Category Archives: Blog

Whether you’re looking for your very first vibrator or have lost count of how many sex toys you have in your collection, the internet can be a pretty great place to find your next toy.

Of course, the insane amount of options that make finding that just-right sex toy possible can also make the process more overwhelming than you’d wish, especially for a product that’s supposed to deliver big on pleasure.

So where does one begin? The first step is to make sure you’re going to retailers that make quality products. Sex toys get a lot less fun when they’re not made out of materials that are okay to go on or in your genitals. To best guarantee this, we highly recommend shopping directly from trusted names in the sex toy business or from the manufacturers themselves, both of which you’ll find on this list.

And while a dose of healthy skepticism at any suspiciously low prices is always good (again we cannot express enough how important quality is for your safety), that doesn’t mean that you’ll have to break the bank to boost the thrills in your bedroom.

So go forth, and take your first digital steps into your next sex toy journey with these 17 online shops. If you need any more guidance making your selections, we have a handy guide, along with a few recommendations below for each shop.

1. Lovehoney

If it’s sex toys you’re looking for, the XBIZ Award winner for “International Pleasure Products Company of the Year” is a good place to start. Lovehoney can sell you toys, sure, but you can also find a podcast on their site that answers customer questions and delivers expert advice, sex tips, and even little-known facts about sex! Lovehoney is clearly committed to sexual health and wellness, making their online shopping experience easy and comfortable.

Some current best sellers include the Magic Wand Plus Extra-Powerful Plug-In Vibrator, a Womanizer x We-Vibe limited edition set, and the Njoy Pure Wand.

Credit: Njoy

Credit: Magic Wand

2. Babeland

Don’t be fooled by the name, this one’s not just for the babes out there. Before you’ve really narrowed down your search, Babeland is a great first stop for seeing a finely curated inventory of sex toys, from top brands like Womanizer, Satisfyer, and Njoy. So whether you’re looking for that all-time classic Hitachi wand, a new Tenga Spinner masturbation sleeve (aka one of our favorite budget toys for penises), or just starting to browse, this site has got you covered, without giving you so many options that your search becomes overwhelming.

In addition to providing an impressive stock of vibrators, suction toys, dildos, couples toys, BDSM supplies, and most other popular sex toys that are out on the market, Babeland also hosts free online education events so you have the supplies and the know-how to really explore your sexuality.

We give Tenga a ten(ga) for providing unique sensations.
Credit: Tenga

3. PinkCherry

Like Lovehoney, PinkCherry promotes a sex-positive atmosphere with blog posts about sexual wellness and satisfaction, like “Vibrators For Men: Pleasure on the Rise” and “How to Clean a Dildo for Safe Personal Pleasure.” Oh, and they also sell sex toys. Go figure!

PinkCherry offers a wide assortment of adult pleasure items and sexual wellness tools for various tastes and comfort levels. You’ll find all the usual stuff like vibrators and lubricants, along with bondage tools and attire and autostrokers. You can also find current deals on site products like the Satisfyer Pro 2 and the Bodywand Midnight Massager.

4. Adam & Eve

Some of you may be Adam & Eve regulars and some of you only know them because you stayed up too late watching TV and saw an ad. Either way, chances are high you can find the sex toy you’re looking for from the adult toy store that turned 50 this year. They do say sex only gets better with age.

Some best sellers include Eve’s Rechargeable Thrusting Rabbit and the Big O Multi-Stage Vibrating Penis Ring.

The site also includes sections for gay (AdamMale) and lesbian (Eve’s Toys) shoppers.

Eve’s thrusting rabbit allows you to sit back and relax.
Credit: Adam and Eve

5. Eve’s Toys

The Adam & Eve sub-site with toys and other pleasure products designed for lesbians offers vibrators, kink toys, strap-ons and many more. The Double Delight Strap-On is a current best seller and allows the wearer to “feel it thrust into you while you do some thrusting of your own!”

Double down on delight with this strap-on.
Credit: Pipedream

6. AdamMale

The other sub-site of Adam & Eve, with toys and other adult products geared toward gay men, has dildos, masturbators, cock rings, anal douches… the whole nine inche – yards. Yards.

