queries.

ChatGPT Down: A Brief History of Recent Outages

ChatGPT had a pretty clear end to 2023. There were only a couple of short, partial outages during the months of September and October, followed by a reasonably high-profile outage in November which took the chatbot offline for some time.

The most recent major outage occurred in May 2024, which impaired ChatGPT’s ability to access the internet and meant that users were unable to access the chatbot’s full capabilities for more than eight hours. This was the first major outage since April 2024, which wasn’t as severe and lasted only three hours.

When Will ChatGPT Be Back Online?

OpenAI said at the time that they are still working on a fix for this outage – but it seems like it’s taking a little longer to get a grip on the problem than usual. It’s unclear at the moment what the exact nature of the problem might be, so it’s hard to predict when it’ll be up and running for everyone.

Stay tuned, as we’ll continue to update this article with the latest news on ChatGPT going down as it becomes available.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy is remaining firm on his return to office (RTO) crackdown, telling remote workers that “it’s probably not going to work out for you at Amazon” as the “time for disagreeing” is over.

These comments were made at a “fishbowl” meeting that took place earlier this August, around three months after the CEO ordered all white-collar workers back into the office three days a week.

This is the latest development in Amazon’s turbulent RTO saga, with the e-commerce retailer falsely accusing employees of not complying with the policy earlier this month, after admitting they have “no data” to justify the new mandate.

Amazon CEO Shows Remote Employees the Door

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy is, once again, making his stance on remote work very clear.

After a very public back and forth between Amazon employees and company execs, the managing director recently told workers who weren’t willing to make it into the office three days a week to find work elsewhere, according to sources from Business Insider.

“We are going back to the office at least three days a week, and it’s not right for all of our teammates to be in three days a week and for people to refuse to do so.” – Andy Jassy to Amazon employees

The comments were made earlier this month during an internal meeting referred to within Amazon as fishbowl meetings. “It’s past the time to disagree and commit”, Jassy expressed in the call “and if you can’t disagree and commit, I also understand that, but it’s probably not going to work out for you at Amazon”.

Jassy’s words might sound harsh, but they shouldn’t come as a surprise. The New York native first unveiled his RTO plan at the beginning of the year, and in July, leaked messages revealed that if company employees refused to relocate to an office hub, they would be forced into a “voluntary resignation”.

Jassy Calls RTO Policy a “Judgement Call”

In the same fishbowl chat, Jassy also dodged questions about what data backed the mandate, despite Amazon being a company famed for making data-driven decisions.

This further antagonized current Amazon employees, with many turning to Slack to vent their frustrations. “The whole answer sounds like he’s defending making decisions without data”, one employee wrote.

Jassy instead described the policy decision as a “judgment call” instead – akin to the launch of the company’s Web Services cloud unit. He also mentioned he spoke to “60 to 80” other CEOs before making up his mind, with “virtually all of them” favoring in-person work to remote and hybrid alternatives.

However, for Amazon’s sprawling US workforce, who have long campaigned for flexible working conditions, these justifications simply aren’t good enough.

Amazon’s Tumultuous Return to Office Effort

After Amazon first urged workers to come back into the office, employees were quick to resist.

Protests began immediately after Jassy’s Feb 17 announcement, and within weeks 30,000 workers signed a petition to formally challenge the action. Unfortunately for the company’s remote workforce, this proposal was dismissed, and the ecommerce retailer marched ahead with the May return.

More protests erupted when the company’s May 31st deadline came around, with 2,000 global employees staging a walkout to challenge the policy, and issues with the company’s Climate Pledge.

Demands for flexible working have surged since the Covid-19 pandemic. However, despite shifting employee preferences, an increasing amount of businesses are rolling back liberal working policies, citing productivity concerns in a challenging macroeconomic environment.

As Jassy has made abundantly clear, remote working no longer fits in with his vision of the company. And with major companies like Disney, Meta, and Starbucks following suit, it’s likely we’re going to see a lot more RTO mandates going forward.

Flexibility is the name of the game when it comes to working accommodations, as a new study found that job listings featuring “hybrid work” are notably on the rise, while “remote work” and “work from home” are on the decline.

The business world has gone through substantial changes over the last few years, with the pandemic dramatically shifting the dialogue around commuting and in-office jobs.

While the return-to-office movement has been pushing for a return to normal, employees have enjoyed the freedom so much that hybrid jobs have become an increasingly standard practice for businesses looking to attract top talent.

Hybrid Jobs Increase, Remote Work Decreases

According to a report from GlobalData titled Global Hiring Activity – Trends & Signals, the term “hybrid work” has seen a 29% increase in job listings since last year.

“Overall interest in hybrid roles has remained intact as companies seem to be trying to strike a balance between complying with return-to-office requirements and offering work flexibility as well. Businesses across certain industries are weighing more on offering flexibility in work, resulting in an uptick in hybrid roles.” – Sherla Sriprada, business fundamentals analyst, GlobalData

However, while fully remote positions still allow businesses to take advantage of top talent across the world, the terms “remote work” and “work from home” have actually decreased year-over-year, which signals the effectiveness of the return-to-office movement that has left some employees ready to quit their jobs for more flexible accommodations.

The Value of Remote and Hybrid Work

Whether you believe in-office work is more collaborative or just want to stop wasting money on office rent, the push to get employees back to their commutes has been strong. Still, what many business owners don’t realize is that remote and hybrid work remain effective perks that can improve productivity, increase revenue, and attract top talent.

