Discord, the popular chat platform that’s growing well-beyond the gamer niche it initially served, is foraying further into the creator economy.
On Tuesday, Discord announced that it was launching a test run of a brand new feature which will allow creators that run servers on its platform to charge a monthly subscription for access to the creators’ channel.
Creators who run servers on Discord can charge anywhere from $2.99 to $99.99 per month for premium content, such as access to special channels within the server that are locked for non-paying members of the community.
This is what the signup page looks like for a server that has enabled premium memberships on Discord. Credit: Discord
As the owner of a community, you can name the tiers which will appear beside a community member’s username and choose which tier levels of membership unlocks which premium channels on your server.
This new feature is not yet available for every creator. While anyone can subscribe to a Discord server membership, the feature on the creator-side is currently only available with communities that the company has chosen to test.
SEE ALSO:
What is Discord, the popular community chat app?
Discord says it will take 10 percent of the membership revenue, leaving 90 percent for creators, although that can change later depending on how the trial run goes.
This feature will likely be very welcome addition among Discord users. Many creators have created their own ad-hoc private membership based communities on Discord, using third-party payment systems. Having this feature built right into Discord will certainly help streamline the process.
Allowing creators to take part in subscription-based memberships in order to monetize their content currently seem to be quite popular among social platforms. Twitter recently rolled out their own version of this feature with Super Follows. And Discord itself has long integrated with the creator membership platform Patreon in order to provide creators with a way to build a community on the chat app among their patrons. It will be interesting to see if Discord’s launch of a similar feature will compete with its partners over at Patreon or if it will serve an entirely different niche all together.
At the very least, this new Discord feature is a step in the right direction for a platform looking to help users monetize their content. Allowing creators the ability to get paid for the educational value, entertainment value, or whatever service they provide makes a hell of a lot more sense than diving into the shady world of speculative assets like cryptocurrency and NFTs.
It was a long disjointed year, but amid the chaos memes thrived.
2020 was particularly bleak, in global news and in internet culture. 2021 didn’t start much better, but as more of the world opens up the more fodder there is for memes.
From new CDC guidelines to The French Dispatch, here are thirteen memes that defined this year so far.
1. Bernie at inauguration
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Bernie Sanders’ Inauguration Day get-up was also 2021’s inaugural meme. The Vermont senator’s down jacket and oversized mittens — a gift from a Vermont teacher who hand-knit them from recycled sweaters — were far from the formal dress coats spotted on other guests, but they seemed to keep Sanders warm as he sat alone during the ceremony. Sanders’ crossed arms and disinterested expression went viral as meme makers Photoshopped him onto the New York City subway, the moon, and iconic pieces of art.
2. It’s March again
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Between a devastating pandemic, record wildfires, an exhausting election cycle, and a worldwide mental health crisis, the last year seemed like a collective fever dream. As February drew to a close, social media users refused to believe that the world was coming up on a year of social distancing. Nobody was ready for March again.
3. Harry and Meghan’s Oprah interview
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Oprah Winfrey’s explosive interview with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle exposed the British royal family as a racist organization that denied Markle mental health treatment and pulled the couple’s security detail when they stepped back from senior roles in the monarchy. As the couple recounted anecdotes about “the Firm” — the British royal family’s senior staff and the associated institutions — Oprah’s appalled expressions became viral fodder. Screenshots of the interview were ripe for meme formats.
4. The ship stuck in the Suez Canal
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A wayward cargo ship ran aground in the Suez Canal amid high winds and low visibility, interrupting 12 percent of the world’s trade. Twitter users weren’t particularly optimistic when the Suez Canal Authority released photos of its efforts to dislodge the massive ship, which involved eight tugboats and a comically small excavator. Suez Canal Authority chairman Osama Rabie estimated that the stuck ship cost the Canal $14 to 15 million in daily revenue each day the passage remained blocked, but at least it gave way for excellent memes.
5. Vaxxed and waxed
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With vaccination rates skyrocketing through the spring, this summer’s motto is “vaxxed and waxed.” Social distancing isn’t over — the pandemic is still a risk as COVID variants circulate through the world — but the fully vaccinated can ease into gathering in groups and go maskless around other fully vaccinated people. As the world slowly opens up, stay vaxxed and waxed for the ultimate hot girl summer.
6. The CDC says
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The Centers for Disease Control updated guidelines for the fully vaccinated in May, inspiring a new meme format on Twitter. If you’re fully vaccinated against COVID-19, you can resume daily activities, which apparently include song lyrics, movie plots, and references to other meme formats.
7. Anakin and Padmé
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A scene from Star Wars: Episode II — Attack of the Clones resurfaced last month as a cheeky four-panel meme format. The set-up and punchline take place in the two panels, and Padmé’s horrified response has been used for all-too-relatable reflections on healthcare, vaccination rates, and music tastes that should absolutely be red flags.
8. The French Dispatch
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In August Timothee Chalamet, Wes Anderson, Tilda Swinton, and Bill Murry attended the Cannes Film Festival in France to promote The French Dispatch. They all dressed in wildly different outfits. Inspired by the visual contrast between Chalamet, Anderson, Swinton, and Murray, Twitter users compared things that exist in the same category, but have very different vibes like beers, magazines, and movie theaters.