Right, back to cocks and stuff. More specifically, Adam’s True Feel Cock, a best seller listed at $44.95 that’s currently on sale for $22.48. The Satisfyer Men Beads are also flying off the virtual shelves and into bedrooms.

7. Unbound

Looking for an aesthetically pleasing sex toy brand that’s affordable and actually delivers? Yes, it’s real, and it’s Unbound. This women-run brands boasts a solid selection from toys, from a compact vibe we’re personally big fans of, as well as other finds like their best-selling suction toy, flexible vibrator, and beginner-friendly butt plug.

Credit: Unbound

Credit: Unbound

8. Lelo

Say you’re feeling pretty happy with your base collection of sex toys and are now on the hunt for something a little more luxury — look no further than Lelo. The brand sells sex toys with an extra something, like a rabbit vibrator that replicates the “come hither” motion inside of you (and actually works) and a clit suction stimulator that proves to be a bit of a tease, in the best way possible. As it is a higher-end brand, be prepared to shell out a bit more — many of their best sellers are $150 and up.

9. Dame

For a manufacturer that sits between Unbound and Lelo in terms of price range but brings some innovative and impressive products to the table, you’ll definitely want to check out Dame. From a hands-free vibrator to an intercourse game-changer, Dame has made plenty of products worth raving about, and oh, have we raved. Dame’s sex toys feel good, look good, and if for whatever reason you don’t find them to be absolutely satisfying, you can return them within 60 days for store credit, which is (unfortunately) not too common for most sex toy retailers.

Credit: Dame

Credit: Dame

10. Maude

If you’re not really a fan of the traditional gendered marketing around sex toys, meet Maude. The brand — whose name reflects its mission to redefine modern intimacy — doesn’t categorize its sex toys as being for “men” and “women”. In fact, it doesn’t call its vibrators and butt plugs sex toys at all, opting instead to call them devices. While their approach feels like a breath of fresh air, even better are their prices — their standard Vibe is one of our favorite budget picks, and the Drop makes for a great (and gorgeous) addition to any vibrator collection.

The Maude Drop is actually a work of art.
Credit: Maude

11. Sephora

If you’re intrigued by Dame and Maude’s products but wouldn’t mind earning some Beauty Insider points with your purchase, Sephora’s intimate care section has got you covered. The beauty retailer started selling sex toys in February 2022, offering a new place to pick up some of the best vibes from both brands, from Dame’s Pom to the Maude Vibe. Although you won’t find the products in stores (at least, not yet), it’s still plenty convenient to pick up setting powder and a sex toy in the same online shopping trip.

12. Sunset Novelties

Sunset Novelties stores may only be located in the Southeastern U.S., but that doesn’t mean they can’t ship to you. So if you’re in the market for a new vibrator, butt plug, sex enhancer, or even a stripper pole(!!!), you don’t have to be a Southerner to get your hands on one. Maybe even pair that new pole with an exotic dancer ensemble in whatever style you’re looking for.

New year, new fitness resolutions, amiright?
Credit: sunset novelties

13. Wet For Her

Wet For Her is an adult toy store that was founded in Paris, France, in 2009, designed for lesbians and the queer community. “Owner and CEO Alice Derock was disappointed to discover that the sex toy industry was limited when it came to non-phallic sex toys for the lesbian and queer community… It was this that inspired Alice to create products specifically for lesbians and queer women,” their site reads. Eight different styles of dildos, harnesses, finger extenders, the best-selling scissoring vibrator, and of course, much more. Not to be forgotten is a line of “gender-affirming trans-masculine products,” like binders, packers, and a Trans Masc Pump.

“RockHer” with that mini scissoring vibrator.
Credit: wet for her

14. The Kink Store

It’s exactly what it sounds like. The Kink Store is a destination for sex toys, attire, and equipment for those looking to explore their sexual kinks. You’ll find toys for chastity, BDSM, electro-sex, impact play, and a number of other kinks. The electro-sex-handy TAZapper, which delivers “a non-penetrating static spark of electricity,” is a staff favorite and best seller. It also kind of looks like a sexual lightsaber, which we think is pretty neat.