For one, a Tech.co study found that 47% of businesses noticed an increase in productivity when allowing employees to work remotely. Another study found that performance was boosted by 22% at businesses that implemented flexible work policies.

Remote and hybrid work can also be a good way to make sure your team is filled with the best of the best, as flexible work accommodations remain one of the top priorities of job applicants in 2023. In fact, some employees have noted that they would even take a pay cut if it meant keeping remote or hybrid working policies in place.

The Return to Office Backlash

Not only is promoting remote and hybrid work policies a boon for most businesses, but the inverse can actually be detrimental to your bottom line, particularly if you rush the decision. 80% of business owners wish they took more time and had more data before announcing return-to-office mandates.

If you really want to make retention a priority at your business, a return-to-office mandate is likely not the best way to go about it. One study found that 76% of employees would quit if hybrid work was taken away.

The increase in hybrid work job listings should be a big indicator of your future strategy. While fully remote work may be on the way out for a lot of businesses, getting rid of the popular perk entirely is not advised and will likely have a negative impact on your business.

The new verification system on X/ Twitter is still causing problems for users, as blue-check scammers have been found to target customer service complaints on the platform.

X has been through its fair share of controversy since the tumultuous take over by Elon Musk in October 2022. The perplexing name change, the X sign fiasco, and the refusal to pay rent of all marred the transition, sending users and advertisers to other competitors.

Now, it looks like the blue check debacle isn’t even completely solved yet, as phishing attempts have been prevalent thanks to the paid-for verification system.

How the Scam Works

Reaching out to brands via X has become a common trend in recent years, with the public attention sometimes getting customer service reps to respond faster to urgent requests. However, this new scam takes advantage of this trend by responding in order to phish valuable information from unsuspecting users.

It starts with the scammer responding to customer service requests, disguised as the brand in question. What makes the scam so believable is that scammers can now purchase an $8 per month blue check from Twitter, making it seem like they are a legitimate source of customer service.

Once you’ve started a conversation, the scammer (still disguised as the brand) will request contact and financial information to provide you with a refund to your card. Unfortunately, there is, of course, no refund. Instead, your information will be used to steal money or simply sold to third parties on the dark web.

How to Avoid Getting Scammed

One of the impersonated companies responded to The Guardian when asked for comment, explaining the best way to avoid falling victim to this scam:

“If there are ever any doubts about the legitimacy of a request, customers should always err on the side of being safe and contact our official customer service team. If a customer does opt to contact us using Twitter, they should always check they are using our verified account which has a gold badge to indicate authenticity.” – a spokesperson for Booking.com

There are a few ways to protect yourself from phishing scams in general too. For starters, always verify where you are sending money or financial information before you click the button. Also, keep an eye out for spelling mistakes, grammatical errors, and other clear indicators that you aren’t speaking to a legitimate business.

How to Protect Yourself Online

Generally speaking, the online world can be a stressful place when it comes to protecting your data. There are, unfortunately, a lot of nefarious actors out there attempting to use digital illiteracy to make a quick buck.

Fortunately, there are some tools that you can use at your business to ensure that your team is as secure as possible. After all, you don’t want to be compromised and have a financial hit of, on average, more than $10 million for a data breach.

The best place to start is a VPN, which can help encrypt your team’s internet traffic, even in secured databases from your company. On top of that, a good password manager can ramp up your security in a big way, particularly considering most data breaches stem from poor password security.

Simply put, being vigilant when it comes to online security is your best bet, but a little bit of help can go a long way in shoring up your defenses.

Robots don’t scare us! At least, that’s how the majority of workers feel, as a new study found that most employees aren’t really worried about generative AI technology like ChatGPT taking their job.

Since launching in November 2022, ChatGPT and its many alternatives have made a big impact on the business world. From coding to responding to emails, the technology has been integrated into a wide range of business operations to save time and money.

Luckily, employees don’t seem too worried about the prospect of generative AI taking their jobs. But should they be?

Study: Most Employees Don’t Think Their Job Is at Risk from AI

A new survey from Workhuman, titled the Human Workplace Index, found that 58.4% of employees aren’t worried about AI taking their job. Additionally, 21.2% said they weren’t sure if their jobs were at risk.

This means that only 20.4% of respondents believe that their job is at risk due to generative AI technology, a surprisingly high number given the transformative nature of platforms like ChatGPT.

Employees do seem to be aware that it will have some impact, even if their jobs aren’t at risk, according to them. 41% believe that the use of generative AI tech will become part of workplace training and 34.4% believe that the use will be generally encouraged at businesses around the world.

Fear of AI Is Varied

Still, there are obviously some employees that are concerned about the risk of AI taking their job, but they aren’t worried for the same reasons.

In fact, the survey found that 55.4% of concerned employees believe that AI will outright replace their jobs, while 41.7% believe AI will make their industry or role more competitive and 30.4% believe generative AI is generally decreasing the value of their work.

The real question remains, though: Are they right to be worried or is the fear of AI overblown?

Will Employees Lose Their Jobs to AI?

There’s no sugarcoating it, employees are going to lose their jobs when it comes to generative AI. In fact, some experts have put the numbers at nearly 80% of jobs being significantly impacted by the technology in the near future.

