#app store analysis

[lale-txt]

if my brain could not fall into a state of freeze when trying to decide what to write, that would be GREAT

[techdriveplay]

How Many Smartphone Users Use Android Over iOS?

In the ever-evolving world of smartphones, the rivalry between Android and iOS continues to captivate users and tech enthusiasts alike. Understanding the market share of these two leading operating systems can provide valuable insights into consumer preferences and trends. So, how many smartphone users use Android over iOS? Current Market Share Statistics: Android dominates the global market…

[lalsingh228-blog]

APP Store Monetisation Market to See Huge Growth by 2029

Global APP Store Monetisation Market Report from AMA Research highlights deep analysis on market characteristics, sizing, estimates and growth by segmentation, regional breakdowns & country along with competitive landscape, player’s market shares, and strategies that are key in the market. The exploration provides a 360° view and insights, highlighting major outcomes of the industry. These insights help the business decision-makers to formulate better business plans and make informed decisions to improved profitability. In addition, the study helps venture or private players in understanding the companies in more detail to make better informed decisions. Major Players in This Report Include, Apple  (United States), Tencent (China), Alibaba (China), 360 (China), Google  (United States), Xiaomi (China), Baidu (China), Wandoujia (China), HiMarket (Brazil), 91 Mobile Assistant (India). Free Sample Report + All Related Graphs & Charts @: https://www.advancemarketanalytics.com/sample-report/5990-global-app-store-monetisation-market The App Store Monetization is a technique of producing cash from a cellular app that does now not require customers to pay for it. Users are usually hesitant to pay for purposes due to the fact the good sized majority of them are reachable for free. Collecting consumer statistics and promoting it to 1/3 parties, more often than not marketers, is one of the most time-honored methods to monetise an app. In-app advertising and marketing are the most conventional strategy to monetise your cellular apps. For apps that favor to continue to be free in the app store, this method gives a beneficial supply of cash.

Market Drivers

Increasing use of Technologies such as Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence in Mobile Apps

Market Trend

Developers are Focusing on Experience rather than Pure Revenue

Opportunities

Growing E-commerce Sector

Challenges

High-quality Native ads Effective, however Creating them is Tough

Enquire for customization in Report @: https://www.advancemarketanalytics.com/enquiry-before-buy/5990-global-app-store-monetisation-market In this research study, the prime factors that are impelling the growth of the Global APP Store Monetisation market report have been studied thoroughly in a bid to estimate the overall value and the size of this market by the end of the forecast period. The impact of the driving forces, limitations, challenges, and opportunities has been examined extensively. The key trends that manage the interest of the customers have also been interpreted accurately for the benefit of the readers. The APP Store Monetisation market study is being classified by Monetization (Sponsorships, Freemium, Sell In-App Features, One-time Paid Apps, Paid Apps with Additional Features for a Fee, Sell Merchandize through your App, CPI Network), Technologies (Java, E-Commerce, Microsoft, Mobile, Cloud, Open Source, Others) The report concludes with in-depth details on the business operations and financial structure of leading vendors in the Global APP Store Monetisation market report, Overview of Key trends in the past and present are in reports that are reported to be beneficial for companies looking for venture businesses in this market. Information about the various marketing channels and well-known distributors in this market was also provided here. This study serves as a rich guide for established players and new players in this market. Get Reasonable Discount on This Premium Report @ https://www.advancemarketanalytics.com/request-discount/5990-global-app-store-monetisation-market Extracts from Table of Contents APP Store Monetisation Market Research Report Chapter 1 APP Store Monetisation Market Overview Chapter 2 Global Economic Impact on Industry Chapter 3 Global Market Competition by Manufacturers Chapter 4 Global Revenue (Value, Volume*) by Region Chapter 5 Global Supplies (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by Regions Chapter 6 Global Revenue (Value, Volume*), Price* Trend by Type Chapter 7 Global Market Analysis by Application ………………….continued This report also analyzes the regulatory framework of the Global Markets APP Store Monetisation Market Report to inform stakeholders about the various norms, regulations, this can have an impact. It also collects in-depth information from the detailed primary and secondary research techniques analyzed using the most efficient analysis tools. Based on the statistics gained from this systematic study, market research provides estimates for market participants and readers. Contact US : Craig Francis (PR & Marketing Manager) AMA Research & Media LLP Unit No. 429, Parsonage Road Edison, NJ New Jersey USA – 08837 Phone: +1 201 565 3262, +44 161 818 8166 sales@advancemarketanalytics.com

[dizitalmedia]

DizitalMedia ASO Services includes:

Optimizing app listing

Reviews and ratings for the app

Keywords Optimization

Competitor Analysis

Boost brand awareness

[decolonize-the-everything]

This is not a drill

This is IMPORTANT especially if you live in the USA or use the internet REGULATED by the USA!!!!

Do not scroll. Signal boost. Reblog.

Reblog WITHOUT reading if you really can't right now, I promise all the links and proof are here. People NEED to know this.

( I tried to make this accessible but you can't cater to EVERYONE so please just try your best to get through this or do your own research 🙏)

TLDR: Homeland Security has been tying our social media to our IPs, licenses, posts, emails, selfies, cloud, apps, location, etc through our phones without a warrant using Babel X and will hold that information gathered for 75 years. Certain aspects of it were hushed because law enforcement will/does/has used it and it would give away confidential information about ongoing operations.

This gets renewed in September.

Between this, Agincourt (a VR simulator for cops Directly related to this project), cop city, and widespread demonization of abortions, sex workers, & queer people mixed with qanon/Trumpism, and fascism in Florida, and the return of child labor, & removed abortion rights fresh on our tails it's time for alarms to be raised and it's time for everyone to stop calling us paranoid and start showing up to protest and mutual aid groups.

🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨

These are the same feds who want to build cop city and recreate civilian houses en masse and use facial recognition. The same feds that want cop city to also be a training ground for police across the country. Cop city where they will build civilian neighborhoods to train in.

Widespread mass surveillance against us.

