The U.S. government is leveraging dating apps to promote vaccine adoption, China condemns popular apps for illegal data collection, and Google to discontinue unlimited Photo backup.
It’s all the tech news that’s got people buzzing right now. Hope everyone’s had a good long weekend and welcome to Hashtag Trending! It’s Tuesday, May 25th and I’m your host Tom Li.
Vaccines not only protect you from Covid, but they can also make you more attractive when looking for a partner online. To boost vaccine adoption, the U.S. government is working with dating apps to give jabbed users extra features. According to the Biden administration, vaccinated love-seekers will have free access to features such as Super Likes and be placed higher up on the candidate list. They’ll even get a cool badge on their profile and gain exclusive chat stickers. The administration reached out to Tinder first, but nearly all the major dating apps, including Match, Bumble, and Hinge are rolling out premium content to vaccinated users.
China’s Cyberspace Administration has accused 105 apps of illegal data collection and breach of privacy. The list includes big names both foreign and domestic, including Chinese versions of Microsoft LinkedIn, TikTok, and Tencent. The administration said that it took action after users complained that the apps illegally accessed personal information and over-collected data. China also introduced a new data privacy law on May first, which held apps accountable for gathering data unrelated to their core functions. All 105 apps were given 15 days to amend their data collection methods.
Next up is an important reminder: Google will be discontinuing its unlimited Google Photos storage on June 1st. After that, all pictures uploaded to Google Photos will count towards the 15GB free cloud storage shared across Google accounts. Thankfully, the change is not retroactive, meaning that images currently stored in High or Express quality will not be affected. You can change the upload quality by tapping your profile icon in Google Photos, select “Photos settings” from the drop-down menu, and tap “Backup and sync”.
That’s all the tech news that’s trending right now. Hashtag Trending is a part of the ITWC Podcast network. Add us to your Alexa Flash Briefing or your Google Home daily briefing. Make sure to sign up for our Daily IT Wire Newsletter to get all the news that matters directly in your inbox every day. Don’t forget to also tune in to the next episode of Hashtag Tendances, our weekly Hashtag Trending episode in French, which drops every Friday at 3 pm. Thanks for listening, I’m Tom Li.