Heck, even the founder of OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, has been quoted waxing poetic about the potential impacts of generative AI technology on the workplace.

“A lot of people working on AI pretend that it’s only going to be good; it’s only going to be a supplement; no one is ever going to be replaced. Jobs are definitely going to go away, full stop.” – Sam Altman, CEO of Open AI in an interview

Suffice to say, the impacts of generative AI are going to get more and more substantial as time goes on. Let’s just hope all these worry-free employees are right when it comes to the security of their positions.

The EU Digital Services Act takes effect today, which means significant changes to the functionality of social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook, TikTok, Snapchat, and YouTube, as well as a string of online stores and search engines.

Although the act first passed way back in November 2022, the group of large companies that have to comply with it now were given several months to make the required changes to their platforms.

What Is the EU Digital Services Act?

The Digital Services Act is a wide-reaching new law designed to hold digital platforms – including social media networks, search engines, and online stores like Amazon – accountable for a wide range of activity.

Included in the act are rules designed to prompt a crackdown on illegal content on social media platforms and illegal products being sold in online stores.

Disinformation – specifically, Russian propaganda – is also in the EU’s crosshairs.

There are new protections for children in the context of targeted advertising and the systems used to recommend content on social media. Digital platforms within the EU’s 27 member states will no longer be able to target ads based on data relating to their race or gender, either.

Manipulative practices used by shopping websites to coax consumers into buying products – such as hiding delivery information and costs – are also being clamped down on.

What Platforms Are Affected?

Right now, a total of 17 platforms and two search engines are affected by the act, all of which have at least 45 million active users. Along with Google and Bing (the two search engines), the platforms affected are:

Alibaba AliExpress, Amazon Store, Apple AppStore, Booking.com, Facebook, Google Play, Google Maps, Google Shopping, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Snapchat, TikTok, Twitter, Wikipedia, YouTube and Zalando.

However, from February 2024, it will apply to all digital platforms, regardless of their size. Twitter is also cooperating with the EU Commission and agreed in June to comply with its laws pertaining to the spread of disinformation.

What Changes Will This Cause to Social Media Platforms?

For users of social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook in the EU, a lot is going to change. Here are the biggest differences they’ll experience on the platforms.

Firstly, on a number of social media platforms, users will be able to switch off the automated recommendations that dictate what they see on their feeds on these apps.

As well as this, Instagram users will be able to choose to only view content from accounts they follow by opting out of the ranking systems that show users new content.

On TikTok, on the other hand, the “For You” page for each user will be populated with a string of viral videos from across the globe, and will no longer be determined by what a user has just been watching. Snapchat will also allow users to opt out of being shown content that is personalized using their data.

Of course, outside of the EU’s member states, the user experience on these platforms will remain much the same. But legislation of this kind can – and often does – prompt other countries to act too.

In a country like the US, the political will to curtail the power of big tech companies and manage the effects of their platforms is present on both sides of the political aisle.

However, with the US lacking a federal counterpart to the EU’s GDPR, it might be some while before we see anything like these sweeping changes occur on this side of the Atlantic.

Apple has made a somewhat dramatic shift in position to back California’s proposed right-to-repair bill. Under the law, the tech giant will have to provide instructions and parts for repairing products like iPads, iPhones and Macs.

Although Apple already has a repair program in place that provides tools for consumers to fix their devices at home, it has historically opposed laws of this nature. In fact, it opposed this very same law in California when it was first introduced back in 2018.

Apple Gives Blessing to Right-To-Repair in California

In a letter to California State Senator Susan Talamantes Eggman, seen by TechCrunch, Apple says that it’s throwing its support behind the right-to-repair bill proposed by the Democrat politician.

The company believes in the right of consumers to have the ability to repair their devices without compromising their safety or privacy, the letter said.

However, CNBC reports that there is one catch – Apple said it wouldn’t support the bill if it permitted repair shop workers to disable its antitheft security measures installed on many of its devices.

What Is SB-244, and How Will It Help Consumers?

SB-244, which enacts the Right to Repair Act, requires manufacturers to “make available, on fair and reasonable terms, to product owners, service and repair facilities, and service dealers, the means, as described, to effect the diagnosis, maintenance, or repair of the product, as provided”.

Manufacturers of electronic appliances ranging from microwaves to mobile phones will have to make replacement guides and parts available for products that retail at over $100. This would include the majority of Apple’s products, such as iPads, Macs, and iPhones.

It will also require third-party repair shops that aren’t registered with the manufacturer to provide written notices to consumers informing them of that fact prior to working on their devices.

Apple’s Product Repair Stance Softens

Apple has certainly relaxed its position on consumers’ rights to repair their technology products in recent years, first announcing a self-service repair program in 2021 and opening it up to consumers in the US in 2022.

In the past, however, the company has fiercely opposed right-to-repair laws in various states across the US, making their support for SB 244 all the more surprising.

For instance, in 2017 the company put significant lobbying efforts into trying to kill New York’s proposed “Fair Repair Act”, which would have allowed third parties to access information that would show them how to repair products without paying manufacturers.

The company also joined forces with HP and Honeywell to lobby a Nevada statehouse law that would require manufacturers to provide device parts and instructions to third-party repair shops. Apple was reportedly concerned about the potential exposure of personal user data during repairs.

