#google data API

[pixiedust111]

Yeah, I've finally made it! Though, with limited functionality, 'cause I use free accounts everywhere 😬! (I've been so stupid, I accidentally added my name to the domain 🙁)

[newsdataapi]

Get Free News API to scrape news articles

NewsData.io offered a free news API that developers could use to access news articles and headlines from various sources. This API provided endpoints for fetching news articles, headlines, and other related data. Get a Free News API Key in 3 steps:

Visit NewsData.io website

Create an account on it

Get Free API Keys from dashboard

[scrapingdog]

Automate Employee Data Extraction with ScrapingDog API

Discover how to streamline employee data collection using web scraping. This guide walks through automating the process with the ScrapingDog API, saving hours of manual effort.

[mayurashinde]

Data Scraping Made Simple: What It Really Means

Data Scraping Made Simple: What It Really Means

In the digital world, data scraping is a powerful way to collect information from websites automatically. But what exactly does that mean—and why is it important?

Let’s break it down in simple terms.

What Is Data Scraping?

Data scraping (also called web scraping) is the process of using bots or scripts to extract data from websites. Instead of copying and pasting information manually, scraping tools do the job automatically—much faster and more efficiently.

You can scrape product prices, news headlines, job listings, real estate data, weather reports, and more.

Imagine visiting a website with hundreds of items. Now imagine a tool that can read all that content and save it in a spreadsheet in seconds. That’s what data scraping does.

Why Is It So Useful?

Businesses, researchers, and marketers use data scraping to:

Track competitors' prices

Monitor customer reviews

Gather contact info for leads

Collect news for trend analysis

Keep up with changing market data

In short, data scraping helps people get useful information without wasting time.

Is Data Scraping Legal?

It depends. Public data (like product prices or news articles) is usually okay to scrape, but private or copyrighted content is not. Always check a website’s terms of service before scraping it.

Tools for Data Scraping

There are many tools that make data scraping easy:

Beautiful Soup (for Python developers)

Octoparse (no coding needed)

Scrapy (for advanced scraping tasks)

SERPHouse APIs (for SEO and search engine data)

Some are code-based, others are point-and-click tools. Choose what suits your need and skill level.

Final Thoughts

What is data scraping? It’s the smart way to extract website content for business, research, or insights. With the right tools, it saves time, increases productivity, and opens up access to valuable online data.

Just remember: scrape responsibly.

[munaeem]

Who’s Spying on You the Most? Microsoft, Google, Nvidia, or Steam? Let’s Find Out!

Hey everyone! Let’s talk about something we all know but don’t always think about: tech companies spying on us. Yeah, it’s no secret that our devices and apps are constantly collecting data, but have you ever wondered who’s doing it the most? Is it Microsoft? Google? Nvidia? Steam? Or maybe even EA? I decided to run a little experiment to find out, and the results were… eye-opening. The…

[iwebscrapingblogs]

Google Flight API - Easy Real-Time Data Extraction

In today's fast-paced travel industry, the ability to access real-time flight data is essential for businesses and travelers alike. Whether you’re a travel agent, an airline, a developer, or simply a tech enthusiast, Google Flight API provides a powerful tool to obtain real-time flight information. This blog will delve into how you can harness the Google Flight API for easy real-time data extraction, highlighting its benefits, applications, and a step-by-step guide to get you started.

What is Google Flight API?

Google Flight API is an interface that allows developers to access and manipulate flight data provided by Google Flights. This includes information about flight schedules, prices, availability, and more. The API enables seamless integration of this data into applications, websites, and other platforms, allowing for real-time updates and a more dynamic user experience.

Benefits of Using Google Flight API

Real-Time Data: The API provides up-to-the-minute information on flight schedules, delays, and cancellations. This is crucial for travel agencies and airlines to keep their customers informed and to make timely decisions.

Wide Coverage: Google Flights covers a vast number of airlines and routes worldwide. This extensive database ensures that users have access to comprehensive flight information.

Cost-Effective: Using the API can be more cost-effective than purchasing data from third-party vendors. It reduces the need for manual data collection and entry, saving time and resources.

