How Smart Home Apps Are Compromising User Privacy with Excessive Data Collection

In a world dominated by technology, the idea of privacy has quietly slipped away. Surfshark's Research Hub talks about "Smart Home Privacy," which reveals how many home security apps disregard user privacy and often collect too much personal data without consent. The study shows that a security camera app can be one of the biggest collectors of user data.

Surfshark reveals that an outdoor security camera apps can gather your phone numbers, email addresses, location and payment information. Many other smart home apps can also do the same thing. But an outdoor security camera app can collect your information 50% more than any other smart home apps. The outdoor security camera apps which were analyzed took 7 out of 12 data points to the users’ identity.

The indoor security camera apps can also collect your data but less than outdoor security camera apps. On average, they collect 9 data points, out of which 6 are linked to the user's identity. These data points include email addresses, user IDs, purchase histories, audio data and phone numbers. These indoor and outdoor security camera apps also gather names, physical addresses and other contact information of users which can be used to contact users outside the app.

There are some outdoor apps which gather the most user information like LOREX and Deep Sentinel. These two apps collect 18 out of 32 data points which link to the user's identity. The indoor security app, Nest Lab, gathers 17 data points linked to users, followed by Ring and Arlo Apps. Both of these apps collect 15 data points. If no regulations and standards are implemented on these data apps, they can pose a lot of risks and threats to users including cyber attacks, data breaches and physical harm. After collecting the data, these apps give that data to data brokers or third party companies which can bring a lot of harm to users.

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by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

The Fate Of Twitter’s Investors: Wealth Destruction Worth Billions Thanks To Elon Musk

Purchasing a tech platform like Twitter was a lot of work for Elon Musk. In case you did not know, he didn’t do it singlehandedly.

Mush purchased the app and renamed it X. While he did use a huge amount of his wealth to cover the massive $44B costs in 2022, a list of investors and bank loans went a long way to achieve the financial objectives.

During that era, many were in awe of Musk who managed to attract dozens of leading investors worldwide. Musk was given two thumbs up regarding his leadership skills and many praised him for his confidence in taking on this decision. However, it appears that they might have spoken too soon.

Some might be still happy with the investment while others feel the deal was a huge mistake to begin with. Investors are not happy with the way things have turned out for Twitter, now X. The company’s valuation is nowhere near what it used to be, and clearly, things went downhill quickly.

The end result is investors losing out on billions. Thanks to a new analysis by The Washington Post, the eight top investments reported by the US are today worth a staggering $5B less than what they were at the time.

It would not be wrong to mention that Musk’s intervention to make Twitter better with his ideology of X failed. Many experts now agree that Twitter should have never been in the hands of Elon Musk, to begin with.

The company’s main means of generating revenue was advertising. After seeing Musk’s controversial decision-making skills and opinionated beliefs, most advertisers fled. Hence, the goal for Musk and executives right now is to make monetization a top priority.

It’s hard to get a clear financial picture of where the company stands today as it’s a private firm. But there are a few things that are now crystal clear: the current stance of some of the biggest investors and how much they differ from that seen in the past.

Let’s begin with the tech billionaire himself, Elon Musk. He began with $33.5B which came from his own personal wealth combined with Tesla’s shares. Today, it’s worth $9.38B so it’s a drop of $24.1B.

Next, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal from the Kingdom Holding Co. invested $1.8B, and today the valuation is $529M. The losses incurred are close to $1.36B. Out of all the investors, he’s the most optimistic as he continues to see X prosper in the future.

Jack Dorsey who was Twitter’s co-founder and the ex-CEO invested $1B and today that’s worth just $280M. The losses incurred are close to $720M. In case you’re still wondering, he regrets Musk's decision to purchase Twitter.

Larry Ellison who is Oracle’s co-founder and chairman of the board invested $1B which is today worth $280M. Losses incurred are roughly $720M, again not a great decision. Meanwhile, Sequoia Capital’s investment was $800M and that stands at $224M today. The losses incurred are $576M.

Moving on to Vy Capital, investments included $700 which are today worth just $196M. Losses incurred are $504 million. While Binance was excited to invest $500M and bring Elon Musk’s vision to life, they stand at just $140M with losses hitting $360M.