Apple has historically opposed such laws because of the AppleCare+ insurance program it offers to customers. Other concerns include the company losing its grip on quality assurances, as there would be no guarantee that the parts used to repair its products would be made to the same standards.

The backing of the California law, however, suggests a change of tack.

MediaTek has unveiled its next flagship chipset, providing further proof that upcoming Android phones will feature built-in generative AI functionality for the first time. More specifically, the next-gen MediaTek Dimensity 9300 will be optimized to support Meta’s new Llama 2 large language model, or LLM for short.

Llama 2 is Meta’s answer to GPT-4, which is the LLM from OpenAI, who owns ChatGPT. In other words, it’s the technology behind the AI chatbots everyone is talking about (and using) these days. Prior to MediaTek’s announcement, Qualcomm made similar headlines with its 2024 flagship SoC (system-on-a-chip), the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, which will also bake native Llama 2 support into its architecture.

If the AI space was already exploding, the potential implications of next year’s biggest Android releases — including the Samsung Galaxy S24 and OnePlus 12 — coming with native generative AI are even bigger. Here’s why.

MediaTek 9300 and Snapdragon 8 Gen Lead Mobile AI Charge

The Dimensity 9300 SoC is the new hardware in question and has just been revealed by MediaTek, ahead of deployment in many of 2024’s most premium Android phones. To backtrack, SoCs are the fingernail-sized chips that act as both the brains and the brawn for modern mobile devices. Smartphones and tablets, yes, but also all the connected car and smart home tech that’s now commonplace.

Like the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, the MediaTek Dimensity 9300 will start to feature in high-end Android flagships in late-2023 and really come into its own in 2024. Combined, these two chipsets will dominate the high-end Android market next year, though it’s actually likely the Snapdragon that will feature in the best of the best and devices like the Samsung Galaxy S24 and OnePlus 12. Nevertheless, with MediaTek historically powering premium efforts from the likes of Oppo, Motorola, Vivo and Xiaomi.

Now, why is this such a big deal? Well, in short it’s because SoC-level support for models such as Llama 2 will allow smartphones to more effectively perform AI powered tasks, such as execute ChatGPT prompts. This in turn opens up a whole new world of possibilities for AI, especially for businesses, which we’ll now take a closer look at.

What AI Coming to Android Phones Actually Means

At present, if you use your phone to access ChatGPT or one of the many ChatGPT alternatives out there, the computing is handled exclusively by cloud data centers. This means everyone is relying on the same shared infrastructure for all their AI needs and is one reason why ChatGPT is down due to capacity limitations sometimes.

With an AI-ready chip, much of the compute load for such tasks will be able to be performed locally on your handset. This means you’ll essentially have exclusive use of the available power of your device and everything AI should run a lot faster and smooth, as well as the obvious privacy benefits of not sending your AI requests via the cloud.

This in turn opens up a world of new possibilities for AI on your phone. In terms of everyday use, this could mean the direct integration of AI powers into smart assistants and the development of native AI apps for handsets and other mobile devices. For businesses specifically, it should mean that any AI tools they use should be able to be relied upon, even on-the-go.

Why AI Android Phones Matter to Businesses

Think of how quickly AI has appeared in popular business products and you start to get the idea. For example, nearly all of the best sales CRMs and best project management software solutions have started introducing new AI features, but businesses can’t truly embrace such functionality unless they know it’s going to be reliable in all environments.

The latest developments in the mobile market, in which chipmakers are signaling their intent to offer support for AI at a native level, offer the clearest sign yet that this will soon be the case.

Moreover, Android is the world’s most popular mobile operating system, with a market share of over 70% according to most statistics. Such dominance just can’t be ignored in a business context, especially when provisioning devices at a corporate level. Of course, Android security remains its Achilles heel in the eyes of business decision makers. If nothing else, the platform’s rapid-fire adoption of cutting-edge AI chips (and the features that will follow) will have rival Apple working overtime to get its rumored AppleGPT chatbot ready for future iPhones.

It has been another rough week for Elon Musk, with news of Tesla’s value plummeting by nearly $200 billion coming hot on the heels of revelations that nearly half of the renegade tech tycoon’s millions of X followers could be examples of one of the more controversial social media trends – fake accounts.

These developments further add to Musk’s current troubles, many of which are rooted in his chaotic rebranding (and general stewardship) of Twitter, now known as X. Recent “highlights” for the erstwhile microblogging giant include being fined by the DOJ, sued by the world’s oldest news agency, and perhaps most infamously, charged by the authorities in San Francisco over an obnoxious new glowing HQ sign.

All of which has led Musk to publicly admit that X might fail for the first time, even before analysts started questioning Tesla’s financial future.

Tesla Value Falls, Worse May Still Be To Come

OK, we get it: Elon Musk is rich. The world’s richest man. A man so rich his spare change alone would probably break the best accounting software. Yet Tesla’s recent stock market troubles surely can’t be ignored by the South African billionaire, especially if they’re set to continue.

Tesla could seemingly do no wrong in 2023, reaching a high on the stock market in mid-July of $291. However, it has since dropped as low as $215 per share, with even a recent bounce back only seeing it recover to around $235, as of the time of publication.

In the big picture, this amounts to nearly a fifth of the company’s value, with $200 billion wiped off of Tesla’s market cap since last month. To put this into context, that’s roughly equivalent (in billionaire terms, at least) to Musk’s entire $227 billion personal fortune.

