What Are Internet Cookies and How They Affect Your Online Experience?

You have definitely seen or heard of online cookies. You are typically greeted with an “accept our cookie terms” message on just about every website you enter. Internet cookies have become an integral part of the modern online experience. Cookies do amazing things like personalizing your browsing experience to tracking your behavior, and they play a crucial role in the way websites work and cater to individuals online. However, despite their widespread use, many people are still unaware of what cookies are, how they work, and how they can affect your online privacy. In this blog post, we’ll take a closer look at internet cookies, their uses, and the impact they can have on your online experience.

A cookie is a small text file that a website stores on your computer or mobile device when you visit it. These files contain information about your visit such as your preferences, login details, and browsing behavior. When you return to the website, your browser sends the cookie back to the server, which uses it to remember your preferences and personalize your experience.

Cookies come in two main types: session cookies and persistent cookies. Session cookies are temporary and are deleted when you close your browser. They are used to remember your browsing history during a single session, such as the items you added to your shopping cart. Persistent cookies, on the other hand, are stored on your device for a longer period, sometimes indefinitely. They can be used to remember your login information, language preferences, and other settings even after you close your browser.

Cookies are used by websites to provide a more personalized browsing experience. They can remember your login details, language preferences, and other settings to make it easier for you to use the website. Cookies can also be used to track your behavior across multiple websites, allowing advertisers to provide more targeted advertising. This may even boil down to the products or photos you see on a particular website. With enough of the right cookies, a large website might be able to recommend products you are most interested in. The use of cookies has become increasingly important for online businesses, as they provide valuable insights into user behavior. By tracking user behavior, websites can identify patterns and trends, which can be used to improve their products and services. This data can also be used to identify potential security threats, such as bots or malicious users.

Cookies themselves are generally safe and cannot harm your computer or mobile device. However, they can raise privacy concerns, as they can be used to track your browsing behavior and occasionally collect personal information. Some cookies may also be used to track your location, which can be a concern for privacy-conscious users. This is why so many people use VPNs today. There are also third-party cookies, which are created by websites other than the one you are visiting. These cookies are often used for advertising purposes, and they can track your behavior across multiple websites. This can be a concern for users who are worried about their online privacy, as it can be difficult to control the use of third-party cookies. These cookies are not being used maliciously, they are primarily for targeted advertising purposes. How you feel about that is up to you!

Most web browsers allow you to control cookies, including blocking or deleting them. However, blocking cookies can affect your online experience, as some websites may not function correctly without cookies enabled. It is recommended that you only block or delete cookies from websites that you do not trust or that you no longer use. You can delete or clear cookies in your browser settings. Many web browsers also provide a feature called private browsing or incognito mode. When you use private browsing, your browser does not store cookies, temporary files, or your browsing history. This can be useful if you are using a shared computer or if you want to browse the internet without leaving a trace (or a cookie crumb trail).

Internet cookies are an essential part of the online experience, and they provide many benefits, such as personalized content and targeted advertising. However, they can also raise privacy concerns, and it is essential to understand how they work and how they can affect your online experience. By managing cookies and being aware of their potential privacy implications, you can enjoy a safer internet while also having a  more personalized online experience. It is important to note that cookies are not inherently good or bad. Like most things, they can be used for both positive and negative purposes, depending on how they are implemented and the intention behind them.

You have definitely seen or heard of online cookies. You are typically greeted with an “accept our cookie terms” message on just about every website you enter. Despite their widespread use, many people are still unaware of what cookies are, how they work, and how they can affect your online privacy. In this blog post, we’ll take a closer look at internet cookies, their uses, and the impact they can have on your online experience.

What Are Cookies?

So let’s talk about doxing – What is it? 

Doxing or doxxing is the act of releasing private information about someone else publicly, without their permission, for everyone else online to see. If you’ve heard the term “dropping docs,” that is what doxxing is about. The intent behind doxing is almost always malicious – it is typically used as an act of revenge to embarrass a targeted victim. It can also sometimes be used as an attack motivated by social justice to expose sensitive information about controversial political figures or shady businesses, or a way to add fire to a current online debate with concrete proof.

Doxing has been around for years, but recently the press shed some light on these attacks as more and more celebrities are getting hacked or doxed such as Kim Kardashian, Cardi B or Donald Trump. A couple weeks ago, Elon Musk, who recently acquired the social network Twitter, announced wanting to eradicate doxing from his platform after he publicly declared he had been allegedly hacked by a journalist.

Doxing can take many different forms, but doxxers often try to gather as much information as possible about someone. Getting access to one piece of personal information typically gives access to more, which is why it is necessary to use safe behavior online and avoid sharing private information about yourself that could be later used by someone with bad intentions. 

What information are doxxers looking for?

Social media is one of the main tools doxxers use to target victims – whether it’s through Facebook, Twitter, Tiktok or any others. Securing your account by going through all available privacy settings and tools to your disposal is essential to keeping your identity private. Doxxers are looking mainly for phone numbers, names, IP addresses, e-mails, home addresses, places of work, family member information, and so on – but it can even go as far as banking information for instance. 

