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If you’re sending a “View Once” message, photo, or video through WhatsApp, don’t be so sure that the receiver can’t view it again.Security researchers with crypto wallet ZenGo recently discovered a bug that allowed WhatsApp users to view “View Once” messages as many times as they liked. SEE ALSO: Meta updates WhatsApp and Messenger third-party chats in Europe In response, WhatsApp patched the issue. But, ZenGo researchers then discovered another exploit in WhatsApp’s temporary fix that once again allowed them to access these messages that had supposedly disappeared.WhatsApp View Once exploitWhatsApp launched its View Once feature in 2021. View Once allows users to send texts, photos, and videos that disappear after the recipient initially accesses them. Furthermore, to ensure the ephemeral nature of these messages, WhatsApp disables screenshots from being used in the app on View Once messages through iOS and Android. In addition, WhatsApp limits View Once messages to the mobile apps only.However, in a post last week, ZenGo Security Research Manager Tal Be’ery detailed an exploit that allowed his team to access View Once messages over and over again.Basically, as Be’ery explains, the View Once messages are only restricted from view in the mobile apps after being viewed. The media continues to exist on WhatsApp’s servers. If a user can find the URL for the media file, they can access the message or media file that was supposed to have disappeared.Be’ery went through the official channels with WhatsApp’s parent company Meta and reported the exploit through their bug bounty…WhatsApp 'View Once' messages are far more permanent than you realize

LinkedIn has been training generative AI with user data — a quiet change the public noticed on Wednesday.Users of the professional social networking platform owned by Microsoft were the first to notice a new option pop up in their data privacy settings called “Data for Generative AI Improvement.” SEE ALSO: How to turn off Google AI Overviews The setting options come with an explanation saying that this feature gives “LinkedIn and its affiliates” permission to “use your personal data and content you create on LinkedIn to train generative AI models that create content.”The setting is turned on by default.In addition, as 404 Media discovered in its initial report, LinkedIn appears to have launched its AI training without updating its terms of service to inform users.Don’t want LinkedIn and other third-parties using your LinkedIn data to train their generative AI to create content using your posts? Here’s how to turn it off.How to turn off LinkedIn’s AI trainingLogin to your LinkedIn account.Click your profile image on the header menu and select Settings & Privacy in the dropdown menu. Credit: Mashable screenshot Choose Data privacy on the left hand side menu. Credit: Mashable screenshot Select the Data for Generative AI Improvement option at the very bottom of the How LinkedIn uses your data section. Credit: Mashable screenshot Toggle the “Use my data for training content creation AI models” switch off. Credit: Mashable screenshot Thanks to the EU’s strong data privacy laws, LinkedIn is not using EU users’ data for its AI training. “We…LinkedIn is using your data to train AI. Here's how to turn it off.

Dateline: Paris, 18th September 2024.More than once in recent weeks I’ve had people ask why I am interested in digital currency, account-to-account transfers and decentralised finance. More than once, they’ve said something along the lines of “payments work well” or possibly even “the payments sector is cost-effective and provides excellent value for money”. I am unconvinced. Here are my last three payments. You can judge whether you think that the payments industry is working well or not.SharePayments in PracticeFirst, I needed to send some money to a friend of mine (who I have sent money to before) for sundry purposes of no relevance to the narrative. I decided to use instant payments (or what we in the UK call “faster payments”). I opened up my bank app and entered his account details. The confirmation of payee came back good, so I pressed the send button. I was just about to text him and tell him that I’d sent the money when a message from the bank popped up to tell me that they would be carrying out security checks so that my payment might be delayed. They said that they “usually” finish the checks and send the money within four hours, although it might take until the end of the next working day. (In fact they called me after about three hours to complete the security checks and allow the transfer.)In case you are wondering what this hold up is all about, remember that the UK was first into instant…Faster and Slower Payments