Worse still, Wall Street pundits such as Gordon Johnson have pointed out the fact that Tesla inventory is “exploding” at present, which could force the electric car maker to slash prices – something likely to trigger further short-term stock market instability. All that said, Tesla’s long-term outlook is still an extremely rosy one according to Wall Street, with most analyst talk being of “when” rather than “if” the EV trendsetter will hit $1,000.

Are Elon Musk’s X Followers Fake?

Musk’s current business challenges are well publicized, but the tech tycoon is undeniably savvy when it comes to these things. In all honesty, he may not even have broken a sweat when it comes to Tesla’s recent Wall Street woes. Reports suggesting that a large proportion of his X followers are fake is another matter entirely, as it’s the sort of thing the firebrand may take more personally.

The revelation is based on data gleaned by German-based software developer Travis Brown and crunched by Mashable. It shows that of Musk’s over 150 million followers on X (formerly Twitter), the vast majority are inactive. This is signaled by the fact that nearly 112 million of them (73%) have less than 10 followers, with more than 65 million having none at all (42%).

The conclusion drawn is that the vast majority of Musk’s followers are either fake, inactive, or what’s known as “lurkers” – people who created an account simply to consume content, but are not an active part of the community. In terms of the out-and-out fake or bot run accounts following Musk, 38 million of them had the default “X” logo as their profile image – something that’s commonly associated with illegitimate handles.

Unfortunately, it’s also commonly associated with X (and its avian-themed predecessor) in general, which is why the hunt for Twitter alternatives has been such an enthusiastic one.

Tesla Faithful Keep on Truckin’

It’s not all doom and gloom for Tesla fans, though.

In between presumably culling his X account of bogus followers, Elon Musk has shared the first photo of a Tesla Cybertruck prototype – and it looks as much like the Batmobile as ever.

Musk has famously said he believes it’s Tesla’s “best ever” product in the past, and the photo dropping will no doubt help reignite excitement for the Cybertruck’s launch, with the company previously promising a delivery event by the end of Q3 2023.

Google has announced a ream of security upgrades for the Google Workspace suite of cloud productivity and collaboration tools, citing recent spikes in ransomware statistics and other alarming cybersecurity data.

Updates include new automation features powered by AI, as well as the strengthening of its existing zero trust model. The changes will further bolster data protection for businesses on Workspace, while threats like Google Chat scams continue to proliferate.

Google Workspace is the umbrella under which popular apps like Gmail, Google Drive, and Google Docs live, as well as add-ons such as Google Voice. While empowering employees with one of the best password managers will help protect sensitive data stored on Workspace, now Google is upping the ante with these new security features.

Zero Trust and DLP: A Match Made in Heaven?

If there was a flagship update among the new Google Workspace security features just announced, it would be the merging of zero trust and data loss prevention (DLP) strategies.

What do these two bits of infosec jargon actually mean? Zero trust is an approach to cybersecurity based on the principle of “never trust, always verify,” which in practice means the implementation of additional security controls beyond the initial log-in to a network or account. Think of how many times your boarding pass and passport gets checked before you’re actually let on a flight, in addition to the main TSA airport security controls, and you start to get the idea.

DLP is more self-explanatory and refers to services or features that that help to prevent data loss. At the heart of Google’s latest Workspace updates are new features that combine the two principles to fortify its defenses.

How Google Is Using AI to Boost Workspace Security

For starters, AI can now automatically apply labels to documents stored in Google Drive. Workspace admins will set the conditions for how different types of documents are labelled, and any additional security measures that are applied to certain categories thereafter. AI will take care of the grunt work, though, and this feature is already available in preview.

In addition, Google Drive offer new context-aware DLP controls to Workspace admins, starting later this year. Most Gmail users have probably been asked to complete two-step verification when logging in on a new device, and the idea here is similar. Admins will be able to configure different security protocols for a variety of different situations, including device type, location, user privilege level and more. However, admins won’t be able to run riot with their new powers, as a further tweak will see Google requiring multi-party approval for select sensitive admin actions.

Lastly, Google has hinted at enhanced Gmail DLP measures. These haven’t been revealed in full, but the company has said that it’s currently testing how AI could be used to block certain sensitive actions (such as email filtering or forwarding) under specific conditions. As above, these could be related to location (in the office), though bear in mind that this is pure speculation on our part. Some of the Google Workspace upgrades aren’t set to land until 2024, the company added, and this looks likely to be one of them.

Data Sovereignty Co-Stars Alongside Data Loss Prevention

Alongside new data loss prevention measures, data sovereignty is also spotlighted by Google Workspace’s latest updates.

Basically, Google will be giving you (or your company) a whole heck of a lot more power to decide where your data is handled. Currently, the internet giant lets you choose where you data is stored (the US or EU), but going forward you’ll also be able to choose where your data is processed. In practice, this means where the physical CPUs doing the tango with your data are located.

Similarly, you’ll also be able to choose where the servers storing your encryption/decryption keys are located. This new capability comes alongside new client side encryption (CSE) improvements, such as baked in support for the Gmail and Google Meet apps.

Finally, companies will now have the power to choose if Google support techs are based in the US or EU. As is the case with the other choices Google will be offering you, this is relevant beyond pure patriotism because of the EU’s more robust approach to data governance and protection.

“Buy now, pay later” services are huge right now: Apps will offer you installment plans on anything from a TV to a T-shirt.