According to its description, the TAZapper is “perfect for intimidation!”
Credit: TAZapper

15. BoyZshop

This one’s for da boyz. BoyZshop’s collection of gay sex toys and products spans multiple tastes and experience levels. You’ll find penetrative toys and non-penetrative toys. Kink gear. Sex machines. Lube. Prep products like enemas. Whether you’re just looking for a standard dildo or if you’re exploring urethral play, BoyZshop offers options for both … and a heck of a lot in between.

16. Target

Yes, Target sells everything, including sex toys. So next time you’re out to grab some game day snacks and paper plates, go ahead and pick up a plusOne Rechargeable Dual Vibrating Massager or the Lelo Sona 2 Cruise while you’re at it. This is what a “Target run” looks like in 2021, and we’re not upset about it.

Get all of your essentials at Target — including luxury sex toys like the Lelo Sona Cruise 2.
Credit: Lelo

17. Amazon

You buy everything else from Amazon, so why not sex toys? You can find just about any toy you’re looking for, from a variety of pleasure product brands from Lynx to Shibari. Plus, that Prime shipping means you won’t have to wait long to try out your new finds. The main drawback from purchasing from third-party stores like Amazon is that you do run a higher risk of buying toys that aren’t authentic or made from the right materials, so before clicking add to cart, make sure you’re doing your research before hitting “Add to Cart.”

Best sellers range from vibrators to lube to lingerie. More specifically, you’ll find favorites like the Fleshlight Quickshot Vantage and plusOne bullet vibrator.

Related Video: The best sex toys to buy during quarantine

It is *checks notes* Tuesday June 28, and if you’re trying to get your head around the idea that we’re just about halfway through the year, you’re not alone. A simple word puzzle should be easier to wrap your head around, but sometime you just get stuck on the daily Wordle — and that’s where we come in.

The answer to the June 28 Wordle can be found at the end of this article, with the spoiler clearly signposted, or you can make your way down in a more leisurely fashion for a few tips, gentle hints, and strategies to help you every day.

Who made Wordle? Where did Wordle come from?

Wordle is a daily word game created by Josh Wardle, a Brooklyn-based software engineer who has developed something of a reputation as a crafter of interesting social experiments. Every day, the people of the internet are greeted with a fresh word puzzle that can only be solved — or not! — using a series of process-of-elimination clues.

Thousands of people around the globe now play this game each day, and fans have even created alternatives to Wordle inspired by the original format. This includes music identification game Heardle, Hollywood nerd faves Actorle and Framed, and variations like Dordle and Quordle that make you guess multiple words at once.

Not the day you’re after? You’ll find the Wordle answer for June 27 here.

What’s the best Wordle starting word?

We have some ideas to help you pick the perfect first move (or as close to perfect as you can get without just magically guessing the exact right word). Such tips include choosing a word with at least two different vowels in it, plus a few common consonants such as S, T, R, or N.

What happened to the Wordle archive?

While you could once play the entire archive of past puzzles, the archive was taken down at the request of the New York Times, according to the site.

Is Wordle getting harder?

If you’ve been finding Wordle too easy, there is a Hard Mode you can enable to give yourself more of a challenge. But unless you activate this mode, we can assure you that Wordle isn’t getting harder. 

A subtle hint for the June 28 Wordle answer:

It’s an adjective, and a bit of an old-fashioned one at that.

Today’s Wordle is a 5-letter word that starts with…

…the letter D.

What’s the answer to Wordle on June 27?

Ready?

We’ll finally tell you the answer.

It’s…

DROLL.

Don’t know the meaning of DROLL? That’s OK! DROLL means witty, dryly funny, often in a surprising or unusual way.

Reporting by Caitlin Welsh, Amanda Yeo and Adam Rosenberg contributed to this article.

Cryptocurrency is doing so bad right now that even some of the quintessential “HODLers” are selling.

Bitcoin miners have been unloading their Bitcoin holdings over the past two months as the cryptocurrency markets plummet and Bitcoin declines in value, according to a new report from Reuters.

In an unusual trend throughout May, Bitcoin miners actually sold more Bitcoin than they obtained through mining, according to the digital asset analysis firm Arcane Research. For comparison, in the previous month, miners only sold off around 20 percent of the Bitcoin that they were able to mine, and the rest of their rewards were typically held in hopes of higher eventual profits as Bitcoin’s value soared.