Instagram just unveiled a much more restricted way for teens under 16 to use its app. Known as Teen Accounts, parent company Meta says its part of a “reimagining” of their platform for teens, in light of ongoing concerns about youth safety on the app — and they plan to apply it to all Meta platforms in the future. A Teen Account is automatically set to private, with limits on who can message and interact with them. Accounts are placed under default content restrictions, as well, and the app will provide time limit notifications urging users to leave the app after 60 minutes. Teen Accounts are opted-in to an automatic, do-not-disturb sleep mode between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m., silencing notifications and auto-replying to DMs. Sleep mode can also be adjusted to fully block a teen from using the app. Users under 16 can also select specific topics they want to be served in the app’s Explore page and post recommendations. Parents and guardians can be added to a Teen Account to monitor interactions, time limits, and settings — any changes to the default settings must be approved by a guardian. SEE ALSO: Spotify is piloting a Premium membership tailored for kids “Instagram Teen Accounts reflect the importance of tailoring teens’ online experiences to their developmental stages, and implementing appropriate protections,” wrote Northeastern University professor Rachel Rodgers in the company’s press release. “Younger adolescents are more vulnerable as their skills are still emerging and require additional safeguards and protection. Overall,…Instagram announces restrictive 'Teen Accounts' for users under 16

I am genuinely curious about whether anyone thinks there is a need for another fintech podcast. Anyway, this test episode is short and I hope interesting. Please do leave comments.If you can’t be bothered to listen, you could read the transcript, but that will sort of miss the point of this experiment! Read moreWhere are the customers' bots?

Elon Musk, owner of social media platform X and CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, deleted a post referencing assassinations of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris early Monday morning.“And no one is even trying to assassinate Biden/Kamala 🤔,” Musk wrote.  Credit: X / Mashable Screenshot Musk’s now-deleted X post quoted another X user who commented about what the FBI said “appeared to be an attempted assassination” on former President Donald Trump on Sunday. This would mark the second assassination attempt on Trump after a gunman opened fire at one of his rallies over the summer.Musk was roundly criticized for his post. Some X users questioned why Musk still has security clearance, a privilege provided to him as CEO of SpaceX. In follow up posts, Musk initially defended his comment.”No one has even tried to do so is the point I’m making and no one will,” Musk said.Musk eventually deleted the post. He now claims that the post was a “joke.” Tweet may have been deleted “Well, one lesson I’ve learned is that just because I say something to a group and they laugh doesn’t mean it’s going to be all that hilarious as a post on 𝕏,” Musk posted after deleting his assassination post.  Tweet may have been deleted “Turns out that jokes are WAY less funny if people don’t know the context and the delivery is plain text,” he continued.Over the years, Musk has increasingly become seeped into right-wing politics and far right conspiracy theories. He announced his…Elon Musk 'jokes' about President Biden and Kamala Harris assassination on X

Elon Musk’s X is still banned in Brazil, even after the country withdrew $3.3 million from both X’s and SpaceX-affiliated Starlink’s bank accounts in order to pay off fines. These fines are a result of Musk’s non-compliance with Brazil’s Supreme Court, as the X owner feuds with Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes over content on the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. SEE ALSO: Bluesky adds videos to the platform to take on Elon Musk’s X News spread on social media on Friday that Musk’s companies had paid the $3.3 million fine and, as a result, the Brazilian court had ordered that the “blockage” on Starlink and X be lifted. The initial reports caused some confusion among social media users as only Brazil’s blockage of Starlink’s and X’s bank accounts had been lifted. According to Bloomberg, the nationwide ban on X the social media platform, remains.In addition, Musk’s companies did not actively pay the fine. On Wednesday, Brazil’s court ordered that these funds be transferred in order to satisfy the demand for fines.Last month, Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered that X the platform be banned in the country. This came after Musk refused to remove accounts that Moraes’ deemed to be breaking the country’s laws. As a result of this request, Musk pulled X representatives out of the country and refused to appoint a new legal representative, one of Moraes’ requirements.X still banned after Brazil takes $3.3 million fine from Musk companies