Andreessen Horowitz invested $400M in the company but incurred $288M worth of losses as their valuation stands at $112M today. Last but not least, the Qatar Investment Authority invested $375M whose value has declined by $270M to reach just $105M. While the company’s head showed support for Musk in 2023, we’re not quite sure if he will be too happy with the current stance of the firm.

With the majority, if not all investors underwater, this is not the picture that Musk would have liked to show the world. The reality is Elon Musk’s uptake of Twitter has caused a huge amount of wealth destruction.

Image: DIW-Aigen

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• Gamelight Over-Delivers D30 ROAS by 246% for Sunshine Island by Stillfront Group

by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

Gamelight Over-Delivers D30 ROAS by 246% for Sunshine Island by Stillfront Group

In a recent campaign, game development company Stillfront Group partnered with user acquisition company Gamelight to scale the user base for their farming simulator mobile title, Sunshine Island.

The campaign ran on iOS and Android in the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, and South Korea. Impressive results were achieved with Gamelight's AI-powered recommendation platform, which aims to find the perfect player for each title and user base.

The Campaign Success Factors

The key factors that made these results possible were primarily centered around Gamelight’s platform's sophisticated AI targeting for optimization, which utilized advanced algorithms to accurately target the potential players most likely to engage with Sunshine Island.

Additionally, the campaign incorporated 18 varied in-game events, strategically designed to maintain player interest and diversify their interactions within the game. A long-term event postback window provided deeper insights by allowing for extended analysis of user behavior, which enhanced targeting and optimization strategies. Furthermore, real-time data and feedback loops facilitated ongoing adjustments to the campaign, ensuring its responsiveness and sustained success in engaging players effectively.

Achieved Results

The campaign for Sunshine Island not only met but substantially surpassed Stillfront's objectives, thanks to the AI-driven platform utilized by Gamelight. The D30 ROAS goals were exceeded across multiple markets including the UK, Germany, South Korea, and Japan, with an overall performance boost of over 200%.

Specifically, the ROAS over-delivery reached 246% on Android and 223% on iOS. This achievement highlights the effectiveness of Gamelight’s user acquisition platform, which, by leveraging its advanced AI algorithms, was able to pinpoint and engage the target audiences effectively, thereby exceeding the set targets by significant margins.

The campaign experienced extraordinary success in Japan and South Korea, significantly over-delivering the D30 ROAS goals by 284%.

The high engagement levels in these regions indicate that players in Japan and South Korea particularly value and respond positively to personalized mobile content, highlighting the strategic importance of customized marketing approaches in these markets.

User acquisition manager Ana López from Stillfront Group who worked on the campaign, commented about the collaboration: “Gamelight's excellent track record in delivering high-performing traffic has enabled us to quickly and profitably scale our campaigns, ultimately exceeding our game goals. Excited to keep working together for more success!”

About Stillfront Group

Stillfront Group is a global games company established in 2010 in Sweden. They develop digital games that cater to a diverse audience, with their extensive portfolio reaching nearly 70 million users monthly. Their title, Sunshine Island, is a vibrant island-building tycoon game where players start from scratch to create an island, raise animals, explore new archipelagos, compete with other players, and build a thriving community.

In Conclusion

Gamelight's campaign for Stillfront’s Sunshine Island not only reached but significantly exceeded its objectives, achieving an impressive 246% ROAS over- delivery on Android and 223% on iOS. These results demonstrate the success of Gamelight's AI-driven strategy in effectively engaging target markets and optimizing user acquisition. The outstanding results in Japan and South Korea, with a 284% over-delivery on D30 ROAS goals, underscore the platform's ability to tailor content that resonates with specific audiences, setting the stage for future collaborative successes and sustained growth in global markets.

by Web Desk via Digital Information World

Google’s AI Overviews Are Deeply Impacting Publisher Visibility On Search, New Study Shows

A new study is shedding light on Google’s AI Overviews and how they are negatively impacting the visibility of publishers inside search results.

Image: DIW-Aigen

For those who might not be aware, Google delivers AI-generated summaries at the top of search results for all of its users across the US and UK. While this technology was first cut back in May of this year, thanks to the widespread inaccuracies, it’s back.

Google says it has worked long and hard to fix the errors that many had noticed in the past. Now, it appears like it’s back to where we began as a study carried out on queries in the US and UK showed how Overviews continued to trend, affecting up to 17% of all search results in these regions.

