Digital Peek-a-Boo: New Study Says 80% of Parents Track Their Kids’ Locations And The Majority Do It Without Them Knowing

Parenting is never easy and when we think about the modern tech world of today, things keep getting more advanced.

Keeping a check on who your child is talking to and what activities they’re engaged in online and offline is quintessential. Thanks to the constantly evolving tech landscape and kids getting more tech-savvy, it’s hard for parents to keep tabs on everything.

A new survey by All About Cookies shed light on how many parents spy on their kids. And the results are quite interesting. Therefore, we’ve broken down the key findings for you below so let’s take a look!

80% of all parents are sure to track their kids’ location and a whopping 54% do it very frequently. Meanwhile, 1 in 3 do it without letting kids know about what’s going on behind the scenes.

Similarly, the results showed that 54% of all parents were busy monitoring their child’s text messages and 76% had access to their devices’ passwords. The majority of parents also spoke about catching kids engaged in activities that were not appropriate and that’s all thanks to tracking.

Also, 76% of parents state how tracking kids both on the web and offline has forced them into making better decisions. But the question remains, how exactly are parents playing digital peek-a-boo?

The survey asked parents what and how exactly they monitor their children online. Based on the survey of 1000 adults, most of them resorted to texts and messaging platforms to get a better idea of what the child was doing and with whom. Next came social media profiles, while another leading factor was keeping tabs on screen time.

Financial accounts and browsing history were next while emails and gaming history were another way to monitor their children online. Hence, we can conclude that most parents do feel tracking is necessary. They similarly felt that telling kids that they were doing it was not at all necessary and could come back to bite them as kids are smart and therefore would be mindful.

The study also showed that another key way to track kids is knowing what passwords they keep. More than 50% spoke about knowing passwords to all social media apps while 68% admitted to knowing email passwords. 76% spoke about knowing how kids’ cell phones can be unlocked.

Take a look at the charts below for more insights:

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by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

OpenAI On The Verge Of Raising Prices For ChatGPT Subscriptions By This Year’s End

OpenAI is looking to make ChatGPT more costly to users in the next few years.

A new report published by the New York Times shed light on some internal documents and how reports spoke about the company having plans to raise the pricing of individual subscriptions for the popular AI chatbot.

Right now, it stands at $20 per month but by the end of this year, it could go up to $22. It might not sound a lot right now but this is just the start. Prices are expected to further increase in the next couple of years. By 2029, the tech giant expects to charge a whopping $44 every month for its ChatGPT Plus.

This is certainly an aggressive move and goes to show the great pressure it has from investors to better profit margins and minimize loss. The news comes even though the firm’s monthly revenue rose to $300 million last month as reported by the NYT.

Still, the AI giant does anticipate more losses that could go up to $5B in 2024. Meanwhile, expenses such as office rent and staffing as well as AI training are said to be the main culprits.

There was a point in time when the firm’s AI tool cost it close to $700k a day. This means OpenAI might face a major blow if prices rise too fast. While the chatbot already has nearly 10M paying users each day, the survey from users hinted at how people feel the price is already too high. Therefore, the thought of a further increase might really rub a lot of users the wrong way. What do you think?

Read next: Study Highlights Role of Social Media and Governments in Worsening Online Information Landscape
by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

Study Highlights Role of Social Media and Governments in Worsening Online Information Landscape

According to a study by the International Panel on the International Environment (IPIE), much of the information on the internet is because of social media owners, politicians and the government. The study talked about how many of the social media concerns are because of their owners as well as domestic government and politicians.

The co-founder of IPEI, Philip Howard, says that social media owners have a lot of influence on social networking platforms as they control content distribution and apply policies. This affects the quality of information on social networks. If they spread information unchecked, it can pose a great threat to the global information environment. The findings of this study were by academic researchers in the fields of computer science, social sciences and humanities.

The research didn't specify any social media platform owners but a co-author of the report stated that Elon Musk, the head of X, promotes his own posts on X. Recently, Frances Haugen, mentioned that Mark Zuckerberg, the owner of Meta, doesn't moderate non-English content as much as English content. TikTok can also be under pressure from the Chinese government as it is from a China based company, ByteDance. TikTok’s CEO says that the platform isn't an agent of some country and Meta says it reviews content in more than 70 languages. X hasn't said anything about itself.

The one-third of respondents who were surveyed said that they are expecting the information environment to become worse in the upcoming years. Politicians are also spreading theories and misinformation for their political gain. AI generated texts, voices, images and videos are also showing a negative effect for information spread. The researchers suggest that promoting a free and independent media and implementing digital literacy campaigns can help counter this problem.

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by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

New Law Will Give Users One-Click Unsubscribe Option With Consent Before Automatic Subscription Renewals

A new law is giving users an option that they’ve been asking for years regarding subscription renewals.

It’s not an uncommon complaint to see users struggling to unsubscribe from any online service or software. This is why California’s state governor is going one step ahead to provide citizens with the chance to unsubscribe through a mere one-click cancellation step.

The law will come into play starting in July of next year. This will force companies to provide users with the simplest means to opt out of these subscriptions. Similarly, if users did sign up for any programs online, they can cancel this without calling toll-free numbers.

This unsubscribe or cancel option cannot be difficult to spot online under the latest law. It will be easy to identify and will come in the form of a direct link inside the customer’s profile location. Moreover, it will make use of terms like click or cancel.

In cases when a client wishes to cancel subscriptions on the phone, companies will be given the chance to discuss the impact or advantages of doing that cancellation. But in cases when a client does intend to cancel, firms need to oblige and stop delaying the client’s ability to do so.

The law does force companies to get affirmative consent before taking part in automated renewals of subscriptions or conversion from free to paid towards the trial ends.