Phishing is one common technique used by doxxers to steal personal information. They basically send suspicious links through DMs, texts or emails. If you click on it, they may be able to gather information such as your IP address, which is also often linked to your device information as well as your current location. Doxxers also may try to befriend you to get you to share personal details such as your phone number or address, so always think twice before sharing any identifying information with another person.

Anyone who releases public information online can be targeted by doxxers. Risks can vary depending on the intent and the type of content shared. For example, private pictures you took of yourself could be made public on social media. Unfortunately, most times people who receive this information will not bother verifying the accuracy of what is shared, which can lead to harassment and have detrimental effects on mental health. Doxxers may even use this information as leverage by threatening or blackmailing in exchange for money or favors. 

Doxing is illegal in the United States, but can depend on the nature of the information gathered. This behavior is extremely hard for authorities to prove actually took place. However, most social media platforms have their own tools to detect and ban doxxers. At Yubo, we believe any form of doxing is cyberbullying or harassment, and it is prohibited from our platform. Anyone who targets another user through doxing on the app may be subject to severe consequences including having their account suspended.

What can you do to protect yourself against doxxers? 

Here is some advice you can take into consideration when creating an account on Yubo, or any other social media platforms, to make sure you are stay safe and protecting your personal information. 

Be careful of what you put in your bio. Do not put your full name, where you live, what school you go to or any other personally identifiable information (PII) that can give clues about your identity or things you don’t want anyone to know. The same rule applies in DMs. As a reminder, on Yubo, every time you are about to share personal information such as your phone number or address, you will receive a pop-up message to make you think twice about sending and also allow you to delete your message if you change your mind. 

Avoid sharing your social media handles. It can seem a bit extreme, but if you don’t want strangers to have access to pictures of your family and friends for instance, it might be worth considering. You should also avoid sharing your location on social media in real-time. Instead, wait until you’ve already left wherever you are before posting.

When creating a new social media account, don't choose a username that is the same as any of your other usernames on other social media channels. This can make it easy for others to find and link your profiles and gather additional information about you
undefined

When you livestream, avoid sharing private information about yourself. Another tip is to avoid screensharing if you have any personal conversations or images on your device that you don’t want other people to see. 

Hide your location. On Yubo, we allow you to keep your location private. In fact, for all users under age 18, location is disabled by default. If you are under 18, you do not have the option to manually activate your location in your settings. Only adult users over 18 have access to this option. If you are an adult user and you choose to disable your location, only your country will be visible to other users.

Make sure your password is strong enough. It’s even better if it’s not the same password used across all of your different online accounts. 

You can also use VPN software, which will allow your IP address to be hidden from anyone attempting to access it. 

If you’ve been a victim of doxing, gather as much proof as possible (by taking screenshots for instance) and report it to the police. You can also contact any platform’s support team to help you take the appropriate actions. 

Doxing or doxxing is the act of releasing private information about someone else publicly, without their permission, for everyone else online to see. If you’ve heard the term “dropping docs,” that is what doxxing is about. Doxing has been around for years, but recently the press shed some light on these attacks, so lets take a closer look at what it is and how we can prevent it.

How to Avoid Doxing

Let’s be honest, despite being an extremely toxic behavior, trolling is harmful! Nowadays, everyone has crossed paths with a troll on social media, not only do they tend to be irritating, but what’s most impressive is their dedication to cruelty by creating drama and negativity online. You’ve probably wondered, how do these trolls find the time and energy to connect online and feel the need to purposely provoke or attack individuals. It’s difficult to understand their why, and sometimes, to detect it. Most trolls on social media do not have a precise purpose or plan, except for making sure they trap you into a conversation or situation you don’t want to be a part of.

What’s the typical behavior of a troll?

Trolling is essentially posting hateful or inappropriate content that targets others purposely or commenting virulently to someone else’s post. In most cases, trolling reaches a point where it can be considered as online bullying or harassment. They look to get a response, whether it’s forcing a reaction or emotionally affecting you, and then they keep pushing in that direction until it becomes impossible for you to not respond and engage into a never-ending and painful debate.

That type of behavior is difficult to combat and manage for social media platforms, governments and authorities as trolls create multiple accounts a week, jump from one to another with an obviously fake name and no location. For this reason, the trolls feel increasingly powerful and untouchable as they can’t be held accountable for their actions online.

Not all trolls are bad trolls though. Some are just trying to have some fun. They goof around and make jokes that don’t attack anyone. But, they still can be irritating for continuously spamming certain posts, by sharing hundreds of memes a day for instance. 

Being confronted with trolls online every day can end up affecting your self-esteem and mental health, especially if you are directly targeted or criticized by a crowd. Indeed, another typical behavior is to act as a group. Repetition is what can make it unbearable for you to ignore and when it reaches a point where you can’t ignore it any further. Online hate is not only criticisms about your looks, choices or personality. Online hate can include hateful comments about race, religion, sexual orientation, disability, and everything that makes you “you”. 

