United News of Bangladesh

Renowned filmmaker Vicky Zahed recently teamed up with vivo to creatively showcase the futuristic concept X70 Pro 5G has to offer. Together with vivo, he created the short film "A Happy Man," shot entirely on the X70 Pro 5G. Making the best use of various shooting techniques like pan, dolly, tilt, and zoom, it depicts the life of an ordinary man who loses his job and finds joy in the little things life has to offer. The story highlights various aspects of a man's life, including his responsibilities towards family, work, and society. Read Vivo iQOO Z6 Review: The Budget Vivo for Camera Enthusiasts Starring Khairul Basar and Rukaia Jahan Chamak, the film was broadcast on five leading television channels along with vivo's official Facebook page. Vicky encouraged young filmmakers to experiment with filmmaking techniques using capable smartphone cameras like the ones on the X70 Pro 5G as they offer more flexibility and help users discover new ideas and novel ways of shooting. The smartphone features an Ultra-Sensing Gimbal Camera, which uses a vivo-customised version of the Sony IMX766V sensor for improved low-light performance. Read Vivo redefines smartphone charging capabilities through Fast Charge Technology With the inculcation of the new and improved Gimbal Stabilisation 3.0, the camera delivers a fast, accurate focus for steady videos in dynamic motion, no matter how challenging the lighting conditions are. The gimbal stabilisation can be best used with VIS 5-Axis Ultra Stable Video in X70 Pro 5G, which supports video stabilisation with 5 axes, making video creation fun and easy. This breakthrough innovation integrates enhanced OIS with EIS to transition the X/Y-axis with Z-axis rotation for better stability. It combines the gimbal camera with an improved stabilisation angle to capture faraway subjects and stabilise frame size by cropping and shrinking (keeping the original frame size wider). Read Vivo brings Baishakhi offers ahead of Pahela Baishakh Also, the Pro Cinematic Mode of X70 Pro 5G maximises the control and adjustment of various parameters, allowing users to shoot cinematic-grade professional videos with higher controllability.

The Facebook Papers project represents a unique collaboration among 17 American news organizations, including The Associated Press. Journalists from a variety of newsrooms, large and small, worked together to gain access to thousands of pages of internal company documents obtained by Frances Haugen, the former Facebook product manager-turned-whistleblower. A separate consortium of European news outlets had access to the same set of documents, and members of both groups began publishing content related to their analysis of the materials at 7 a.m. EDT on Monday, Oct. 25. That date and time was set by the partner news organizations to give everyone in the consortium an opportunity to fully analyze the documents, report out relevant details, and to give Facebook’s public relations staff ample time to respond to questions and inquiries raised by that reporting. Each member of the consortium pursued its own independent reporting on the document contents and their significance. Every member also had the opportunity to attend group briefings to gain information and context about the documents. Also read: In the middle of a crisis, Facebook Inc. renames itself Meta The launch of The Facebook Papers project follows similar reporting by The Wall Street Journal, sourced from the same documents, as well as Haugen’s appearance on the CBS television show “60 Minutes” and her Oct. 5 Capitol Hill testimony before a U.S. Senate subcommittee. The papers themselves are redacted versions of disclosures that Haugen has made over several months to the Securities and Exchange Commission, alleging Facebook was prioritizing profits over safety and hiding its own research from investors and the public. Also read: Facebook froze as anti-vaccine comments swarmed users These complaints cover a range of topics, from its efforts to continue growing its audience, to how its platforms might harm children, to its alleged role in inciting political violence. The same redacted versions of those filings are being provided to members of Congress as part of its investigation. And that process continues as Haugen’s legal team goes through the process of redacting the SEC filings by removing the names of Facebook users and lower-level employees and turns them over to Congress. The Facebook Papers consortium will continue to report on these documents as more become available in the coming days and weeks.