Klarna, Afterpay, and Affirm are a few big names making millions off of extending a little credit to customers with a plan to pay it back in even-smaller installments over the next few weeks or months.

But whenever a market grows that fast, regulatory concerns will rear their heads. And it turns out that plenty of researchers and regulators are keeping an eye on the booming BNPL business.

BNPL Isn’t Bad, Just a Little Questionable

BNPL tools have some big benefits: They’re more managable than credit card repayments, getting approved is simple, and you won’t pay any interest if you successfully meet all payment deadlines (and the majority do succeed).

But the benefits and downsides to BNPL tools are right there in the name. Sure, everyone loves getting something now, but sooner or later you’ll still have to pay for it.

And by separating the buying from the paying, a business using BNPL tools might create a false impression in the buyer’s mind that they’re getting a better “deal” on something, which might make them continue spending more and more.

The customer will eventually pay up, but that mental trick puts them at risk. Which is one reason of why Consumer Reports and similar regulatory watchdogs are blowing the whistle now.

What Could We Improve? Nine Problem Areas

Protecting users from overextending themselves on loans is possibly the biggest BNPL policy recommendation being floated in recent weeks.

Also in the running: Protections from data-harvesting, a popular Silicon Valley practice that government regulators have been chipping away at reducing since even before the Facebook Cambridge Analytica fiasco drew everyone’s ire back in 2018.

The full list of concerns is a lot longer than those two, however.

Consumer Reports Senior Policy Counsel Jennifer Chien recently published a white paper on the matter, highlighting that the “free and seamless” nature of a BNPL service puts it smack-dab in the “unforeseen risk” category for consumers everywhere.

Here’s the list of nine problematic BNPL provider practices to address, according to Chien:

• Wide variance and poor transparency in pricing structures
• Multiple and excessive fees
• Automatic repayments and use of credit cards for repayment
• Limited assessment of repayment capacity
• Inconsistent credit reporting
• Exploitation of behavioral biases
• Data harvesting and data privacy
• Challenges with returns

There are answers for all these issues, from better transparency to credit reporting and stronger data privacy. But we’ll need to keep advocating for regulation in the industry to get there.

Buy the Future Now: Pay for It Later

There are currently 79 million BNPL users in the US, according to stats from earlier in this year — an increase of 56.1% over 2022. The BNPL business has cooled slightly in 2023, but some projections still say that about half of all Gen Zers will be using BNPL by 2025.

In other words, we’re on track as a society to continue putting off our bills even further into the future.

In a world where potential catestrophy lurks around those future corners, that’s not great news. You might be safe from that tropical storm in California or the Maui wildfires, but sooner or later, you’ll face your own potential climate disaster.

Adding a bunch of bills to your budget isn’t the best preparation — even if they’re all really tiny.

Inflation, shrinkflation, rising real estate rental costs, and even the collapse of marketing channels like Twitter: Ecommerce store owners have it tough in 2023. Now, a few recent developments are making it even harder.

First — if a leak is to be believed — Shopify has plans to cut access to its merchant “success managers” from its Plus tier, blocking thousands of Shopify store owners from a big benefit to that particular subscription plan.

On top of that, Amazon has just this week unveiled a new upcharge: Sellers who opt out of “Fulfillment by Amazon” will be charged 2% extra in order to fulfil orders themselves. 

Shopify’s Cutting Success Managers

The leaked information comes from Insider, which broke the news about the change coming to Shopify Plus, the service’s highest priced plan at $2,000 per month.

Plus is primarily used by business making less than $10 million in revenue a year — that’s not chump change, but it does mean that this update will impact the relatively small-but-successful retailers.

Merchant success managers are the in-person consultants that offer one-on-one advice to businesses concerning how to launch and operate an online store. These managers are Shopify employees, so while they’re one of the biggest perks to paying for Shopify Plus, they’re also an expense that only gets larger as Shopify’s customer base grows. In-person meetings can’t be scaled up like a new AI or an ad network.

According to an internal email, the new plan is to cut Plus merchants entirely and replace them with two options, depending on how much a Plus user is earning.

Those making less than $2 million in sales per year will only have Shopify’s help center and its Support staff for aid, while those making between $2 and $10 million will have access to a “merchant success team” for targeted solutions to a set number of specific concerns, such as “monetized product adoption and merchant growth scenarios.”

Following the leak, Shopify has publicly confirmed that this change is indeed their plan for the near future, although it has yet to set a date for the change.

Amazon’s Adding New Seller Fees

Amazon has an upcoming change of its own, and it certainly looks like a similarly seller-unfriendly move: Rolling out in October, Amazon will now start charging users of its Seller Fulfilled Prime program an additional 2% fee on every sale — a fee they could avoid if they instead opted Amazon’s own logistics services rather than shipping themselves.

But a lot of these sellers have paper-thin margins, due in part to a hefty Amazon commission fee that may be around 15% already.

Plus, adding an incentive to make users ship through your own service brings up antitrust concerns — at a time when the FTC is already tinkering with an antitrust suit against the ecommerce giant.

“We’re sitting here waiting for the FTC to take action against Amazon for antitrust issues, and this fee shows Amazon is not scared at all.” – Seller Jason Boyce told Bloomberg

Verdict: Ecommerce Stores Are in for Tough Times

Amazon seems to be heavily focused on boosting profits in 2023, with changes ranging from mass layoffs to shuttering its unprofitable physical locations and even cutting its Amazon Smile charity program.