Long term, it’s tricky to keep a distance mentally with negative and absurd comments. This type of online activity can result in depression, helplessness and anxiety for its victims. That’s why it’s so important not to let trolling last and to address it right away by an adult or specialists that can support you in dealing with the trolls and how you respond to them

There are many resources online, we provide some useful links on our website.

There is no magical solution to remove trolling, of course, and most of the useful tips rely on you to follow them in order to deal with trolls efficiently. But there are a couple of things you can do to protect yourself from these behaviors.

First and foremost, and I know it seems easy to say, but just ignore them. Follow this famous quote, “Silence is better than unnecessary drama”. Don’t play their game, be better than them. The main fuel that feeds their harmful comments is your response. If you become a participant in the conversation, then they will see it as the perfect opportunity to ridicule you until you break. You can also help protect others. If everyone ignored the trolls, then, they would no longer have that entertainment value gained from trolling and they might consider investing their time into something else -- at least that’s our hope for the future.

Another tip is to find the right balance between monitoring your social media accounts to make sure it doesn’t escalate and knowing when to step away. When it becomes overwhelming, just close the app, put your phone away, talk to some of your friends, watch a Netflix show, take care of yourself until the wave of anxiety or potential anger has passed. The good thing about the internet is that there is such a flow of information and messages circulating every day that they will quickly jump into another drama starter and leave you alone. You can safely delete their comments, block them, and move on to a positive mindset right away. In addition, every social media has a support team you can report the trolls to, and of course, if you ever feel threatened, contact the police. 

How To Mute Words and Report on Yubo

Another useful thing to remember is that you can record or screenshot any negative comments or DMs you receive before they get deleted so that you keep actual proof of what happened, which would later be useful to try and catch perpetrators.

Even if their reaction can be unpredictable, before posting anything, look at it twice and make sure you anticipate the kind of replies you might get. Don’t forget you can delete your posts or comments at all times if you have doubts. 

Let’s be honest, despite being an extremely toxic behavior, trolling is harmful! Nowadays, everyone has crossed paths with a troll on social media, not only do they tend to be irritating, but what’s most impressive is their dedication to cruelty by creating drama and negativity online.

What's Trolling on Social Media?

That is up to you to decide! When you create a Yubo account, the app will ask if you would like to allow Yubo to use your location, you can then select “yes” or “no.” Sharing your location is not required to use Yubo, but it does slightly hinder the Yubo experience. Of course, you can change your location sharing settings at any time. Simply go to Settings > Safety and Privacy > Location > here you can turn on or off “use my location” and you can decide if you would like to hide your city as well. We give users full control over their privacy when it comes to the Yubo app and interacting with other users.

As a social discovery app, we want our community to make genuine connections. Yubo prioritizes showing you people and lives that are closer to your location, if you choose to share it. Don’t worry, this does not mean you are always going to be swiping on your neighbors. It simply means you will see lives and people closer to you first. For example, if you live in New York, you will see New York-based lives before you see Chicago-based lives. But, we also understand the fun in meeting new people from completely different backgrounds, which is why we don’t limit the reach of people you can meet on Yubo. We encourage making new friends, whether they be in the same city or another country.

You can control the regions you would like to see for both swipes and lives!

To change the location settings for Yubo’s swipe feature, head over to Settings, then Swipe Settings (it has its own tab). Here, you will see a location tab, tap it to change your swipe settings. You can choose between three main options: country of location first, all around the world, or country of location only. If you select the country of location first option, you will be able to select the maximum distance away of users to show you. It can be anywhere in the range of 18 miles to 65 miles. That’s about 19 kilometers to 104 kilometers for pretty much everyone outside of the United States. You even have the option to hide your profile from swipes, which means other people will not see your profile in the swipe section.

Once you are at the Live page, in the top left corner you will see a hamburger (the stack of lines, yes, it is actually called a hamburger). Tap it and you will see live filters. If you select distance, yubo will show you lives in order of distance, starting closer and getting farther. On this page, you will also see a location menu, where you can choose specific countries or select the worldwide option. Just like that, you can virtually travel around the world!

Changing your location on Yubo is fast and easy. All you need to do is go to Settings > Safety and Privacy > Location. Here you will see a tab that reads, “city.” Simply tap the city tab to refresh your location! You cannot manually enter a location because we believe in creating an authentic user experience and we do not want to give any power to potential trolls. 

Does Yubo use my location when the app is closed?

No, Yubo will never use your location unless you are actively using the app. We do not want to infringe on any of your privacy rights, nor your data. Additionally, we do not share any of your location data with anyone. It is kept safe and secure with us!

What if I don’t share my location with Yubo?