Now let's cut to some parts of the article. May 17th from Vice:

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is using an invasive, AI-powered monitoring tool to screen travelers, including U.S. citizens, refugees, and people seeking asylum, which can in some cases link their social media posts to their Social Security number and location data, according to an internal CBP document obtained by Motherboard.

Called Babel X, the system lets a user input a piece of information about a target—their name, email address, or telephone number—and receive a bevy of data in return, according to the document. Results can include their social media posts, linked IP address, employment history, and unique advertising identifiers associated with their mobile phone. The monitoring can apply to U.S. persons, including citizens and permanent residents, as well as refugees and asylum seekers, according to the document.

“Babel data will be used/captured/stored in support of CBP targeting, vetting, operations and analysis,” the document reads. Babel X will be used to “identify potential derogatory and confirmatory information” associated with travelers, persons of interest, and “persons seeking benefits.” The document then says results from Babel X will be stored in other CBP operated systems for 75 years.

"The U.S. government’s ever-expanding social media dragnet is certain to chill people from engaging in protected speech and association online. And CBP’s use of this social media surveillance technology is especially concerning in connection with existing rules requiring millions of visa applicants each year to register their social media handles with the government. As we’ve argued in a related lawsuit, the government simply has no legitimate interest in collecting and retaining such sensitive information on this immense scale,” Carrie DeCell, senior staff attorney at the Knight First Amendment Institute, told Motherboard in an email.

The full list of information that Babel X may provide to CBP analysts is a target’s name, date of birth, address, usernames, email address, phone number, social media content, images, IP address, Social Security number, driver’s license number, employment history, and location data based on geolocation tags in public posts.

Bennett Cyphers, a special advisor to activist

organization the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told Motherboard in an online chat “the data isn’t limited to public posts made under someone’s real name on Facebook or Twitter.”

The document says CBP also has access to AdID information through an add-on called Locate X, which includes smartphone location data. AdID information is data such as a device’s unique advertising ID, which can act as an useful identifier for tracking a phone and, by extension, a person’s movements. Babel Street obtains location information from a long supply chain of data. Ordinary apps installed on peoples’ smartphones provide data to a company called Gravy Analytics, which repackages that location data and sells it to law enforcement agencies via its related company Venntel. But Babel Street also repackages Venntel’s data for its own Locate X product."

The PTA obtained by Motherboard says that Locate X is covered by a separate “commercial telemetry” PTA. CBP denied Motherboard’s FOIA request for a copy of this document, claiming it “would disclose techniques and/or procedures for law enforcement investigations or prosecutions”.

A former Babel Street employee previously told Motherboard how users of Locate X can draw a shape on a map known as a geofence, see all devices Babel Street has data on for that location, and then follow a specific device to see where else it has been.

Cyphers from the EFF added “most of the people whose location data is collected in this way likely have no idea it’s happening.”

CBP has been purchasing access to location data without a warrant, a practice that critics say violates the Fourth Amendment. Under a ruling from the Supreme Court, law enforcement agencies need court approval before accessing location data generated by a cell phone tower; those critics believe this applies to location data generated by smartphone apps too.

“Homeland Security needs to come clean to the American people about how it believes it can legally purchase and use U.S. location data without any kind of court order. Americans' privacy shouldn't depend on whether the government uses a court order or credit card,” Senator Ron Wyden told Motherboard in a statement. “DHS should stop violating Americans' rights, and Congress should pass my bipartisan legislation to prohibit the government's purchase of Americans' data." CBP has refused to tell Congress what legal authority it is following when using commercially bought smartphone location data to track Americans without a warrant.

Neither CBP or Babel Street responded to a request for comment. Motherboard visited the Babel X section of Babel Street’s website on Tuesday. On Wednesday before publication, that product page was replaced with a message that said “page not found.”

Do you know anything else about how Babel X is being used by government or private clients? Do you work for Babel Street? We'd love to hear from you. Using a non-work phone or computer, you can contact Joseph Cox securely on Signal on +44 20 8133 5190, Wickr on josephcox, or email joseph.cox@vice.com.

Wow that sounds bad right.

Be a shame if it got worse.

.

.

It does.

The software (previously Agincourt Solutions) is sold by AI data company Babel Street, was led by Jeffrey Chapman, a former Treasury Department official,, Navy retiree & Earlier in his career a White House aide and intelligence officer at the Department of Defense, according to LinkedIn.

🙃

So what's Agincourt Solutions then right now?

SO FUCKING SUS IN RELATION TO THIS, THATS WHAT

In essence, synthetic BATTLEVR training is a mixture of all three realities – virtual, augmented and physical. It is flexible enough to allow for mission rehearsals of most types and be intuitive enough to make training effective.

Anyway the new CEO of Babel Street (Babel X) as of April is a guy named Michael Southworth and I couldn't find much more on him than that tbh, it's all very vague and missing. That's the most detail I've seen on him.

And the detail says he has a history of tech startups that scanned paperwork and sent it elsewhere, good with numbers, and has a lot of knowledge about cell networks probably.

Every inch more of this I learn as I continue to Google the names and companies popping up... It gets worse.

Monitor phone use. Quit photobombing and filming strangers and for the love of fucking God quit sending apps photos of your actual legal ID to prove your age. Just don't use that site, you'll be fine I swear. And quit posting your private info online. For activists/leftists NO personally identifiable info at least AND DEFINITELY leave your phone at home to Work™!!!

[bull-shit-suji]

kuro modern au stuff that i word vomited into my notes app

kind of a Vincent summoned sebastian to save ciel so ciel doesnt actually owe sebas anything

amnesia? idk

single dad moment! except theres this other dad whos kinda find.. (cough agni)

i think vincent was like do NOT let ciel know ur a demon so sebastian keeps it a secret but he doesnt have a good handle on like. Humans. so he kinda does a bad job and ciel definitely knows that he's weird but doesnt say anything. will go out of his way to gaslight you when sebastian does weird shit because he thinks its funny

"hey uhh is your dad levitating?"

"no?"

