Twitter and Facebook Introduce "Ads Transparency" Tools

In this day and age, it's difficult to get around without utilizing online resources, but in many cases, using those resources require the user to give up quite a bit of their personal information, from names and birthdates to shopping preferences. Because of this, private companies have access to a lot of their customers' personal information.  Yet, although that personal data is being sold to companies to enable their "targeted advertisements" to work better, the customers being targeted rarely receive any information in return about the organizations trying to target them, especially when those organizations are political in nature. Fortunately, according to a recent Bloomberg article, both Twitter and Facebook are in the process of revamping their advertisement policies to make it apparent to all users where the ads are coming from, who paid for them, and how much they paid.

While understanding the identities and motivations of the companies and organizations trying to target you through social media can be nice, that kind of data isn't nearly on the same level as the browsing history and other product-preference data the companies have on you. But, since many of their customers have recently opted to discontinue use of several social media sites after various data scandals, the social media platforms had to make some sort of gesture to try to regain their customers' trust. Twitter was also recently under fire by US lawmakers for not having a system in place to identify and deal with fake accounts that are used for spam or scams, especially in the political arena, as that's the category on which lawmakers tend to focus.

The new Twitter tool, called the Ads Transparency Center tool, lets users search for any Twitter account and see all advertisements run by the account over the past week. For politically-related advertisers, even more data will be released: demographic-targeting data, the amount spent, billing information, etc. All of that data should help lawmakers and analysts determine if certain accounts are being designed specifically to produce misleading or false advertisements for the purpose of impacting US political races.

It's an interesting change in policies. Until now, there was very little oversight regarding advertisements on social media. But, it does make sense that there should be just as much regulation for a Facebook political message as for one that is played over the radio or on the television. Some lawmakers are even putting forward bills to require that social media advertisements meet the same honesty requirements as any other ads. Overall, these changes seem to have little to do with making the individual customers happy, and more to do with obliging with the wishes of lawmakers, but sometimes the two categories overlap.

***************************************************************************************************
Find out more about us at www.sepulvedaescrow.net. Any Questions? Contact our Escrow Expert! Sepulveda Escrow Corporation (818) 838-1831. Follow our company on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+.

**************************************************************************************************

Deter Hackers by Improving Online Security on Social Media Accounts

As time goes on and technology continuously improves, the ability to hack into the new technology improves with it. So, because hackers are getting smarter and finding ways to attack our internet-enabled devices, we too have to develop and work harder to prevent such attacks. Over the past few years, popular social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter have been targets of hacking and phishing schemes. According to Jessica Roy's article in the L.A. Times, one feature on your Twitter account could be making you more vulnerable to hackers.

Lately, there have been several situations in which Twitter accounts have had their security compromised. From celebrities like Justin Bieber to multi-million-dollar businesses like McDonald's, hackers are taking over. Sometimes they just want to "troll" and post something that they think is funny or that might get a reaction. Other times, the messages are designed to trick other people into clicking a link that will allow the hacker to break into other accounts. 

In at least one case, the cyber attacks were due to third-party tools and applications, such as "Twitter Counter." Years ago, when Twitter was still new, third-party applications like Twitter Counter allowed users to keep track of followers, find new followers, and post their Tweets on a schedule. Nowadays, few people use such tools, because Twitter has since updated their system to be able to offer many of the same abilities. However, even though most users stopped using Twitter Counter, many of them forgot to disconnect the tool from their account, leaving them vulnerable to a cyber attack. 

Because the third-party tool is more easily hacked than Twitter itself, criminals often look to use a program like Twitter Counter as a springboard to get into an account. Once they have hacked the app that has permission to access your account, they will have the ability to post from your account. In order to prevent similar issues on your account, make sure to check the options on your account (under "settings and privacy") and revoke access to any third-party applications that you don't use. To make your account even more secure, Twitter has some built-in security features. 

First, two-step authentication can be enabled on your account. While it seems more annoying to have to put in a password and a special code sent to your cell phone by text message or call, overall it can be worth it to avoid data thieves. Additionally, to make your account even more secure, you can choose a complicated password with a variety of letters, numbers, and symbols. Finally, make sure your password doesn't match that on one of your other accounts. If you use the same password for every platform, then if one account is compromised, they all will be. These quick and easy changes to your behavior online can help to protect you and make it much more difficult for hackers to make you their next target.

***************************************************************************************************
Find out more about us at www.sepulvedaescrow.net. Any Questions? Contact our Escrow Expert! Sepulveda Escrow Corporation (818) 838-1831. Follow our company on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+.

**************************************************************************************************

Twitter Inc. to Shut Down Vine and Lay Off Hundreds of Employees

Five years ago, Facebook and Twitter got into a battle over who would ultimately purchase Instagram. When the more-powerful Facebook ultimately purchased Instagram, Twitter took a risk and went for the unheard-of Vine app. In the short-run, Vine was a far cheaper investment and ended up with millions of users. However, now that live video streaming seems to be the way of the future. According to Paresh Dave, in his L.A. Times article, Twitter is being forced to stop all future development on Vine and cut approximately 9% of its workforce to make ends meet as their profits continue to decrease.

Vine is an app that enables users, especially those with comedic talent, to share short videos, limited to approximately 6 seconds. Many people have gained viral fame due to Vine, including comedians like Thomas Sanders and singers like Shawn Mendes. Unfortunately, even though Vine gained massive popularity, it only lasted a few years before users and advertisers realized that YouTube and other platforms would be more lucrative. As one analyst stated, there are too many alternatives for video advertising to have a successful app that limits clips to 6 seconds.

Vine isn't the only thing Twitter Inc. is getting rid of, though. In order to save around $100 million per year, even after severance pay, Twitter plans to lay off approximately 350 of its 3,900 employees. Unfortunately, analysts don;t believe that the cuts will be enough in the long run. While Twitter's revenue is up 8% from last year, in part due to advertisement sales, it is also showing a loss of over $100 million per quarter. Twitter executives seem confident that the addition of live-streaming capabilities will enable the company to be more successful in the future, but that remains to be seen.

One of the main problems that analysts have pointed out regarding Twitter Inc.'s business is that users are too limited. On Twitter.com, posts are limited to 140 characters, and on Vine, videos were limited to 6 seconds. Users don't like limits, especially when they are so small. At least on Snapchat, videos have a slightly longer 10-second limit, nearly double that of Vine. There has been some talk in recent years of Twitter raising their character limits, but as of yet, that has not come to fruition. Logically, longer messages and longer videos would have more space for advertisement, so if Twitter wants to stay competitive, it may have to adapt to the longer format used by most platforms.

***************************************************************************************************
Find out more about us at www.sepulvedaescrow.net. Any Questions? Contact our Escrow Expert! Sepulveda Escrow Corporation (818) 838-1831. Follow our company on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+.

***************************************************************************************************