Shopify is similarly interested in scaling its ecommerce website services, and cutting back on benefits that cost too much to keep its profits from steady growth.

None of these incentives are new to the cutthroat business world, of course. But, as the greater economy and supply chains continue to chug along with more effort than in decades past, you could be forgiven for a little disappointment. After all, this looks like another clear case of massive companies passing all their financial insecurities right along to small operations with even less financial leverage and stability.

The popular VPN service Proton VPN has just announced a new plan: VPN for Business.

The plan will add a virtual private gateway and dedicated servers to Proton’s typical VPN offering, increasing security for a few more bucks a month.

We’ve already compiled a list of all our top business VPN recommendations, and they’re a great way to layer on a little extra security to help keep your sensitive data private amid surging cyberattacks. Here’s what to know about the latest VPN to consider.

Proton VPN for Business

The new Proton Business plan offers “advanced network security and access management with dedicated secure gateways.” That’s a step up from the service’s basic plan, Essentials, which offers “essential network monitoring.”

A third plan, Enterprise, continues to exist for those businesses that need an even more advanced solution. It encompasses “tailor-made solutions” for organizations so large that they have specific security needs to address and the budget to pay for it.

Costs for the Business plan are $8.99 per user per month, up from $5.99 per user per month for Essentials. That’s not a huge hike and it indicates that Proton VPN could be planning to position Business as their main plan moving forward.

Should I Get Proton VPN Business?

The amount of bonus features that Proton VPN Business offers aren’t bad: Dedicated IP addresses / servers, a private gateway, 24/7 support, and instant deployment are all included.

But the plan also boasts a few less-common VPN benefits: Anti-censorship and protections from both malware and man-in-the-middle attacks.

Plus, Proton uses public audits regularly, so everyone can verify that it puts its money where its encrypted VPN tunnel is.

Staying Safe Online With VPNs

As the broader business world continues expanding its remote and flexible workforce, keeping your internet connection secured is more important than ever.

VPNs aren’t the only solution on the market — you can also consider a remote access software or a company-wide password management tool — but a trusted business VPN is a simple way to boost security.

NordLayer is our top pick, since it comes with a complete network security system in addition to a VPN: When it comes to business security, more is more. It’ll cost you $7 per user per month, making it a little cheaper than Proton’s new business plan.

Check out our full guide to the best business VPNs for more. Or try our guide to the best free VPNs, which features Proton VPN in a lot more depth. 

Some colleges are taking a different approach to generative AI technology this school year, as administrators have decided that teaching students how to use ChatGPT is more beneficial than trying to ban it.

In November 2022, ChatGPT stormed into our lives. The generative AI technology saw businesses transform overnight to make way for this new productivity tool. However, schools saw it as a bit of a problem, as the tech could be effectively used to accomplish many academic tasks in just a few seconds.

Now, with the new school year about to start, the strategy has changed, with a number of institutions opting to embrace the technology and its future potential rather than condemning it.

Shift Trends on ChatGPT in Education

How do we know that more and more schools are embracing ChatGPT than banning it? One school administrator by the name of Lance Eaton put together a Google Doc resource that tracks AI policies across colleges and universities in the US.

While initially used to more effectively ban the technology in schools, shifting trends have shown that more and more institutions are teaching students how to use ChatGPT, rather than trying to stymie its use.

“It’s really helped educators see how others are adapting to and framing AI in the classroom. AI is still going to feel uncomfortable, but now they can now go in and see how a university or a range of different courses, from coding to sociology, are approaching it.” – Lance Eaton, administrator at College Unbound in Rhode Island

More than 70 colleges and universities have added their policies to the publicly available Google Doc, and it’s always accepting more with a simple form that allows administrators to add theirs to the list.

Initial Backlash to ChatGPT in Education

If you can think back just a few short months, you’ll remember that this newfound acceptance of ChatGPT is a big shift from the initial backlash to the technology in 2022 for educational institutions.

“Earlier on, we saw a knee-jerk reaction to AI by banning it going into spring semester, but now the talk is about why it makes sense for students to use it.” – Lance Eaton to CNN

Schools weren’t the only organizations banning ChatGPT and other generative AI technology either. Government bodies and big businesses have also banned ChatGPT in the past, with the likes of Apple, Samsung, and Verizon all putting some kind of restrictions on the tech for their employees.

How to Teach ChatGPT

Whether you’re a teacher that wants to take a proactive approach to ChatGPT or a business owner that wants your employees taking advantage of the groundbreaking tech, the ability to teach ChatGPT doesn’t have to be as difficult as it sounds.

For starters, setting some boundaries is key. You obviously don’t want to encourage students to cheat on tests or use it to expedite essays, so establishing clear rules about ChatGPT use in your classroom will be your best bet right out of the gate.

Beyond that, ChatGPT is all about prompts, so finding prompts that enhance your teaching is where you want to start. You can have ChatGPT generate reading for your class, create review questions for exams, and even develop writing prompts for essays.

Simply put, generative AI technology isn’t going anywhere, and it’s better to encourage the future generation to get on board, because chances are, they’re already using ChatGPT.

More changes are coming to X, as controversial CEO Elon Musk confirmed this week that he plans to remove headlines from news articles shared on the social media platform.