"he's flying above the school rn"

"that's a bird"

u think suddenly being a butler is hard? have fun being a dad bitch

alois is there but thats complicated. claude and hannah are DIVORCED but on decent terms (i think claude is like. toxic alpha male podcast type guy) and claude sees alois on alternating weekends!

are they demons? i dont know

i think ciel and alois can be friends. platonically. alois would probably say yes if ciel wanted to be romantic but i Promise you he does not. they are just pals :)

im saying ciel has a crush on elizabeth because i can (she's not his cousin here). emo boy x sunny church girl. said sunny church girl has to ask the mcdonalds employees for the blue raspberry slushie they forgot to put in ciel's order because emo boy is too scared.

IM 13 EVERYTHING SUCKSSSSS

grelle is actually living her best life transitioned with anne so they are ciel's aunts on his late mom's side. i think grelle likes ciel. mom figure moreso than anne is.

ciel owns four bongs and definitely a vape or two. come on now

he's also probably got celiac and is lactose intolerant he is just a feeble boy i think

he listens to twenty one pilots. sorry! sorry.

ciel is goth alois is punk those r kinda just the rules

ciel is insanely smart top of the class this shit is easy for him.

yells at sebastian daily. figured out what happened with his real parents around the age of uhhhh 12 or 13? has been an absolute terror ever since

"it was really nice of your dad to bring cookies for the field trip!"

"i hope he fucking chokes on one"

"oh!"

sebastian and claude are pta rivals.

"is this lemon bread store bought? my, how... efficient!"

"you made these from scratch? i can tell."

"i've never seen an interesting looking salsa! very exciting."

ciel purposefully invites alois over constantly bcus it pisses sebas off. alois is Terrified of that man.

"go grab the chips from the kitchen"

"but... what if mr michaelis is in there?"

"mr m- you mean my dad? tell him he can shove a faucet up his ass"

"id rather die on the spot"

sebastian will yell at ciel and is maybe a little emotionally unavailable but he's trying!!! it's hard :(

does that Dad thing where he comes into ciels room and is like hey bud......... what r u up to..

ciel and seiglinde r also palls. the smartest people in school

lizzie is a JOCK. she plays softball.

alois is a theater kid come on now

ciel is best at writing and literature analysis, specifically fiction. enjoys history, language, and Some sciences as well.

nerd

au where myspace is still a thing ciel has a myspace account

he definitely writes shitty poetry

wants to major in business

alois is a glee and pitch perfect truther

[cocoatonedcurls]

become an academic weapon 📚🔫✨

hi all !!

with my GCSEs this year, and only a few weeks before back to school, I decided to really lock in yesterday 🫣

so I thought I'd take all the info I've come across while scrolling through studytok and put it into a little post for everyone looking to improve in their studies (& for my benefit as well 🙈)

motivation

this is probably the biggest factor when it comes to locking into your studies, motivation can quite literally make or break your academic achievements (😦)

so, its very important you motivate yourself, and moreover, stay motivated 😭

i've made it sound daunting but motivating yourself is lowkey easier than you think, here's a few ways to do it:

picturing yourself in 10 years, where all your studying and hard work has paid off - you can't be that person without doing the work that they did 😬

you can also do the opposite of the above - imagine how disappointed you'll be if you didn't work as hard as you could have and failed

"revenge studying" - the most toxic yet probably the most widely effective technique - working hard so you can beat than the people who are better than you

make studying aesthetic - create pinterest boards, look at quotes and tiktoks, make success your greatest desire

make it an addiction - if you're bored? study. had a bad day? nothing like setting yourself up for the best future. having a great day? go make it better by making yourself smarter.

get a motivational study app - i LOVE 'Study Bunny' I've been using it for two days now and it genuinely motivates me to be more productive to keep my bunny happy 🙃

resources

obviously, you need some help where you can get it despite all the controversies surrounding studying and the use of the internet, there are some amazing online resources you can use that will actively help you 📚

Quizlet/Anki - both of these flashcard platforms are incredibly useful - Quizlet is a fun platform and you can search for flashcards made by other people - Anki, in my opinion, is better than Quizlet for memorising, and you can import flashcards from Quizlet.

Mindnote - A mindmap making software online, a user-friendly interface + is quick and easy to make them - Great for visual learners

YouTube - the teachers on YouTube are incredibly helpful and can explain any topics you're confused about very quickly and very thoroughly

Spark Notes - great for English literature, with in-depth analysis of your texts and modern translations

Physics & Maths Tutor - free past papers and topic questions for core subjects and a few others, great for active recall

Study Bunny/Flora - helps keep track of your progress and keeps you motivated, I recommend Study Bunny because I can see how much work I've done of each subject and tick off things on my checklist

these are just a few out of many other resources so go do some of your own research, especially if there are websites that help with a specific subject

techniques

different study techniques work best for different people, no technique is a one-size-fits-all, some people are visual learners, others perform best by memorising & etc.

active recall - the only one-size-fits-all method - is a cognitive function that you carry out to remember things in tests, so practising this is a must -> the best way to do this is by completing topic questions and past papers using minimal amounts of notes. basically just testing yourself before the actual test

Spaced-out revision - one of the best ways to make sure things stick in your mind, revise a topic/subject and revisit it every few days, eg. 1, 3, 5, 9, 15, 30; and by the 30-day mark it should be stuck in your mind because your brain believes its something that you need to know in the long run and stores it in your long term memory

Flashcards - great to memorise content for the test, especially subjects that are tested with orals

Scribble method - scribbling on a piece of paper while revising the content in any form, reading, listening, etc. helps your brain store the information you're consuming more effectively

