Twitter is under new management and undergoing radical surgery.

A major overhaul of Twitter Blue is just one of Elon Musk’s plans after buying the company on October 28th, 2022.

Currently, 89 percent of Twitter’s revenue comes through advertising. Musk wants it to be less dependent on ad sales and is accelerating its paid subscription and super-app strategy.

However, this will involve you sharing more information with Twitter, including your banking details, which has data privacy implications. So to stay informed, it’s best to ignore the political circus and follow the facts.

Here’s what you need to know.

What is Twitter Blue?

Twitter Blue is an opt-in subscription service that gives you a verified blue checkmark — giving paying users access to new features, like Edit Tweet.

Musk has said that all verified accounts will be “manually authenticated” before receiving their blue tick alongside color-coded ticks for governments (grey) and companies (gold).

While the verification service is currently unavailable due to impersonation issues, when it returns, Twitter Blue subscribers will receive the following benefits:

• Your tweets will go to the top of replies, mentions, and searches. Twitter will also prioritize tweets from subscribers to help fight spam bots.

• Subscribers will see 50% fewer ads than non-subscribers.

• You can post longer videos than non-paying users.

• Chance to set an NFT profile picture.

• Share content with 1080p (Full HD) video.

What does Twitter know about you?

Twitter’s mission was to help people create and share information instantly, without barriers, so user privacy has never been its forte. Unless your profile is private, all your tweets are a public record and searchable forever.

Brass tacks — they want mass engagement and users tweeting as much as possible.

Since it’s free to use (for now, at least), ads currently pay Twitter’s bills. So like other social platforms, Twitter tracks your digital footprint and promotes tailored ads based on your personal information and browsing habits.

Here’s what Twitter knows about you, according to them privacy policy:

• Your username, location, date of birth, joining date, personal website, and even what you look like if you uploaded your face as an avatar

• Your contact information, including email address and phone number

• Any engagement you’ve made with ads, including liking, retweeting, replying, or “publicly engaging with an ad”

How to improve your data privacy on Twitter

Unfortunately, you can’t stop Twitter from tracking you entirely, but you can restrict the information they harvest.

If you’re worried about your data privacy, go to the “Settings and privacy” tab under “Settings”

• Click on “Privacy and safety”
• Scroll down towards “Data sharing and personalization”
• Once there, you’ll be able to opt-out of most things

Under “Ad preferences,” you can turn off “Personalized ads” while switching off “Inferred identity,” which stops them from using your data from other websites and devices.

Also, by unchecking “data sharing with business partners,” you can prevent Twitter from sharing your information with third parties.

Even if you follow these measures, your data is always vulnerable on social media.

In January 2022, a hacker — going by the name “devil” — exploited a vulnerability in Twitter’s system, compiling a list of email addresses and phone numbers linked to 5.4 million user accounts.

The hacker claimed in Breached Forums, a notorious hacking website, that the accounts ranged from “celebrities, companies, randoms, OGs,” and put them up for sale.

While Twitter has since patched its system error, the hacker was asking for no less than $30,000 for his stolen database in July 2022, which is available due to “Twitter’s incompetence.”

Can you trust Twitter Blue with your data?

Since 2006, the platform has collected a treasure trove of information, including email addresses, passwords, and private correspondence, inside its direct-message inboxes.

Twitter’s messaging system currently does not have end-to-end encryption, unlike chat apps WhatsApp or Signal.

With Twitter Blue collecting payment information for its verified subscription services, it must ensure it won’t misplace or misuse your data.

Now you could delete all your DMs, but they will only disappear at your end. The recipient of the conversation will need to delete them too.

If you choose to delete your Twitter account for privacy reasons, they will retain your data for 30 days after you deactivate it, allowing you to restore your account within that time frame.

Protecting your data privacy with a VPN

With a virtual private network, you can enjoy an additional layer of security by hiding your IP address. Twitter and other companies use your IP to track your location and fill your feeds with ads.

Masking your IP protects your Internet freedom as it makes it harder for them to track your location online.

Let’s say you live in Miami, Florida. With a VPN, you can switch your IP to Cancún and use the Internet as if you’re in Mexico.

If you turn on a VPN, your digital footprint will no longer be trackable as your browsing habits are anonymous, making it an excellent privacy tool.

Taking control of your data privacy

Given the changes to Twitter Blue, the platform has an even greater responsibility to protect its user’s data. It would be devastating if your banking details fell into the wrong hands.

Everything is and always will change, and that includes social media companies. Technology companies will always shed their skin to stay relevant and, more importantly, profitable.

While everyone has their views on Musk’s Twitter, there is nothing you can do about it either way.

So you need to decide how much data you’re prepared to give away — and, more importantly, how you can better protect your personal information.

Protect your data privacy for less with FastVPN by Namecheap for only $0.99/1st month. We accept Visa, Mastercard, PayPal, American Express, and Bitcoin.

You may be aware that cPanel adjusts its prices every year, and this includes standardized pricing changes to its licenses for all partners, distributors, and cPanel store customers. It follows that price increases impact hosting providers like Namecheap, and we also need to adjust our pricing accordingly.

Since cPanel now charges separately for cPanel accounts, customers get billed under a tiered-pricing structure (more on that below). At Namecheap, we understand how the new pricing may impact your business, so we’ve done everything possible to minimize the price increase for your hosting plan with us.

Since these changes will affect Namecheap Hosting customers with cPanel accounts, here’s a quick rundown on what to expect.

Shared and Reseller Hosting

Our Shared and Reseller Hosting plans are not affected by the cPanel price changes. Although cPanel price increases also impact these hosting plans, we allow our customers to maintain their current pricing.

