Business, Financial & Legal News - Page 4

Google has made some changes to its policies regarding Gmail accounts, and the newly updated policy may put your Gmail account at risk of being deleted.

A new report from 9to5Google recounts a policy change that Google made in 2020 when it stated it would remove content from any Google account that hasn't been accessed in two years. Notably, this 2020 policy change outlined that Google would keep the account available for use but would remove the content attached to it.

However, that is about to change as Google has announced that any Google Account that hasn't been signed into for at least 2 years will be deleted, along with its contents and email address. The contents that would be deleted would be Gmail messages, Calendar events, Drive, Docs, Workspace files, and Google Photos backups. Notably, Google won't be removing any YouTube videos attached to Google accounts as some of those videos could have historical significance.

A letter sent by Twitter to affected users has revealed the platform experienced a glitch or, more accurately described as a "security incident" that leaked private tweets to the public.

The security incident can be traced back to Twitter Circles, a feature on the platform that enables users to select followers to join a private group where they can share tweets and other exclusive content. Twitter Circle is designed to be a private group of users that share exclusive content that doesn't or shouldn't, appear on Twitter's homepage. However, that very premise of the feature was undermined in early April when users began noticing followers that weren't in their Twitter Circle interacting with posts within their exclusive group.

In an email from Twitter obtained by Fortune, the platform explains that this security flaw enabled users that weren't within a Twitter Circle to see some content that was posted within it, presumably from Twitter's homepage. As you can probably imagine, Twitter Circle users were immediately concerned about the privacy of their Twitter Circle group, with one user even proving the security flaw in early April by posting screenshots of users liking his Twitter Circle's tweets that weren't a part of his Twitter Circle.

Tesla, SpaceX, and Twitter CEO Elon Musk has tested out an old Twitter feature in front of his nearly 140 million followers.

Musk began a Twitter livestream from what appears to be Twitter HQ in San Francisco, and the Tesla CEO can be seen laughing at the quality of the livestream, the fact that people are able to see him, and that "hearts" kept appearing on the screen, presumably people liking the livestream. Musk can also be heard explaining to the viewers that they are simply testing out Twitter's livestreaming feature and identifying areas of improvement, such as the resolution.

Musk goes on to say that despite the resolution, the feature "works," which is quickly followed up by a Twitter staff member saying the livestream is using code from Periscope. Notably, Twitter acquired Periscope in 2015, and much of the popular apps' video/streaming code was integrated into Twitter. According to Musk's fellow Twitter engineers, this code has never been updated, and given the quality of the livestream, that seems to be true.

CEO of Meta, Mark Zuckerberg, was at home on parental leave following the birth of his third child when Meta made its latest round of mass layoffs.

Facebook, along with its parent company Meta has been going through multiple rounds of mass layoffs in an effort to reduce running costs amid declining revenue. Meta began handing out pink slips to employees on April 19 that informed them that their position was no longer needed. Individuals familiar with the matter informed The Washington Post that an internal analysis estimated the company could lay off as many as 4,000 workers on April 19.

This figure was confirmed by people that were on a call with Mark Zuckerberg while he was at home on parental leave. Notably, the call with Zuckerberg isn't a free-for-all as the questions Zuckerberg answers are submitted by employees, and then the most popular ones are selected for a response by the CEO. The most recent call with Zuckerberg focused on questions about further layoffs and why senior management and executives were receiving even larger bonuses than last year when the company is going through a massive layoff period.

Twitter's owner Elon Musk has shifted gears from discussing Twitter's legacy blue checkmark fiasco to promoting his social media platform's revised Creator Subscription Program.

The social media platform calls the new feature "Subscriptions" and enables creators to opt in to subscribing directly to a specific creator in return for exclusive access to bonus content, exclusive previews, tweets, subscriber-only Twitter Spaces, and other perks. Essentially, Subscriptions are very similar to Only Fans, or Patreon, in the sense that fans are able to directly support their favorite creators in return for exclusive content, features, experiences, etc.

To promote Twitter's new way to support creators on its platform, Twitter owner Elon Musk took to his personal Twitter account with a screenshot of his account UI. The screenshot showed he is following 240 accounts, has 136.4 million followers, and has 24,700 paying subscribers. Navigating to Musk's subscription option on his account, it can be seen that he charges $4 for exclusive access to "this and that". A calculation of 24,700 x $4 gives us an approximate figure on how much Musk is making from his Twitter subscribers, which is just shy of $100,000 per month at $98,800/month.