Bluesky has launched the one major feature that was missing from the platform, keeping it from being a total replacement for Elon Musk’s X for social media users.On Wednesday, Bluesky announced that it has finally added native video to the site. Bluesky users can now upload videos directly to the platform to embed in their posts.”Bluesky now has video!” the platform’s official account posted. “Update your app to version 1.91 or refresh on desktop! We’ve begun gradually rolling out the ability to post video. Thanks for your patience!” Bluesky now has video! Update your app to version 1.91 or refresh on desktop! We’ve begun gradually rolling out the ability to post video. Thanks for your patience! Estamos gradualmente implementando a capacidade de postar vídeos. Obrigado pela sua paciência![image or embed]— Bluesky (@bsky.app) September 11, 2024 at 1:11 PM Bluesky had promised that the long-requested feature was on the way in an update last month. On Tuesday, the official Bluesky account warned users that they might see video posts show up on their feed as they tested native video and put the “final touches” on the feature.Just one day later, Bluesky’s video feature is now live across the platform for all users.Bluesky’s video feature detailsAs a brand new feature, there are some limitations to video uploads on Bluesky as further detailed in a post by the company. According to Bluesky, each video can be up to 60 seconds long, and posts can only contain one video. Users can currently upload 25 videos…Bluesky adds videos to the platform to take on Elon Musk's X

Dateline: Austin, 9th September 2024.Paying for a drink in the coffee shop around the corner from where I live in England is quite straightforward. The terminal displays £3.50 or whatever and I tap my Lego on the terminal and walk off after the beep. It takes about, I don’t know, a second. It just doesn’t work like that in America.(Yes, I pay by Lego, of course. Here is a video.)ShareThe Payment ExperienceThe last time I bought something in America (yesterday), the payment experience was very different. The goods were $3.50 or whatever and the terminal displayed $3.50 plus sales tax and then I had to press the button to say that I didn’t want to give a tip and then I had to press a button to say that I didn’t want to donate to charity and then I had to look around the terminal try and figure out where the contactless bit of it was and then I tapped and waited for the beep and walked off.(Note that it’s not the principle of charity that bothers me, it’s the annoying experiences. In McDonald’s I always order using the self-service kiosks which are easy to use and quick and when you go to check out there they ask you if you want to round up and donate to charity and there I always press “yes” because it just doesn’t seem to interrupt the experience in the same way that selecting an amount does at a POS does, whereas at my…Contactless Friction

Elon Musk’s X is still banned in Brazil. In addition, Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes has said that any user who attempts to access the former Twitter via VPN faces thousands of dollars per day in fines.So, Brazilian posters need a new place to, well, post. And it appears many Brazilian X users have found a new online social media platform in the form of X competitor Bluesky.Last week, just 5 days after Brazil banned Musk’s X in the country for failing to appoint a legal representative, Bluesky announced that it had 2.6 million new users join the platform over the previous few days alone.Bluesky shared that 85 percent of those millions of new user signups were Brazilian. What a week! In the last few days, Bluesky has grown by more than 2.6 million users, over 85% of which are Brazilian. Welcome, we are so excited to have you here! Here are answers to some common questions about Bluesky:[image or embed]— Bluesky (@bsky.app) Sep 4, 2024 at 1:26 PM On Friday, Bluesky announced they hit 3 million new users that morning.That brings Bluesky’s total user base to 9 million, with 50 percent of those users joining the platform just in the past week. this morning we crossed THREE MILLION new users! that brings our total size to over 9 million people. welcome everyone! we’re so glad you’re here 🫶 (and yes, video is coming soon)[image or embed]— Bluesky (@bsky.app) Sep 6, 2024 at 6:14 PM Bluesky’s user base grows…Brazilian users flock to Bluesky after Elon Musk's X banned