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Playback speed feature is now available in Whatsapp latest version!!

A new feature entitling users to roll in between the playback speed of voice notes in Whatsapp is trending. The feature was confirmed by different users using the build of the app from the standard play store beta channel.

To enjoy the playback speed feature, users are required to activate variable playback, tap the “1.0x” label next to the progress bar in an active voice message. 1.0x, 1.5x, and 2.0x playback speeds are available, however, there’s no option to slow down playback.

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“2.0x” label

Though the feature was announced, the claim of two different Android Police testers, who were unable to access it even using the latest build 2.21.9.4, released a couple of days ago was trending.  But It was visible to at least some people more than a month ago, so this appears to be a rather slow deployment indeed. Officials said, there is no point in being surprised if you could not avail this option immediately. And the feature was just activated in the beta via server-side switch and later disabled. But now, the feature got appearing for at least some users on the latest beta build and got widespread.

The best playback feature experience is recommended only if the users are running beta version 2.21.9.5 or later. Although Whatsapp made it officially available for all, still some users might need to wait a little longer to get the feature, as the new version seems to be gradually rolling out globally.

Abu Dhabi Digital Authority warn on mass mail attack in UAE

Abu Dhabi Digital Authority warned users across UAE on the mass mail attack, recently exposed across
the country. In their recent post on twitter, ADA advise users to check on the source of e-mails received,
the incoming calls, the type of information required, and do not download any attachments from
unknown sources in order to avoid infecting device,”

According to recent reports from police and banking institutions, various incidents of fraudulent
activities and theft through electronic medias had made many victims due to the lack of caution in their
financial dealings online.

The authority also advised people to comply with safety measures that could help the devices to provide
better protection, and enables to detect and delete viruses that can steal vital data.

Mass mail attack target the users server to cause malfunction and retrieve data they are looking for. It is
a type of service disruption cyber attack which involves sending a large number of e-mail messages to a
single e-mail address in a short period of time, with the aim of exceeding the user’s inbox space.

Thus it is inevitable to hold awareness on these attacks on cyber space and "This caution is one of the
most important tools that protect against cyber risks,” ADA tweeted.

Compass is back to Google Map on Android

San Francisco: Google has announced that counting on the overwhelming support for the feature, the company is bringing back the compass widget feature within Maps on Android devices.
“We are excited to announce the return of the compass on Maps for Android. The compass was removed from Maps for Android in early 2019 to clean up the Navigation screen but due to overwhelming support it’s back,” the company said in a recent support post.
Google also added that the compass widget on google map will be available on the right side of the screen when the users try to navigate to destination with their android devices.
The compass feature is available for all Android users globally who have updated to version 10.62 globally. And on iOS, the compass was not removed and will continue to be available, the company said.
In March 2021, Google Maps introduced a dark theme on its Android app for adding convenience to users around the globe. The theme features a super-dark shade of grey for the map background whereas the street names come in a lighter shade of grey, allowing users to easily spot the important landmarks and roads.

Google’s promise to drop personalized ad tracking trends

World’s largest advertising seller, Google announced the removal of cookies to facilitate personalized ad tracking dropdowns. This popular tech giant who owns the world’s most popular web browser, Chrome was also following other browser providers by eliminating third-party tracking cookies.
In a comment made by The Competition and Markets Authority in January, “Due to the less share of information with advertisers Google’s plan to remove the cookies would create a significant impact on the advertising market and news websites.
On the other hand, one group of marketers opposed to the idea claims that Google will earn an advantage by eliminating such cookies because it has other ways of obtaining personal information from users.

What’s in a cookie?
Cookies are the web tools used for the temporary storage of user information retrieved during website usage or access. This source is the key aspect of the usage of the modern internet for business and advertisements. Third-party tracking cookies can be used to “follow” a user from site to site, so a website can “know” that you were shopping around for a type of product – like clothes or shoes – and advertise those things to you elsewhere.
As per Google, they are phasing out these third-party cookies. The discretion is following the lead of major competitor web browsers, including Mozilla Firefox and Apple’s Safari, which already block them by default. However various critics raised that Google’s plan to stop these cookies would prevent its rivals from building useful catalogs of ad targeting information whereas Google itself might still be able to do so.
“Today, we’re making explicit that once third-party cookies are phased out, we will not build identifiers to track individuals as they browse across the web, nor will we use them in our products”, Google’s recent blog post said. But as per the comments of Director James Rosewell, Google hasn’t promised to stop personalized marketing, or gathering of data, inside its products – which would involve changing its product terms and conditions. Moreover, the regulators may still need to ensure competition, through legislation, he said, or “advertisers will have little choice as to where they spend their money”.
He also made an argument on fewer privacy advantages for the average user. “You have one large trillion-dollar company that effectively, through an unfair contract… tracks you more of the time, the only difference is you’re going to be logged in, and part of their walled garden.”
“How does that make people more private, or more secure, versus something that doesn’t have directly identifiable information – their name, their email address – it just uses a random string of characters?”

