Neural & Narrative

Category: design

  • Tea App Breach: When Moving Fast Breaks Real People

    Tea App Breach: When Moving Fast Breaks Real People

    I just read about the Tea app data breach and it’s got me concerned about the current state of privacy. Not because I use the app, but because of what it represents.

    For context: Tea is a women’s dating safety app that just suffered not one, but multiple massive data exposures. Tens of thousands of user verification photos, driver’s licenses, and over a million private messages were all accessed by unauthorized parties. Some of this data ended up on 4chan with posts literally saying “DRIVERS LICENSES AND FACE PICS! GET THE F**K IN HERE BEFORE THEY SHUT IT DOWN!”

    The conversations that got leaked included sensitive topics and deeply personal stuff women shared thinking it was safe.

    What really gets me is the founder’s technical background appears to be a 6-month coding bootcamp. I’ve got nothing against bootcamp grads…some of the best developers can come from that path. But building an app that stores government IDs and handles women’s safety data is a different beast entirely.

    That company’s response to this has been total and complete silence. No acknowledgment, no user notifications, nothing. Users found out from news reports. A class action lawsuit has now been filed.

    This feels like a perfect storm of our current moment: AI tools making it easier than ever to build complex apps, founders who can ship fast but maybe don’t really grasp the weight of what they’re handling, and users who trust these platforms with their most sensitive information.

    When you’re dealing with women’s safety you have to keep it top of mind that these aren’t just “users,” they’re real people who trusted this platform to keep them safe, and that trust was betrayed in the worst possible way.

    I keep thinking about all those women who verified their identity thinking they were joining a secure platform, only to have their faces and IDs posted on one of the internet’s most toxic forums.

    We can build anything now. The question is: should we? And if we do, are we actually equipped to handle the responsibility that comes with it? What responsibility do app stores have in removing these apps or alerting users to real world damage?

    If you haven’t seen this reported in the news, I encourage you to check out the amazing reporting from Joe Cox and the 404media team

  • Meta’s Advantage+ is Quietly Hijacking Brand Control

    Lately I’ve been feeling that Meta is getting a little too comfortable making decisions for our brands.

    My own experience with Advantage+ has been nothing but frustration and I’ve been hearing more and more complaints from both agency and in-house folks about Meta’s Advantage+ features being enabled by default across custom audiences, ad set targeting, and even worse… creative. On the surface, it sounds helpful… just let the algorithm optimize everything, right? Right?!

    In the end, brands are losing control of their own creative. We’re talking about Meta automatically adding music, backgrounds, and text overlays to carefully crafted brand content. No consideration for brand guidelines, visual identity, or the brand world you’ve spent years building.

    Imagine spending months developing a campaign that perfectly captures your brand world, only to have an algorithm slap a random background and some generic music on it because it thinks it’ll perform better.

    And if you’re in a restricted industry like alcohol, pharma, or financial services? This becomes a compliance nightmare. Alcohol brands have incredibly strict advertising guidelines where every word, image, and implication gets scrutinized. Now we’re supposed to trust an algorithm to automatically modify that content without violating advertising standards or legal requirements? Mind you, this is the same algorithm that pushed gore, violence, and death to people’s feeds in an “oopsie” a few months ago. Hm, no thanks!

    What’s even more frustrating is the operational burden this creates. I’m hearing from agency buyers that they’re having to increase billable hours just to spend extra time making sure these features are turned off. Meta uses some pretty sneaky UI tricks to keep them enabled by default like buried toggles and confusing opt-out flows. There is no singular button to disable it in Ads Manager nor disable it from your ad account or business manager.

    So now agencies are billing clients more time to fight against features that were supposed to make things easier. That’s backwards.

    I get that automation can drive performance. But there’s a line between optimization and completely surrendering brand control to an algorithm that doesn’t understand your brand story, doesn’t know your visual guidelines, and definitely doesn’t care about the consistency you’ve worked so hard to build.

    When did we decide that slightly better CTRs were worth giving up our brand identity? How did we end up in a place where media buyers are “approving” creative edits?

    This is a fundamental role reversal where traditionally the creative process flows from brand → creative team → media team for placement. Now it’s becoming brand → creative team → algorithm → media team scrambling to notice what got changed.

    Somewhere deep in the cubicles of Meta’s offices is a product manager who knows better but has to implement Gen AI features because of a mandate that conflicts with their customers needs.

  • Easily Create and Sell Digital Goods: A Guide to Canva, Ghost, and WooCommerce

    Easily Create and Sell Digital Goods: A Guide to Canva, Ghost, and WooCommerce

    In the digital age, offering downloadable products like worksheets, templates, guides, or research reports can be a simple and effective way to provide value, build your brand, and generate passive income. Fortunately, tools like Canva, Ghost, and WooCommerce make creating and selling digital goods effortless, even if you’re not tech-savvy.

    Why Sell Digital Goods?

    Digital goods are incredibly appealing for several reasons:

    • Low overhead: No inventory or shipping costs.
    • Scalability: Create once, sell repeatedly.
    • Instant delivery: Immediate value for customers.
    • High profit margins: Minimal ongoing costs.

    Step 1: Creating Your Digital Product with Canva

    Canva is a user-friendly design platform ideal for making professional-quality digital products quickly:

    • Worksheets & Templates: Use Canva’s extensive library of templates to create visually appealing resources.
    • Guides & Reports: Combine Canva’s design tools to format insightful content clearly and attractively.
    • Ease of Use: Drag-and-drop functionality requires no prior design skills.

    Pro Tip: Export your creations as PDFs for easy sharing and professional presentation.

    Step 2: Hosting and Selling Your Product with Ghost

    Ghost is a sleek, user-friendly blogging platform perfect for creators and entrepreneurs:

    • Built-in Membership: Ghost effortlessly supports free or paid content, allowing you to offer exclusive downloads.
    • Easy File Hosting: Attach PDFs directly to your posts or pages for seamless digital delivery.
    • Simple Payments: Integrate Ghost with services like Stripe to manage payments with minimal setup.

    Pro Tip: Use Ghost’s built-in newsletters to instantly notify subscribers of new digital products, boosting engagement and sales.

    Step 3: Selling Your Product with WooCommerce for WordPress

    WooCommerce is a powerhouse e-commerce plugin designed specifically for WordPress, ideal for more robust digital stores:

    • Customizable Storefront: Easily create a branded online store.
    • Secure Transactions: Built-in support for multiple payment gateways.
    • Automatic Downloads: Digital products are securely delivered immediately after purchase.

    Pro Tip: WooCommerce provides analytics to help you track sales, customer behavior, and product performance, enabling informed marketing decisions.

    Choosing the Right Tool for You

    • Canva: Ideal for easy, professional-quality product creation.
    • Ghost: Perfect for bloggers and creators looking for simplicity and speed.
    • WooCommerce: Best suited for comprehensive, customizable e-commerce stores on WordPress.

    Whether you’re looking to supplement your income, provide added value to your audience, or build a full-fledged online store, Canva, Ghost, and WooCommerce provide intuitive, effective solutions to deliver digital goods effortlessly. Those aren’t the only options of course and I encourage you to continue researching what might be the best fit for you.