Feynman method - basically just explaining the topic you're revising to someone, this helps you develop your understanding and catches out any areas you're unsure about to revise later

making mindmaps - this is great for visual learners, especially if you use different colours for each section of the map so that you can associate each concept with each colour and recall them easily

again, those are just a few that come to mind. do your own research and find out what works best for you 😇

while studying

knowing how to study effectively is also a crucial aspect of success (obviously) 🤭

here are a few tips:

don't listen to music with lyrics, instead you can listen to lofi tracks, cafe/library asmr, brown noise, jazz music (my favourite)

set yourself a study slot, like 2 hours every day at a specific time & set a focus filter on your phone for the duration of your study time

make an aesthetic/cute study space so you can enjoy your time in that space and it doesn't feel like a chore

get a whiteboard to make learning more interactive & fun

light a specific candle whenever you're studying so your brain knows to associate the scent with working

have regular breaks eg. every half hour for 5-10 mins

reward yourself afterwards, so you associate studying with a good experience

consistency is key, the more you study the easier & more fun it becomes 🙃 the more you study the more you are likely to succeed and fulfil your dreams ✨

remember though, academics is not everyone's thing:

"you cannot judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree"

everyone is good at something, and it doesn't make anyone lesser or greater 🫶

if you try your best, that is all that matters 🫠

- li 🌘

[mariacallous]

Major technology companies, including Google, Apple, and Discord, have been enabling people to quickly sign up to harmful “undress” websites, which use AI to remove clothes from real photos to make victims appear to be “nude” without their consent. More than a dozen of these deepfake websites have been using login buttons from the tech companies for months.

A WIRED analysis found 16 of the biggest so-called undress and “nudify” websites using the sign-in infrastructure from Google, Apple, Discord, Twitter, Patreon, and Line. This approach allows people to easily create accounts on the deepfake websites—offering them a veneer of credibility—before they pay for credits and generate images.

While bots and websites that create nonconsensual intimate images of women and girls have existed for years, the number has increased with the introduction of generative AI. This kind of “undress” abuse is alarmingly widespread, with teenage boys allegedly creating images of their classmates. Tech companies have been slow to deal with the scale of the issues, critics say, with the websites appearing highly in search results, paid advertisements promoting them on social media, and apps showing up in app stores.

“This is a continuation of a trend that normalizes sexual violence against women and girls by Big Tech,” says Adam Dodge, a lawyer and founder of EndTAB (Ending Technology-Enabled Abuse). “Sign-in APIs are tools of convenience. We should never be making sexual violence an act of convenience,” he says. “We should be putting up walls around the access to these apps, and instead we're giving people a drawbridge.”

The sign-in tools analyzed by WIRED, which are deployed through APIs and common authentication methods, allow people to use existing accounts to join the deepfake websites. Google’s login system appeared on 16 websites, Discord’s appeared on 13, and Apple’s on six. X’s button was on three websites, with Patreon and messaging service Line’s both appearing on the same two websites.

WIRED is not naming the websites, since they enable abuse. Several are part of wider networks and owned by the same individuals or companies. The login systems have been used despite the tech companies broadly having rules that state developers cannot use their services in ways that would enable harm, harassment, or invade people’s privacy.

After being contacted by WIRED, spokespeople for Discord and Apple said they have removed the developer accounts connected to their websites. Google said it will take action against developers when it finds its terms have been violated. Patreon said it prohibits accounts that allow explicit imagery to be created, and Line confirmed it is investigating but said it could not comment on specific websites. X did not reply to a request for comment about the way its systems are being used.

In the hours after Jud Hoffman, Discord vice president of trust and safety, told WIRED it had terminated the websites’ access to its APIs for violating its developer policy, one of the undress websites posted in a Telegram channel that authorization via Discord was “temporarily unavailable” and claimed it was trying to restore access. That undress service did not respond to WIRED’s request for comment about its operations.

Rapid Expansion

Since deepfake technology emerged toward the end of 2017, the number of nonconsensual intimate videos and images being created has grown exponentially. While videos are harder to produce, the creation of images using “undress” or “nudify” websites and apps has become commonplace.

“We must be clear that this is not innovation, this is sexual abuse,” says David Chiu, San Francisco’s city attorney, who recently opened a lawsuit against undress and nudify websites and their creators. Chiu says the 16 websites his office’s lawsuit focuses on have had around 200 million visits in the first six months of this year alone. “These websites are engaged in horrific exploitation of women and girls around the globe. These images are used to bully, humiliate, and threaten women and girls,” Chiu alleges.

The undress websites operate as businesses, often running in the shadows—proactively providing very few details about who owns them or how they operate. Websites run by the same people often look similar and use nearly identical terms and conditions. Some offer more than a dozen different languages, demonstrating the worldwide nature of the problem. Some Telegram channels linked to the websites have tens of thousands of members each.

The websites are also under constant development: They frequently post about new features they are producing—with one claiming their AI can customize how women’s bodies look and allow “uploads from Instagram.” The websites generally charge people to generate images and can run affiliate schemes to encourage people to share them; some have pooled together into a collective to create their own cryptocurrency that could be used to pay for images.

A person identifying themself as Alexander August and the CEO of one of the websites, responded to WIRED, saying they “understand and acknowledge the concerns regarding the potential misuse of our technology.” The person claims the website has put in place various safety mechanisms to prevent images of minors being created. “We are committed to taking social responsibility and are open to collaborating with official bodies to enhance transparency, safety, and reliability in our services,” they wrote in an email.

The tech company logins are often presented when someone tries to sign up to the site or clicks on buttons to try generating images. It is unclear how many people will have used the login methods, and most websites also allow people to create accounts with just their email address. However, of the websites reviewed, the majority had implemented the sign-in APIs of more than one technology company, with Sign-In With Google being the most widely used. When this option is clicked, prompts from the Google system say the website will get people’s name, email addresses, language preferences, and profile picture.

Google’s sign-in system also reveals some information about the developer accounts linked to a website. For example, four websites are linked to one Gmail account; another six websites are linked to another. “In order to use Sign in with Google, developers must agree to our Terms of Service, which prohibits the promotion of sexually explicit content as well as behavior or content that defames or harasses others,” says a Google spokesperson, adding that “appropriate action” will be taken if these terms are broken.

Other tech companies that had sign-in systems being used said they have banned accounts after being contacted by WIRED.