But as crypto has tanked over the past few months, things have gone in a different direction, forcing some Bitcoin miners to sell-off their holdings if they don’t want to shut down.

Bitcoin mining maintains the cryptocurrency’s digital ledger, known as the blockchain, by validating transactions inside of a block and adding it to the chain. The process to validate the transaction has often been explained as computers solving advanced mathematical equations, but it’s really more like complicated guesswork. When a block is added, miners are rewarded with Bitcoins. 

While Bitcoin mining has been highly profitable in the recent past, with a single Bitcoin trading in the mid-to-high five figures, the endeavor may not be so lucrative now.

The mining process requires a lot of high-powered (and expensive) computer processing power mustered in order to be the first to validate a given block of transactions. The process also gets more complex, and in turn more costly, as time goes on.

And competition grew as the cryptocurrency hit all-time highs over the past year, meaning ever more machine-power would be needed by miners in order to keep earning Bitcoin. All of this consumes an incredible amount of energy. Bitcoin miners use up more electricity than the countries of Kazakhstan and the Philippines, according to the Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index. With energy costs rising, Bitcoin mining profits are dwindling.

Setting aside energy and competition, Bitcoin mining isn’t likely to get any more lucrative. The reward for validating a block on the blockchain is cut in half after every 210,000 blocks are mined. This happens roughly every four years. In approximately a year and a half, that reward will get cut from 6.5 Bitcoins to just over 3. At current Bitcoin prices (trading at approximately $21,000 at publishing), that means the reward drops from $136,500 to $65,625 in 2024.

So, like everyone else right now, even Bitcoin miners have to tighten their belts. As profits decline, competition may very well dry up, making it easier for the miners who stick around to earn rewards. But, how much will crypto keep crashing? How long until the next shoe drops and, say, another major stablecoin fails like Terra did causing a further decline in the market? Some cryptocurrency miners see the signs and are already selling off their gear. But the Bitcoin mining business isn’t going anywhere just yet. However, those insanely profitable times look like they’re over.

What’s that? You didn’t hear? Prime Day has basically already started. Well, not officially — that’ll happen on July 12 — but the early deals are already trickling in.

We’ll keep you informed about all the best deals before and during all the Prime Day festivities, but here we’ll be focusing on just the best headphone deals you can get right now at Amazon.

Whether it’s a pair of AirPods or some noise-canceling earmuffs, there’s probably something on sale for you. Below, the best early Prime Day headphone deals.

Best early Prime Day headphone deals:

• Apple AirPods Pro — $174.99 $249 (save $74.01)

• Apple AirPods Max — $479.99 $549 (save $69.01)

• Beats Studio3 — $211.49 $349.95 (save $138.46)

• Beats EP wired headphones — $84.95 $129.95 (save $45)

• Powerbeats Pro — $199.95 $249.95 (save $50)

• SteelSeries Arctis Pro headset — $144.99 $179.99 (save $35)

• Sony MDREX15AP earbuds — $9.99 $19.99 (save $10)

• Sony WHXB700 — $99 $129.99 (save $30.99)

• Sony WH-XB910N — $179.99 $249.99 (save $70)

• Skullcandy Smokin’ Buds 2 — $47.50 $59.99 (save $12.49)

• Skullcandy Crusher Evo headphones — $159.99 $199.99 (save $40)

• Skullcandy Hesh headphones — $99.99 $134.99 (save $35)

• JBL Live 460NC — $99.95 $129.95 (save $30)

• JBL Live 660NC — $149.95 $199.95 (save $50)

• JBL Tune 710BT — $64.95 $79.95 (save $15)

• JBL Jr460NC — $64.95 $79.95 (save $15)

• Audio-Technica ATH-M20X — $49 $69 (save $20)

• Shure SRH440 — $79 $125 (save $46)

• Bose SoundLink II — $170.99 $229 (save $58.01)

• Sennheiser 599 SE — $179.99 $199.95 (save $19.96)

• Philips PH802 — $49.99 $109.99 (save $60)

How deep does the iceberg of your music taste go?