If you decided to disable location sharing on your Yubo account, it won’t hinder the Yubo experience at all! You will still be able to access lives from all around the world, meet people within similar interests in the swipe section of the app, and use almost every feature Yubo has to offer. The only features you will not have access to are the location-based features. These include filtering the swipe radius closer to your location and showing lives closer to your first. Instead, the lives and users will be tailored to you by the country you signed up with if you are even using those features in the app. You don’t need to share your location to enjoy Yubo. 

So, if you want to meet new people with similar interests near your or on the other side of the globe, hop on Yubo, the safest place for young minds to connect.

At Yubo, we place the safety of our users at the heart of everything we do. And this concern also includes protecting the privacy of Yubo users. Of all the information we share every day on the internet, location is a very valuable piece of data and sometimes it is best kept to oneself. It's always important to know who you're sharing your location with, so here's a quick guide to everything about location on Yubo.

Does Yubo Use Geolocalization?

Safety is at the core of everything Yubo does. No matter what new feature is implemented, Yubo will always prioritize the safety of its community above all else. Yubo aims to create a space where people from all over the world can interact authentically, whether it be in Lives or through swipes. Yubo does a lot to uphold its Community Guidelines through advanced AI, real-time human moderation, and extensive safety features. Even with all of this in place users still might run into something they find harmful or inappropriate. This is why Yubo made its report feature as quick and simple as possible.

Yes. To report a user on Yubo, simply tap on their profile. In the top right corner, you will see a shield with an exclamation mark icon, tap on that and select “Report”. Next, there will be a set of categories you can select to give better context to the situation. If you would like, you can even type an explanation as to why you are reporting the user and add photos or videos as well to further support your report and to help the Yubo team effectively investigate the issue.

To report a Live on Yubo, tap on the number of participants or swipe right on the screen to pull up the Live information. Next to the Live title, you will see a shield with an exclamation mark icon. Tap it and select a category to give moderators more context. Similar to reporting a user, you have the option to type an explanation and provide photos or videos to the report. It is that easy and takes well under a minute to report a user or livestream on Yubo.

What happens after you make a report on Yubo?

After you report someone or something on Yubo it is immediately sent to a real-time moderator, or otherwise known as a Yubo Safety Specialist. Our team of Safety Specialists work 24/7, 365 all around the world. When a report is submitted, members of our safety team will review the report and look over any additional information provided. Depending on the scenario, they might have enough information to make a decision just from the report – for example, if a user is reported for having uploaded inappropriate media to their profile. The moderator can simply confirm this, remove the media, and potentially even give the user a temporary ban from uploading media depending on the severity of the case. If a Live is being reported, oftentimes moderators will need to monitor the Live in order to make a fair and accurate judgment. This is why submitting additional information, such as photos or videos, helps moderators come to the right decision much quicker.

If you are reported on Yubo, this means that a moderator came to the understanding that you violated Yubo’s Community Guidelines. Depending on the violation, the results can range from a warning to a short temporary ban from uploading media or joining lives to a permanent ban from the Yubo app. If you were given a ban that you feel was unfair, you can contact our support team here.

If there is a user who is dampening your Yubo experience, you can also block them by tapping the shield icon with an exclamation mark, then selecting “Block”. When you block a user, they are NOT notified. They will also not be able to see your profile, contact you, watch your live, or see your comments in lives anymore. The same will happen for you as well. You can always unblock users at any time by going to your profile, tapping the settings icon, tapping “Safety and Privacy” then tapping “Blocked Users.”

Since Yubo is dedicated to creating a safe space for users to enjoy socializing, they also added a Muted Words feature, where you can decide what words you would not like to see. With this feature, you can choose to hide any words, phrases or emojis from across the app that you might find personally harmful or triggering. 

The user who has been reported will never know who reported them or for what reasons. All the information that goes into a report is strictly confidential in order to protect the users’ privacy. This is also essential to creating a safe space, as Yubo does not want users to be afraid to report bad behaviors. Naturally, moderators will see the report, the category selected, and any additional information the user decided to provide. However, this information is only used to give the moderator context on the situation and never goes any further. The moderator then assesses the situation and refers to our Community Guidelines and safety practices before deciding how to resolve the situation and what action to take.

While we know the idea of reporting can be overwhelming at first, at Yubo we try to make it as easy and straightforward as possible and can assure you that our safety team works hard to help our community feel safe. At Yubo, there is no place for harmful or hateful content or interactions in any form and we plan to keep it that way!

Safety is at the core of everything Yubo does. No matter what new feature is implemented, Yubo will always prioritize the safety of its community above all else. Yubo aims to create a space where people from all over the world can interact authentically, whether it be in Lives or through swipes. This is why Yubo made its report feature as quick and simple as possible.

Can you report someone on Yubo?

How Does Yubo's Reporting feature Work?

Yubo is a live social discovery app that is free to download from the App Store and Google Play. More than 60 million young people use our platform every day to connect and engage with others from all over the world. The app is designed specifically to help young people today expand their social circles online, similar to how they would in real life. Unlike most other social media platforms, Yubo does not use any approval metrics such as likes or followers, which allows our users to express themselves authentically and make genuine friendships without the pressures of performance. 