9. Did it hurt?
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A modern take on the tired pick up line “did it hurt when you fell from heaven,” flourished in September. This meme format referenced song lyrics, movie plots, and painful universal experiences.
10. Yassify
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The yassifcation of the internet took hold in November. Yass, a term with roots in 1980s ball culture, became mainstream in 2013 due to its use on Broad City and a viral clip of a Lady Gaga fan. Now, it’s a verb, yassify, that means to heavily edit an image with ridiculous beauty filters. The account @YassifyBot allowed for the proliferation of yassifications on Twitter.
11. Evil be like
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Photo negatives of celebrities and beloved characters with the caption “Evil be like” went viral in October. These memes portray the evil version of whatever the celebrity or character is known for. For example, Lorde released Solar Power in 2021 so Evil Lorde be like “coal power.”
12. The feminine urge
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This trend proliferated at the beginning of November and hasn’t slowed down since because the feminine urge to tweet is very strong. These tweets document every possible feminine urge — the relatable, the absurd, and the unfortunate.
13. Kirsten Dunst yelling
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Twitter users took a screenshot of Kirsten Dunst defending Toby Maguire in Spider-Man and ran with it. This meme is usually accompanied by “he SAID” and sometimes feature someone else Photoshopped over Toby Maguire.
Thanks to all the memes that kept us company through another long, pandemic year.
This post was originally published in June 2021, and was updated in December 2021.
Meta, Facebook’s recently rebranded parent company, has created new tools and features designed to keep young people safe on Instagram — again. The announcement comes just one day before the app’s head testifies to Congress about the platform’s potential risks to kids and teens.
Among the tools includes the platform nudging teens towards different topics if they’ve been dwelling for too long, a Take A Break feature, and stopping users from tagging teens if they don’t follow them. The company is also introducing tools for parents to track how much time their teens spend on Instagram, set time limits, and explore a new educational hub. Teens will also soon have the ability to notify their parents when they report someone. Not all of these tools are available just yet, and the tools for parents and guardians are slated to launch in March.
“We’ll continue doing research, consulting with experts, and testing new concepts to better serve teens,” Instagram head Adam Mosseri wrote in a blog post on Tuesday announcing the new features.
On Wednesday, Mosseri is set to testify before the Senate Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety and Data Security. He’ll likely be questioned about Instagram’s harm to young users.
“I’m proud that young people use Instagram to connect with the people that matter to them most, to explore their interests, and to even explore their identities,” Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri said on an Instagram post about the new safety features. “But none of that works unless people feel safe on Instagram.”
View this post on Instagram
And it’s true — young people haven’t been particularly safe on the platform for some time.
According to Meta’s own internal research revealed by the Wall Street Journal’s Facebook Files, social comparison and body image issues are high for all Instagram users, but impacted teens more than adults — some of the most “intense experiences” for young users was social comparison, loneliness, stress and depression. Nearly half of all teen girls on Instagram feel they “often or always compare their appearance” to others on the platform, and a third “feel intense pressure to look perfect.”
The platform has already been toying with ways to make it a better place for young people online, but many of their efforts have landed unsuccessfully. In May, the platform announced that users would have the option to hide like counts on all posts in their feed, and hide like counts on their own posts. Internally, it was called “Project Daisy” — like “Does she love me? Or love me not?” — according to the New York Times. The platform found that removing likes didn’t depressurize Instagram, because, in reality, removing likes without getting rid of other elements of quantified popularity is a failed experiment from the start.
The platform also considered another now-failed experiment — Instagram Kids. It would have been a modified version of the app with additional parental controls, but Facebook dropped the project, saying in a statement that building Instagram Kids is “the right thing to do” but not the right time.
For now, some parents and teens could benefit from the new safety updates for teens on the platform. But, if history is any indication, you may not want to hold your breath for an Instagram that treats young people well.
UPDATE: Dec. 7, 2021, 3:15 p.m. EST We’ve gathered up the best bargains from across the Apple universe. Check out some of our top picks.
BEST MAC DEAL: 2020 Mac Mini (M1, 512GB), a mini desktop computer with big potential — $749.99$899.00 (save $149.01)
BEST REFURBISHED DEAL: iPhone 11 (64GB), no matter your carrier or plan, you can score a good deal on this iPhone — $492.00 $569.00 (save $77)
BEST IPAD DEAL: 2021 12.9″ iPad Pro (WiFi, 128GB), a tablet with the right power and screen size for creatives — $999.00$1,099.00 (save $100)
BEST IPHONE DEAL: iPhone 12 Mini (64GB) at AT&T, a sweet iPhone deal with no trade-in necessary — $314.99 $629.99 (save $314.99)
BEST APPLE WATCH DEAL: Apple Watch Series 3 (42mm, GPS), a smartwatch and a six-month fitness subscription for less than $200 at Best Buy — $199.00$229.00 (save $30 and get six months of Apple Fitness+ free)
BEST ACCESSORIES DEAL: AirPods Pro, one of the best pairs of noise-canceling earbuds on the market for their lowest price ever — $189.99$249.99 (save $60)
You could really kill some time trying to dissect the iron grasp Apple has on the general population, but when it comes down to it, its products look good, work well, and stay cutting-edge — of course people like them. Whether your favorite day of the year is its annual September reveal eventor you just want a solid computer no matter the brand, Apple’s got you covered. Sure, it is a little notorious for its higher prices, but we’ve rounded up the best deals on iPads, AirPods, and more to help you out. Check them out below.