The platform formerly known as Twitter has gone through quite the transformation lately. Between the new name, the view counts, and the blue checkmarks on troll accounts, the social media platform continues to endure radical changes under new management.

Now, Musk looks to make another big modification to X that could have a serious impact on how news is shared on the platform.

Musk Confirms Plans to Ditch Headlines

Where else but X would Elon Musk confirm another huge change to his embattled social media platform. In response to an X New Daily post that outlined the new change, Elon Musk all but confirmed that headlines were on their way out at X.

“This is coming from me directly. Will greatly improve the esthetics.” – Elon Musk in an X post

The news was originally broken by Fortune, and according to the source, the change is being directly pushed by Musk in hopes of making X look a bit better by reducing the height of posts, while also combating clickbait on the platform.

What Will Happen to Headlines on X?

As of right now, sharing a news article on X creates a “Card,” which shows the lead image of the article, as well as the headline, the link, and the meta description, a short summary of the article that doesn’t count against character limit on the platform.

After this change, though, that will no longer be the case. Instead, news articles posted to X would display nothing more than the lead image and the link, doing away with all additional text that comes along with the article.

Subsequently, if you want to share an article with any context on the X, you’ll need to add it yourself, which could be the reason why Musk is making a push to get this change made.

Why Does Musk Want to Get Rid of Headlines?

As noted above, Musk is directly responsible for this change. According to the controversial CEO, getting rid of headlines is in service of a more aesthetically pleasing platform, as well as combating clickbait on the website.

However, given the waning popularity of X and the increasing call for more engagement to attract advertisers, this could very well be a ploy to force users into posting more often. Musk even called on journalists to post news articles directly onto X, likely in hopes of accomplishing the same end.

If you’re a journalist who wants more freedom to write and a higher income, then publish directly on this platform!

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 21, 2023

Musk has had a troubled relationship with news organizations, even being accused of throttling links to the New York Times by the Washington Post earlier this week. Whether this plan to get rid of headlines is a shot at news organizations around the world, or just a plan to make X look a bit more readable remains to be seen, but let’s be honest, nothing is what it seems when it comes to Musk.

If you’re a US Facebook user that’s been active on the social media platform in the past 16 years, you’ll be eligible to claim part of a $725 million settlement – as long as you file a claim before this Friday’s deadline.

Facebook’s parent company Meta agreed to payout this sum after being found guilty of leaking data to third parties without the consent of its users, in an investigation kickstarted by the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

If you’re considering making a claim, we discuss the details of Facebook’s settlement, including how much compensation you could be paid, when you could get it, and how to make a claim.

The Facts Behind Facebook’s Multi-Million Settlement

Meta, a company with a somewhat patchy privacy record, has agreed to pay up $725 million to US users to settle a slew of lawsuits brought against the platform.

The litigation began after Facebook was involved in a global privacy scandal where third-party app Cambridge Analytica illicitly obtained the data of 87 million Facebook profiles. Types of information gathered varied but included birth dates, contact details, and even private messages.

Data acquired by Cambridge Analytica was used to provide political assistance to Donald Trump’s and Ted Cruz’s presidential campaigns, and the now-defunct firm has since claimed its interference helped pave the way for Trump’s 2017 victory.

Meta denied any liability or wrongdoing under the privacy settlement, according to the class action website. However, to resolve proceedings, the Silicon Valley company agreed to pay out a multi-million dollar sum to its US user base.

How to Cash In On Facebook’s $725M Settlement

Interested in claiming your entitlement? Read on to learn more about how to make a claim.

Am I eligible for Facebook’s settlement?

If you’re a US resident that’s used the platform between May 24 2007, and December 22 2022, you will be eligible to make a claim.

How do I make a claim?

To fill out your claim online, go to the Settlement Website and click on “Submit Claim”. You can access and edit your claim in the future by providing the Notice ID and Confirmation Code provided at the top of the notice.

If you want to make a claim manually, you can print out the claim and mail it to this address: Facebook Consumer Privacy User Profile Litigation, c/o Settlement Administrator, 1650 Arch Street, Suite 2210, Philadelphia, PA 19103.

What information do I need to provide?

As part of the claim process, you’ll need to provide the following information:

• Your full name
• Your address
• Your email address
• Your phone number
• Your Facebook name
• Whether or not you lived in the US and was a Facebook user between May 24 2007 and December 22 2002
• The payment type you’d prefer (e.g. PayPal, Venmo, Mastercard)

What’s the deadline for Facebook’s settlement?

The deadline to file a claim is on August 25 2023. Claims filed after this date will not be processed.

How much money could I receive?

Since the settlement amount for each individual is dictated by how many people fill in the claim, it’s not clear how much compensation you could receive.

As a rough benchmark, Google users that claimed a part of the company’s recent $23 million settlement are expected to receive anywhere from $7 to $8. Due to the size of Facebook’s settlement, its likely claimants will receive larger payouts in comparison.

What’s more, if you’ve been on Facebook for a long period of time, you’ll be entitled to more compensation than users that have spent a shorter time on the platform.

When could I receive compensation?

According to a FAQ sheet on the settlement website, payments will be distributed “as soon as possible if the Court grants Final Approval of the Settlement and after any appeals are resolved.”

No official date has been released, but claimants should expect to receive compensation no sooner than September 7 as this is when the final approval hearing takes place.