There are 2 main ways to make friends on Yubo – through livestreams and through swipes. Swiping has become natural for Gen Z as a simple and straightforward way to demonstrate interest in connecting. While swiping is used differently across every type of app you can think of, for Yubo specifically it is focused on finding potential friends – this can be especially helpful when finding others who share similar interests or personalities. On their profiles, Yubo users can add tags, emojis and media that showcase who they are and what they like or dislike. You swipe right on friends you’d like to talk to, and if the other person does the same, you’re all set to start a conversation and strike up a friendship. 

The second way of finding friends is through our livestreaming feature. Users can explore the Live feed page to find live streams they are interested in based on topic, language or title. Once a user finds a livestream they’d like to join, they can jump right in and begin watching. Once they are in a livestream as a watcher, they can also request to join as a streamer. Every user also has the ability to start their very own livestream for others to join. You can have an unlimited number of viewers and a maximum of 10 streamers per livestream. Most of our users actually prefer staying in small circles with friends they feel comfortable with in our virtual community. 

As our concept is to meet people worldwide, you might wonder if our platform discloses users’ location on the app. When downloading the app, Yubo gives each user the choice to share their location or not. Users can also choose to only share their country or city, which allows the app to match them with friends that speak the same language. At any point, this option is easily changeable in your profile, you can hide/show your location at any time.

It is also important to note that the location options are disabled for all users under the age of 18  and their location information is hidden on the app by default. 

How does Yubo make sure its users always speak to real people?

Yubo’s main focus has always been safety, which is why we never stop innovating to create new safety features or iterating on those we have already implemented over the years across the app. We recently released an advanced, platform-wide age-verification process in partnership with Yoti that age-verifies users on Yubo. Following a successful beta test among our youngest users (13 to 14 years old), we released it to all our users. Today, we’re proud to say that 100% of our users are verified, which we accomplished 3 months ahead of schedule. 

This new system adds an extra layer of security and protection during user sign-up and will reduce the number of bots, fake profiles and bad actors on the platform. It will also help to ensure that users are the age they say, and assist Yubo in age-gating to limit interaction between teens and adults on the platform. 

Yubo 100% Age Verification

How does Yubo protect young users from abuse and regulate bad behaviors?

Yubo has strict Community Guidelines in place in order to protect, educate and support members of our growing community through innovative technology, a 24/7 team of Safety Specialists, and real-time moderation and intervention. We also have an independent Safety Board made of industry experts and work with NGOs, charities, law enforcement authorities and other organizations on digital safety issues.

Every new user must accept these Yubo’s guidelines when they sign up for the app. Our Community Guidelines prohibit nudity (and partial nudity including underwear), violence, drugs, hate speech, fake profiles, CSAM, bullying and more. When someone violates these guidelines, we investigate and take the appropriate action – this might include sending a warning, filtering and removing content, suspending a user or issuing permanent bans at the device level. We encourage our users to report any concerns to us and our own algorithms also generate reports when they detect a possible breach of our guidelines so we can take appropriate action.

Our Community Guidelines apply to all our users, no matter where they are in the world, and apply to content (including text, images, video live streaming and audio) on their profiles, live-streaming and chatting on Yubo. Because everything change so quickly in the digital world, these guidelines are a living document that we update regularly.

If you would like to find out more about our commitment to user safety and the tools we have in place, please visit our Safety Hub. You can also find details of the actions taken by our Safety team in our Transparency Report.

Social networks are everywhere, especially among young people. It can be very scary for parents to have to deal with this unknown world. At Yubo, we believe it is essential to have an open dialogue with parents and educators to best protect young users. Here is all the information parents need to know about Yubo and how it works.

What do parents need to know about Yubo?

When you think of the word “bots” you are probably imagining some kind of malicious code created solely to send you annoying spam messages or to create fake engagement on social media. While this is true some of the time, it is not always the case. Bots can actually be extremely helpful and even serve a good purpose.

An online bot is simply a software that is coded to run tasks online. They are not physical robots sitting behind computers (maybe in the future though). Even though little internet software robots seem like no big deal, they can be quite powerful depending on how they are programmed and what their purpose is.

Let’s start with the bad bots. Have you ever received a random message, email, or even phone call that tries to get some information out of you? Or sometimes just says “Hello” and then follows up with a completely out of context message? Those are likely bots. But the bots themselves are not the bad guys, it is their creator and their poor intent that is malicious. Some bots are designed to create fake social media accounts to endorse certain pages or even make negative comments. Bots can even be programmed to go as far as share fake news or have fake conversations with real people, hoping to get personal information from them. Depending on the capabilities of the programmer, believe it or not, it can even go much further than this.