In a move to make Twitter's verification checkmark a purchasable verification aesthetic, Twitter has gone ahead and removed blue checkmarks from accounts that were given them before Elon Musk took over the company in October 2022.

These blue checkmarks were given to accounts that went through Twitter's now-legacy verification system, which Twitter's CEO, Elon Musk, calls "deeply corrupted" and caused a "lord & peasants" system. Prior to Musk's takeover, accounts that were given blue checkmarks were typically journalists, celebrities, public figures, organizations, politicians, and any other account that applied, met Twitter's stringent guidelines, and passed an independent verification review.

Twitter announced on April 20 that it would be removing all legacy blue checkmarks and referred any account that previously had a blue checkmark to the Twitter Blue signup page, where the user would have to pay $8 a month to reacquire it. Many celebrities such as Bill Gates, Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga, Selena Gomez, Kim Kardashian, Kylie Jenner, Shark Tank star Barbara Corcoran, Doja Cat, and more have lost their legacy blue checkmark.

Twitter, SpaceX, and Tesla CEO Elon Musk has sat down for an exclusive interview with the BBC, where he revealed some details about his acquisition of Twitter.

The Twitter CEO sat down for an interview last week where he made some honest confessions about some of his recent business ventures, as well as putting some long-standing rumors to rest. Musk revealed during the interview that the acquisition of Twitter and now being at the helm of the company has been "quite painful" and an overall "rollercoaster" of an experience. The tech billionaire conceded that he doesn't "have a stone-cold heart" and that he's been "under constant attack".

Musk added that this "constant criticism" is arriving to him in various forms, either through the media and/or regurgitated on Twitter. Musk described his situation and this constant criticism as "rough". Despite these challenges, Musk said that he still keeps his Twitter replies open to read the public's comments and has completely removed his entire block list. If Musk is telling the truth here, and we have no reason to believe otherwise, the Twitter CEO has left himself completely exposed to all forms of criticism, which speaks to his overall push for more freedom of speech on his platform.

Twitter is once again experiencing what appears to be a major problem as users are reporting their secret nude photographs are appearing in the public For You tab.

New Yor Times best-selling author Abraham Josephine Riesman took to Twitter to sound the alarm on nude photos appearing in Twitter's For You tab by writing that Twitter Circles "is broken" as Riesman noticed an account that they don't follow like one of their nudes they posted in a Twitter Circles. As you can probably imagine, Riesman wasn't alone in experiencing this glitch, as more users began reporting the same problem happening to them over the weekend.

Daric L. Cottingham took to her personal Twitter account to write that Twitter Circles is "no longer private" and that she hopes the glitch isn't retroactive. Cottingham continued and said that some of the leaked nudes are appearing in users' For You tab through a mutual follower of an account that likes a Twitter Circles photograph. Accounts that are posting these Twitter Circle nudes only know what tweets are slipping through by which ones that are liked by accounts they aren't following.

A part of Twitter's source code was uploaded to GitHub on Friday last week, and immediately the public began diving through the files.

The revealed code suggested that Twitter's algorithm would identify tweets by Elon Musk and label tweets by other users as "Democrat", "Republican," or "power user". The portion of the code that revealed these details has since been removed from GitHub, but a screenshot of it can be found above. Twitter CEO Elon Musk appeared in a Twitter Spaces call to address these concerns of his name being hardcoded into Twitter's algorithm, saying that he found it "weird" and that "This is the first time I'm learning of this by the way."

During the Twitter Spaces call, Twitter engineer Brian Wichers explained that these categories or labels were implemented into the algorithm about 10 years ago, and they are not a valuable variable throughout the entire code base. The point of the labeling not being an important factor throughout the entire code base was backed up by another Twitter engineer on the call, who said that these categories were only used for tracking purposes to identify if the platform was swaying too far towards one side.

Earlier this year, we reported that cost-cutting measures at Google went beyond things like cutting thousands of jobs, with employees set to share desks in the company's Cloud division. "Most Googlers will now share a desk with one other Googler," wrote the internal memo that leaked.

Google's Silicon Valley HQ, now with fewer staplers, image credit: Iwan Baan.

And now CNBC's Jennifer Elias is back with another leaked memo, a companywide note from Google CFO Ruth Porat, outlining more cost-cutting measures.

It's all about cutting costs, ranging from removing staplers and tape from all Google print stations (apparently, you need to go to the reception desk and ask to borrow a stapler if you need one) to fewer offerings when it comes to laptop replacements.