Like many companies in trouble before it, Facebook is changing its name and logo. Facebook Inc. is now called Meta Platforms Inc., or Meta for short, to reflect what CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Thursday is its commitment to developing the new surround-yourself technology known as the “ metaverse.” But the social network itself will still be called Facebook. Also unchanged, at least for now, are its chief executive and senior leadership, its corporate structure and the crisis that has enveloped the company. Skeptics immediately accused the company of trying to change the subject from the Facebook Papers, the trove of leaked documents that have plunged it into the biggest crisis since it was founded in Zuckerberg's Harvard dorm room 17 years ago. The documents portray Facebook as putting profits ahead of ridding its platform of hate, political strife and misinformation around the world. Also read: Facebook froze as anti-vaccine comments swarmed users The move reminded marketing consultant Laura Ries of when energy company BP rebranded itself to “Beyond Petroleum” to escape criticism that the oil giant harmed the environment. “Facebook is the world’s social media platform, and they are being accused of creating something that is harmful to people and society,” she said. “They can’t walk away from the social network with a new corporate name and talk of a future metaverse.” Facebook the app is not changing its name. Nor are Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger. The company’s corporate structure also won’t change. But on Dec. 1, its stock will start trading under a new ticker symbol, MVRS. The metaverse is sort of the internet brought to life, or at least rendered in 3D. Zuckerberg has described it as a “virtual environment” you can go inside of, instead of just looking at on a screen. People can meet, work and play, using virtual reality headsets, augmented reality glasses, smartphone apps or other devices. Also read: Facebook dithered in curbing divisive user content in India It also will incorporate other aspects of online life such as shopping and social media, according to Victoria Petrock, an analyst who follows emerging technologies.   Zuckerberg’s foray into virtual reality has drawn some comparisons to fellow tech billionaires’ outer space adventures and jokes that perhaps it's understandable he would want to escape his current reality amid calls for his resignation and increasing scrutiny of the company. On Monday, Zuckerberg announced a new segment for Facebook that will begin reporting its financial results separately from the company’s Family of Apps segment starting in the final quarter of this year. The entity, Reality Labs, will reduce Facebook’s overall operating profit by about $10 billion this year, the company said. Other tech companies such as Microsoft, chipmaker Nvidia and Fortnite maker Epic Games have all been outlining their own visions of how the metaverse will work. Zuckerberg said that he expects the metaverse to reach a billion people within the next decade and that he hopes the new technology will creates millions of jobs for creators. The announcement comes amid heightened legislative and regulatory scrutiny of Facebook in many parts of the world because of the Facebook Papers. A corporate rebranding isn't likely to solve the myriad problems revealed by the internal documents or quiet the alarms that critics have been raising for years about the harm the company's products are causing to society. Zuckerberg, for his part, has largely dismissed the furor triggered by the Facebook Papers as unfair. In an interesting twist, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the philanthropic organization run by Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, bought a Canadian scientific literature analysis company called Meta in 2017. By Thursday afternoon, though, its website Meta.org announced that it will “sunset" at the end of March. The Meta.com domain, meanwhile, redirected to the former Facebook's rebranded corporate site. At headquarters in Menlo Park, California, the iconic thumbs up sign that has long been outside was repainted to a blue, pretzel-shape logo resembling an infinity symbol. Some of Facebook’s biggest critics seemed unimpressed by the name change. The Real Facebook Oversight Board, a watchdog group focused on the company, announced that it will keep its name. “Changing their name doesn’t change reality: Facebook is destroying our democracy and is the world’s leading peddler of disinformation and hate," the group said in a statement. "Their meaningless name change should not distract from the investigation, regulation and real, independent oversight needed to hold Facebook accountable.” In explaining the rebrand, Zuckerberg said the name Facebook no longer encompasses everything the company does. In addition to the social network, that now includes Instagram, Messenger, its Quest VR headset, its Horizon VR platform and more. “Today we are seen as a social media company,” Zuckerberg said. “But in our DNA we are a company that builds technology to connect people.”