Please note that all newly added deals will be marked with a ✨. Anything with a strikethrough is either sold out or no longer available at sale price as of the time of writing, but check back — just because it’s sold out now doesn’t mean it will be forever, and we’re updating this page often.
Mac and MacBook deals
Credit: Apple
Our pick: 2020 Mac Mini (M1, 512GB)
$779.99 at Amazon (save $120)
Why we like it
Check out Mashable’s official review of the Mac Mini.
This mini computer is a decent way to enter the M1 Mac ecosystem without breaking $1,000, and this deal only makes that more true. While it doesn’t boast a ton of memory, it does have a decent amount of internal storage. Overall, the Mac Mini is great as a multi-use everyday computer, whether it’s just for you or the entire family.
Check outMashable’s official review of the 2021 iPad Pro.
This iPad comes loaded with an M1 chip, meaning it’s up to more intense tasks like editing high quality video footage or rendering 3D models. Basically, it’s your best bet for an iPad that could feasibly be used as a laptop. While it might not be the best option for the casual user, for creatives that need their tablet to handle a little heft, this tablet is definitely worth a second look. If you are shopping for the holidays, it is important to note that this iPad is not expected to arrive until after Christmas, but hey, sometimes the best things are worth waiting for, right?
More iPad deals
10.9″ iPad Air (WiFi, 64GB) — $539.99 $599 (save $60)
10.9″ iPad Air (WiFi, 256GB) — $699 $749 (save $50)
2020 11″ iPad Pro (WiFi, 256GB) — $799.99$899.99 (save $100)
2021 12.9″ iPad Pro (WiFi, 128GB) at Amazon — $999$1,099 (save $100)
2021 12.9″ iPad Pro (WiFi, 128GB) at Best Buy — $999 $1,099 (save $100)
iPhone deals
Credit: Apple
Our pick: iPhone 12 Mini (64GB) at AT&T
$314.99 at AT&T (save $314.99)
Why we like it
Check out Mashable’s official review of the iPhone 12 mini.
No trade-ins means you’re scoring decent savings, even if you don’t have a phone from the last couple years to hand over. With this no-trade in deal from AT&T, you can still shave off half the price of the iPhone 12 mini — a phone that’s easy to hold, packs plenty of power with an A14 Bionic chip, and has a pretty nice camera to boot.
More iPhone deals
iPhone 13 (128GB) at AT&T — $0 with an eligible trade-in and unlimited plan $799.99 (save up to $799.99)
iPhone 13 Pro (128GB) at AT&T — $0 with an eligible trade-in on an unlimited plan, with installed payment plan $999.99 (save up to $999.99)
iPhone 12 Mini (64GB) at Verizon — $0 with a new line on an unlimited plan $599.99 (save $599.99)
iPhone 13 Mini (64GB) at Verizon — $0 with select trade-ins or BOGO with any unlimited plan $699.99 (save up to $699.99)
iPhone 13 (128GB) at Verizon — $0 with an eligible trade-in on an unlimited plan or BOGO with any unlimited plan $799.99 (save $800)
iPhone 13 Pro (128GB) at Verizon — $0 with select trade-ins $999.99 (save up to $999.99) ✨
iPhone SE (64GB) at Verizon — $0 with an unlimited plan and new line $399.99 (save $399.99)
Apple Watch deals
Credit: Apple
Our pick: Apple Watch Series 3 (42mm, GPS)
$199 at Best Buy (save $30 and get six months of Apple Fitness+ free)
Why we like it
Check out Mashable’s official review of the Apple Watch Series 3.
If you’re looking for a smart watch that can also meet some basic fitness tracking needs, the Series 3 can do just that, without breaking the bank. This Best Buy deal also offers six months free of Apple Fitness+, so you can really up your exercise game without paying a ton.