Customizable: The API allows for customization to fit the specific needs of your application. You can filter results based on parameters such as price range, airlines, layovers, and more.

Enhanced User Experience: Integrating real-time flight data into your platform can significantly enhance the user experience. Users can search for flights, compare prices, and make bookings without leaving your site or app.

Applications of Google Flight API

Travel Booking Platforms: Websites and apps that facilitate flight bookings can use the API to display the latest flight options, prices, and availability to their users.

Travel Agencies: Agencies can automate the process of fetching flight data, providing clients with real-time information and recommendations.

Airlines: Airlines can use the API to update their own systems and customer interfaces with the latest flight schedules and status updates.

Travel Planning Tools: Apps that help users plan their trips can integrate the API to provide accurate flight information, helping users to make informed decisions.

Data Analysis: Researchers and analysts can use the API to gather flight data for various analytical purposes, such as studying travel trends, pricing strategies, and more.

Getting Started with Google Flight API

Accessing the API: Currently, Google Flight API is not publicly available as a standalone service. However, there are ways to access similar data through other means, such as third-party APIs or scraping Google Flights with web scraping tools. Alternatively, you can explore Google's QPX Express API, which provides flight search capabilities, though it has limited availability.

API Key: If you’re using an official API or a third-party service, you’ll need to obtain an API key. This key authenticates your requests and tracks your usage.

Setting Up Your Environment: Ensure you have a development environment set up with the necessary libraries and tools for making HTTP requests and handling JSON data. Popular choices include Python with libraries like requests and json, or JavaScript with axios and fetch.

Making Requests: Use the API documentation to understand the endpoints and parameters available. Construct your HTTP requests to fetch the data you need. For example, a typical request might look like this in Python:pythonCopy codeimport requests url = "https://api.example.com/flights" params = { "origin": "JFK", "destination": "LAX", "departure_date": "2024-07-20" } headers = { "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" } response = requests.get(url, headers=headers, params=params) data = response.json() print(data)

Parsing the Data: Once you receive the response, parse the JSON data to extract the information you need. This could include flight numbers, departure and arrival times, prices, and more.

Integrating the Data: Integrate the parsed data into your application or website. This might involve updating the UI with the latest flight information, storing data in a database, or performing additional processing.

Conclusion

Google Flight API, or similar services, offers a robust solution for accessing real-time flight data. Whether you’re building a travel booking platform, enhancing an airline’s digital presence, or developing a travel planning tool, the ability to fetch and display accurate flight information is invaluable. By understanding the benefits, applications, and steps to get started, you can leverage this powerful tool to create more dynamic and user-friendly experiences in the travel industry.

[foodspark-scraper]

How To Extract 1000s of Restaurant Data from Google Maps?

In today's digital age, having access to accurate and up-to-date data is crucial for businesses to stay competitive. This is especially true for the restaurant industry, where trends and customer preferences are constantly changing. One of the best sources for this data is Google Maps, which contains a wealth of information on restaurants around the world. In this article, we will discuss how to extract thousands of restaurant data from Google Maps and how it can benefit your business.

Why Extract Restaurant Data from Google Maps?

Google Maps is the go-to source for many customers when searching for restaurants in their area. By extracting data from Google Maps, you can gain valuable insights into the current trends and preferences of customers in your target market. This data can help you make informed decisions about your menu, pricing, and marketing strategies. It can also give you a competitive edge by allowing you to stay ahead of the curve and adapt to changing trends.

How To Extract Restaurant Data from Google Maps?

There are several ways to extract restaurant data from Google Maps, but the most efficient and accurate method is by using a web scraping tool. These tools use automated bots to extract data from websites, including Google Maps, and compile it into a usable format. This eliminates the need for manual data entry and saves you time and effort.

To extract restaurant data from Google Maps, you can follow these steps:

Choose a reliable web scraping tool that is specifically designed for extracting data from Google Maps.

Enter the search criteria for the restaurants you want to extract data from, such as location, cuisine, or ratings.

The tool will then scrape the data from the search results, including restaurant names, addresses, contact information, ratings, and reviews.