Hoffman from Discord says that as well as taking action on the websites flagged by WIRED, the company will “continue to address other websites we become aware of that violate our policies.” Apple spokesperson Shane Bauer says it has terminated multiple developer’s licenses with Apple, and that Sign In With Apple will no longer work on their websites. Adiya Taylor, corporate communications lead at Patreon, says it prohibits accounts that allow or fund access to external tools that can produce adult materials or explicit imagery. “We will take action on any works or accounts on Patreon that are found to be in violation of our Community Guidelines.”

As well as the login systems, several of the websites displayed the logos of Mastercard or Visa, implying they can possibly be used to pay for their services. Visa did not respond to WIRED’s request for comment, while a Mastercard spokesperson says “purchases of nonconsensual deepfake content are not allowed on our network,” and that it takes action when it detects or is made aware of any instances.

On multiple occasions, tech companies and payment providers have taken action against AI services allowing people to generate nonconsensual images or video after media reports about their activities. Clare McGlynn, a professor of law at Durham University who has expertise in the legal regulation of pornography and sexual violence and abuse online, says Big Tech platforms are enabling the growth of undress websites and similar websites by not proactively taking action against them.

“What is concerning is that these are the most basic of security steps and moderation that are missing or not being enforced,” McGlynn says of the sign-in systems being used, adding that it is “wholly inadequate” for companies to react when journalists or campaigners highlight how their rules are being easily dodged. “It is evident that they simply do not care, despite their rhetoric,” McGlynn says. “Otherwise they would have taken these most simple steps to reduce access.”

[jcmarchi]

What are Bots? Definition and Roles: Explore the Useful and the Harmful - Technology Org

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/what-are-bots-definition-and-roles-explore-the-useful-and-the-harmful-technology-org/

What are Bots? Definition and Roles: Explore the Useful and the Harmful - Technology Org

Over the past thirty years, the way we seek information has changed dramatically. For our ancestors, the main sources of information were books, newspapers, and gossip. A little later, they were joined by radio and television, and today the most important medium is the Internet. The ability to get an almost instant answer to any question was unthinkable in the early 1990s. 

A laptop in the dark background – illustrative photo. Omegle was a project intended for entertainment and communication, aimed at meeting new people. This, however, was also its weakest point. Image credit: Philipp Katzenberger via Unsplash, free license

Today, if we don’t know something, we type it into Google: “What is SEO?”, “How do I launch a Google Ads campaign?”, “What causes a 500 error on my website?” and in a split second, we get hundreds of results that explain the SEO acronym, tell us step by step how to launch a Google Ads campaign, or what can cause a 500 error on a website and how to fix it. Who does it? Few people think about how Google knows these answers. These assistants are bots. Let’s take a closer look at them, namely, such representatives as traffic bot in this article. As well as a lot of useful general information.

How did it happen that we got a comprehensive answer to a question that none of our friends could answer in a split second? Let’s take a closer look.

Definition of the ‘Bot’

The bot traffic internet – is a computer program whose task is to perform automated actions on the network. Considering bot traffic meaning, internet bots are commonly used for useful as well as harmful activities. Depending on the application, an Internet bot can mimic the actions of a human to interact with a real person.

Types of Internet bots

We can divide computer programs of this type into several types. Among the most popular of these are:

indexing bot – collects various information about websites, for example, Googlebot;

scraper bot – used to read data from websites to, for example, purchase a certain product or inform about a discounted price. Bots of this type often save data for later analysis;

spam bot – a robot that collects email addresses, which are then used to send spam;

social media bot – generates messages on social media, often supporting a specific idea. Very often, they create fake accounts that are used to increase the number of followers. This is particularly evident on the Twitter platform;

download bot – its purpose is to download files, which can result, for example, in boosting statistics for a particular application in the app store. Bots of this type can be used for DDoS attacks;

automatic purchase bot – a bot whose job is to automatically purchase a commodity, such as a concert ticket or stock, for later resale at a profit;

virus spreading bot – an Internet robot whose purpose is to steal data or infect a host. Criminals can use such bots to obtain information of interest. Computers infected in this way can later be used for DDoS attacks via that kind of bot traffic meaning;

chatbot – a bot used to communicate in text form in place of a human. It uses advanced NLP algorithms and artificial iintelligence,or, in its simplest form, answers questions containing predetermined phrases. Even companies have emerged that offer easy-to-configure commercial chatbots that can be integrated into websites or profiles on social media platforms. Facebook allows you to create a bot to communicate on Messenger;

voicebot – a robot whose purpose is to conduct voice conversations with customers.

Bots work much faster than humans. They can perform complex actions, and besides, their actions can be coordinated.

Internet bots have become a part of reality for good. The uses of Internet robots range from very useful, such as indexing Internet resources, to very malicious, such as infecting people with malware.

What is Googlebot, and how does it work?

Googlebot, like similar robots, is a program whose purpose is to scan websites or crawl. Googlebot mimics human behavior and, while browsing sites, “clicks” on links it finds. In this way, it arrives at brand-new subpages or at subpages that it analyzed some time ago. Thanks to the work of Google’s web robots, new subpages are added to the search engine’s index, and the content of previously scanned subpages is updated to its current state.

Speaking of Googlebot, we must distinguish several versions of it that specialize in crawling a certain type of content.

Some bots are used by Google’s search engine to index and refresh indexed pages, while others use other products and services. Each is specialized in indexing different types of content, which they do for different purposes. Some Googlebots mimic computer users, others are smartphone users, some scan only image files, others only videos, and so on. Below, we at SmartHub have listed the most important types of Googlebots that visit websites:

Googlebot indexing smartphone sites – mimics smartphone and mobile device users, indexes websites,

Computer Googlebot – mimics desktop users, indexes websites,

Googlebot Image – indexes images, photos, and graphics for Google Graphics,

Googlebot News – indexes news,

Googlebot Video – indexes video content,

AdsBot – is responsible for checking the content of ads on websites displayed on computers.

Why don’t Google robots index a website?

The process of indexing seems simple, and theoretically, after creating a new website and following the described instructions, we can “force” its content to be indexed within a few days. 