VPS and Dedicated Server Hosting

Currently, our VPS and Dedicated Server customers pay an additional fee for each cPanel account they have. We will change the prices for our cPanel tiers in December 2022.

As you will notice in the following tables, the pricing for Solo, cPanel’s lowest tier, is not affected by the changes. So if you are looking to make savings and you don’t have the need for multiple accounts, Solo is the one to go for.

VPS:

Dedicated Servers:

If you’re a Namecheap VPS or Dedicated Hosting customer, now’s your chance to check out InterWorx, the alternative control panel to cPanel. Unlike cPanel, InterWorx does not have any account limits. Prices are fixed at $12.00 per month for VPS customers and $18.00 per month for Dedicated Server customers.

We’re here for you

Rest assured that we’ve done everything to make this new cPanel pricing transition as smooth as possible for our customers. Those affected by the increase in prices will receive an email notification from us with detailed information on their hosting plan. We believe this allows complete transparency in what you can expect to pay per month and avoids any confusion.

And don’t forget to mark your calendars — these pricing changes are set to go into effect for Namecheap customers at the end of December 2022.

If you need additional cPanel accounts in the future or find that you are not making use of your existing accounts, we make it easy to upgrade or downgrade your license. We can also help with the downgrade of your Reseller Hosting account if needed.

If you have any questions or need further clarification, please contact our 24/7 Help Center.

As remote working becomes more common, especially among knowledge workers who sit at computers all day, companies are seeking new ways to keep track of these workers.

New technology, colloquially known as ‘bossware,’ allows supervisors to keep tabs on their workers, ensuring that they are putting in the required hours and remaining productive. However, many workers, as well as privacy and civil rights advocates, see bossware as invasive and unwarranted surveillance and have taken steps to thwart it.

With remote working on the rise, some employers have turned to hardware and software solutions to replace in-person supervisors. According to reporting in the Wall Street Journal, almost two-thirds of American companies with over 1000 employees have introduced some form of worker surveillance.

Common bossware options include keyloggers or mouse-tracking software that tracks when workers are active on their computers. Some employers also require webcams to be on during the day, or they monitor away status in chat apps. Others take regular remote screenshots of employee computer screens, monitor which applications and websites an employee uses, or track who workers contact via email or chat programs.

As the WSJ notes,

“This technological shift is particularly jarring for white-collar workers who have tended to have greater leeway in their work practices than blue-collar workers who have to punch time clocks.”

Making matters worse, most of the surveillance is run by artificial intelligence.

“Employers do have a legitimate interest in monitoring their employees’ work to ensure that they’re productive and efficient,” Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst at the American Civil Liberties Union, tells Slate. However, it’s the AI ​​component that complicates matters and makes the data suspect. As Stanley notes, “AI logic can be opaque. So people are being judged by algorithms.” An AI system, in other words, might record that a worker is not currently typing, but it can’t characterize what that person might actually be doing. Maybe they’re doing research, answering a colleague’s question on Slack, or thinking up a solution to a problem, rather than goofing off. While humans can make these distinctions, AI systems cannot.

Furthermore, as a Microsoft spokesperson told the WSJ, online activity doesn’t necessarily equate to productivity and points out that “organizations should be careful about tracking the wrong kinds of things in order to assess employee performance.” The amount of time that workers spend in front of their computers, or the number of emails they send, does not correlate with their job performance.

Having said all that, it’s worth asking if remote worker productivity is even an issue. Forbes notes that the panic that stay-at-home workers would slack off appears to be unfounded. According to research conducted in 2020 by Mercer, an HR Benefits and Consulting firm, almost all (94%) of the almost 800 companies surveyed said that they did not see a reduction in productivity—or it had actually improved.

Not only may remote worker surveillance be unnecessary, it may actually be counter-productive, leading to lower morale and higher turnover. Organizations such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Center for Democracy and Technology claim that this kind of workplace spyware is invasive and unhealthy, leading to unnecessary fatigue and repetitive motion injuries.

The WSJ quotes two 2020 studies that pointed to the detrimental effects of workplace surveillance. In one survey of 2,100 call center workers, research determined that tracking employees led to lower job satisfaction, which in turn led to higher absenteeism and turnover. Meanwhile, in a survey of 2000 members of the UK’s Trade Union Council, more than half of the respondents stated that bossware systems had undermined the trust between workers and management.

Meanwhile, the US National Labor Review Board wants to review worker surveillance practices, claiming that they may be violating worker rights. Jennifer Abruzzo, general counsel at the NLRB, intends to urge the organization “to protect employees, to the greatest extent possible, from intrusive or abusive electronic monitoring and automated management practices.”

As she states in an October 2022 memo,

“Close, constant surveillance and management through electronic means threaten employees’ basic ability to exercise their rights.”

And the courts are starting to pay attention as well. A remote worker in the Netherlands refused to keep his webcam running. His company, the US-based IT company Chetu, fired him, but as the BBC reports, a Dutch court ruled that his rights had been violated and ordered the company to pay 75,000 euros.

Regardless of political and legal challenges, it seems workers may have the last laugh. Some are turning to hardware and software that helps evade some of the data captures. For example, entrepreneurs have designed creative solutions to some of the surveillance tactics, including fashioning automated mouse movers to mimic online activity. VICE describes how individuals have made primitive mouse movers from LEGOS while others are distributing software on USB drives that tell the computer that the mouse is moving. And as surveillance continues to expand, so too will worker responses to the problem.

What the future holds for these practices is anyone’s guess. Watch this space for more on the subject of remote worker surveillance and bossware, as it’s likely to become a bigger story in 2023.