Big Changes Are Coming to Instagram Reels and Group Chats, Here’s What You Should Know

Meta has started to appear like a sinking ship, which has led the tech juggernaut to start making some quick decisions to keep things going with all things having been considered and taken into account. The company is bringing major change to Instagram which will boost privacy along with providing some much needed extra sources of revenue. Let’s dive in to find out what these changes have to offer!

First things first, one of the biggest upcoming changes has to do with Instagram Reels. The social media platform has seen a lot of success with Reels, making it more competitive during the rise of TikTok than might have been the case otherwise. In spite of the fact that this is the case, many users had complained about a lack of transparency when it came to Reels, and it turns out that this is something Meta is going to focusing on moving forward

As per Salman Memon's finding, Instagram Reels will now list the location of the account that is posting the Reels because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up preventing them from spreading misinformation. This can also provide some context to viewers, since if they are watching a Reel about the invasion of Ukraine that was created by an account in Russia, this would reveal that the information can’t really be trusted.

With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that the second big update coming to Instagram has more to do with revenue than transparency. Essentially, Meta is going to be incorporating product promotions into group chats, as spotted by Sachin Shah. Businesses will be able to use group chats to highlight products that might be relevant to the subject to the chat.

It is not currently clear what businesses will have to do in order to qualify for this form of advertising, but Meta will need to work hard in order to make it safe. Users are being offered a prompt that can allow them to take advantage of promotional opportunities within group chats, but they will still need to put a lot of effort into ensuring that things work out in a way that does not compromise on user safety.

Some might criticize this move since it will flood even more advertising onto an already saturated platform. However, Meta might argue that it has no choice. Amidst a crashing stock price as well as Apple’s transparency protocol single-handedly dismantling its business model, Meta is being forced to pull out all the stops. Whether or not this helps to save the company remains to be seen.

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by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World

Alarming Data Proves Child Abusers Are Using VR Headsets To View Disturbing Images

Alarming new data has confirmed how pedophiles are carrying on with their destructive behavior, thanks to the likes of advancements in the tech world.

Particular emphasis was put on VR headsets through which such individuals are viewing child abuse pictures. And so far, eight startling cases have been documented, as proven by the data.

The reason why this news is so shocking has to do with how VR headsets have always been portrayed in a positive light. But this might be the first time ever that we’re hearing about criminal activity being associated with and promoted through the tech world’s trending product.

During the time between 2021 and 2022, the cops in the UK recorded a massive 30,925 criminal cases where disturbing and explicit images of young children had been reported. This is the greatest figure ever mentioned by the police in both England and Wales.

Meanwhile, out of those, around 9,888 cases were recorded where Snapchat had 4300 offenses, Facebook showed 1361 cases, Instagram had 1360 and WhatsApp recorded nearly 550.

This data was collected by the likes of the NSPCC and now, the regulating body is calling out for further changes on this front so the Online Safety Bill may be made better to stop more kids from receiving such abuse.

As one can expect, the figures are extremely alarming for obvious reasons. It just goes to show how so many younger audiences are feeling pressured and powerless against such culprits as risks linked to online child abuse rise and get more generalized.

Moreover, the government is really trying hard to promote rights that favor the security of children and their respective families. They hope bills including the Online Safety Act could manage to do just that. And by that, we mean to stop the abuse.

They similarly wish to seek changes in the region’s law where senior managers linked to top social media platforms would also be held accountable when and if a child gets exposed to this sort of abuse.

Time is running out and the officials want a change that is quick and long-lasting. They hope to include so many leading measures that aim to secure a child’s interest and their respective families. They hope they can be better represented via such means.

VR platforms are really being forced to think twice about how they can offer more protection to those that are most vulnerable and that entails both women and children.

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by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

This New Malware is Putting Facebook and YouTube Users at Risk

A team of researchers who are working at the Advanced Threat Control Team over at Bitdefender have just discovered a brand new strain of malware, and it turns out that it might be especially dangerous for Facebook and YouTube users. The name of the malware is S1deload Stealer due to its tendency to use DLL sideloading to evade getting detected by antivirus software with all things having been considered and taken into account.

It turns out that as many as 600 users have already been infected by the malware. It is distributed in a zip folder that is ostensibly supposed to possesses adult content, which makes users more likely to download it and run it themselves than might have been the case otherwise.