The authors also highlighted how AI-generated summaries are rarely ever delivered by Google when the topic of discussion is current affairs. However, they do negatively impact publisher visibility when seen in search for content that’s not time-sensitive.

In the past, we saw a leading website under the ownership of Martha Steward take the lead position for search results linked to killing wasps. Now, AI versions have replaced that easily and take the lead in the search along with sponsored links. The old trending article from Martha Stewart is found towards the bottom third of the page.

Plenty of other examples can be found where old trending stories are now nowhere to be seen and therefore cannot compete with the rankings of new AI-generated stories which makes authors upset. If that was not enough, link symbols on AI Overviews ensure readers stay on Google’s website and stop them from hovering over the source directly. They just open a source window that needs another click to open.

Google’s AI Overviews will soon turn into the norm for search results, as explained by one research expert. It was first a test that was limited to content type and region. Now, it’s getting famous around the globe. And will soon include all topics where AIO results are displayed.

Google will also not provide any useful data on its Search Console about clicks and publisher traffic. Most of the world will need to come up with better tools to estimate their content’s impact through data from API and SERPs.

All in all, the future for publishers does not appear too great thanks to Google’s latest venture. Experts predict it will have a negative impact unless a publisher already has a leading position across AIO.

Today, the Android maker has the single biggest traffic source for nearly all news publishers. Such findings suggest even if the past organic ranking had a good foundation, AI Overviews might force you to do better to fight with competition.

As per Google, its AI Overviews generate a greater number of clicks than that seen with search results in the past. However, they’re yet to provide evidence on this front.

H/T: Pressgazette

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by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

Google Trends Researching Made Easy: Unlock Expert-Level Insights with These Simple Tips

Google is shedding light on its popular Google Trends tool and how it entail some powerful features that most of us didn’t know existed! The search giant published a video tutorial (featured at the end) for making use of Trends for research and sharing keywords as well as subject-specific data.

The tutorial shows ways to find hidden filters and search tools through its interface. Similarly, how users can highlight actionable data is also in discussion. As per Google, there are six ways to explore and share through Trends. This includes punctuation, language, YoY trends, Comparison, Seasonality Discovery, Regional Interest, and ways for sharing and exploring. We’re describing each of them for your ease below.

For starters, punctuation goes a long way. Three ways to advance search is through the use of quotation marks ("test words"), plus + operator, and minus - operator. If you carry out a search without punctuation like adding keywords, you’ll see a big difference in search volumes. When there are two keywords, it’s always great to try a plus (+) sign to research more about the same theme.

Next, Google talks about specific languages and how you can limit your search for them. If you’d like to combine two, simply use the plus sign for a great combination.

Thirdly, filters on Google Trends are a great way to compare keywords to ensure more meaningful results. To have meaningful comparisons, make use of filter capabilities inside the search, such as time frame and location.

Next comes seasonality discovery, where users can enter the desired word in the explore search tab and then alter the timeframe as per their liking. This gives rise to the most interesting charts that display whether or not the term is seasonal. People look more for vacations during the holiday season than when it’s back to school time in the fall. But you can remove them if you want.

Special filters analyze various trends YoY and it assists in analyzing seasonal effects. This makes sure users compare similar things at the same time. You can alter filters by altering the date to the past 12 months, adding the same term to compare boxes, and then hovering over that card. To change filters, click on the 3 dot menu and apply "change filters".

These kinds of comparisons can be done for up to five searches. This ensures no noises for seasonality get implemented.

Google Trends wants users to know that they can compare interests by nation or region. This allows search query comparisons from one country to the next or between two of them at the same time. For this, simply go to the menu and select the filters. It really does make a difference in terms of analysis.

Last but not least, you can share and save trend results with ease. You can make use of URLs, Embedded, and even Export to spreadsheets. URL is simply copying URL links from browsers and sharing them.

Embedding produces embeddable charts with data that is added to web pages. The benefit is that this can be updated routinely. Simply generate the embeddable card to websites from any search found on the page.

Also, exporting data is a simple task now. Simply click on the export data and it gives rise to Google Trends information in CSV formats. How quick and convenient is that?

