When I wake up in the morning, one of the first things that I do is play Wordle. Wordle is an online word game that gives users 6 tries to guess the daily 5 letter word. Green means right letter right spot, yellow means right letter wrong spot, and black means the letter is not there. Recently, Wordle has been gaining traction on social media especially on Twitter and Tik Tok. Many users will share how many tries it took them to guess the word and share what their board looks like through emojis. Wordle has created a community in which
millions of users can connect with each other.

However, the New York Times acquired Wordle for “a price in the low seven figures,” according to the Times. This acquisition may have benefited the creator Josh Wardle, but this change has worried a lot of users. Because New York Times uses a paywall to access their articles, many users are afraid that Wordle will likely be put behind a paywall as well. The Times has stated, “the game would initially remain free to new and existing players.”

Personally, if I had to pay to access Wordle, I would stop playing the game. There are many knockoffs to Wordle on the AppStore that are free that I would play instead. What would you do, would you continue playing Wordle if you had to pay for it or move to something else?

Sources:

As a college student, some professors require exams to take place in a testing center in order to deter cheating. When we arrive at the testing center, we are asked to turn off our devices, place them in our backpacks, and scan our student ID to get a testing ticket. As we take the exam, proctors walk up and down the aisle to ensure students are not cheating. However, when the pandemic hit college students were kicked off of campus and had to take their exams and classes at home. To ensure that students weren’t cheating on their exams at home, many professors turned to online proctoring websites like Examity, ProctorU, and Honorlock; but are these websites invasive?

Take Examity for example, every time you take an exam, you need to provide a drivers license, show the entirety of the room you are in, answer questions to ensure you understand testing procedures, be in a Zoom call, share your screen, and have your camera and microphone turned on while you take the exam. Not everyone comes from optimal living conditions and being forced to show your testing environment could make people feel uncomfortable. Also, being forced to have your camera and microphone on the entire time you take an exam knowing that someone is watching and listening to you could feel like a violation of their privacy. One of the biggest things is that students have no choice; either you adhere to these testing conditions or they risk getting a 0 on these exams.

I understand that professors want to ensure that students are not cheating on exams, but should that cost them their privacy? What do you think, should websites like this be allowed by universities?

Sources:

Live Proctoring

When most young Gen-Z are asked, “What is your favorite app?” most will say TikTok. It’s a fun app in which you can connect with other users and make fun videos. It is even popular with older audiences. In fact, according to Influencer Marketing Hub, 48% of users are between the ages of 18-29. Most think that TikTok is harmless and won’t think twice about its Terms of Service. However, if users knew that they were collecting their information, would users think twice about using the app?

Last year, TikTok faced a lawsuit by the former children’s commissioner for England, Anne Longfield, stating that they were collecting the information of millions of children. BBC claims, “TikTok takes children’s personal information, including phone numbers, videos, exact location and biometric data…”. Another issue is that they don’t make it clear to the user that they are collecting this data. This case has also been brought to the US. If you used the app prior to September 30, 2021, you are entitled to the $92 million settlement, but is that enough?

After looking through TikTok’s Privacy Policy for Younger Users, they state, “…collect only limited information, including username, password, and birthday.” TikTok uses this information to serve personalized content and “conceptualized advertising”. However, they state that they still share Younger Users’ information with “our corporate group and with service providers as necessary for them to perform a business purpose, professional service, or technology support function for us.” I think this is a step in the right direction; they are being transparent that they are sharing their information, but I still don’t think it is appropriate due to their age.

I still think TikTok should do more to protect the privacy and safety of their younger audiences. For example, someone under the age of 13 can have an account if they claim that the account is run by a parent or guardian. I think they still shouldn’t be able to have an account because the majority of the time the account isn’t run by an adult. What do you think, should TikTok do more to protect child privacy?

Sources:
https://influencermarketinghub.com/tiktok-stats/#:~:text=According%20to%20their%20survey%2C%2048,are%20aging%20with%20the%20app.
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-56815480

How to claim TikTok data privacy settlement: Users entitled to share of $92m

https://www.tiktok.com/legal/privacy-policy-for-younger-users?lang=en

On October 28, 2021, Mark Zukerberg introduced Meta. Meta would be the combination of Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp, and Oculus. Their reasoning behind this is, “…to bring the metaverse to life and help people connect, find communities and grow businesses” (Meta). Meta’s hopes in combining their companies are to allow users to do things that they couldn’t do in the real world. They are also providing funds to allow users to learn and build in the metaverse. “We also announced new tools to help people build for the metaverse, including Presence Platform, which will enable new mixed reality experiences on Quest 2, and a $150-million investment in immersive learning to train the next generation of creators”(Meta).

While this new business venture for Meta is exciting, it may not happen. Early this year, a judge allowed for the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to continue with their lawsuit to disband Meta. The FTC believes that Meta is making the market anti-competitive by crushing or buying out their competitors. The Guardian states, “The FTC, under the new chair, Lina Khan, wants to force Meta to sell its photo-sharing app Instagram and its messaging service WhatsApp…”(The Guardian). This decision would bring competition back to the market and Meta would be in compliance with the FTC’s regulations.

This isn’t the first time that Zukerberg would be in hot water with the FTC. In 2020, Facebook was sued for, “…illegally maintaining its personal social networking monopoly through a years-long course of anticompetitive conduct”(Federal Trade Commission). Facebook was forced to pay $5 billion for its unlawful practices. As of 2022, Meta is estimated to be worth $930 billion (The Guardian); this fine means nothing to Meta. Some believe that since the fine wasn’t substantial enough it didn’t affect Meta to make huge changes. Do you think this lawsuit will affect Meta in any way? Do you think Meta will get away with their anti-competitive conduct?

Sources:
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/jan/12/lawsuit-aiming-to-break-up-facebook-group-meta-can-go-ahead-us-court-rules

Introducing Meta: A Social Technology Company

https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2019/07/ftc-imposes-5-billion-penalty-sweeping-new-privacy-restrictions
https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2020/12/ftc-sues-facebook-illegal-monopolization

Over the past couple of years, Netflix has been in heat for the constant increase in the price of their standard plan. In just 3 years their standard plan went from $11 to $15.49. This change could be justified if it included more access to content, but it does not, all plans, Basic, Standard, and Premium, all have access to “unlimited, movies, TV shows and mobile games”. The only benefit of choosing the standard plan over the basic plan is that you can use 2 screens to watch content at the same time and HD is available. Also, there isn’t a huge benefit to subscribing to their Premium Plan either. Instead of 2 screens, it becomes 4 and you get access to UltraHD.

Another reason why Netflix’s increase in price is not justified is that it cannot compete with other streaming provides. Take HBO MAX or Disney Plus for example, since HBO is a part of Warner Brothers and Disney is a part of Pixar, subscribers are able to get access to movies that were also released in theaters. Plus, HBO Max and Disney Plus are cheaper than Netflix; $14.99 and $8.00 respectively.

In truth, if Netflix wants to keep their audience, they need to slow down with the price increase or release more shows and quality content.

Sources:
https://www.theverge.com/2022/1/14/22884263/netflix-price-increases-2021-us-canada-all-plans-hd-4k
https://help.netflix.com/en/node/24926