That’s the question everyone on my Instagram and Twitter appears to be trying to answer with a new way Spotify listeners can analyze their music. Icebergify is a tool that shows all of your favorite artists on Spotify in a chart that looks a lot like — you guessed it — an iceberg. It’s the latest viral Spotify tool following closely behind the Spotify Pie chart that picked up a lot of attention earlier this month.

What is the Spotify Icebergify?

Icebergify collects data from your top 50 artists in your short-term, medium-term, and long-term listening trends, according to Icebergify. So the artists on your chart might be musicians you haven’t listened to in a few months, or maybe are bands you’ve only just started listening to now.

It looks at those top artists and organizes them by their popularity or obscurity, and then pops them into an iceberg category. For instance, if you listen to a lot of Ed Sheeran, he’ll go into the top iceberg level because he’s one of the most popular artists out there. But if you listen to a lot of Antichrist Siege Machine, they’ll be closer to the bottom. If you don’t listen to any artists in a certain level of popularity, the level will just show up blank — so you might want to work on diversifying your music taste before you share.

How to get your Spotify Icebergify

Like most Spotify music analyzing tools, all you have to do is go to a website, give them some permissions to check out your Spotify account, and you’ve got an iceberg-shaped chart to share with your friends and enemies.

Go to Icebergify.com for this tool, but be warned — it took a few of us at Mashable a couple of tries before it worked. Just keep refreshing the site and it’ll eventually work. You might have to clear your cookies and site data and try a few more times. To save the image, screenshot it, hold down it on your phone, or right-click it on your laptop or PC.

By using this tool you will give the folks behind Icebergify your data, so if your streaming data is something you’d rather keep private for whatever reason, you may want to sit this out.

Who created Icebergify?

According to the Icebergify site, it was created by Akshay Raj in 2022. His name is linked out to a private Instagram.

It’s Monday, but the news isn’t all bad: There’s a new Wordle for you to solve. While it’s always the most fun to nail it down yourself, sometime you just get stuck — and that’s where we come in.

The answer to the June 27 Wordle can be found at the end of this article, with the spoiler clearly signposted, or you can make your way down in a more leisurely fashion for a few tips, gentle hints, and strategies to help you every day.

Who made Wordle? Where did Wordle come from?

Wordle’s sudden explosion at the end of 2021 led to a round of press focused on its creator. Former Reddit engineer Josh Wardle actually came up with the game in 2021 as a private exercise for him and his word game-loving partner. It eventually became a staple of their family WhatsApp messaging, and that’s when Wardle started to suspect he might have something special enough to merit a wider release.

Thousands of people around the globe now play this game each day, and fans have even created alternatives to Wordle inspired by the original format. This includes music identification game Heardle, Hollywood nerd faves Actorle and Framed, and variations like Dordle and Quordle that make you guess multiple words at once.

Not the day you’re after? You’ll find the Wordle answer for June 26 here.

What’s the best Wordle starting word?

We have some ideas to help you pick the perfect first move (or as close to perfect as you can get without just magically guessing the exact right word). Such tips include choosing a word with at least two different vowels in it, plus a few common consonants such as S, T, R, or N.

What happened to the Wordle archive?

While you could once play the entire archive of past puzzles, the archive was taken down at the request of the New York Times, according to the site.

Is Wordle getting harder?

If you’ve been finding Wordle too easy, there is a Hard Mode you can enable to give yourself more of a challenge. But unless you activate this mode, we can assure you that Wordle isn’t getting harder. 

Why are there two different Wordle answers some days?

The whole point of Wordle is that everyone’s solving the same puzzle, with the same answer, no matter where you are in the world. However, occasionally the puzzle game will accept two different correct solutions on the same day, in apparent defiance of Wordle law.

This aberration is due to changes the New York Times began making after it acquired Wordle earlier this year. To make sure you’re always getting the same puzzle as everyone else, refresh your browser before you play — don’t worry, the site will keep your streak.

A subtle hint for the June 26 Wordle answer:

It’s an adjective relating to time and trends — one that’s been overused to the point of meaninglessness.

Today’s Wordle is a 5-letter word that starts with…

…the letter R — the same as yesterday’s word, as sometimes happens.

What’s the answer to Wordle on June 27?

Ready?

We’ll finally tell you the answer.

It’s…

RETRO.