If you ask us, Google Trends is one of the best tools for keywords search data and carrying out research on certain topics. Above all, it’s free of cost. Making use of these methods will assist you in getting the data you need at that time.



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by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

New Study Shows Students Who Use AI Are Less Productive and Have Low Chances to Succeed in the Future

According to a recent repot, most of the youth use generative AI like ChatGPT because they lack cognitive skills and have less chances to succeed in life. Many AI tools like ChatGPT and Gemini have become crucial parts of people’s lives, especially students, and they are being used for enhancing learning. But generative AI also encourages cheating in students. That’s why the researchers of a new study wanted to know how generative AI correlates with the performance of students.

Executive functioning (EF) or cognitive processes are important for learning as they have focus, research and memorize the stuff. These processes are important in educational settings as they play a role in completing complex tasks like writing papers. People with lower EF levels often struggle to complete their tasks. On the other hand, higher EF levels promise success in school and professional life.

The report says that when adolescents use AI tools, their EF levels get challenged. Students who already have lower EF levels often use generative AI to write their assignments. This means that AI tools provide support for students who are suffering from low EF and cannot do well in schools. Even though AI tools are said to boost productivity, it can be more harmful for people who are not even productive at all.

To find out more about it, the researchers conducted a study among two groups: Group one had 385 adolescents between the ages of 12 to 16 and group two had 359 students between the ages of 15 to 19. The results of the study showed that 15% of the adolescents and 53% of the older teens use AI tools for work. As older students have more complex assignments, there is more AI use among them.

The use of AI tools is getting more common in educational institutions with a German study showing that two thirds of the university students use AI tools for different purposes. 75% of the adolescents in Sweden use AI tools to structure their presentations, write analysis and for other studying purposes. But there should be a line drawn between what is cheating and what is just taking help from AI for studying. Many students copy entire assignments from AI tools which is considered cheating. If students are just using AI tools for getting ideas or for outlines, then it should be considered okay. Students and educators should also check for AI generated work as many academic papers have AI writing.

Image: DIW-Aigen

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by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

Major Blow To X As Brazil’s Supreme Court Orders Immediate And Complete Suspension Of The App

Elon Musk is not going to be happy as Brazil’s Supreme Court has issued an order for an immediate and complete suspension of the X platform. Furthermore, both Google and Apple were directed to remove the app from their stores on an urgent basis.

Musk had already anticipated this yesterday when he published through his X account that the country was freezing Starlink’s accounts. This was a clear signal that the X app would be suspended soon and today the news has been confirmed.

The decision was taken by the top judge in the Brazilian Supreme Court after a legal battle with the platform. Musk was ordered to block several accounts known for spreading misinformation but X failed to do so, calling it a violation of free speech.

This did not sit well with Judge Alexandre de Moraes who was sick and tired of the constant feuds with the tech billionaire. The judge further imposed a daily fine of nearly $9000 for anyone using other means such as VPNs to evade this ban.

Elon Musk reacted to the news by rolling out some more controversial opinions including baseless conspiracies about the country’s voting machines. He also accused the government of bankrupting those who tried to promote truth.

Friday is when we first saw the country freezing Starlink’s accounts which meant no domestic transactions could be done. This is Musk’s satellite broadband service which links more than a quarter of a million users in the country.

It’s a big blow to X because Brazil is the second most populated nation in South America so that’s losing out on a lot of revenue and users. Clearly, Musk is not going to be happy.

Before Musk could announce shutting down operations in Brazil, it looks like the court acted swiftly to ensure things went down just like they had planned to do so. They felt the operations were undermining their democracy and they had proof of many accounts spreading false information.

We saw an incident taking place in January last year that was an insurrection similar to that seen on Capitol Hill on January 6. A lot of controversial elements and stories were published online that Brazil felt could further worsen matters in the country.

This ban is not the first time that we’ve seen lawmakers and authorities make similar threats in the past, calling out apps for noncompliance. In 2022, the same judge ordered a complete shutdown of Telegram in the nation. The reason was the same, it failed to combat misinformation.

In this case, Elon Musk has taken the threats and ban more seriously and on a more personal level. He criticized the judge in a hostile manner and has been feuding with him on several occasions now. Musk anticipated the ban but vowed to be more transparent about the matter with the world while vowing to take legal action.

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by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World