More Apple Watch deals
Apple Watch Series 7 (41mm, GPS) Green and Clover — $379.99$399.99 (save $10)
Apple Watch Series 7 (41mm, GPS) — $379.99$399.99 (save $10)
Apple Watch Series 6 (40mm, GPS) — $349 $399 (save $50)
Apple Watch Series 6 (44mm, GPS) — $379.99$429.99 (save $50)
Apple Watch Series 5 (44mm, GPS + Cellular) Gold Stainless Steel and Stone — $459.00 $749.00 (save $290.00)
Apple Watch Series 3 (38mm, GPS) at Walmart — $169$199 (save $30)
Apple Watch Series 3 (42mm, GPS) at Walmart — $199.00$229.00 (save $30)
Apple Watch Series 3 (38mm, GPS) at Best Buy — $169.00$199.00 (save $30 and get six months of Apple Fitness+ free)
Apple Watch SE (40mm, GPS) at Amazon — $239.99$279 (save $39.01) ✨
Apple Watch SE (44mm, GPS) at Amazon — $299.98$309 (save $9.02) ✨
Apple Watch SE (40mm, GPS) at Best Buy — $219.00 $279.00 (save $60 and get six months of Apple Fitness+ free)
Apple Watch SE (44mm, GPS) at Best Buy— $249.00 $309.00 (save $60 and get six months of Apple Fitness+ free)
Apple Watch Nike SE (44mm, GPS) — $249.00 $309.00 (save $60 and get six months of Apple Fitness+ free)
Refurbished Apple Watch Series 6 (40mm, GPS + Cellular) — $399.99 $499 (save $99.01)
Renewed Apple Watch Series 5 (44mm, GPS) — $339$429 (save $90)
Apple accessories deals
Credit: Apple
Our pick: AirPods Pro
$189 at Walmart (save $60)
Why we like it
Check out the official Mashable review of the AirPods Pro.
While they are a bit pricier than their all-time low Black Friday price, this is still a pretty great deal on some of the best noise-cancelling earbuds out there, especially if you’re already deep in the Apple ecosystem. We anticipate that just like years past, these will be a hot holiday pick, so if you’re having trouble grabbing them at Walmart, you can find them for the same price at Amazon.
More Apple accessories deals
AirPods (3rd gen) — $169.98$179.00 (save $10)
AirPods (2nd gen) — $99.99$159.00 (save $59.01)
AirPods with Wireless Charging Case at Best Buy — $149.99$199.99 (save $50)
AirPods with Wireless Charging Case at Amazon — $149.99 $199.00 (save $50)
Do a bunch of your apps seem like they decided to call in sick today?
That’s because they did. From Venmo to Disney+ to the McDonald’s app, outages are currently plaguing multiple services across the internet. The Downdetector home page is a sea of red spikes, all indicating service disruptions occurring around the same time. (Editor’s note: Downdetector is owned by Mashable’s parent company, Ziff Davis).
The internet is struggling. Credit: Screenshot: Downdetector
These apps and websites have something in common that is apparently affecting them all: They rely on Amazon Web Services (AWS) to store their data and/or provide computing power. AWS is Amazon’s cloud computing business, the largest business of its kind (followed by Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud). So when AWS breaks, pretty much everything breaks, too.
Amazon acknowledged the outage shortly after the Associated Press reported that users were experiencing trouble. Amazon issued a statement saying that it was “actively working towards recovery.”
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Basically, they’re working on it. But don’t bother Alexa right now.
SAVE $49: Starting Dec. 7, the DeskCycle 2 under-desk exerciser is only $150. That’s $49 off its usual price. If you’ve been struggling to find time to work out while working from home, this is probably a good pick for you. Hurry, though: This Amazon deal of the day won’t last long.
Under-desk bikes let you answer emails and keep your body moving at the same time. They’re nice little exercise machines for anyone who wants to get more active from the comfort of their own home.
The DeskCycle 2 mini exercise bike is just $150 at Amazon as of Dec. 7. (It’s a deal of the day, so act fast if you’re interested.) It has magnetic resistance to ensure an extra smooth pedal motion, and is pretty quiet, so you won’t bother your home office-mates. Its mini display monitor helps track your distance and speed, and it has eight difficulty settings, so you can up the ante when your desk workout gets a little too easy.
Its predecessor, the DeskCycle (which we’ve written about before), is also on sale for $50 off. You’ll just need to apply an on-page Amazon coupon.
Credit: DeskCycle
DeskCycle 2 under-desk exerciser
$150 on Amazon (save $49)
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“Allyship” is Dictionary.com’s Word of the Year — a defining term for a period marked by community organizing, online activism, and protest.
The choice, announced Monday, was inspired both by recent events in the real world, as well as the site’s many related additions to the database this year. John Kelly, Dictionary.com’s associate director of content and education, explained part of the decision in an interview with the Associated Press. “This year, we saw a lot of businesses and organizations very prominently, publicly, beginning efforts to promote diversity, equity and inclusion. Allyship is tied to that. In the classroom, there is a flashpoint around the term critical race theory. Allyship connects with this as well,” Kelly told the Associated Press.
Dictionary.com defines allyship as “the status or role of a person who advocates and actively works for the inclusion of a marginalized or politicized group in all areas of society, not as a member of that group but in solidarity with its struggle.” It’s second, more concise definition, is “the relationship or status of persons, groups, or nations associating and cooperating with one another for a common cause or purpose.”
SEE ALSO:
Dictionary.com adds new words reflecting the impact of social justice movements and COVID-19
According to Dictionary.com, the term was recorded as early as the 1800s, but its usage has grown over the years alongside increased social justice organizing. In its press release, the website wrote that the word’s presence in texts has grown by 700% since 2011, and its top related search, leading people to Dictionary.com, was “What is allyship?”