You can then export the data into a spreadsheet or database for further analysis.

Benefits of Extracting Restaurant Data from Google Maps

Extracting restaurant data from Google Maps can provide numerous benefits for your business, including:

Identifying Trends and Preferences

By analyzing the data extracted from Google Maps, you can identify current trends and preferences in the restaurant industry. This can help you make informed decisions about your menu, pricing, and marketing strategies to attract more customers.

Improving SEO

Having accurate and up-to-date data on your restaurant's Google Maps listing can improve your search engine optimization (SEO). This means that your restaurant will appear higher in search results, making it easier for potential customers to find you.

Competitive Analysis

Extracting data from Google Maps can also help you keep an eye on your competitors. By analyzing their data, you can identify their strengths and weaknesses and use this information to improve your own business strategies.

conclusion:

extracting restaurant data from Google Maps can provide valuable insights and benefits for your business. By using a web scraping tool, you can easily extract thousands of data points and use them to make informed decisions and stay ahead of the competition. So why wait? Start extracting restaurant data from Google Maps today and take your business to the next level.

[iwebdatascrape]

Google Shopping Data Scraper

Scrape Google Shopping data, including price, merchant name, etc., using Google Shopping data scraper. Our Google Shopping scraping tool can scrape data across the USA, UK,

[trendingnow3-blog]

YouTube Most Watched Videos Finder: Python Code

YouTube Most Watched Videos Finder: Python Code

Description: This article contains a Python script that utilizes the YouTube Data API to find the most watched videos in the past 24 hours for a specific region. The script fetches data from the YouTube API, extracts relevant information such as video title, view count, like count, and creates a list of the most popular videos in the desired region. How it Works: The script is written in…

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Are the means of computation even seizable?

I'm on a 20+ city book tour for my new novel PICKS AND SHOVELS. Catch me in PITTSBURGH in TOMORROW (May 15) at WHITE WHALE BOOKS, and in PDX on Jun 20 at BARNES AND NOBLE with BUNNIE HUANG. More tour dates (London, Manchester) here.

Something's very different in tech. Once upon a time, every bad choice by tech companies – taking away features, locking out mods or plugins, nerfing the API – was countered, nearly instantaneously, by someone writing a program that overrode that choice.

Bad clients would be muscled aside by third-party clients. Locked bootloaders would be hacked and replaced. Code that confirmed you were using OEM parts, consumables or adapters would be found and nuked from orbit. Weak APIs would be replaced with muscular, unofficial APIs built out of unstoppable scrapers running on headless machines in some data-center. Every time some tech company erected a 10-foot enshittifying fence, someone would show up with an 11-foot disenshittifying ladder.

Those 11-foot ladders represented the power of interoperability, the inescapable bounty of the Turing-complete, universal von Neumann machine, which, by definition, is capable of running every valid program. Specifically, they represented the power of adversarial interoperability – when someone modifies a technology against its manufacturer's wishes. Adversarial interoperability is the origin story of today's tech giants, from Microsoft to Apple to Google:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/10/adversarial-interoperability

But adversarial interop has been in steady decline for the past quarter-century. These big companies moved fast and broke things, but no one is returning the favor. If you ask the companies what changed, they'll just smirk and say that they're better at security than the incumbents they disrupted. The reason no one's hacked up a third-party iOS App Store is that Apple's security team is just so fucking 1337 that no one can break their shit.

I think this is nonsense. I think that what's really going on is that we've made it possible for companies to design their technologies in such a way that any attempt at adversarial interop is illegal.

"Anticircumvention" laws like Section 1201 of the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act make bypassing any kind of digital lock (AKA "Digital Rights Management" or "DRM") very illegal. Under DMCA, just talking about how to remove a digital lock can land you in prison for 5 years. I tell the story of this law's passage in "Understood: Who Broke the Internet," my new podcast series for the CBC:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/05/08/who-broke-the-internet/#bruce-lehman

For a quarter century, tech companies have aggressively lobbied and litigated to expand the scope of anticircumvention laws. At the same time, companies have come up with a million ways to wrap their products in digital locks that are a crime to break.