Summary

As you can see, search engine robots, especially Googlebots, are extremely useful programs, without which it would be virtually impossible to use the Internet as we do today. It is thanks to them that when we type queries in search engines, we get comprehensive answers. It is the robots that are responsible for getting our site into the search engine, and the copy stored by the search engine is regularly updated. So if you have a website, it is worthwhile to adjust it to make it friendly to Google’s robots. If you don’t have the skills to adjust the code of your site yourself, I encourage you to enlist the help of SmartHub specialists, who will optimize your site to meet the requirements of Google Bots and help you position it for keywords related to your business on the site.

[feminist-space]

"Just weeks before the implosion of AllHere, an education technology company that had been showered with cash from venture capitalists and featured in glowing profiles by the business press, America’s second-largest school district was warned about problems with AllHere’s product.

As the eight-year-old startup rolled out Los Angeles Unified School District’s flashy new AI-driven chatbot — an animated sun named “Ed” that AllHere was hired to build for $6 million — a former company executive was sending emails to the district and others that Ed’s workings violated bedrock student data privacy principles.

Those emails were sent shortly before The 74 first reported last week that AllHere, with $12 million in investor capital, was in serious straits. A June 14 statement on the company’s website revealed a majority of its employees had been furloughed due to its “current financial position.” Company founder and CEO Joanna Smith-Griffin, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles district said, was no longer on the job.

Smith-Griffin and L.A. Superintendent Alberto Carvalho went on the road together this spring to unveil Ed at a series of high-profile ed tech conferences, with the schools chief dubbing it the nation’s first “personal assistant” for students and leaning hard into LAUSD’s place in the K-12 AI vanguard. He called Ed’s ability to know students “unprecedented in American public education” at the ASU+GSV conference in April.

Through an algorithm that analyzes troves of student information from multiple sources, the chatbot was designed to offer tailored responses to questions like “what grade does my child have in math?” The tool relies on vast amounts of students’ data, including their academic performance and special education accommodations, to function.

Meanwhile, Chris Whiteley, a former senior director of software engineering at AllHere who was laid off in April, had become a whistleblower. He told district officials, its independent inspector general’s office and state education officials that the tool processed student records in ways that likely ran afoul of L.A. Unified’s own data privacy rules and put sensitive information at risk of getting hacked. None of the agencies ever responded, Whiteley told The 74.

...

In order to provide individualized prompts on details like student attendance and demographics, the tool connects to several data sources, according to the contract, including Welligent, an online tool used to track students’ special education services. The document notes that Ed also interfaces with the Whole Child Integrated Data stored on Snowflake, a cloud storage company. Launched in 2019, the Whole Child platform serves as a central repository for LAUSD student data designed to streamline data analysis to help educators monitor students’ progress and personalize instruction.

Whiteley told officials the app included students’ personally identifiable information in all chatbot prompts, even in those where the data weren’t relevant. Prompts containing students’ personal information were also shared with other third-party companies unnecessarily, Whiteley alleges, and were processed on offshore servers. Seven out of eight Ed chatbot requests, he said, are sent to places like Japan, Sweden, the United Kingdom, France, Switzerland, Australia and Canada.

Taken together, he argued the company’s practices ran afoul of data minimization principles, a standard cybersecurity practice that maintains that apps should collect and process the least amount of personal information necessary to accomplish a specific task. Playing fast and loose with the data, he said, unnecessarily exposed students’ information to potential cyberattacks and data breaches and, in cases where the data were processed overseas, could subject it to foreign governments’ data access and surveillance rules.

Chatbot source code that Whiteley shared with The 74 outlines how prompts are processed on foreign servers by a Microsoft AI service that integrates with ChatGPT. The LAUSD chatbot is directed to serve as a “friendly, concise customer support agent” that replies “using simple language a third grader could understand.” When querying the simple prompt “Hello,” the chatbot provided the student’s grades, progress toward graduation and other personal information.

AllHere’s critical flaw, Whiteley said, is that senior executives “didn’t understand how to protect data.”

...

Earlier in the month, a second threat actor known as Satanic Cloud claimed it had access to tens of thousands of L.A. students’ sensitive information and had posted it for sale on Breach Forums for $1,000. In 2022, the district was victim to a massive ransomware attack that exposed reams of sensitive data, including thousands of students’ psychological evaluations, to the dark web.

With AllHere’s fate uncertain, Whiteley blasted the company’s leadership and protocols.

“Personally identifiable information should be considered acid in a company and you should only touch it if you have to because acid is dangerous,” he told The 74. “The errors that were made were so egregious around PII, you should not be in education if you don’t think PII is acid.”

Read the full article here:

https://www.the74million.org/article/whistleblower-l-a-schools-chatbot-misused-student-data-as-tech-co-crumbled/

[neolxzr]

you do see my point though, I was saying that yes a piece of media can have a character imply they are queer, but it’s frustrating when they won’t explicitly confirm such, because of (in the case of… checks app store purchase statistics…. A multi million dollar game franchise!) the need to market to as many people as possible. Shumika will never be “canon” because some people just don’t like shumika and won’t spend money on the game if shu and mika are in a relationship, whether or not that’s because they like the ship or the characters or are genuinely homophobic or whatnot. If the writing team cared about telling a love story, they would tell a love story, not go “well maybe they’re in love, it’s up to viewer interpretation!” like this works, sometimes it adds to the meaning of the work, but enstars really doesn’t have an excuse for their constant “this character might have feelings for this other character, but we’ll never have them say it out loud!” except the fact it makes them a lot of money, since they can market to people who like a character being the way they want that character to be, whether that’s with that character being in love with another in game character or self-shipping or whatever else. Outside of shipping, this is why some characters like Shinobu haven’t changed despite wanting to change (he continuously talks about how he wants to be more mature and taken seriously but his cards continue to make him look small and cute because his fans like that about him and god forbid we change anything!) I just think enstars should not be your first thought when someone asks you about a good piece of queer media because they’re doing just about the same job as large cast games with characters of the same gender (minus Arashi) who continue to have characters go “we’ll do all these things to imply we could be in love, but we’ll never have our characters actually date! teehee!”