The word’s announcement acknowledged that allyship in practice is often “insufficient and imperfect,” and included a description of “performative allyship” — the term frequently used to describe individuals who claim allyship without actually supporting the community or cause. Dictionary.com wrote that “in this sense, allyship is often considered a status that must be continuously earned.”
This year also marks the first time the website has selected a word that was added to its database in the same year. “It might be a surprising choice for some. In the past few decades, the term has evolved to take on a more nuanced and specific meaning. It is continuing to evolve and we saw that in many ways,” Kelly told the Associated Press. It’s a word that equally summarizes the events of 2021 and reflects the way communities responded to world news.
In 2020, the site released its biggest update in Dictionary.com’s history, which included terms like MeToo and gender diversity, and capitalized the words Black and Pride when referring to Black communities and LGBTQ activism. In March 2021, Dictionary.com added another mass of new words, many of which related to social justice organizing (like overpolice, Critical Race Theory, and BIPOC). And, throughout 2021, it’s continued to update its database with new terms reflecting society’s ever-evolving interaction with activism.
Life360, a popular family safety app used by 33 million people worldwide, has been marketed as a great way for parents to track their children’s movements using their cellphones. The Markup has learned, however, that the app is selling data on kids’ and families’ whereabouts to approximately a dozen data brokers who have sold data to virtually anyone who wants to buy it.
Through interviews with two former employees of the company, along with two individuals who formerly worked at location data brokers Cuebiq and X-Mode, The Markup discovered that the app acts as a firehose of data for a controversial industry that has operated in the shadows with few safeguards to prevent the misuse of this sensitive information. The former employees spoke with The Markup on the condition that we not use their names, as they are all still employed in the data industry. They said they agreed to talk because of concerns with the location data industry’s security and privacy and a desire to shed more light on the opaque location data economy. All of them described Life360 as one of the largest sources of data for the industry.
“We have no means to confirm or deny the accuracy” of whether Life360 is among the largest sources of data for the industry, Life360 founder and CEO Chris Hulls said in an emailed response to questions from The Markup. “We see data as an important part of our business model that allows us to keep the core Life360 services free for the majority of our users, including features that have improved driver safety and saved numerous lives.”
A former X-Mode engineer said the raw location data the company received from Life360 was among X-Mode’s most valuable offerings due to the sheer volume and precision of the data. A former Cuebiq employee joked that the company wouldn’t be able to run its marketing campaigns without Life360’s constant flow of location data.
The Markup was able to confirm with a former Life360 employee and a former employee of X-Mode that X-Mode—in addition to Cuebiq and Allstate’s Arity, which the company discloses in its privacy policy—is among the companies that Life360 sells data to. The former Life360 employee also told us Safegraph was among the buyers, which was confirmed by an email from a Life360 executive that was viewed by The Markup. There are potentially more companies that benefit from Life360’s data based on those partners’ customers.
Hulls declined to disclose a full list of Life360’s data customers and declined to confirm that Safegraph is among them, citing confidentiality clauses, which he said are in the majority of its business contracts. Data partners are only publicly disclosed when partners request transparency or there’s “a particular reason to do so,” Hulls said. He did confirm that X-Mode buys data from Life360 and that it is one of “approximately one dozen data partners.” Hulls added that the company would be supportive of legislation that would require public disclosure of such partners.
X-Mode, SafeGraph, and Cuebiq are known location data companies that supply data and insights gleaned from that data to other industry players, as well as customers like hedge funds or firms that deal in targeted advertising.
Cuebiq spokesperson Bill Daddi said in an email that the company doesn’t sell raw location data but provides access to an aggregated set of data through its “Workbench” tool to customers including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Cuebiq, which receives raw location data from Life360, has publicly disclosed its partnership with the CDC to track “mobility trends” related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The CDC only exports aggregate, privacy-safe analytics for research purposes, which completely anonymizes any individual user data,” Daddi said. “Cuebiq does not sell data to law enforcement agencies or provide raw data feeds to government partners (unlike others, such as X-Mode and SafeGraph).”
X-Mode has sold location data to the U.S. Department of Defense, and SafeGraph has sold location data to the CDC, according to public records.
X-Mode and SafeGraph didn’t respond to requests for comment.
The Life360 CEO said that the company implemented a policy to prohibit the selling or marketing of Life360’s data to any government agencies to be used for a law enforcement purpose in 2020, though the company has been selling data since at least 2016.
“From a philosophical standpoint, we do not believe it is appropriate for government agencies to attempt to obtain data in the commercial market as a way to bypass an individual’s right to due process,” Hulls said.
Families would probably not like the slogan, ‘You can watch where your kids are, and so can anyone who buys this information.'”
The policy also applies to any companies that Life360’s customers share data with, he said. Hulls said the company maintains “an open and ongoing dialogue” with its customers to ensure they comply with the policy, though he acknowledged that it was a challenge to monitor partners’ activities.
Life360 discloses in the fine print of its privacy policy that it sells the data it gleans from app users, but Justin Sherman, a cyber policy fellow at the Duke Tech Policy Lab, said people are probably not aware of how far their data can travel.