Global tech brand Oppo and the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA) recently announced that it will take up a position on the Alliance's board of directors with immediate effect. As part of its new role, Oppo will become a core member of the Alliance, where it will take a leading role in the development of industry-unifying Internet of Things (IoT) connectivity protocol, Matter, and lead the promotion of the protocol in China. Developed and maintained by the CSA, Matter is the foundation for connected things, offering a simplified user experience for connecting different IoT devices. Read: OPPO launches all-new ColorOS 12 operating system "We are delighted and honoured to join the CSA board of directors to drive the development of Matter and create enhanced user experiences for our IoT products," said Neil Yang, director of the standards research department at Oppo. "Together with the CSA and its members, we will shape the future of the IoT alongside our commitment to building IoT products that deliver better services to all users." "With Oppo on our board of directors, the unprecedented collaboration between our two sides will be a driving force in our mission to build a more intuitive, imaginative, and useful world," said Tobin Richardson, president and CEO of CSA. Read: OPPO kicks off campaign “Dream to the World Cup, Buy OPPO & Win Trip to Dubai” Formerly known as the Zigbee Alliance, the CSA was established in 2002. As the foundation and future of the IoT, its wide-ranging global membership is made up of over 400 companies and 22 board members. For almost two decades, the CSA members have been working together to simplify and increase compatibility in the IoT through technology standards. Among these, Matter is a unified and secure IP-based connectivity protocol built on proven technologies, helping connect and build a reliable, secure IoT ecosystem, and achieve seamless connectivity among a wide range of smart devices. Read Huawei recognised 2022 Gartner Peer Insights Customers' Choice for 3rd straight year

Youth-centric technology brand realme recently broke into the top six smartphone vendors in the global rankings, according to the latest market insight from Counterpoint Research. It has also become one of the top smartphone makers in Bangladesh, according to Tim Shao, managing director of realme Bangladesh, who recently opened up about realme's growth, strategy and future plans in a candid conversation with UNB. Talking about realme's recent success, Shao said, "As a company we believe in the adage 'Dare to Leap.' We always embrace youth and youthful ideals. That’s why, we have a very young and vibrant team who are always in pursuit of exploring cutting-edge technology for our millions of young users." Read: Realme GT Master Edition at 12-month EMI facility in Daraz Speaking on the firm’s knack for innovation, he said, “Bringing the latest innovations for its users, realme was one of the first brands to introduce the 125W UltraDart charging technology, and phones equipped with the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 processor. Our phones were one of the first in the world with a 64-megapixel camera. realme was the first to introduce concave vegan leather, brought together with light and matte materials in one design.” “Moreover, realme has a strategy of using the asset-light, short channel business models so that we can reach customers of different age groups and status. For example – we have inked different deals with e-commerce sites of Bangladesh so that they can get our smartphones at the best possible price.” Predicting the market trends for the next two or three years, Shao said that realme has observed that the modern smartphone users are very tech-conscious and want to experience cutting-edge technology, which is why the premium segment market will boom in the next two or three years. Read Realme becomes the first brand to update GT to Android 12 “In accordance with that, realme is going to plough its revenue back into innovation, beginning initially with the GT series, which will be the only flagship product line for realme in the future. Moreover, realme has introduced a new lifestyle brand ‘TechLife’ to accommodate emerging technologies (5G) and top-notch AIoT  (AI + Internet of Things) products,” Shao said. The company’s international expansion efforts continue unabated, but Bangladesh is already established as one of its leading markets. Shao plans to keep it that way.   “We embarked on a journey in Bangladesh in February 2020. realme is now focused on the Bangladeshi smartphone ecosystem. Our core markets are mainly located in Southeast Asia, India and Bangladesh, all of which are maintaining high growth rates. We want to ship 300 million handsets by 2023,” he said.   Read: realme UI 3.0: What's New and Eligible Phones Speaking on realme’s flat company structure which created a focused team of young people and plans for maintaining this culture as it grows bigger, Shao said, “We have a team of young people who truly understand the needs of young people and are bold enough to disrupt the status quo and make innovations.” Asked to reflect on how realme seeks to meet the needs of the consumers, he said, “Our strategy is youth-focused and we always listen to them and design our products in accordance with their preferences. Consequently, already 100 million youths around the world have chosen realme, including the youths in the Bangladeshi market.”   The brand has branched out from smartphones to being a lifestyle brand, selling both smartphones and AIoT products using the ‘1+5+T’ strategy. Regarding this strategy and sales response, he said, “AloT adoption and popularisation is a part of our long-term strategy. Under this new strategy, we will be releasing products in 5 categories - smart TVs, laptops, wearables, smart tablets, and smart earphones. These new lines of products will enrich the entire AIoT ecosystem and provide consumers with more choices for a tech trendsetter's lifestyle.” Read Realme launches flagship killer GT Master Edition, C21Y, C11 2021 , 4 AIoT products On popularising 5G for the youth and young professionals, market and the role 5G is set to play for the next generation of digital natives, Shao said, “There will be mass adoption pf 5G later this year, and it is here to stay. realme wants to establish itself as a populariser of 5G in the Bangladeshi market. So, realme is developing a diverse portfolio of 5G products to offer 100 million 5G phones in the next three years to the young users.”