i can understand being frustrated about your ships not being "confirmed", but the obsession with what is "canon" and "not canon" is just straight up not a very interesting discussion to have. what happyele's or the writers' agenda is is not of particular importance to me. one of the first things they teach you in classes about media analysis is that once a work is out there, the intentions of the creator no longer matter. the only thing that matters in your analysis is your own thoughts and the way you interpret a text.

if we were having a conversation about how much the creator of something sucks, then sure, talk about that all you want, but i am specifically referring to discussions about the piece of media and these characters and their relationships and their growth and the themes of the work etc. those things are removed from whether or not the company writes the way they do because of profit motives or whatever. companies make money, that's just what to expect. if you want art that is free of profit motives, read something by an independent creator.

even so, it feels strange to place enstars into the bucket of "stuff that should be gayer but the bad company that makes it wont let it be" because the characters ARE so very openly queer. there are so many instances in it where characters pour their heart out to each other or offer themselves to another character in beautiful and poetic ways, and i think it's wrong to claim it doesn't count because they didn't confirm their relationship status at the end of it. if you ask me, there is absolutely no way to interpret enstars in a way completely free of queerness. there is so much explicitly queer text that ignoring it is just plain incorrect. but, if homophobic people like this game and choose to look the other way at all of the gay shit, again, that is not my problem.

why is canonization the only thing that matters? is a shitty BL with awful writing better and more worthwhile than enstars as a queer narrative because the characters had explicit gay sex on screen? are poorly written gay characters in the background of other media with nothing going on more worth talking about than shumika or wataei or rinniki or whoever else just because they say the words 'i'm gay' out loud?

queerness is so much more than all of that. it is so much more than labels and it is so much more than relationships that are easy to understand. it is so much more than the extremely narrow view of it that the internet has concocted about it over the last few years, where you’re only allowed to talk about queerness if you yourself are openly queer and out of the closet, and even then you’re only allowed to make art that makes for “good representation.” that is just so incredibly limiting. i would rather tons of companies who are trying to profit off fujoshis make vaguely gay media with unconfirmed romances and relationships that aren't easily defined by labels than have less queer art in the world.

more queer art means more queer people who will find something to really connect to. more queer art means telling more queer stories. why should who is allowed to write lgbtq media be limited? why should the kind of media people are allowed to make be limited?

its fine to criticize happyelements if youre unsatisfied with the way they do things, im not always 100% in love with everything they do either. i wouldn't even consider enstars to be the worlds' best example of a queer piece of media. but no one is forcing you to like or engage with it or give the company money if you're unhappy with how they write and market their game. they don't owe anyone explicit confirmation that any of their characters are dating, and it doesn't even matter if they do provide that confirmation or not.

regardless of who made it or for what reason, queer stories are worth talking about, "canon" or not.

[daemonhxckergrrl]

For people using Google Accounts

apparently Google are updating their 'inactivity period' for accounts to 2 years. this has already gone into effect, but account deletions don't start until December.

they're claiming it's a "strong privacy practice" to "protect your private information". to me it sounds like an easy way to clear up space (yes they have tons of datacentres, but i bet there's multiple TBs of data sitting into accounts that haven't been touched in years), as well as force encourage people to use Google accounts and services more regularly if they only use them sporadically.

also i'm damn sure some of that data may be deleted but certainly not all of it. large files may go but all the profile data both directly connected to those accounts (visible to the account holder) - and any extra data only visible internally - i highly doubt is being deleted.

when your business is data mining, profile-building, large-scale statistical analysis of people, why would you throw any of that away ?

this email says that all you have to do to keep your account active is to sign in at least once every two years. yet, they also provide the following as alternatives (all of which require that account to be signed in ??? so clearly it's about encouraging use of their services)

[ID: screenshot snippet of an email from Google. it reads "Other ways to keep your account active include: reading or sending an email, using google drive, watching a youtube video, sharing a photo, downloading an app, using google search, use sign in with google to sign in to a third-party app or service". /end ID]

for anyone wanting to read the full email, the text is under this cut:

Every day, Google works hard to keep you and your private information safe and secure by preventing unauthorised access to your Google Account with our built-in security protections. And keeping you safe means having strong privacy practices across our products that minimise how long we store your personal files and any data associated with them. We want to protect your private information and prevent any unauthorised access to your account even if you’re no longer using our services. Therefore, we are updating the inactivity period for a Google Account to two years across all our products and services. This change starts rolling out today and will apply to any Google Account that’s been inactive, meaning that it has not been signed in to or used within a two-year period. An inactive account and any content in it will be eligible for deletion from 1 December 2023. What this means for you: These changes do not impact you unless you have been inactive in your Google Account for two years or have not used your account to sign in to any Google service for over two years. While the changes go into effect today, the earliest that we would enforce any account deletion would be December 2023. If your account is considered inactive, we will send several reminder emails to both you and your recovery emails (if any have been provided) before we take any action or delete any account content. These reminder emails will go out at least eight months before any action is taken on your account. After a Google Account is deleted, the Gmail address for the deleted account cannot be used again when creating a new Google Account. How to keep your account active? The simplest way to keep a Google Account active is to sign in to the account at least once every two years. If you have signed in to your Google Account recently in the last two years, your account is considered active and will not be deleted. Other ways to keep your account active include: - Reading or sending an email - Using Google Drive - Watching a YouTube video - Sharing a photo - Downloading an app - Using Google Search - Use Sign in with Google to sign in to a third-party app or service There are some exceptions to this policy. Examples include: A Google Account with YouTube channels, videos or comments; an account that has a gift card with a monetary balance; or an account that has a published application, for example, one that hosts an app on the Google Play Store. Other exceptions to this policy are available here. Google also offers tools to help manage your Google Account and provide options to back up your data, including the ability to download your data using Google Takeout, and allowing you to plan for what happens to your data if you’re inactive for a specific period of time with the Inactive Account Manager. Our priority is to make it as easy as possible for you to keep your account active, if you want to, and we’ll ensure that you have adequate notice before any account is impacted by this change. So before an account is deleted, Google will send email notifications to the Google Account and its recovery email (if one has been provided). You should verify that your recovery email is up to date. Learn more - Inactive Google Account policy - How Google retains data that we collect - Updating our inactive account policies (only available in English)

i left the links in mostly out of laziness but if anyone wants to read their various policies then go ahead !