The company’s privacy policy notes Life360 “may also share your information with third parties in a form that does not reasonably identify you directly. These third parties may use the de-identified information for any purpose.”
“Families probably would not like the slogan, ‘You can watch where your kids are, and so can anyone who buys this information,’ ” Sherman said.
Two former Life360 employees also told The Markup that the company, while it states it anonymizes the data it sells, fails to take necessary precautions to ensure that location histories cannot be traced back to individuals. They said that while the company removed the most obvious identifying user information, it did not make efforts to “fuzz,” “hash,” aggregate, or reduce the precision of the location data to preserve privacy.
Hulls said that all of Life360’s contracts prohibit its customers from re-identifying individual users, along with other privacy and safety protective practices. He said that Life360 follows “industry best practices” for privacy and that only certain customers like Cuebiq receive raw location data. The former X-Mode engineer said that the company also received raw data from Life360. The company relies on its customers to obfuscate that data based on their specific applications, Hulls added.
Do you work at Life360, X-Mode or any other company that buys or sells location data? We’d like to speak with you. You can reach out securely on Signal at 646-355-8306 or email keegan@themarkup.org.
“Some of our data partners receive hashed data and some do not based on how the data will be used,” the Life360 founder said.
Meanwhile, selling location data has become more and more central to the company’s health as it’s struggled to achieve profitability. In 2016, the company made $693,000 from selling data it collected. In 2020, the company made $16 million—nearly 20 percent of its revenue that year—from selling location data, plus an additional $6 million from its partnership with Arity.
While still reporting a loss of $16.3 million last year, the company is expanding its business to include other “digital safety” products, rolling out data breach alerts, credit monitoring, and identity-theft-protection features. Publicly traded on the Australian Securities Exchange with plans to go public in the U.S., Life360 has also acquired companies that expand its tracking—and potentially its data-gathering capacity. In 2019, the company purchased ZenScreen, a family screen-time monitoring app. And in April, it purchased the wearable location device company Jiobit, aimed at tracking younger children, pets, and seniors, for $37 million. Hulls said Life360 has no plans to sell data from Jiobit devices or its digital safety services.
On Nov. 22, Life360 also announced plans to buy Tile, a tracking device company that helps find lost items. Hulls said the company doesn’t have plans to sell data from Tile devices.
“I’m sure there are lots of families who do find very real comfort in an application like this, and that’s valid,” Sherman said. “That doesn’t mean that there aren’t ways that other people are harmed with this data. It also doesn’t mean that the family couldn’t be harmed with the data in ways that they’re not aware of, such as that location data being used to target ads [or] used by insurance companies to figure out where they’re traveling and increase their rates.”
Hulls said that Life360 doesn’t share users’ private information with insurers in ways that could affect insurance rates.
The Data Pipeline
Life360’s app allows the user to see the precise, real-time location of friends or family members, including the speed at which they are driving and the battery level on their devices.
Marketed as a safety app, Life360 is popular among parents who want to track and supervise their kids from afar. The app offers much of the functionality of Apple’s built-in location-sharing features, but it includes emergency safety features such as an SOS button and vehicle crash detection. The company says these features have saved lives.
But Life360’s location-based features are also sources of data points for a growing, multibillion-dollar industry that trades in location data gathered from mobile phones. Advertisers, government agencies, and investors are willing to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars for location data and the insights that can be derived from them.
While children can use the app (with parental consent), Life360’s policy states that the company doesn’t sell data on any users under 13. The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule (better known as “COPPA”) creates restrictions on digital services used by children under 13, and Life360 has detection methods like requiring a scan of a parent’s ID for underage users. Life360 does “disclose” younger children’s information to third parties “as needed to analyze and detect driving behavior data, perform analytics or otherwise ,[sic] support the features and functionality of our Service,” according to its privacy policy, but not “for marketing or advertising purposes.”
Marketers use location data to target ads to people near businesses, while investors buy data to determine popularity based on foot traffic. Government agencies have bought location data to track movement patterns and in one case to support “Special Operations Forces mission requirements overseas.”
“It sounds like the company’s pointing to a couple of cases where, sure, they helped somebody, they were able to do something good,” Sherman said. “But then they will not talk about all of the other cases where the buying and selling of this data is potentially very harmful.”
In July, a high-ranking Catholic priest resigned after a Catholic news outlet outed him by using location data from the gay dating app Grindr linked to his device. The data was obtained by an unknown vendor, and the report claimed to show that the priest frequented gay bars. There is no indication that Life360 was involved in this incident.
Grindr, like other apps that feed data into this industry, is required to ask for location permissions when a user first opens the app.
“We are not aware of any instance where our data has been traced back to individuals via our data partners,” Hulls said. “Furthermore, our contracts contain language specifically prohibiting any reidentification, and we would aggressively take action against any breach of this term.”
In Life360’s case, because of how the app works, it asks for the broadest location permissions possible for functional purposes. Many apps that use location data allow users to grant access only while it’s in use. Because Life360 is for tracking whereabouts in real time, the app asks for location data at all times—and does not function unless that permission is turned on.
