GraceMarker

Sunday, May 29, 2016

Trump vows to win traditionally democratic states

Katrina Pierson and Angela Rye join Victor Black to discuss Donald Trump's strategy to win traditionally democratic states in the general election.

Gary Johnson wins Libertarian presidential nomination

Libertarians selected former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson as their party's presidential nominee.

Cincinnati zoo shoots gorilla after child falls in cage

CNN affiliate reports on an incident at a Cincinnati zoo during which a gorilla was shot and killed after a child slipped into enclosure.

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Saturday, May 28, 2016

Nick Denton, Gawker Founder, Assails Peter Thiel as 'Vindictive' Foe

Gawker Media also hired an investment banker to help explore its options for a possible sale.

Spotify Track Previews Can Be Added to Twitter Audio Cards

Twitter announced that 30-second previews of tracks from Spotify can now be added to users' timelines and Moments.

The integration with Spotify follows a similar move in April to support audio content from SoundCloud in Twitter's audio cards.

Twitter wrote in its tweet (embedded below):

You'll want the volume up for this #SummertimeSoundtrack. Tweets with @Spotify tracks now play in your timeline!

You'll want the volume up for this #SummertimeSoundtrack. Tweets with @Spotify tracks now play in your timeline! BlogThis!Share to X Share to Facebook Share to Pinterest

Saturday, May 21, 2016

Sharesi.es Launches Reward Social Networking Platform on Mobile

Sharesi.es launched Sharesies, its reward social networking platform, which allows users to earn rewards from brands by sharing pictures and videos in the application.

The Sharesies app allows users to share their own pictures from their camera rolls, or take new pictures within the app. Users can also share videos from YouTube for others to view. Users can add descriptions and hashtags to photos and videos before sharing them.

As users share posts, they're presented with rewards such as percent-off coupons and free shipping offers from brands including Ghirardelli Chocolate, Butcher Box, Sally Beauty Supply and others.

In addition to sharing content, users can browse posts from other users and follow users to view their new posts going forward. Users can also send messages to other users and can reshare posts from other users to their own feeds.

As users receive offers, they can save these to their Sharesies wallets to redeem them at a later time.

In a statement, Russell Craig, founder of Sharesi.es, commented:

Social media posts are worth more than likes for the users sharing their lives on social media. Up until now, social networking platforms have served brand interests through ads and sponsored posts, all without compensating users or giving something back in return. Sharesi.es was established to take the traditional digital advertising model and challenge it, awarding real monetary compensation for those sharing pictures and videos through our app.

The Sharesies app is available to download for free on the iTunes App Store and Google Play.

Twitter Takes Stand vs. Use of Dataminr for Surveillance Purposes

Dataminr, a company dedicated to identifying breaking news on Twitter, made headlines recently for shutting down a pilot program to share Twitter data with U.S. intelligence agencies. Officially, Twitter's policy of not selling data to the government was the reason for not renewing the program, but could this be Twitter doubling down on resisting data sharing with governments?

Twitter has maintained a firm stance against government data collection for some time, even going as far as filing suit against the government to allow its transparency report to be more transparent. CEO Jack Dorsey has also stated that he wants the platform to “empower organizations that bring more transparency to public dialog.”

While the pilot program between Dataminr and the CIA will not continue, government agencies would still be permitted access in non-surveillance capacities, a Twitter spokesperson told CNBC, saying:

We have never authorized a third party to sell data to an intelligence agency for surveillance purposes. Twitter data is largely public, and governments may review accounts on their own, like any user … For instance, if DHS (the Department of Homeland Security) wanted to buy Dataminr news alerts to surveil Black Lives Matter activists, we would decline. But if the DHS wanted to buy data to assist with disaster preparedness, (we) would permit that.

Spokespeople for the CIA criticized the ban, saying that tweets were “critical in providing indications of pending plots.” L. Gordon Crovitz, writing for The Wall Street Journal, contends that since Dataminr only identifies events and not users, the CIA should have access to that data for national security purposes.

However, the PRISM program also advocated for the large-scale collection of user data, anonymous or otherwise, in the name of national security, so it's easy to see why Twitter wouldn't want security agencies to access this information.

The mere existence of a program like PRISM has made privacy advocates wary of government attempts to work with companies when it comes to collecting data. We've seen companies update their infrastructure in the effort to keep the government away from user data following the demands to unlock the iPhone owned by the San Bernadino terror suspect.

The tweets Dataminr analyzes to generate its alerts are public in nature, so there isn't anything to stop intelligence agencies accessing those through their own programs or through Dataminr. However, it seems that for Twitter, there is a line it does not want intelligence agencies to cross. Maintaining that line is something all social networks may need to do to protect their users.

Image courtesy of Shutterstock.