Reporting by Caitlin Welsh, Amanda Yeo and Adam Rosenberg contributed to this article.

Alert Apple aficionados: the company has reportedly hinted at new products and updated OG’s to be released over the next year.

According to Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman, the tech giant has a few more surprises up its 2022 sleeves than what was unveiled at the WWDC conference, which announced the new iOS 16 and macOS Ventura, including anticipated updates to iPhones, Apple Watches, and more.

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The reported update lineup mainly centers around new processing and revamped specs for many familiar products, including the new M2 chip, which would be introduced to a variety of computer models including the M2 Pro Mac mini, M2 Pro and M2 Max 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros, and the M2 Ultra and M2 Extreme Mac Pro. The new M3 chip is also reportedly in the works in conjunction with a 15-inch MacBook Air.

The iPhone 14 will also get its always-on display and Lock Screen widgets in iOS 16, Gurman reports, with new iPhone models releasing with an included a 48MP back camera, a new front camera and Face ID design, and an A16 chip. Apple Watches will get an upgrade, too — Both the Apple Watch Series 8 and Watch SE will get their own S8 chip. And the new Apple TV unit may be released, as well, which would incorporate a new A14 chip.

Perhaps most interesting, the long-rumored Apple Augmented Reality headset is still in the works (designed with the M2 chip), and consumers might get a glimpse of a revamped HomePod, previously discontinued in favor of the HomePod Mini.

Cheers to all you smart home lovers.

A year of attacks against reproductive rights culminated in the overturning of Roe v. Wade on June 24, with communities around the nation responding in protest. The decision also reinvigorated a growing business response to abortion access, with dozens of employers pledging to cover their employees’ costs for abortion travel or care. 

These employers are attempting to join an already deeply established, historic network of activists, nonprofits, and other reproductive health and justice organizations who offer support to people seeking abortions around the country — these grassroots efforts include national abortion funds, clinic networks, and other means of practical support for those on the ground, including grants for out-of-state travel. Organizations like the National Abortion Federation, Abortion Care Network, and the National Network of Abortion Funds help connect individuals to providers or others who can provide assistance, including a network of independent, community-based abortion providers. 

Employer support through covered health plans or monetary reimbursement adds another, albeit more corporate, layer to this fold of reproductive health access, but the announcements have also prompted justified concern about an employer’s right to your personal health information.

And at the same time, some experts say employers should anticipate legal backlash from state lawmakers and those standing in the way of accessible abortion, Reuters reports. Other legal professionals contend they’ll be protected in civil lawsuits by federal laws overseeing employer-sponsored healthcare and employees, including the 1974 Employee Retirement Income Security Act (or ERISA). ERISA prohibits states from enacting requirements that relate to such health plans, but wouldn’t apply to criminal cases. 

Even so, employers — especially corporate tech and media giants — have the resources and ability to take on legal risk far beyond that of the individuals seeking abortion care. It’s well past the time for wealthy companies to step up and protect their employees’ right to choose. Also important to note: many of these businesses have balked at, or directly contributed to, other harmful legislation that fails to protect the rights of those within the LGBTQ community.

Here are the organizations that have made initial pledges to do so in varying capacities:

Tech and social media

• Meta 

• Apple

• Amazon

• Google

• Microsoft

• Adobe

• Sony

• Box.com

• Intuit

• Reddit

• Tesla

Retail

• Starbucks 

• Dick’s Sporting Goods 

• Patagonia 

• DoorDash 

• GrubHub

• Levi Strauss & Co.

• H&M

• Nike

• Adidas

• Johnson & Johnson

Travel

• Uber 

• Lyft 

• Airbnb 

• Alaska Airlines

Entertainment

• Disney 

• Warner Bros Discovery

• Paramount

• Netflix

• LiveNation

• Comcast

Miscellaneous

• Citigroup

• Bank of America 

• JPMorgan Chase

• Zillow

• Paypal

• Yelp

• Duolingo

In a story originally reported by The Times of Israel, a software engineer in New York has created and developed an AI that scans through hundreds of thousands of photos to help identify victims and survivors of the Holocaust.