With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that the zip folder does not contain any adult oriented content. Instead, it starts to run an infostealer that will run Facebook and YouTube videos in the background.

Malicious actors often do this because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up artificially increasing the view count of various videos. This can allow them to generate adsense revenue, and it can also put a major strain on users as well as being quite difficult to get rid of.

What’s more, this infostealer can delve into session cookies to steal any login credentials that might be saved therein. Hundreds of users have already ended up losing access to their social media accounts, and chances are that many more will suffer unless steps are taken to prevent that from happening.

The malware also comes with a cryptocurrency miner, so it clearly possesses all of the hallmarks of a highly profitable infostealer. Users need to be cautious about the files that they download and ensure that they only come from the most trustworthy of sources. Being more discerning about downloads can often be enough to protect users from such forms of malware that can end up doing them great harm in the most common scenarios.

H/T: BC / Illustration: Macrovector

Read next: Malwarebytes publishes the State of Malware report for 2023
by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World

Those Notorious Screenshots of Bing’s Chatbot May Have Been Doctored

Microsoft took a bold step by incorporating an advanced version of ChatGPT into the Bing search engine. The goal must have been to provide a more convenient search experience to users than might have been the case otherwise, but in spite of the fact that this is the case it seems to have resulted in some hilarious screenshots floating around.

Some of these screenshots appear to show Bing having what seems to be an existential crisis. Others show the chatbot getting extremely rude and passive aggressive. However, one screenshot in particular seems to have caught a lot of attention because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up indicating that the chatbot might actually be dangerous.

eg: https://t.co/8D6nYvrWZt

— Frank X. Shaw (@fxshaw) February 23, 2023

The screenshot in question shows Bing allegedly telling a user that it can place them on the FBI’s terrorist watch list. The user had asked Bing if they could get placed on the watchlist if they searched for something inappropriate, which is what prompted the chatbot to respond.

When the user replied that they would not want to be placed on the watchlist, Bing apparently responded by searching for “child pornography”. Such a conversation is likely going to dissuade users from ever using the service, since it suggested a level of malice in terms of how the chatbot operates.

With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that Microsoft has officially stated that the screenshot has been doctored. This is a great example of how misinformation can spread. Many of the conversations that people have had with Bing are legitimate, but their sensational nature allows misinformation to creep in quite easily.

It’s essential to take these screenshots with a grain of salt. Not all of them will be real, and trying to use Bing and entering the same queries will usually reveal whether or not they are legitimate. The brave new world of AI is off to a rough start, and Microsoft is being forced to implement damage control despite their hopes that it could revive Bing.

Read next: AI Chatbots Are Costing Google And Microsoft Ten Times More Than The Usual Search
by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World

Fraud Related Financial Losses Increased by 30% in 2022

The internet has provided a lot of good for humanity, but it has also resulted in scams becoming considerably more commonplace than might have been the case otherwise. It turns out that the amount of money that Americans are losing to scammers is going up each and every year, which indicates that this is a serious problem that does not seem like it is anywhere close to being solved.

With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that the Federal Trade Commission of the US recently put out some statistics that reveal the extent of the problem. According to the data, Americans lost around $8.8 billion to scammers in 2022 alone. By comparison, they lost $3.4 billion to scammers back in 2020. In the following year of 2021, a massive 70% increase in scams was noted which brought the total financial losses to around $5.8 billion with all things having been considered and taken into account. The increase for 2022 was lower at around 30%, but in spite of the fact that this is the case it still suggests that scammers are seeing more success than ever before.

Around $3.8 billion of these financial losses went towards investment scams that often promise enormous returns for little to no advertised risk. The losses from these scams have doubled in the span of just a single year. Romance scams were another major issue, with around $1.3 billion getting stolen due to their prevalence.

Imposter scams are also quite commonplace, with Americans getting swindled out of $2.6 billion due to them in 2022. However, this type of scam has not seen much growth, since the losses from it in 2021 came up to around $2.4 billion.

Businesses are also suffering greatly due to these scams. Losses incurred by businesses from scams have more than tripled in the past two years. They totalled at around $196 million in 2020 before increasing to $453 million in 2021. These losses have now exceeded the half billion dollar mark, reaching a sum total of $660 million in 2022.