Don’t worry, not every profile you interact with online is run by a bot and not every post with a few thousand engagements is fake either – especially on Yubo. In fact, on Yubo, you have an added layer of protection against bots, fake profiles and people with bad intentions thanks to the latest Age Verification System put in place making Yubo a 100% user verified platform. A general rule of thumb to stay safe online is to NEVER, ever share your personal information with strangers. If a company or website requires personal information, it will always be done through their secure servers, but you cannot trust another person you don’t know very well with the same information. Another quick tip to avoid interacting with bots is: If it’s too good to be true, it probably is. The lottery won’t send you a direct message asking for your routing number to send the money, and… you probably didn’t win the lottery (yet).

Not every bot is evil. In fact, bots can be extremely helpful as they are excellent at collecting and compiling public data. Data scientists use bots all the time to collect important insights on our world. You can even easily access bot data with Google Trends, a free database of the most searched terms on Google. That’s pretty cool.

Now for the good bots. Bots are commonly used by tech companies to help with or carry out moderation to make the internet a better place. Yubo uses bots in combination with advanced AI algorithms and a team of around the clock real-time moderators to create as safe and positive a virtual environment as possible. By teaming up with bots, Yubo’s moderation team can ensure timely, effective and fair moderation is done. 

You might be wondering how Yubo’s real-time moderation works?

We can’t give away all of our secrets, but we can share some insight on how Yubo utilizes its bots for moderation purposes. Yubo created a system of bots that process Livestreams, content users share, and chats. 

For Livestreams, our bots analyze the Livestream video frame by frame to search for content that violates Yubo’s community guidelines. If the bots pick up on an inappropriate image, they will send that instance to one of Yubo’s real-time moderators, who are real people (not robots). Those moderators then go through each incident and take appropriate action.

Does Yubo use bots to moderate other content than livestreams? 

When it comes to the content users share, the bots are a bit more proactive. They will automatically scan the photo or video for content that breaches the community guidelines before the user is able to send it.

Yubo understands that messaging is a large part of socializing online, but believes that hate has no place on the app. This is why it also scans for harmful and inappropriate text. Separately, you can use Yubo’s Muted Words feature to hide certain words or phrases from your screen that you find personally triggering. Bot power feels good doesn’t it?

Bot moderation goes a bit further here as well. The bots also process text for personal information before the user is able to send it. If they find any, the use will receive a pop-up alert letting them know that they are about to share personal information with another person. If the user wishes to proceed, they can click through the pop up. It never hurts to think twice about sharing private information.

Again, safety is at the core of everything we do at Yubo. That is why we use the amazing power of bots, don’t worry only the good kind, with the best intentions in mind.

When you think of the word “bots” you are probably imagining some kind of malicious code created solely to send you annoying spam messages or to create fake engagement on social media. While this is true some of the time, it is not always the case. the Yubo team explains how Bots can actually be extremely helpful and even serve a good purpose. Come and discover the mystery of bots, even if it's not on Yubo that you'll meet many them.

Not all Bots are Bad Bots

Pretending to be someone else on the internet by creating fake profiles, also known as catfishing, is a very common practice especially on social media. It’s unfortunately nothing new. In fact, that term was made popular by the American TV Show “Catfish”, which began airing back in 2012. The show’s premise is to help guests determine if the person they’ve been talking to online is actually the real person behind the account. That type of behavior is also very commonly linked to scams, hence why it has become more and more important to be able to quickly detect those false identities to help you stay safe.

Why is it important to know how to spot fake profiles?

Knowing who you’re talking to before sharing anything about yourself, such as your daily life, private or personal information, or your deepest secrets must become a priority when surfing the internet or connecting online. For people who have the wrong intentions, impersonating someone is fairly easy to do these days – but don’t worry, we have your back. Signs of a potential fake account can be simple to identify when you know what to look for. 

Making up an entire fake person’s life from scratch takes a lot of creativity and work… As a result, asking questions to a catfish might help you spot gaps in their story (whether it’s about their family, friends, what they did at school, where they’re from, what their interests are, what they liked as a kid and so on). Making a conversation flow is the basis of building friendships online, especially when you find someone with similar interests, so keep doing this as it will help you spot potential inconsistencies.

Of course, the goal is not to be overly suspicious about everyone you might interact with, you can’t constantly assume the worst of people, but being careful doesn’t cost you anything and can help to keep you safe – which is the most important. All it takes is a little bit of caution when you are still building trust.

What’s the best way to determine if an account is fake or not on social media?

The best way is trusting apps that guarantee 100% age verification for all its users. At Yubo, we believe it’s key to stay safe online and to make sure you’re making true friends.

Yubo has recently become the first major social media platform to implement comprehensive age-verification technology, which is definitely a milestone we’ve worked hard to achieve in an ongoing effort to provide our users with as much online safety as possible. 

Yubo's New Verification

In partnership with leading digital identity provider Yoti, Yubo first introduced this brand-new age-verification system in May 2022 for users ages 13 and 14 through beta testing, with the goal of scaling verification across all ages by year-end.