Chinese telecom giant Huawei announced the expansion of its partner network at the virtual APAC Partner Summit 2021 recently. The company has teamed up with Horangi, ZIONEXT, USEA Global, Advocado, 4Paradigm, YonYou, and Cloudwise. Huawei Cloud is a leading cloud service provider, which brings the company's 30-plus years of expertise together in ICT infrastructure products and solutions. Read Huawei to invest $50 million to develop 500,000 digital talents in Asia-Pacific This entity has also been cultivating industrial digital transformations with its platform and ecosystem, focusing on government institutions, the financial services industry, logistics and energy, and even media organisations. Speaking at the event, Zeng Xingyun, president of Huawei Cloud's APAC Ecosystem, said the company's two-pronged technology and customer-focused strategy has put the brand in the top five cloud infrastructure as a service provider globally and within the top four in Asia Pacific's emerging markets. A new partnership with a cybersecurity firm, Horangi enables the delivery of turnkey cloud security solutions on Huawei Cloud powered by Warden, Horangi's flagship Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) application. Read 1035km Laos-China railway launched with Huawei's 5G technology, smart railway solution ZIONEXT and Huawei Cloud will jointly develop new products and services in the digital learning and teaching space. Based on ZIONEXT's cloud-based learning management platform and applications, the pair will jointly market new products and services globally, particularly in the Indo-Pacific and Central Asia region. USEA Global, Advocado, 4Paradigm, and YonYou will develop a smart retail initiative to drive digital transformation among brick-and-mortar stores. The initiative is a launchpad for Singapore's retail industry revolution. This new sandbox will allow retailers to participate in multiple proofs of concepts, using the island as a hub for intelligent retail solutions. Cloudwise Digital Operational Central Platform delivered in the SaaS model on Huawei Cloud. Both companies aim to drive and offer best practices leveraging big data, AI and IoT technology and provide multi-dimensional viewpoints for enterprises. Read 5G rollout: Teletalk ties up with Huawei

Huawei has recently announced the expansion of its partner network through several new collaborations at the virtual APAC Partner Summit 2021. The new collaborations will be started with Horangi, ZIONEXT, USEA Global, Advocado, 4Paradigm, YonYou, and Cloudwise. Zeng Xingyun, President of Huawei Cloud’s APAC Ecosystem, said the company’s two-pronged technology and customer-focused strategy has put the brand in the top five cloud Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) providers globally and within the top four in Asia Pacific’s emerging markets. Read Huawei renews cyber security cooperation MoU with Indonesia Under these collaborations, a new partnership with a cybersecurity firm, Horangi enables the delivery of turnkey cloud security solutions on Huawei Cloud powered by Warden, Horangi’s flagship Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) application. Warden’s infrastructure security rules, delivery of Identity and Access Management (IAM) best practices, and threat detection capabilities can vastly improve the cyber-risk posture of organizations on Huawei Cloud. ZIONEXT and Huawei Cloud will jointly develop new products and services in the digital learning and teaching space. Based on ZIONEXT’s cloud-based learning management platform and applications, the pair will jointly market new products and services globally, particularly in the Indo-Pacific and Central Asia region. USEA Global, Advocado, 4Paradigm, and YonYou; this quintuple of international players will develop a Smart Retail Initiative to drive digital transformation among brick-and-mortar stores. The initiative is a launchpad for Singapore’s retail industry revolution. This new sandbox will allow retailers to participate in multiple proofs of concepts, using the island as a hub for intelligent retail solutions. Read XR services, B2B market, low-carbon development to drive 5G growth: Huawei Cloudwise Digital Operational Central Platform delivered in the SaaS model on Huawei Cloud. Both companies aim to drive and offer best practices leveraging big data, AI & IoT technology and provide multi-dimensional viewpoints for enterprises.

