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TOP OF THE WEEK
Parler’s parent company has laid off a majority of its staff
Quote:
Parlement Technologies, the parent company of “censorship-free” social media platform Parler, has laid off a majority of its staff and most of its chief executives over the last few weeks. The sudden purge of staff has thrown the future of Parler, one of the first conservative alternatives to mainstream platforms, into question.
Commentary:
I don’t have anything nice to say here, so I’m just going to leave this article alone.
THE TRIVIA QUESTION
The NFL playoffs start this weekend. Tom Brady will face the Cowboys. He has faced them seven times. How many times has he lost?
Answer at the bottom.
HITTING THE LINKS
Link #1: Instagram and Facebook introduce more limits on targeting teens with ads
This is probably a good idea.
Meta is making some changes to how its apps handle advertising and young users. Under the new rules, advertisers on Instagram and Facebook won’t be able to leverage as much personalized data to target ads to teens. Users under age 18 will also be newly empowered with more choices about which ads they see and why.
Starting next month, Meta will remove the option for targeting advertising to teen users based on gender. The company will also end advertisers’ ability to target personalized ads to under-18 users based on their in-app activity, including who they follow on Instagram and what Facebook pages they like.
Link #2: Roomba testers feel misled after intimate images ended up on Facebook
Man this stuff just gets worse and worse.
But what Greg didn’t know—and does not believe he consented to—was that iRobot would share test users’ data in a sprawling, global data supply chain, where everything (and every person) captured by the devices’ front-facing cameras could be seen, and perhaps annotated, by low-paid contractors outside the United States who could screenshot and share images at their will.
Link #3: What Meta employees really think about their company’s brutal year
Interesting insight.
“The worry is: What is going to sustain us, especially if the stock keeps going down?” said one employee who has worked at the company for several years. This person is genuinely excited about Meta’s long-term plans, like developing lightweight augmented reality glasses, but is concerned about how long it will take until Meta begins making money from these kinds of products. “I don’t know when they will become a reality,” they said.
THE FUNNY PART
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Trivia Answer: Zero. He has never lost.