A disclaimer appears in smaller print at the bottom of the permissions screen: “Your location data may be shared with Partners for the purposes of crash detection, research, analytics, attribution and tailored advertising.” Users can disable the sale of their location data in the privacy settings, though that setting is not disclosed in or part of the prompt.
Life360’s Hulls said that millions of its users have used this feature to opt out of their data being sold.
How to Disable the Sale of Your Location Data in the Life360 App
Tap on the gear icon for “Settings”
Tap on “Privacy & Security”
Tap on “Do Not Sell My Personal Information”
Toggle the button next to “Personal Information Sales” to the off position
For those who have not opted out, their Life360 data may be shared with the company’s partners within 20 minutes of being recorded, a former Life360 employee said.
Hulls said this description was “directionally accurate,” saying it only applied to certain partners and use cases.
“For example, some use cases, like road traffic probing, which powers travel time estimates in automotive navigation systems and GPS apps, require very fresh data,” he said.
Privacy researchers and app store operators often look for data brokers’ code in apps for signs of an app sending data off to third parties. But Life360 collects its data directly from the app and provides it to data brokers through its own servers.
Apple’s and Google’s app stores have no way of detecting this transfer of location data to a third party. “It makes sense to send this data directly from the server side from the app vendor so it can never be traced or observed by anyone,” said Wolfie Christl, a researcher who investigates digital tracking.
Hulls said Life360’s method of providing data through its own servers wasn’t an intentional effort to evade detection from researchers and app stores.
“This is completely unrelated. We have our own proprietary sensor technology, which we started building in 2008 well before the emergence of the data industry, and we avoid using SDKs that could have a negative battery impact or other interplay with our own sensor technology,” he said.
Google didn’t comment on why Life360 was able to sell data this way despite its policy against selling location data. Apple spokesperson Adam Dema responded with a link to Life360’s privacy policy but didn’t comment about the company’s data sales to companies like SafeGraph and X-Mode.
Hulls said Life360 de-identifies the data it sells, which can include a device’s mobile advertising ID, IP address, and latitude and longitude coordinates collected by Life360’s app.
Hulls clarified that “de-identification” involves removing usernames, emails, phone numbers, and other types of identifiable user information before the data is shared with Life360’s customers. The data sold still includes a device’s mobile advertising ID and latitude and longitude coordinates.
Even without names or phone numbers, researchers have repeatedly demonstrated how “anonymized” location data can easily be connected to the people from whom it came.
And privacy experts note that mobile advertising IDs are more valuable than identifiers like names.
“This code can be used to track and follow you across many life situations,” Christl said. “As such, it is a much better identifier than a name.”
Controversial Partners
The location data industry operates largely out of public view and with little oversight or regulation. Some of Life360’s partners have faced controversy in the past over how they handle data and privacy.
Started in 2013 as Drunk Mode, a novelty app that “prevents users from drunk dialing,” X-Mode was reportedly banned from the big app stores after Vice’s Motherboard reported that the company was selling location data from Muslim prayer apps like Muslim Pro to U.S. government contractors associated with national security, raising concerns about unconstitutional government surveillance.
Public records show that X-Mode received at least $423,000 from the U.S. Air Force and the Defense Intelligence Agency for location data between 2019 and 2020. The company also sold data on Americans in profiled sets, like people who were drivers or likely to shop at department stores, according to Motherboard.
In August, X-Mode was purchased by intellectual property intelligence firm Digital Envoy and rebranded as Outlogic.
In response to the backlash over X-Mode’s selling location data to defense contractors, its new owners said the company would stop selling U.S. location data to such companies.
“We cannot comment on the practices of another company or what that company does with data it receives from other sources,” Hulls said. “However, Life360 has worked closely with X-Mode to ensure that X-Mode and all of its data customers do not sell data originating from Life360 to law enforcement agencies or to any government agency to be used for a law enforcement purpose.”
SafeGraph is one of the biggest firms in the location data business, and its investors include venture capitalist Peter Thiel; Prince Turki Al Faisal Al Saud, former head of Saudi intelligence; and Life360’s chief business officer, Itamar Novick.
The company specializes in data that associates places of interest with raw coordinates, adding a layer of meaning to the raw location data that the company ingests. SafeGraph was identified as not just a customer of Life360’s data but also a major partner in an email from a Life360 executive that was viewed by The Markup.
In April, as first reported by Motherboard, SafeGraph was awarded a $420,000 contract to sell data to the Centers for Disease Control described as “Data Gathering and Reporting.” The Washington Post also reported that SafeGraph shared billions of phone location records with the D.C. Department of Health through its spinoff company Veraset.
The company openly sells location data on Amazon’s data marketplace, including a $240,000 yearly subscription to data on people across the U.S. Veraset has boasted of selling location data for purposes including marketing, real estate, investing, and city planning.
Sen. Ron Wyden has flagged SafeGraph as a “data broker of concern” to Google, Wyden’s chief communications officer, Keith Chu, said in an email. The Democrat from Oregon has made multiple attempts to speak with SafeGraph to learn more about how the company obtains, sells, and shares Americans’ location data, but the company never responded, Chu said.
