Instagram’s shoppable posts spread to eight more countries

Instagram is betting on shopping as its next big step, and that means making it available beyond US borders. Accordingly, the social photo service has started trotting out its shopping feature to eight more countries, including Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK. The experience remains the same: tap on a brand’s post and you’ll see tags you can follow to get more information about products and make purchases. How soon you’ll see it will depend on companies taking advantage of the feature.

Naturally, the company is touting the effectiveness of the service so far. Lulus could credit 1,200 orders and over 100,000 sessions — even if visitors didn’t fork over money, they at least showed interest in the goods. And that’s why you’re likely to see these shoppable posts become relatively commonplace, even if you never once fork over cash. Instagram was already an advertising vehicle, and it’s hard to imagine companies shying away now that you can do more than stare at photos of their offerings.

Via: TechCrunch

Source: Instagram Business

Orbitz data breach exposed 880,000 payment cards

Orbitz announced today that it has discovered evidence of a data breach. Between October and December of last year, hackers may have accessed consumer data submitted to a legacy website between January 1, 2016 and June 22, 2016. Additionally, Orbitz partner platform data submitted between January 1, 2016 and December 22, 2017 may also have been breached. The company discovered signs of the breach on March 1st and estimates that approximately 880,000 credit cards may have been impacted. While social security numbers, passport and travel itinerary information don’t appear to have been accessed, names, payment card information, dates of birth, phone numbers, email addresses, physical and billing addresses and gender may have been. However, Orbitz says that it doesn’t have direct evidence that any of this information was actually stolen.

“Ensuring the safety and security of the personal data of our customers and our partners’ customers is very important to us,” Orbitz said in a statement. “We deeply regret the incident, and we are committed to doing everything we can to maintain the trust of our customers and partners.” The company said that it is notifying those that might have been impacted by the breach and is offering a year of complimentary credit monitoring and identity protection services. It’s also offering to assist its affected partners in notifying their customers.

Orbitz, which is owned by Expedia, said that its current website was not affected by the breach. “We took immediate steps to investigate the incident and enhance security and monitoring of the affected platform,” Orbitz said. “As part of our investigation and remediation work, we brought in a leading third party forensic investigation firm and other cybersecurity experts, began working with law enforcement and took swift action to eliminate and prevent unauthorized access to the platform.”

Via: Gizmodo

Cambridge Analytica suspends CEO Alexander Nix during investigation

As the Cambridge Analytica scandal continues to develop, the company has now announced that its board has suspended CEO Alexander Nix. Cambridge Analytica says that the suspension is immediate and a full, independent investigation will be conducted. “In the view of the Board, Mr. Nix’s recent comments secretly recorded by Channel 4 and other allegations do not represent the values or operations of the firm and his suspension reflects the seriousness with which we view this violation,” the company said in a statement.

Alexander Tayler, the company’s chief data officer, will serve as acting CEO and Cambridge Analytica has asked British barrister Julian Malins to head the investigation. The company says it will share the findings of the investigation publicly.

The UK’s Channel 4 aired clips earlier this week of an undercover investigation that it conducted. In its report, company representatives, including Nix, were shown discussing how Cambridge Analytica’s work has been used in more than 200 elections worldwide and how sex workers can be used to entrap political opponents. After the report aired, Nix said in a statement, “In playing along with this line of conversation, and partly to spare our ‘client’ from embarrassment, we entertained a series of ludicrous hypothetical scenarios. I am aware how this looks, but it is simply not the case. I must emphatically state that Cambridge Analytica does not condone or engage in entrapment, bribes or so-called ‘honeytraps’, and nor does it use untrue material for any purpose.”

Facebook has been asked by the US Congress and the UK Parliament to answer for its role in the situation. It’s also being investigated by the FTC.

Cambridge Analytica said today, “The Board will be monitoring the situation closely, working closely with Dr. Tayler, to ensure that Cambridge Analytica, in all of its operations, represents the firm’s values and delivers the highest-quality service to its clients.”