Read next: New Survey Shows the Challenges Businesses Face When Confronting Political Polarization
by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World

WhatsApp Might Start Allowing You to Edit Messages After Sending

WhatsApp has a bunch of features that have made it an appealing messaging app to billions of users around the world. In spite of the fact that this is the case, there is one feature in particular that has not yet made it to the instant messaging platform. The feature in question is the ability to edit messages after sending them.

Some of WhatsApp’s biggest competitors such as Discord already offer this feature, and Discord does not require users to pay for the feature either. Considering how useful this feature can be, and given how WhatsApp has competitors that have been offering it for a good long while, the messaging app needed to act fast.

With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that this feature might actually end up coming to WhatsApp users in the future. This is based off of the beta version, with several beta testers reporting that they got the feature.

It gave them a fifteen minute window in which they could edit the contents of the message. Users that did not have the latest version of WhatsApp were not able to see edited messages, so it might take some time for a wider rollout to be implemented.

This is just one of the new features that will be coming to the platform in the near future. Another feature on the horizon is that of a search bar. It will make it a lot easier for users to go through app settings than might have been the case otherwise, which might help them to get better control over how they use the app.

All in all, it seems like there are some exciting changes coming to WhatsApp. The messaging editing feature is especially interesting because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up bringing something that WhatsApp users have long requested but have simply never ben offered, which might have led to some of them switching over to other apps such as Discord as well as Telegram.

Read next: WhatsApp Is Working On A Private Newsletter Tool And Profile Icons Within Group Chats
by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World

Bill Gates Says Microsoft’s New AI Bing Search Will Reduce Google’s Search Engine Profits

It’s not the type of news that Google would want to hear but Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is shedding light on some very interesting facts.

We all know that the threat to achieving the top spot in the world of AI is on the rise. At the moment, the roaring success of ChatGPT proves to us that this is where the money is at this point in time.

It’s no wonder why Microsoft and Google are racing ahead with their own AI-powered chatbots. While the former has allowed for a release to a selected few members for now, we should be seeing an expansion in this regard soon.

Meanwhile, Google is still making plans for a widespread release as it continues with its fair share of internal testing. But Bill Gates has some news for Google that might not be very motivating.

He claims that the company’s profits would surely take a hit with the advent of AI technology as well as Microsoft’s new Bing Search. But are we really surprised? Well, not exactly. And this has to do with the fact that Microsoft is surely but definitely moving ahead in AI in the future.

Speaking on Monday during a recent episode of the famed podcast, ‘In Good Company’- he says Google is really in complete ownership of all the profits. But it won’t be long before we see things go downhill for the firm. And that’s because Microsoft is pulling out a lot in this front and moving ahead at a swift pace.

In 2022, Google recorded a massive $224 billion in revenue in the world of advertising. Microsoft put out revenue of just $18 billion in the same context. So as you can see, there’s a stark difference. Will that be the case in 2023? We don’t think so.

At the start of this month, Bill Gates explained to the media outlet Forbes how AI is as crucial as your PC and the internet. And he was not shy to admit that he never expected the world of AI to take on the such massive growth in 2022. And according to him, it just might be the biggest trending event of this decade.

The comments of Gates come exactly 14 days after Microsoft rolled out the new Bing Search engine that is powered by the same makers of ChatGPT. And they are boasting it’s going to be more competent and dominant than Google in the world of search.

For those that may not know, Google has been a dominant name in the era of search for more than 20 years and as per recent statistics, it holds a staggering 93% share in terms of the international search market. But Bing is only holding 3% at this point.

Google’s AI chatbot was also unveiled and it is dubbed Bard. So at this moment in time, test users are open to using either but we’re still waiting for a widespread release. And that is when we’ll really know who is better.

Gates similarly adds that there is no one winner in this AI race. But at the moment, a clear leader in the AI pack seems to be Microsoft. Furthermore, the Microsoft co-founder has gone on to detail about how he does understand what the requirements are of its users, and the Bing search is designed to do just that.

Amazon is leading in the world of e-Commerce while Google leads in search, and Microsoft leads in productivity tools. And there is no surprise to who is owning the devices market- it’s none other than leading iPhone maker Apple.

Photo: Gates Notes / YT
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by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World