The main reason why we started introducing it for our youngest users is that we consider them our most vulnerable audience. Young people often feel the need to fit in and make new friends quickly, plus their thinking skills are still growing significantly and they might overlook warning signs more than other users.

This trial was a great success, which is why the integration was accelerated. In only 3 months, we reached the milestone of 100% of our iOS users being verified. Fewer than 10% of Yubo users today access the platform via Android devices and Yubo’s age-verification software will be deployed fully to Android in the coming weeks. 

Yubo is aiming for greater efficiency to ensure users interact within age-appropriate groups, while still making our user experience smooth and our verification process accessible and easy to go through. This implementation is also extremely discouraging for catfishes or people with bad intentions – whether we’re talking about humans or bots – from accessing Yubo.

How does Yubo’s new age-verification tool work? 

Yubo prompts new users signing up for an account, or existing users who are not yet verified, to enter their age and take a real-time photo of their face – otherwise known as, you guessed it, a selfie. 

Yoti’s technology has been trained to estimate age by looking at facial features and interpreting them as pixels. It then can match those pixels to other sets of pixels to determine an estimated age. To protect user data and privacy, the system has no way of retroactively linking a name or an identity to an image provided. If the age provided and the age estimated based on the photo do not match, additional identification steps are required before the user can access Yubo. Yoti’s technology is crazy precise, as it is able to verify that a user is above or below a given age threshold consistently across all ages, genders, and skin tones. 

What other tips can be useful to detect fake profiles? 

Someone that only wants to exchange via DMs – it’s fishy if you consistently refuse to show your real face on camera, even for a few seconds

No new pictures – usually catfishes only have access to a few pictures of the person they’re trying to impersonate, which mean that they will quickly run out of selfies to share and you won’t see any updates

Using photos of a celebrity, influencer, model or other famous or recognizable person 

Very few friends count – your friends are interested in what you share, and always comment or like your pics or stories. If someone doesn’t have any interaction on their profiles, that might be a red flag

Pretending to be someone else on the internet by creating fake profiles, also known as catfishing, is a very common practice especially on social media. It’s unfortunately nothing new. The Yubo team has recently seen the American TV Show “Catfish”, which made the term Catfish popular. The show’s premise is to help guests determine if the person they’ve been talking to online is actually the real person behind the account. That type of behavior is also very commonly linked to scams, hence why it has become more and more important to be able to quickly detect those false identities to help you stay safe. And the new age verification system of Yubo is a sure way to avoid this kind of profile. But here are some tips from the Yubo team to unmask these fake profiles when you are online on other platforms.

How Yubo keeps fake profiles away from its platform?

Yubo, a social discovery platform, launched in 2015 is quickly growing and claiming its place as one of the top social apps for Gen Z. On the platform, users ranging from 13-25 can make new friends by finding users of similar interests and can then message or live stream with them, creating long-lasting friendships in this digital age.

But, how can Yubo ensure its users know who they’re talking to is who they say they are, and how can Yubo promise a safe environment online? Yubo’s newest age-verification system can offer teens, and their parents, peace of mind that online friendships have never been safer.

Yubo has become an industry leader in online safety. 

Not only has Yubo enforced an age verification system on the app for years, but now it will be the first major social media app to push age verification across the entirety of the platform. 

On the Yubo App, verifying your age has never been easier or safer. All a user has to do is take a real-time selfie through the app (to ensure it truly is the user) and then the liveness algorithm will take a quick video of the user. The algorithm can even detect whether it is looking at a real human or a static image. Once it has secured an image, the Yoti algorithm will give an estimate of the age and see if it matches the age it claimed to be. Any discrepancies and the user will be asked to provide additional identification further proving their age. With their age selected, they will then be placed in a matching age range on the Yubo App, and can safely message others in that age range without question of who they are. On Yubo, you won’t have to worry and can instead put that focus and energy into making new friends. It’s a win-win for everyone. 

This new algorithm benefits all Yubo users, and not just because Yubo is enforcing 100% verification. Now, minors, who may not have had IDs, can verify themselves and show the digital world of Yubo that they are who they say they are. So, the minors who weren’t able to verify in the past can now enjoy that bright yellow check mark beside their username. Who said aesthetics and safety couldn’t go together?

But, does this age-verification system really work? 

Yes, and it’s constantly improving. Today, the Yoti algorithm is 98.9 percent accurate in determining if users are above or below the age threshold. With over 550 million age evaluations (and growing) in its database, Yoti is capable of correctly estimating 6-to12-year-old users within a 1.3-year margin and 13-to18-year-old users within a 1.5-year margin regardless of their gender and skin tones. Additionally, Yoti’s liveness detection algorithm has been awarded iBeta certification, which is the industry standard for these practices. While some social media apps like Instagram, are jumping to utilize this technology, Yubo still remains the only platform to ask for the entirety of its user base to verify themselves. 