The current shift away from cookies was a reflection of years of tightening regulation and increased consumer awareness and the dropping down of cookies does not prevent all personalized tracking as well. But the industry has come up with creative solutions such as fingerprinting to generate personalized data such as the type of phone or computer, browser version, language, IP address, or even what fonts you have installed – to identify the machine. Even though the advertiser might not know the person’s name, but it can still “follow” that unique fingerprint around the web.
Google, which will continue to sell ads, argues that it and other companies need to come up with a solution that “delivers results” for advertisers. Their source said that people should not have to be tracked invasively to “get the benefits” of targeted advertising. One way of doing so was to “hide individuals within large crowds of people with common interests” so that a person’s browsing history would be difficult to figure out, Google said in its blog post.

Netflix’s Fast Laughs to iOS App- Newbie for Funny Video Clips

Netflix introduced a new feature called “Fast Laughs” to its iPhone app, serving a cup for comic clips in a rapid-fire which in turn advantage over popular video app TikTok. According to Netflix, the new addition will give the users a stream of funny snippets from movies, sitcoms, comedy routines, and television shows.

The recent blog post of the streamer revealed that just over a tap on the Fast Laughs tab added to the mobile app will launch a stream of funny snippets from the title “Wanna see something funny?”. “On Netflix, this one little question opens up lots of possibilities from hilarious series and films to laugh-out-loud stand-up specials.”

The Fast Laughs clips will come from the wide range of Netflix comedy catalogs, inclusive of shows such as Murder Mystery and Big Mouth and stand-up comedy from performers including Kevin Hart and Ali Wong, according to the Silicon Valley-based service. “This is the part where we have to say that not all clips will be appropriate for all audiences,” Netflix said in the post.

Fast Laughs was made available only for iPhone users in select countries, and Netflix also announced the soon testing of the same on mobile devices powered by Google-backed Android software. The new feature is said to appeal to user fans of the popular platform, TikTok, and also may create a trend among the viewers in love with comedy entertainment strips.

WhatsApp announces updated private policy

“Neither WhatsApp nor Facebook can see the content shared by a user with family and friends”, the social media giant announced updated terms of services and privacy policy for business and private customers.
“Our commitment to your privacy isn’t changing. Your conversations are still protected by end-to-end encryption, which means no one outside of your chats, not even WhatsApp or Facebook, can read or listen to them,” said WhatsApp in a detailed statement. However, the platform has added new features as well.

New features
Now users can ask questions with businesses, make purchases and retrieve information, and simplify the layout of the privacy policy, etc. Additional privacy features, such as setting messages to disappear and controlling who can add a user to groups, give you an added layer of privacy, mentioned WhatsApp. These added features of the platform will provide customers easier navigation and user experience.
In the new privacy policy, WhatsApp also confirmed that neither WhatsApp nor Facebook can see the content shared by a user with family and friends, including personal messages and calls, shared attachments, or locations. “We do not retain your messages in the ordinary course of providing our Services to you. Instead, your messages are stored on your device and not typically stored on our servers. Once your messages are delivered, they are deleted from our servers,”.
“Safety, security, and integrity are an integral part of our Services. We use the information we have to verify accounts and activity; combat harmful conduct; protect users against bad experiences and spam; and promote safety, security, and integrity on and off our Services, such as by investigating suspicious activity or violations of our Terms and policies, and to ensure our Services are being used legally,” it added.
Followed by the notice issued by the Supreme court on Monday, Facebook and WhatsApp and sought their response on a plea challenging WhatsApp’s latest privacy policy which was introduced in January this year in India. “There is a concern that circuit of messages is revealed by WhatsApp,” the apex court observed. During the hearing, senior advocates Kapil Sibal and Arvind Datar appearing for WhatsApp and Facebook respectively denied the allegations and called this “misinformation”.
The petitioner of the case sought guidelines to safeguard the personal data and privacy of over 400 million Indian WhatsApp users, which in turn acquired an interim stay on the operation of the new Privacy Policy of WhatsApp. The plea stated that the 2021 policy of WhatsApp is “highly invasive and has been unilaterally forced upon Indian internet users”.
The WhatsApp privacy policy introduced in January was mandating its users to accept its terms and conditions, failing which the accounts and services would be terminated after February 8, 2021, for the respective user. Followed by the severe criticism over the privacy policy, WhatsApp has come up with clarification through Twitter with a statement saying “no one will have their account suspended or deleted on February 8 and we will be moving back our business plans until after May.”