Digital locks let Chamberlain, a garage-door opener monopolist block all third-party garage-door apps. Then, Chamberlain stuck ads in its app, so you have to watch an ad to open your garage-door:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/09/lead-me-not-into-temptation/#chamberlain

Digital locks let John Deere block third-party repair of its tractors:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/05/08/about-those-kill-switched-ukrainian-tractors/

And they let Apple block third-party repair of iPhones:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/05/22/apples-cement-overshoes/

These companies built 11-foot ladders to get over their competitors' 10-foot walls, and then they kicked the ladder away. Once they were secure atop their walls, they committed enshittifying sins their fallen adversaries could only dream of.

I've been campaigning to abolish anticircumvention laws for the past quarter-century, and I've noticed a curious pattern. Whenever these companies stand to lose their legal protections, they freak out and spend vast fortunes to keep those protections intact. That's weird, because it strongly implies that their locks don't work. A lock that works works, whether or not it's illegal to break that lock. The reason Signal encryption works is that it's working encryption. The legal status of breaking Signal's encryption has nothing to do with whether it works. If Signal's encryption was full of technical flaws but it was illegal to point those flaws out, you'd be crazy to trust Signal.

Signal does get involved in legal fights, of course, but the fights it gets into are ones that require Signal to introduce defects in its encryption – not fights over whether it is legal to disclose flaws in Signal or exploit them:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/03/05/theyre-still-trying-to-ban-cryptography/

But tech companies that rely on digital locks manifestly act like their locks don't work and they know it. When the tech and content giants bullied the W3C into building DRM into 2 billion users' browsers, they categorically rejected any proposal to limit their ability to destroy the lives of people who broke that DRM, even if it was only to add accessibility or privacy to video:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2017/09/open-letter-w3c-director-ceo-team-and-membership

The thing is, if the lock works, you don't need the legal right to destroy the lives of people who find its flaws, because it works.

Do digital locks work? Can they work? I think the answer to both questions is a resounding no. The design theory of a digital lock is that I can provide you with an encrypted file that your computer has the keys to. Your computer will access those keys to decrypt or sign a file, but only under the circumstances that I have specified. Like, you can install an app when it comes from my app store, but not when it comes from a third party. Or you can play back a video in one kind of browser window, but not in another one. For this to work, your computer has to hide a cryptographic key from you, inside a device you own and control. As I pointed out more than a decade ago, this is a fool's errand:

https://memex.craphound.com/2012/01/10/lockdown-the-coming-war-on-general-purpose-computing/

After all, you or I might not have the knowledge and resources to uncover the keys' hiding place, but someone does. Maybe that someone is a person looking to go into business selling your customers the disenshittifying plugin that unfucks the thing you deliberately broke. Maybe it's a hacker-tinkerer, pursuing an intellectual challenge. Maybe it's a bored grad student with a free weekend, an electron-tunneling microscope, and a seminar full of undergrads looking for a project.

The point is that hiding secrets in devices that belong to your adversaries is very bad security practice. No matter how good a bank safe is, the bank keeps it in its vault – not in the bank-robber's basement workshop.

For a hiding-secrets-in-your-adversaries'-device plan to work, the manufacturer has to make zero mistakes. The adversary – a competitor, a tinkerer, a grad student – only has to find one mistake and exploit it. This is a bedrock of security theory: attackers have an inescapable advantage.

So I think that DRM doesn't work. I think DRM is a legal construct, not a technical one. I think DRM is a kind of magic Saran Wrap that manufacturers can wrap around their products, and, in so doing, make it a literal jailable offense to use those products in otherwise legal ways that their shareholders don't like. As Jay Freeman put it, using DRM creates a new law called "Felony Contempt of Business Model." It's a law that has never been passed by any legislature, but is nevertheless enforceable.

In the 25 years I've been fighting anticircumvention laws, I've spoken to many government officials from all over the world about the opportunity that repealing their anticircumvention laws represents. After all, Apple makes $100b/year by gouging app makers for 30 cents on ever dollar. Allow your domestic tech sector to sell the tools to jailbreak iPhones and install third party app stores, and you can convert Apple's $100b/year to a $100m/year business for one of your own companies, and the other $999,900,000,000 will be returned to the world's iPhone owners as a consumer surplus.