If you’re looking for a safe online space where young minds can express themselves, head to Yubo. With 60 million users across 40 countries accumulated since 2015, Yubo is a fast-growing Gen Z-focused app and you never have to worry about being bored. Yubo offers messaging, live streaming, interest-based profile tags, and of course, online games to play with friends or to be used as icebreakers. All of the above plus an emphasis on safety, what else could you ask for?

Yubo, a social discovery platform, launched in 2015 is quickly growing and claiming its place as one of the top social apps for Gen Z. On the platform, users ranging from 13-25 can make new friends by finding users of similar interests and can then message or live stream with them, creating long-lasting friendships in this digital age.
But, how can Yubo ensure its users know who they’re talking to is who they say they are, and how can Yubo promise a safe environment online? Yubo’s newest age-verification system can offer teens, and their parents, peace of mind that online friendships have never been safer.

The Benefits of Yubo's Advanced Verification System

In May 2022, Yubo announced it was introducing an age verification system developed in partnership with digital identity provider, Yoti. The new software allows Yubo to further strengthen safety measures and allows Yubo users to be confident that they’re interacting with others of a similar age group. Yubo first launched the technology in beta for users ages 13 and 14, with the goal of scaling the technology across its entire user base by the end of the year - a first for a social network of Yubo’s size! 

🎉 Today, we are proud to announce that we are one step closer to becoming the first social media platform to age-verify 100% of our users, with all Apple users successfully verified three months ahead of schedule. 🎉

This initiative is part of Yubo's commitment to the safety of its users. In an ever-changing digital world, our team continues to innovate and find new solutions so that we can provide our users with the safest possible experience on Yubo. Age and identity verification issues are amongst the greatest challenges facing the entire industry today, and our new age verification system puts us one step closer to mitigating the issues associated. 

How does the age verification system work?

The age verification system asks all new users joining Yubo, and all users already registered across Yubo who have not been verified yet, to verify their identity using Yoti’s age-estimation technology. To do so, each user is prompted to take a real-time photo of their face, which Yoti’s technology uses to estimate their age and compare it against the date of birth provided at sign-up. 

Within a few seconds, users are told if the age verification was successful and if so, they can immediately begin socialising on Yubo. 

This system is completely privacy-friendly and only requires additional identification steps if the user’s age doesn’t match the age listed at sign-up. 

In order to use Yubo, all of our users must now go through our new age verification system. It allows us to enhance the accuracy of age-gating and prevent users who may misrepresent their age with ill intent from joining our platform. 

At Yubo, our foremost priority is to create a safe environment for our users and to empower them to interact safely online and with others across the world. To do this, we continuously look for new ways to protect our users. The development of this age verification tool not only addresses one of the largest challenges in online safety today but provides another level of protection to our young users. 

We want all our users to feel safe and be authentic on Yubo. If a user refuses to verify their age, they will not be able to enter the app and will be asked to verify their age every time they attempt to log in. 

So now, you know what you have to do to connect with your friends on Yubo!

Why is checking the age of users important for social networks?

Age and identity verification are some of the biggest challenges within the industry. While some major social media apps have verification processes in place, they are not implemented widely across their platforms and are not required upon sign up.

This issue is central, as it helps to reduce the proliferation of bots, and duplicate profiles, which are detrimental to social networks that are committed to providing a safe and authentic experience for their users.

At Yubo, we have always advocated for authentic socialization, and we ask that all profile pictures show the user’s face, both as a way to combat abuse and so that users know who they are talking to.

Wide-scale age verification plays an important part in further strengthening Yubo’s robust safety framework. 

The age verification system primarily aims to enhance the accuracy of age gating on Yubo, which separates users into different communities based on age to limit interaction between teens and adults. Yubo is among only a handful of social media platforms to use age-gating measures today.

And as mentioned above, the wide-scale deployment of the age verification system has allowed us to clean up the Yubo community and remove fake profiles, bots, or users who may misrepresent their age with bad intentions. 

Has this had an impact on the Yubo community?

Our community’s quick action has allowed us to expedite platform-wide deployment with 87% of users verified on the first attempt. Of course, many profiles were blocked - either because a discrepancy in age was detected by Yoti’s age estimation or because the user did not want to proceed. 

Our priority is protecting our users and keeping our community as safe as possible, even if that means forfeiting a larger user base or driving away a portion of new users.

Yoti’s age-estimation technology is able to correctly verify that a user is above or below an age threshold consistently across all ages, genders, and skin tones. The technology is certified by iBeta, the gold standard for technologies in this field.

We’ve been partnering with Yoti since 2019, and their technology, trusted by government agencies and major retail and financial services firms amongst others, was the natural fit to make this new system a success.

In May 2022, Yubo announced it was introducing an age verification system developed in partnership with digital identity provider, Yoti. Now Yubo is finalizing its 100% Age Verification System integration. It is the first major social media app to require 100% user verification for platform use.

Yubo's Take

Here for all of it.