[still-a-morosexual-help]

Twst honestly sounds so much fun and from what I've seen I'd probably love malleus *cough*I definitely don't favor mammon*cough*

Unfortunately the app isn't available in my counrty's app store😔

I am excited to see if you post more abt it tho, love your analysises

It's so much fun!! I love the story and the characters! It somehow made me fall completely in love with characters I didn't think I'd like

It's also kind of obvious that they're working with a much bigger budget than om....?

Oh! They're nothing alike! Mammon is hiding a soft, caring, competent person under his usual loud, obnoxious, asshole personality. Malleus is an awkward, dorky, lonely person that is rarely seen as such because people are scared to come closer and from afar all they see is someone who is stoic, dour & condescending

Mammon is probably the most emotionally intelligent character in om (save for mc) while Malleus needs so so much therapy

Mammon x MC's vibe is "best friend who you get into endless trouble with who cackles when you trip over your own feet but also cleans, bandages and kisses your scraped knee" while Malleus x MC's vibe is literally a fairytale romance - from chance meetings to secret meetings to hidden identities - you could write a fantasy romance about their meeting and interactions and it'd hit almost all the tropes and it's not even a dating sim andifmdjfx

The only problems I have with twst are;

1. Om spoiled me rotten. Twst expects me to grind so much and I'm tired om just gives me shit i barely have to do any work

2. MC's not so much a character as they are a PoV for the player and it's kind of annoying? I don't want the story to be about MC, the best part of twst are all the other characters, but i'd also like characters to respond to mc? 8 outta 10 times it feels like MC's just in a corner talking to a brick wall while everyone else is hanging out. The most impact they had on the story so far was in book 3 I think? And the most significant interactions they have are with Malleus because it's usually just the two of them and so he actually responds to them. You do get used to it after a while and twst MC is funny, snarky, kinda blunt when pushed to it, cunning when necessary and according to some of the things they say & think in book 6 they do have some insecurities about having no magic/not being able to help. I just wish they got to interact with the other characters properly? Specially because, from what little we get of them, they have a lot of potential to be an interesting character on their own

It wasn't available in my country either! But you can download QooApp and then download twst through it

Honestly I can't see myself writing any analysis for twst? Om drops bit and pieces of lore everywhere and never bothers to pick them up so it's easy to make connections. Twst rarely drops anything that isn't already connected to something else, there are no loose threads that I can weave something out of. Also twst's characters (or the main 7 at least) actually monologue in detail about their issues. In om it's like pulling teeth - which is what makes it fun

[a3heritageposts]

What's A3

I'm SO glad you asked!

A3! (Act! Addict! Actors!) is a mobile game that was launched in Japan in 2017. (It also got an English version in 2019, but that was discontinued in 2021 and fully shut down in 2022. Sigh.)

The game follows Mankai Company, an acting troupe comprised of twenty (later twenty-four) cute and conventionally attractive male characters, an assortment of side characters, and You, the theatre's director (default name Izumi Tachibana). You play by collecting cards (souped-up jpegs) of the characters through the in-game gambling system or through playing "events" aka limited-time competitions, leveling up your cards' power stats, and then using them to compete in events so you can get more cards like some sort of gacha-based Sisyphean boulder.

Ahem. While the gameplay itself is pretty simplistic - while it can get competitive, it only requires a little bit of strategizing and time management on the player's part. You can literally play while also scrolling through tumblr - the main appeal comes from the story and characters, who are all very fun and interesting. Each character feels nuanced and in-depth, and one of my favorite things about this fandom is the sheer love people have for their faves, whether it's expressed through fanart, fanfiction, memes, or analysis. Despite the premise, the story is actually very light on romance with more of a focus on found family, which I find refreshing. (Don't worry, the romance can still be there if you want it to be XD.) Explaining what I love about each character would be another post entirely, so in conclusion, I'll leave you with these links.

Yaycupcake - the A3 wiki, an absolute godsend, has fan translations of most stories. To get started, read the prologue and Acts 1-4 of the main story, then head on over to the events, which have eleven-episode ministories and exclusive cards with their own backstage stories

This post - links to an archive of the official English translation (highly recommended)

Obligatory spotify playlist link

If you do want to actually download the game, you can do so off the Japan app store using an APK if you're an android user. If you're an iphone user...I can't help you :/. I also recommend downloading a screen translator app if you don't know Japanese, if only so you don't accidentally delete your progress.

Aside from the game, we also have an anime (which I cannot, in good faith, recommend), several stageplays (better, but can be difficult to track down), and a movie (that I haven't seen).

That pretty much covers it? Sorry you unlocked the rambly infodump haha but we're always excited to see interest in our little acting blorbo simulator ^_^

[theshadowworker]

I'm familiar with a little of Jung's material. However, I'd appreciate being directed to some reference material on shadow work.

Thanks. 😊

Sure! These shadow work resources are really good:

1. LonerWolf's website and workbooks. This page is a useful start (they also have shadow work quizzes on the website):

2. Caroline Myss' archetype cards - these work with the concept of Jungian archetypes and include the shadow side of each archetype. Really great for self-analysis:

3. How to Befriend Your Shadow by John Monbourquette. This is a more academic book on shadow work and contains lots of useful references to fiction and non-fiction about shadow work:

4. Warrior, Magician, Lover, King by Rod Boothroyd - this is an excellent book to guide your personal shadow work. It's aimed at men, but I'm a woman and related to it too (simply swap "King" for "Queen"). This is by far my favourite shadow work book 👇

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Warrior-Magician-Lover-King-development/dp/1722820896

5. Also, tarot can be used for shadow work if that's up your street. The free app Galaxy Tarot is really good - look at the "reverse" section for each card to see its shadow meaning:

I hope this helps - let me know if you have any questions ☺️