But every time I pitched this, I got the same answer: "The US Trade Representative forced us to pass this law, and threatened us with tariffs if we didn't pass it." Happy Liberation Day, people – every country in the world is now liberated from the only reason to keep this stupid-ass law on their books:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/01/15/beauty-eh/#its-the-only-war-the-yankees-lost-except-for-vietnam-and-also-the-alamo-and-the-bay-of-ham

In light of the Trump tariffs, I've been making the global rounds again, making the case for an anticircumvention repeal:

https://www.ft.com/content/b882f3a7-f8c9-4247-9662-3494eb37c30b

One of the questions I've been getting repeatedly from policy wonks, activists and officials is, "Is it even possible to jailbreak modern devices?" They want to know if companies like Apple, Tesla, Google, Microsoft, and John Deere have created unbreakable digital locks. Obviously, this is an important question, because if these locks are impregnable, then getting rid of the law won't deliver the promised benefits.

It's true that there aren't as many jailbreaks as we used to see. When a big project like Nextcloud – which is staffed up with extremely accomplished and skilled engineers – gets screwed over by Google's app store, they issue a press-release, not a patch:

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/05/nextcloud-accuses-google-of-big-tech-gatekeeping-over-android-app-permissions/

Perhaps that's because the tech staff at Nextcloud are no match for Google, not even with the attacker's advantage on their side.

But I don't think so. Here's why: we do still get jailbreaks and mods, but these almost exclusively come from anonymous tinkerers and hobbyists:

https://consumerrights.wiki/Mazda_DMCA_takedown_of_Open_Source_Home_Assistant_App

Or from pissed off teenagers:

https://www.theverge.com/2022/9/29/23378541/the-og-app-instagram-clone-pulled-from-app-store

These hacks are incredibly ambitious! How ambitious? How about a class break for every version of iOS as well as an unpatchable hardware attack on 8 years' worth of Apple bootloaders?

https://pluralistic.net/2020/05/25/mafia-logic/#sosumi

Now, maybe it's the case at all the world's best hackers are posting free code under pseudonyms. Maybe all the code wizards working for venture backed tech companies that stand to make millions through clever reverse engineering are just not as mad skilled as teenagers who want an ad-free Insta and that's why they've never replicated the feat.

Or maybe it's because teenagers and anonymous hackers are just about the only people willing to risk a $500,000 fine and 5-year prison sentence. In other words, maybe the thing that protects DRM is law, not code. After all, when Polish security researchers revealed the existence of secret digital locks that the train manufacturer Newag used to rip off train operators for millions of euros, Newag dragged them into court:

https://fsfe.org/news/2025/news-20250407-01.en.html

Tech companies are the most self-mythologizing industry on the planet, beating out even the pharma sector in boasting about their prowess and good corporate citizenship. They swear that they've made a functional digital lock…but they sure act like the only thing those locks do is let them sue people who reveal their workings.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/05/14/pregnable/#checkm8

[newsdataapi]

If you're looking for an alternative to Google News API, the NewsData.io API is the way to go. It's got a ton of news source coverage, cool features, and a super easy-to-use interface. Plus, it's got flexible pricing plans, so you can get the most out of it. Whether you're building a news aggregation tool, a financial platform, or a social media monitoring tool - NewsData.io has got you covered.

[scrapingdog]

Scrape Google Maps Data Easily Using Python

Learn how to extract business details like name, address, and phone number from Google Maps using Python. This beginner-friendly guide shows you how to collect and save data into a CSV file.

[mayurashinde]

Web Scraping in Java: A Powerful Approach to Data Extraction

Web Scraping in Java enables developers to collect and process web data efficiently. With libraries like JSoup and Selenium, Java simplifies handling HTML parsing, automating browsers, and extracting real-time information. Java offers a scalable and reliable scraping solution for market research, SEO, or analytics.