From Number to Names (N2N), is an artificially intelligent facial recognition platform that can scan through photos from prewar Europe and the Holocaust (e.g. 1914–1945), linking them to people living today. Daniel Patt, a 40-year-old software engineer now working for Google, works on the project in his own free time with his own resources according to the article but is being joined by a growing team of engineers, researchers, and data scientists.

According to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) website, there is no single list identifying the victims and survivors of the Holocaust, and that research to find individuals’ stories is a long process following leads on minimal information. The museum does, however, offer various ways onsite for the families of survivors and victims seeking information and documentation.

Patt’s inspiration for creating the AI came in 2016 while visiting Warsaw’s POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews, said The Times of Israel. Haunted by the possibility of unknowingly walking past the faces of relatives, Patt developed N2N so he could help his family and others find photos of murdered loved ones.

The way N2N works is by scanning through hundreds of thousands of photos made available by the USHMM, as well as photos from individual survivors and their descendants, according to The Times of Israel. The software isn’t perfect, however, and only returns the 10 best potential matches that it can find in the database available to it.

For individuals looking to use the site, all they have to do is upload a photo from roughly the same time period. Patt says that his team makes no software-based assertions about the accuracy of the identification, leaving that judgment to the people using the site. “We simply show results, with similarity scores, and let individuals decide whether the results contain a positive identification,” Patt says in an interview with The Times of Israel.

Along with the photos and videos currently available on the site, Patt told The Times of Israel that he is working on getting an additional 700,000 photos from the pre-Holocaust and Holocaust eras.

“Looking ahead, we’d like for N2N to become a vehicle for Holocaust education, giving students an opportunity to directly contribute to the historical record,” Patt said in the interview. “Students can use the software to help identify faces and artifacts in photo and video archives and potentially discover new connections between living Holocaust descendants and their ancestors.”

Patt has said that the nonprofit has been in contact informally with the USHMM but he hopes in the future to partner with “museums, schools, research institutions, and other organizations which share common goals around Holocaust education, awareness, and so on.”

“We have been developing the project over the course of evenings and weekends over many months,” Patt said to The Times of Israel. “There’s an urgency to this effort as the last remaining survivors pass, and there are many connections that could still be made. We hope that N2N can help build those connections while the survivors are still with us.”

UPDATE: Jun. 26, 2022, 12:11 p.m. EDT This article was updated for clarity and context

In the post-decision furor of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, period tracking apps have become a new area of digital concern, as many question whether the apps’ stored personal health data could be used to target people seeking abortion care.

But period tracking app Stardust, which combines traditional menstruation tracking with the movements of our moon and the planets, has come out ahead of many others by announcing itself as the first recognized app to offer end-to-end encryption for all users. In a statement via the app’s TikTok page posted on June 24, Stardust’s founder Rachel Moranis explained the new privacy update was already set to be announced prior to the overturning after initial concerns about data protection were raised last month. The app has previously posted about its pledge to never sell user data and protect user privacy.

“What [encryption] means is that if we get subpoenaed by the government, we will not be able to hand over any of your period tracking data,” she says in the video. “It is completely anonymized from your login data. We can’t view it. You are the only person that can see this.”

End-to-end encryption (or “e2ee”) ensures that the data from a sender or user’s system or device is protected during transmission, even from host servers, and can’t be decrypted by anyone other than the intended recipient. It’s not a complete fix to security concerns — Messaging apps offering e2ee services, like Signal,  WhatsApp, and Telegram, have been called out in the past for failing to disclose their full policies, offering much more limited encryption services than advertised, and relinquishing the protection of data once it’s reached its “endpoints.”

While there’s no current precedent for a period tracking app to turn over its user data to authorities for a criminal investigation, other apps have been known to hand off user data in sensitive cases, and, last year, popular period tracking app Flo received an FTC complaint about misleading users and sharing personal health data. Both activists and privacy experts agree that the recent decision, and Roe v. Wade’s presence as a legal bulwark against invasive abortion regulation, could have echoing effects on personal privacy.

Credit: Stardust

Credit: Stardust

The app joins a short list of “safer” period tracking options, including European app Clue, Drip for Android, and Euki. You can view Stardust’s entire privacy policy on its website.

According to the company’s TikTok announcement, the app’s encryption will go live on Tuesday, June 28 alongside the release of the Android version and new iOS update.