Pilot program asks users to fact-check tweets

Birdwatch- Twitter’s Community Pilot program asks users to fact-check tweets

The new community-based pilot program initiative by Twitter, Birdwatch allows people to identify information in Tweets they believe is misleading, and write notes that provide informative context.
In this first phase of the pilot, notes will only be visible on a separate Birdwatch site and pilot participants can also rate the helpfulness of notes added by other contributors. Also, every data contributed to Birdwatch will be publicly available and downloadable ahead.
With the statement released late on Monday, Twitter said, “These notes are being intentionally kept separate from Twitter for now, while we build Birdwatch and gain confidence that it produces context people find helpful and appropriate,”
It is estimated to have about 1,000 users in the US to start with the Birdwatch program. “Eventually we aim to make notes visible directly on Tweets for the global Twitter audience when there is consensus from a broad and diverse set of contributors,” Twitter said.
“We believe this approach has the potential to respond quickly when misleading information spreads, adding context that people trust and find valuable”.
So far Twitter has conducted 100+ qualitative interviews with individuals across the political spectrum who use Twitter and received broad general support for Birdwatch.
The giant platform has also announced that “As we develop algorithms that power Birdwatch such as reputation and consensus systems we aim to publish that code publicly in the Birdwatch Guide,”.

User counterblast – WhatsApp delays data-sharing

Amid the heavy counterblast from the users across the globe, popular social media platform WhatsApp delayed the data-sharing change. “We’re now moving back the date on which people will be asked to review and accept the terms,” WhatsApp said in a blog post.
The leading platform has announced a privacy policy change a few weeks back and earned pretty heavy recoiling of customers, which also caused excess fled to rival platforms like Telegram and Signal. In response to these latest interventions from the large group of users, WhatsApp canceled the announced deadline to accept a change in the privacy policy.
Earlier, February 8 was the said deadline for accepting the tweak to its terms of service, involving sharing data with Facebook servers. The platform said it would instead “go-to people gradually to review the policy at their own pace before new business options are available on May 15.”

UAE Telecommunications Regulatory Authority Alerted WhatsApp Users

The UAE Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) has issued an advisory note to the WhatsApp users in the country. The alert announced on Thursday, conveyed the users across the country to be aware of the amended service and privacy policy of the popular messaging platform and to be thoughtful while choosing the newly issued advisory for users. The most popular social platform has updated its terms of service and privacy policy since Tuesday.

The users were given a time frame until 8th of February 2021 to accept the changes to policy or to forgo their use of the social media app if they decline. “The page that currently appears to WhatsApp users is an update on the terms of the Privacy Policy that regulate the operation of the application and must be approved by those who wish to continue using the application,” said a notice posted by the TRA on its social media accounts.

The new policy updates will alter WhatsApp’s service and the system of how the company used to process users’ data as of date. It will also change how businesses can use Facebook-hosted services to store and manage their WhatsApp chats. And also the company has announced that, the update would change how it partners with Facebook to offer integrations across the tech giant’s products.

Hashtags are not required to search on Instagram

The Facebook-owned, most popular social media platform Instagram announced the new no hashtag keyword search feature in English in six countries. The said feature is exclusively available only for Instagram users in select countries and also the search is limited to general interest topics and keywords that are within Instagram’s community guidelines.
To date, users had to search for names, usernames, hashtags, locations, or accounts. But the new feature will allow people to search directly with keywords even if they don’t give a tag. This will help Instagram users easier to find, curate, and share the products, places, and posts people love from their favorite accounts.
The users can find Guides on Profile, and share them across stories and in the direct messages. The company also announced that the product guides may be featured in the Instagram shop within the Instagram app, so that users can discover new products from people whom they may not already follow.
The changes in the form of a Reels tab and a Shop tab on Instagram was announced by Facebook in the last week. The Reels tab will support users to discover short, fun videos from creators across the world, whereas the Reels, help to record and edit 15-second multi-clip videos with audio, effects, and new creative tools. The Shop tab also adds a better way to connect with brands and creators and discover the products they look for.

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