Source: Cambridge Analytica

YouTube makes it easier to livestream directly from your browser

YouTube has a new way to lure you away from broadcasting on services like Twitch: make it as easy as possible. The service has launched a feature that lets you livestream directly from your web browser with virtually no effort. You’ll need to use Chrome for now (other browsers are coming), but you won’t need anything else beyond your webcam and the few seconds it takes to snap a thumbnail photo. And if you’d prefer to go live on your phone, it’ll be easier there in the future.

The company is teasing an option to livestream on YouTube directly from the camera apps on certain phones from ASUS, LG, Motorola, Nokia and Samsung. It should be available in the “coming months,” and more manufacturers are on the way. If all goes according to plan, YouTube may the de facto streaming option for many people simply due to ubiquity. Why start a live show on Twitch when you can reach YouTube in a matter of seconds?

Source: YouTube Creator Blog

BlackBerry wants you to shill in return for prizes

Let’s say you’re in charge of marketing BlackBerry phones. You don’t have nearly as much cachet as you did in BlackBerry’s heyday, and all the social media buzz tends to surround the latest Galaxy or iPhone. What do you do? If you’re TCL, it’s simple: turn the fans into marketers. It’s launching a BlackBerry Smartphone Fan League that rewards the faithful for sharing social network posts, creating original posts about their phones, filling out surveys and recruiting more into their fold. Participants earn points they can use to enter weekly and monthly contests, and they’ll also have access to closed beta tests for new features.

The league is currently available in BlackBerry’s home turf of Canada as well as the US and UK.

It’s hard to shake the slight whiff of desperation in this move: when TCL reportedly sold just 850,000 BlackBerry phones last year, it needs whatever boost it can get. And it’s bound to feel a little crass when you clutter your friends’ feeds with advertising. At the same time, the company is both keenly aware of BlackBerry’s loyalty and is being transparent about its methods and goals. There have been far, far shadier marketing tactics in the past.

Source: BlackBerry Smartphone Fan League

First look at SyFy’s ‘Nightflyers’ is equal parts ‘Aliens’ and ‘Psycho’

If you’re getting a little antsy waiting for George R.R. Martin to finish the next book in his Game of Thrones series, you can always turn to another television project based on one of his older books. Instead of dragons, however, this one has spaceships. Nightflyers, based on Martin’s novella of the same name, is a 10-part, sci-fi-flavored horror series that’s set to launch on SyFy later this Fall.

As Martin himself says in the trailer above, “Nightflyers is a haunted house story on a starship. It’s Psycho in space.” It’s hard not to think Alien, either, when the voice-over says that the message is not a distress call but a warning. They do not want the Nightflyer brought back to Earth. On top of that, the crew itself is full of conflict and distrust, making for a pretty tense horror set piece. This is the second time Martin’s novella has been adapted; there was a 1987 movie with the same title.

Via: Variety

Source: SyFy

New York joins Massachusetts investigation of Facebook’s data use

All eyes are on Facebook as more and more information rolls out regarding Cambridge Analytica, its involvement in recent elections and forums and how it came to obtain 50 million Facebook users’ profile information. Now, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is joining those demanding more information from the social network giant. “Consumers have a right to know how their information is used — and companies like Facebook have a fundamental responsibility to protect their users’ personal information,” Schneiderman said in a statement. “Today, along with Massachusetts Attorney General Healey, we sent a demand letter to Facebook — the first step in our joint investigation to get to the bottom of what happened.”

Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey announced that her office was opening an investigation last weekend and she and Schneiderman aren’t the only ones looking for answers. Congressional leaders have also demanded more information from Facebook as has the UK Parliament. The FTC is also reportedly conducting its own investigation. Facebook plans to brief Congress on its role in the scandal as early as this week.

“New Yorkers deserve answers, and if any company or individual violated the law, we will hold them accountable,” Schneiderman said today.