Customers have discussed their fury with these kinds of automated subscriptions and how hard it is to end them when they no longer need them. The man who sponsored this new California bill says it does not make sense why users should suffer so much. If they can get into a subscription with a click of a button then they should be allowed to exit the same way.

One tech company that continues to be criticized for canceling the subscription policies is Adobe. As mentioned by the FTC, it’s under investigation and great scrutiny over cancellation policies. These entail a huge cancellation fee and force customers to call companies over the telephone.

When this ‘Click to Cancel’ law comes into play, it’s going to make things interesting. Remember, the FTC did propose a similar concept last year around the country, and for that, it’s still waiting to get acceptance or approval on that front.

Image: DIW-Aigen

Read next: Google Maps Will Warn Users About Fake Reviews When They Search For A Business
by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

Google Maps Will Warn Users About Fake Reviews When They Search For A Business

Google Maps is on a mission to alert users whenever they come across fake reviews for any business.

The Tech giant issued a statement on this front including how it does realize how frustrating it can be to go to a venue and return disappointed. After all, many people do put so much blind trust in reviews.

Today, many users turn to Google Maps and check consumer reviews. Anyone highly praising a place is bound to be doing so to earn it more business. And if that means deceiving the masses, then so be it.

Hence, to put an end to this practice, the company is taking the step to highlight fake ones. Google is rolling out warnings for any business that might apply to this. After all, seeing a fake review is heartbreaking for obvious reasons.

Meanwhile, the Android maker is under fire as it is with the UK’s CMA who recently rolled out an investigation into how the company was handling fake reviews. There was a user of the X app who saw the change first on the X app which involved a UK-based firm.

For now, the tech giant is yet to comment on the subject in terms of where this feature would be available. But as per recent reports from media outlet Search Engine Roundtable, it’s updating the relevant support pages. This would be applied everywhere around the globe.

Google says it also will rollout possible limitations on businesses that violate the Fake Engagement law. One point worth mentioning is how business profiles will now feature warnings to alert customers to be aware that fake reviews about the company have been removed.

Other restrictions temporarily will entail not getting new ratings or having any kind of reviews. Similarly, they won’t be having any existing ones unpublished. If such actions do occur, business owners will get emails from Google and therefore will be allowed to appeal such decisions.

Remember, fake reviews might arise from a company that is only trying to get better ratings. But they do come at the cost of the customer who just wanted to have a nice time but ended up wasting money and effort on fake reviews.

On the other hand, Google says that any business reporting fake reviews may not get the same warning as others because they added more effort.

Image: Mike Blumenthal / X

Read next: Analysis Shows No Specific Type of Google Ads Bidding Strategy is Best and It All Depends on Your Performance
by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

Analysis Shows No Specific Type of Google Ads Bidding Strategy is Best and It All Depends on Your Performance

A new Analysis by Optmyzr shows that there is no perfect way for Google bidding and most of its strategies rely on accurate conversion data, thoughtful execution and continuous testing. If someone wants to maximize their advertising performance on Google, it is important that they choose the right bidding strategies. But there are too many choices available that make the bidders confused and make it hard for them to choose one.

In the study, there were some questions analyzed. The first question was what type of bidding among smart, auto or manual was the best. It was found that there was no strategy that was better than the other. A success bidding strategy depends on its execution. Another question was if bidding strategies help improve campaign strategies. It all comes down to the conversion rates on your account.

If your account has reached 50 conversions in 30 days, your bidding can be effective no matter what the type you have chosen. Accounts that have more conversions perform better even if they use manual bidding. It is also important that you do budget adjustment as budget adjustments in Smart bidding require 2-3 weeks for the performance to stabilize.

It was also found that advertisers who use manual CPC have weaker CPA, conversion rates and CTR. If advertisers choose bidding strategy targets, it can hurt their performance and bids. All of these analyses were done after reviewing Google ads bidding strategies of 14,584 accounts that spent $2500 to $5 million per month.

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by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

PayPal Allows US Merchants To Purchase, Hold, And Sell Crypto Through Business Accounts

Financial giant PayPal says it’s giving US merchants the chance to purchase, hold, and even go on selling crypto directly through the platform’s business accounts.

The firm also sheds light on how it allows business account holders to send and receive any related tokens from the crypto world to blockchain accounts. The news was announced through a post published via a press release on Wednesday.

The capabilities of these business accounts are in line with the 2020 announcement regarding consumers buying and selling currency via Venmo and PayPal accounts. So many business owners have expressed a desire for similar crypto to be available to the masses.

For now, the company says it’s so excited and eager to meet demands by rolling out such an offering. This empowers many to engage with digital currencies effortlessly. In 2020, we saw the company jump into the crypto business by enabling clients to hold and sell crypto as it hoped to better share how digital currencies play.

The shift towards digital currencies is unavoidable as it brings about clear advantages of financial inclusion and more access. Similarly, it can improve the speed and resilience of such payment systems. Last but not least, it could enable governments to disburse those funds to customers at a quick pace.

The company hopes to create a strong relationship with both banks as well as regulators all over the globe. The goal is to support more digital currencies as this can play an important role in the future of finance and commerce.

Remember, PayPal first rolled out the popular dollar stablecoin dubbed PayPal USD in August. It mentioned how the coin enables clients to fund purchases through this means by selecting the option for checkouts. Similarly, it would convert any of these currencies to PayPal USD when required.

In May, the organization explained how PayPal USD is present on Solana Blockchain. This was said to be the most used currency for transfers that offer PayPal USD and make stablecoin quicker and lower in cost. This would enable it to become quicker and lower in cost, giving rise to greater control as well as flexibility.

Image: DIW-Aigen

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by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World