Grameenphone has signed an agreement with D24 Logistics Ltd for certain inventory & delivery management and archiving & disposal management. A signing ceremony in this regard was held at GPHouse on Tuesday. Grameenphone has teamed up with D24 Logistics to ensure that the mobile network operator’s inventory, delivery, archival, and disposal management are streamlined to attain optimum growth. Read Grameenphone reports 4.4% revenue growth in Q1 2022 The announcement has been made as a continuation of promoting former employee-led startups from Grameenphone. Earlier the company also supported two startups ReCom and VX Services Ltd, which were also incorporated by former GP employees, said a media release. Syed Tanvir Husain, CHRO of Grameenphone said, “At Grameenphone, we are keen to learn future skills and adapt lean operating model. I believe this new startup; their lean operating model and agile ways of work will help us run logistics operations smartly and efficiently. For delivering on customers’ expectation, we look forward to working together with a shared vision by best utilizing new ways of work.” Md Ziaul Karim, Managing Director of D24 Logistics said, “Our advanced capabilities and high-tech operating model shall help Grameenphone in meeting customers’ ever-increasing demands under a future-ready logistics service infrastructure”. Read Hans Martin new Grameenphone chief corporate affairs officer

It is said that an image can say a thousand words. Infographic is a special kind of image that represents information through various types of graphs and charts. Many of you may already be familiar with the 'infographic' term, while many of you have just heard it today. Infographics give the opportunity to share information and connect with the world through interesting visuals that represent a piece of detailed information on something. However, creating an eye-catching infographic is time-consuming and pricey. But there are some tools and websites to build beautiful infographics for free, which we will get to know from this article. What is Infographic? What are the types of infographics? Infographic is the graphical representation of a subject with information that combines texts too. Using an infographic, a descriptive subject or information can be beautifully presented through just one picture. In other words, an infographic is a picture that presents the words of the mind in a simple way. While a regular image is just an image to look at, the infographic explains a whole lot of stuff through the image. Although the infographic was mostly used for journalistic presentation in newspapers, it has expanded its uses over the years. Now there are mainly nine types of infographics used, which include statistical, informational, timeline, process, geographic, comparison, list, hierarchical, and resume infographics. Read Top Online Proof-reading and Editing Tools in 2021 Statistical infographic mainly visualizes and compares the survey results from multiple sources. If you want to present a specialized concept or new communicating concept or even provide an overview of a topic, the informational infographic will come in handy. For the historical visualization, a timeline infographic is best that highlights important dates or provides an overview of an event. If you want to present a step-by-step process or guide, the process infographic will help you out. If anyone wants to visualize demography or location-based data, a geographic infographic is a savior to represent a large quantity of data. Many people face a problem when they need to choose something from multiple options; a comparison infographic will help them to choose the right thing. Nevertheless, for people who want to share some tips or lots of resources, a list infographic will be a perfect choice. Read 10 Best Free Online Grammar, Punctuation Checker Tools In 2021 Finally, the infographic resume is the current trend in the job market. This can help the interview to take a glance at important points with no effort. Benefits of Infographic Although infographics are believed to have been introduced around 25,000 years ago but got popular in the 1970s. Since then, it has been providing immense benefits to the journalist and marketing personnel. Nowadays, people like to read infographics while they are reading articles too. People from any profession can give a presentation in a short period of time using the image that has information. For example, you have to give a presentation about your company or any other topic at a big event, and the time is only 1 (one) minute. What will you do then? Surely you can't make a presentation by making 15 or 20 slides? And to accomplish the task in one minute, you will not be able to say the main points in 1 minute to attract the attention of the audience. But you can present this work beautifully with just one infographic photo. Surely now you understand the benefit of an infographic. Read Free Online Basic Programming Courses for Beginners Furthermore, presentations provided through infographics are remembered for a long time, and the main points can be easily explained. Top free software to create infographics for research, business or academic purpose As we have mentioned earlier, infographics are time-consuming and require some premium tools to make. But there is some free software that is even online, which can help to build a decent infographic. Adobe Spark It is a design tool that allows creating posters, webpage and videos using computer or iOS devices. It is very simple to use, and any newbie can master it on the first day. They have professional templates to create posters and flyers with no effort at all. Read Free Online Content Writing Courses in 2021