[jcmarchi]

10 Best Free Social Media Plugins for WordPress – Speckyboy

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/10-best-free-social-media-plugins-for-wordpress-speckyboy/

10 Best Free Social Media Plugins for WordPress – Speckyboy

WordPress and social media are a powerful combination. And there are plenty of ways to integrate platforms like Facebook, Instagram, X, or TikTok into your website. You can display social content on your site, allow users to share your content, or add functionality like social logins.

The social platform landscape is also changing. The Fediverse makes it easier to integrate with services like Mastodon or Bluesky. It allows you to publish in multiple places via a unified protocol. The WordPress ecosystem has embraced this model.

Social media’s importance is evident in the number of available plugins. You’ll find options for top platforms that offer a variety of functions. There’s something available for every niche.

With that in mind, let’s look at some top social media plugins for WordPress!

ActivityPub turns your WordPress website into a federated profile. It publishes your content to multiple platforms that support the Fediverse (Mastodon, among others). Followers will then see your blog posts in their feeds. The neat aspect is that your profile name is consistent across federated platforms.

Users follow you on the service of their choice and enjoy your content. It’s a great way to nurture an online community.

This plugin solves a longstanding problem for those posting to multiple social networks. It combines your Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter/X profiles into an attractive grid layout embedded on your site. It creates better awareness of your profiles and ensures users won’t miss anything.

AddToAny is a longtime favorite that makes it easy for visitors to share your content. It works with every social platform you can imagine – there’s also an option to share via email. In addition, you can customize the design and location of the plugin’s sharing UI. This plugin is perfect for taking full control of social sharing.

Open Graph is a protocol for sharing rich content on social platforms like Facebook and Twitter/X. This plugin allows you to customize the Open Graph tags generated by your content.

Thus, content looks how you want when embedded into social media. The plugin works with all WordPress content and integrates with WooCommerce, Yoast SEO, and others.

Posting links to your content across multiple platforms is a pain. Blog2Social makes it easier by automating the process.

The free version works with Bluesky, Facebook, LinkedIn, Threads, and more. There’s also an add-on that works with Twitter/X and a premium version with advanced features. It turns a tedious task into a piece of cake.

WP Social is a suite of tools for adding social media to your WordPress website. First, you’ll find sharing buttons that work with a selection of social platforms. You can customize the layout and services displayed.

A social counter shows how many times your content was shared on a particular service. Lastly, a social login/registration function lets users create an account using one of nine compatible services (Facebook, GitHub, Google, etc.). It may be the only social plugin you need.

You can use Jetpack Social to automate content sharing and increase engagement. Share posts and WooCommerce products automatically and use the included scheduling tools to choose the perfect timing.

The plugin integrates with multiple services and adds helpful tools to the Block Editor. If you have a Jetpack Social plan, you’ll have access to the social image generator feature.

Here’s a plugin that helps spread the word about your WooCommerce products. It adds a custom set of social sharing icons to individual product pages.

Here are options for icon placement, shape, and order. There’s also a handy “copy to clipboard” option so users can grab your product’s URL. The pro version includes a “floating” icon bar, tooltips, and more.

Video creators will love Feeds for YouTube. It’s a tool for easily embedding a YouTube channel into your WordPress website. You can customize the look of your feed and even display multiple feeds.

The plugin will check for new videos hourly (or choose a custom interval), so your site will always show the latest content. The Pro version adds compatibility with live broadcasts via the YouTube Live API.

Use AdTribes to expand the reach of your WooCommerce store. The plugin creates product feeds that integrate with services like Facebook and Google. Filtering options let you choose which products and what product data is included in your feed. Now, customers can view your products right from their social feeds.

Seamlessly Add Social Media to WordPress

Integrating social media into your website has real benefits. For example, embedding a feed adds dynamic content and builds awareness. Even better is that feeds are relatively simple to set up. From there, it’s smooth sailing.

The other big benefit is the opportunity to add functionality. Social logins make it easier for users to register for your site. And product feeds entice users to visit your online shop.

The idea is to reach people where they are. The options above (and the untold number of other social plugins) help you do so. The possibilities are almost limitless.

Social Media WordPress Plugin FAQs

What Are Social Media Plugins for WordPress?