Source: Eric Schneiderman

Samsung’s commercial-grade Galaxy Tab Active 2 is available in the US

Samsung’s Galaxy Tab Active2 is available starting today for $420 if you go the WiFi route; there’s also an LTE option available on AT&T and Verizon. Whether you’re on the shop floor or working outdoors, the slate’s unique build should be up to the task at hand. Samsung made the S Pen a bit more rugged, and now it’s IP68 certified for dust and water resistance, for example, and the Tab has a replaceable battery. The gizmo is also MIL-STD-810-certified, meaning it’s been blessed by the military for being able to withstand drops, “excessive pressure,” temperatures and vibrations.

Samsung also tweaked the display so the touchscreen will still function if you’re wearing gloves, and face-scanning tech ensures that you won’t have to expose your digits to the elements to unlock the device. Oh, and it packs a 5MP camera up front, with an 8MP shooter on the back.

No, this won’t excite anyone looking for an iPad replacement, but for folks working in industrial and commercial environments, the upgrade should be worthwhile — the last Tab Active was released in 2014.

Source: Samsung (1), (2)

Cambridge Analytica CEO: ‘we ran all the digital campaign’ for Trump

At the same time Cambridge Analytica announced it’s suspending CEO Alexander Nix, Channel 4 News released a second report on the company based on undercover videos. In this report, it shows executives claiming that their work was responsible for Trump’s “narrow victory” by 40,000 votes in three states. Nix said in the video that “We did all the research, all the data, all the analytics, all the targeting, we ran all the digital campaign, the television campaign and our data informed all the strategy.”

In a quote that may be more relevant due to the ongoing investigations, he also said the company uses “self-destructing email” to avoid leaving any trace of its communications. In his words, the candidate (Trump) is “always” the puppet, told by his campaign team what to do and say, while politicians who asked questions after the fact weren’t technical enough to understand what happened.

CA execs took specific responsibility for propaganda targeting Hillary Clinton, and Buzzfeed has shown some of the ads. While CA’s chief data scientist (and now acting CEO after Nix’s suspension) Alexander Tayler discussed using PACs as untraceable sources of negative campaign messaging, the Make America Number One PAC behind these ads worked in exactly the manner described, uploading specific videos to Facebook for targeted advertising, while also posting them widely as YouTube links.

In response, Cambridge Analytica maintained that the use of encrypted communications is “common practice,” and said that it has “been completely transparent about our simultaneous work on both political campaigns and political action committees (including publicly declaring our work on both with FEC filings).”

Source: Channel 4, Buzzfeed

Uber faces lawsuit for denying rides to woman with service animal

Uber is facing still more legal trouble over its accessibility issues. Texas resident D’Edra Steele has sued the ridesharing company for allegedly denying her 25 rides due to the service dog she needs for her cerebral palsy. Reportedly, drivers would either give excuses (such as a lack of blankets or dog allergies) or would even speed off the moment they saw Steele’s companion animal. Steele also had to deal with “disparaging” remarks some of the times she did get rides.

Steele also alleges that Uber didn’t do enough to address her concerns. It would acknowledge formal complaints, educate drivers and give her $5 credits, but didn’t follow up as promised — it even claimed to have spoken with Steele on the phone when the call never happened. The repeated rejection was enough to prompt mental health treatment and a visit to the hospital.

We’ve asked Uber for comment on the lawsuit. This is more a question of the company’s ability to enforce its policies than anything, however. The firm has a clear service animal policy warning drivers that they’re legally obligated to accept passengers with service animals, regardless of their rationale (including allergies). Uber is supposed to remove drivers from the service if they refuse trips from more than one passenger with a service animal, but that doesn’t help if a customer runs into numerous drivers all exhibiting the same discriminatory behavior.

Uber definitely isn’t the only company facing complaints about accessibility — Lyft has faced lawsuits as well. As such, this incident is as emblematic of problems with ridesharing at large as it is any issues with Uber itself. While the companies routinely accessibility, their drivers and vehicles are only sometimes prepared for the responsibility.

Source: Gizmodo