Cuebiq also worked with the Centers for Disease Control, with a $208,000 contract awarded in June for aggregated location data, according to public records.
The CDC didn’t respond to requests for comment.
During the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, Cuebiq became a main source of location data for news outlets looking to report on people’s movements after cities and states issued stay-at-home orders. Outlets including The New York Times and NBC News received location data from Cuebiq for their analyses.
It’s been suggested that location data brokers like Cuebiq are using the pandemic to improve their public reputation by presenting themselves as tools for public health rather than as mechanisms for surveillance.
Cuebiq’s Daddi said the company’s data has helped in the aftermath of natural disasters and public health crises.
Safety vs. Privacy
Life360 has positioned itself as “the leading digital safety brand for families.” But experts say families who use it are not necessarily thinking about their digital security.
“An app that claims to be a family safety service selling exact location data to several other companies, this is a total disaster,” Christl said. “It would be a problem if it’s any other app, and it’s even more a problem when it’s an app that claims to be a family safety service.”
An app that claims to be a family safety service selling exact location data to several other companies, this is a total disaster.”
Life360 has faced concerns over privacy in the past. In mid-2020, teens, displeased at the privacy invasion of an app that allowed their parents to minutely track their movements, took to TikTok to encourage their peers to bomb the app with negative reviews. Over the course of a month, the app received more than a million one-star reviews, driving the average rating down from 4.6 to 2.7 stars.
Hulls responded by adding a “bubbles” feature that shows parents a more vague location of their child (but still allows parents to see exact locations with an additional step). He also recruited and paid teens to hawk the app on TikTok, resulting in a “viral surge in downloads,” according to the company.
Those teens, however, were likely not aware that their parents were hardly the only ones privy to data on their movements.
Samira Madi, an 18-year-old student in Texas, started using Life360 when she was 15. She didn’t have a problem with the company sharing her location data for marketing and advertising purposes, which the company readily disclosed.
After learning about who Life360 was selling data to, and the scale it was sold at, Madi felt that the company crossed a line.
“I had no idea it would be passed around this way,” Madi said in an email. “This concerns me because I would not want my location data to possibly be sold to people with ill intentions.”
This article was originally published on The Markup and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.
Yes, you can be anonymous on LinkedIn. Also, if you didn’t know, other users may be able to see when you viewed their profile. Kinda creepy, right?
But going anonymous is a perfect feature for checking out other profiles who may have reached out to you. Using this feature, LinkedIn won’t let them know that you viewed them. And if anyone finds your profile while you’re browsing LinkedIn as anonymous, they won’t be able to see your profile picture or other personal information.
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However, if you browse in private mode you also won’t be able to see who has viewed your profile, unless you upgrade to Premium.
So how do you do you go full anonymous mode on LinkedIn? Follow these steps.
1. Log in to your LinkedIn profile
2. Find where it says “Me” at the very top and click the dropdown arrow
Find “Me” at the top of the page Credit: linkedin
3. Select “Settings & Privacy” under “Account”
Select “Settings and privacy” in the dropdown menu Credit: linkedin
4. In the menu on the left, select “Visibility”
Select “Visibility” on the left Credit: linkedin
These settings will allow you to have control over who can see your profile and personal info.
5. Select “Profile viewing options”
After clicking “Visibility” in the menu on the left, select your LinkedIn profile viewing options Credit: linkedin
6. At the bottom, select “Private Mode”
LinkedIn “Private Mode” setting Credit: linkedin
You’ll now only be seen as an “Anonymous LinkedIn Member.” View other profiles without them knowing you viewed them. Your profile, along with your contact info, won’t be visible to others.
You can also select “Private Mode” in your “Story viewing options,” which lets you view LinkedIn members’ stories anonymously.
There are plenty of other privacy settings you can adjust to limit your LinkedIn visibility without going completely anonymous. Choose who can see your connections, who can see your last name and email address, whether approved apps and partners can display information from your profile, and more.
Obviously, visibility (and more specifically, discoverability) is a large part of being active on LinkedIn and networking with other professionals, but for those moments you want to be less visible, LinkedIn allows you to be.
Warner Bros. has released a new trailer for The Matrix Resurrections, and it looks like Neo (Keanu Reeves) is trapped in a dull life within the titular false reality once more. Of course, that likely won’t last long.
“They taught you good,” says Morpheus (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, taking over the role originally played by Laurence Fishburne). “Made you believe their world was all you deserved. But some part of you knew that was a lie. Some part of you remembered what was real.”
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I’ve never seen ‘The Matrix’ but here’s what I think of the new trailer
Directed by Lana Wachowski, the fourth film in the Matrix series brings back original cast members Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss alongside newcomers such as Jessica Henwick and Jonathan Groff — and also reprises at least one iconic line concerning martial arts. It looks as action-packed as you’d expect, with the love story between Neo and Trinity also returning once more.
“She believed in me,” says Neo. “It’s my turn to believe in her.”
The Matrix Resurrections infiltrates theatres and HBO Max on Dec. 22.