They’re plugins that allow you to connect your WordPress site with various social media platforms. They offer sharing buttons, auto-posting to social media, and allowing you to display your social feeds on your site.

Who Should Use Social Media Plugins?

They’re perfect for website owners who want to improve their social media presence, like bloggers, businesses, and online retailers, or anyone looking to increase their site’s engagement through social media.

Can Social Media Plugins Help in Growing My Site’s Audience?

Yes, by making sharing effortless and displaying your social activity, these plugins can attract more visitors and encourage them to interact with your content.

More Essential Free WordPress Plugins

Related Topics

[feminist-space]

"Artists have finally had enough with Meta’s predatory AI policies, but Meta’s loss is Cara’s gain. An artist-run, anti-AI social platform, Cara has grown from 40,000 to 650,000 users within the last week, catapulting it to the top of the App Store charts.

Instagram is a necessity for many artists, who use the platform to promote their work and solicit paying clients. But Meta is using public posts to train its generative AI systems, and only European users can opt out, since they’re protected by GDPR laws. Generative AI has become so front-and-center on Meta’s apps that artists reached their breaking point.

“When you put [AI] so much in their face, and then give them the option to opt out, but then increase the friction to opt out… I think that increases their anger level — like, okay now I’ve really had enough,” Jingna Zhang, a renowned photographer and founder of Cara, told TechCrunch.

Cara, which has both a web and mobile app, is like a combination of Instagram and X, but built specifically for artists. On your profile, you can host a portfolio of work, but you can also post updates to your feed like any other microblogging site.

Zhang is perfectly positioned to helm an artist-centric social network, where they can post without the risk of becoming part of a training dataset for AI. Zhang has fought on behalf of artists, recently winning an appeal in a Luxembourg court over a painter who copied one of her photographs, which she shot for Harper’s Bazaar Vietnam.

“Using a different medium was irrelevant. My work being ‘available online’ was irrelevant. Consent was necessary,” Zhang wrote on X.

Zhang and three other artists are also suing Google for allegedly using their copyrighted work to train Imagen, an AI image generator. She’s also a plaintiff in a similar lawsuit against Stability AI, Midjourney, DeviantArt and Runway AI.

“Words can’t describe how dehumanizing it is to see my name used 20,000+ times in MidJourney,” she wrote in an Instagram post. “My life’s work and who I am—reduced to meaningless fodder for a commercial image slot machine.”

Artists are so resistant to AI because the training data behind many of these image generators includes their work without their consent. These models amass such a large swath of artwork by scraping the internet for images, without regard for whether or not those images are copyrighted. It’s a slap in the face for artists – not only are their jobs endangered by AI, but that same AI is often powered by their work.

“When it comes to art, unfortunately, we just come from a fundamentally different perspective and point of view, because on the tech side, you have this strong history of open source, and people are just thinking like, well, you put it out there, so it’s for people to use,” Zhang said. “For artists, it’s a part of our selves and our identity. I would not want my best friend to make a manipulation of my work without asking me. There’s a nuance to how we see things, but I don’t think people understand that the art we do is not a product.”

This commitment to protecting artists from copyright infringement extends to Cara, which partners with the University of Chicago’s Glaze project. By using Glaze, artists who manually apply Glaze to their work on Cara have an added layer of protection against being scraped for AI.

Other projects have also stepped up to defend artists. Spawning AI, an artist-led company, has created an API that allows artists to remove their work from popular datasets. But that opt-out only works if the companies that use those datasets honor artists’ requests. So far, HuggingFace and Stability have agreed to respect Spawning’s Do Not Train registry, but artists’ work cannot be retroactively removed from models that have already been trained.

“I think there is this clash between backgrounds and expectations on what we put on the internet,” Zhang said. “For artists, we want to share our work with the world. We put it online, and we don’t charge people to view this piece of work, but it doesn’t mean that we give up our copyright, or any ownership of our work.”"

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https://techcrunch.com/2024/06/06/a-social-app-for-creatives-cara-grew-from-40k-to-650k-users-in-a-week-because-artists-are-fed-up-with-metas-ai-policies/