The term “metaverse” seems to be everywhere. Facebook is hiring thousands of engineers in Europe to work on it, while video game companies are outlining their long-term visions for what some consider the next big thing online. The metaverse, which could spring up again when Facebook releases earnings Monday, is the latest buzzword to capture the tech industry’s imagination. It could be the future, or it could be the latest grandiose vision by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg that doesn’t turn out as expected or isn’t widely adopted for years — if at all. Plus, many have concerns about a new online world tied to a social media giant that could get access to even more personal data and is accused of failing to stop harmful content. Here’s what this online world is all about: Think of it as the internet brought to life, or at least rendered in 3D. Zuckerberg has described it as a “virtual environment” you can go inside of — instead of just looking at on a screen. Essentially, it’s a world of endless, interconnected virtual communities where people can meet, work and play, using virtual reality headsets, augmented reality glasses, smartphone apps or other devices. It also will incorporate other aspects of online life such as shopping and social media, according to Victoria Petrock, an analyst who follows emerging technologies. “It’s the next evolution of connectivity where all of those things start to come together in a seamless, doppelganger universe, so you’re living your virtual life the same way you’re living your physical life,” she said. But keep in mind that “it’s hard to define a label to something that hasn’t been created,” said Tuong Nguyen, an analyst who tracks immersive technologies for research firm Gartner. Facebook warned it would take 10 to 15 years to develop responsible products for the metaverse, a term coined by writer Neal Stephenson for his 1992 science fiction novel “Snow Crash.” WHAT WILL I BE ABLE TO DO IN THE METAVERSE? Things like go to a virtual concert, take a trip online, and buy and try on digital clothing. The metaverse also could be a game-changer for the work-from-home shift amid the coronavirus pandemic. Instead of seeing co-workers on a video call grid, employees could see them virtually. Facebook has launched meeting software for companies, called Horizon Workrooms, to use with its Oculus VR headsets, though early reviews have not been great. The headsets cost $300 or more, putting the metaverse’s most cutting-edge experiences out of reach for many. For those who can afford it, users would be able, through their avatars, to flit between virtual worlds created by different companies. “A lot of the metaverse experience is going to be around being able to teleport from one experience to another,” Zuckerberg says. Tech companies still have to figure out how to connect their online platforms to each other. Making it work will require competing technology platforms to agree on a set of standards, so there aren’t “people in the Facebook metaverse and other people in the Microsoft metaverse,” Petrock said. IS FACEBOOK GOING ALL IN ON THE METAVERSE? Indeed, Zuckerberg is going big on what he sees as the next generation of the internet because he thinks it’s going to be a big part of the digital economy. He expects people to start seeing Facebook as a metaverse company in coming years rather than a social media company. A report by tech news site The Verge said Zuckerberg is looking at using Facebook’s annual virtual reality conference this coming week to announce a corporate name change, putting legacy apps like Facebook and Instagram under a metaverse-focused parent company. Facebook hasn’t commented on the report. Critics wonder if the potential pivot could be an effort to distract from the company’s crises, including antitrust crackdowns, testimony by whistleblowing former employees and concerns about its handling of misinformation. Former employee Frances Haugen, who accused Facebook’s platforms of harming children and inciting political violence, plans to testify Monday before a United Kingdom parliamentary committee looking to pass online safety legislation. IS THE METAVERSE JUST A FACEBOOK PROJECT? No. Zuckerberg has acknowledged that “no one company” will build the metaverse by itself. Just because Facebook is making a big deal about the metaverse doesn’t mean that it or another tech giant will dominate the space, Nguyen said. “There are also a lot of startups that could be potential competitors,” he said. “There are new technologies and trends and applications that we’ve yet to discover.” Video game companies also are taking a leading role. Epic Games, the company behind the popular Fortnite video game, has raised $1 billion from investors to help with its long-term plans for building the metaverse. Game platform Roblox is another big player, outlining its vision of the metaverse as a place where “people can come together within millions of 3D experiences to learn, work, play, create and socialize.” Consumer brands are getting in on it, too. Italian fashion house Gucci collaborated in June with Roblox to sell a collection of digital-only accessories. Coca-Cola and Clinique have sold digital tokens pitched as a stepping stone to the metaverse. Zuckerberg’s embrace of the metaverse in some ways contradicts a central tenet of its biggest enthusiasts. They envision the metaverse as online culture’s liberation from tech platforms like Facebook that assumed ownership of people’s accounts, photos, posts and playlists and traded off what they gleaned from that data. “We want to be able to move around the internet with ease, but we also want to be able to move around the internet in a way we’re not tracked and monitored,” said venture capitalist Steve Jang, a managing partner at Kindred Ventures who focuses on cryptocurrency technology. WILL THIS BE ANOTHER WAY TO GET MORE OF MY DATA? It seems clear that Facebook wants to carry its business model, which is based on using personal data to sell targeted advertising, into the metaverse. “Ads are going to continue being an important part of the strategy across the social media parts of what we do, and it will probably be a meaningful part of the metaverse, too,” Zuckerberg said in the company’s most recent earnings call. That raises fresh privacy concerns, Nguyen said, involving “all the issues that we have today, and then some we’ve yet to discover because we’re still figuring out what the metaverse will do.” Petrock she said she’s concerned about Facebook trying to lead the way into a virtual world that could require even more personal data and offer greater potential for abuse and misinformation when it hasn’t fixed those problems in its current platforms. “I don’t think they fully thought through all the pitfalls,” she said. “I worry they’re not necessarily thinking through all the privacy implications of the metaverse.”