Daily Archives: December 3, 2023

Retrospective analysis of 397 DABE | CCID – Dove Medical Press

Posted: December 3, 2023 at 3:05 am

Introduction

Eosinophils have a wide range of biological functions and play an important role in anti-infection, inflammatory response, anti-tumor, and tissue damage and repair.1,2 Eosinophils enter the blood circulation after maturation in the bone marrow. There are no eosinophils in normal skin tissue, and eosinophils are recruited from peripheral blood to skin tissue only when inflammation occurs.3 Most dermatoses associated with blood eosinophilia (DABE) belong to allergy-related skin diseases, such as atopic eczema, contact dermatitis, urticaria, prurigo, and drug eruption; Second, blood eosinophilia can also be seen in parasitic infections and autoimmune bullous diseases. The skin is also the first and most commonly affected organ of hypereosinophilic syndrome (HES).4,5

It is estimated that for every additional eosinophil in the blood, there is a corresponding increase of 100 eosinophils in the tissue.6 Potential mechanisms leading to eosinophilia are divided into primary intrinsic mechanisms and secondary reactive mechanisms.7,8 The clonal expansion of eosinophils mediated by FIP1L1-PDGFRA (F/P) fusion gene belongs to the primary disease, while the secondary eosinophilia is mainly caused by eosinophilopoietic cytokines (IL-3, IL-5 and GM-CSF).7,9 The continuous increase of eosinophils can secrete a series of cytotoxic mediators, such as eosinophil cationic protein (ECP), eosinophil-derived neurotoxin (EDN), and eosinophil peroxidase (EPO), leading to multiple organ damage and possibly life-threatening.10 However, the evaluation and treatment of dermatoses with blood eosinophilia is challenging because of the significant clinical and histopathological overlap between different DABE diseases.

In this study, we divided DABE patients into three groups according to blood absolute eosinophil count (AEC) levels: mild eosinophilia group, moderate eosinophilia group, and severe eosinophilia group, and summarized the demographics, clinical characteristics, laboratory results, related diagnoses, and treatments, hope to help the differential diagnoses of DABE patients to further optimize disease management.

This is a retrospective cross-sectional study, including all inpatients with AEC greater than or equal to 0.5109/L who visited the Department of Dermatology, Southwest Hospital of Army Military Medical University from January 2018 to January 2023. Since eosinophilia associated with dermatoses is usually not very high, the categorization used for HES does not make sense and important information in the mild to moderate group might have been overlooked.11 According to the degree of elevated blood AEC, patients were divided into the mild eosinophilia group (0.5 AEC109/L < 1.5), moderate eosinophilia group (1.5 AEC109/L < 3), and severe eosinophilia group (AEC109/L 3). Electronic medical records were reviewed for all cases, and data collected included demographics, patient history, clinical manifestations, laboratory results, diagnoses, and treatment. The Ethics Committee of Southwest Hospital of Army Medical University approved this study (KY2023100). Patient consent is not required for this retrospective study. The study conformed to the ethical guidelines of the Declaration of Helsinki.

Statistical analyses were performed using SPSS Statistics (V22; IBM SPSS Corp., Armonk, NY, USA). All tests were considered significant at P < 0.05. The KruskalWallis test was used to analyze variations in the age, duration of eosinophilia, serum total Immunoglobulin.E (IgE) values, and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) values in different groups. Categorical data were analyzed using chi-square test or Fishers exact test, including sex ratios, medical history ratios, clinical manifestations (prevalence of pruritus, distribution of lesions, ratio of lesion types), diagnostic rates, and drug use rates.

A total of 397 DABE patients (267 males, 67.3%; median 59 years, range:4570 years) were included and grouped according to blood AEC: mild eosinophilia, 0.5 AEC < 1.5 (n = 292, 73.6%); moderate eosinophilia, 1.5 AEC < 3 (n = 70, 17.6%); severe eosinophilia, AEC 3 (n = 35, 8.8%, Table 1).

Table 1 Demographic and Historical Characteristics in the Study Groups

There were statistically significant differences in the age distribution (P = 0.012) and the proportion of atopic history (P < 0.001) among the three groups. The severe eosinophilia group had a higher proportion (23/35, 71.5%) of old patients and a lower proportion (1/35, 2.9%) of atopic history. 18.2% (66/397) of the patients had lesions associated with elevated blood eosinophils due to drug exposure. The proportion of drug sensitization in the severe eosinophilia group (10/35, 32.3%) was higher than that in the other two groups, but the difference was not statistically significant (P = 0.076). The severe group had the shortest duration of eosinophilia compared with the mild and moderate groups (P = 0.005, Table 1).

Almost all DABE patients (383/397, 96.5%) exhibited pruritus symptoms, which were independent of blood eosinophil levels (P = 0.549). Localized skin lesions were more common in the mild eosinophilia group, while generalized skin lesions were observed in the moderate and severe eosinophilia groups (P < 0.001). The morphological spectrum of skin lesions in DABE patients was wide, and the most common lesions were erythema (348/397, 87.7%) and papules (208/397, 52.4%). The incidence of skin vesicles was significantly higher in the moderate eosinophilia group than in the mild and severe groups (P = 0.03, Table 2). The incidence of other lesion types was independent of blood eosinophil levels.

Table 2 Clinical Manifestations in the Study Groups

We selected two blood parameters, serum total IgE and LDH, to analyze their association with blood eosinophilia. Serum total IgE was elevated in 68.4% (132/193) of DABE patients, and LDH levels were elevated in 27.7% (67/242) of DABE patients. In the mild eosinophilia group, the serum total IgE median was significantly lower than those in the other two groups (P < 0.001). In contrast to mild and moderate groups, elevated LDH was more common in the severe group, and their LDH levels were also higher (P < 0.001, Table 3).

Table 3 The Laboratory Results in the Study Groups

Then, we were interested in whether increased blood eosinophilia corresponded to eosinophilic infiltration in the skin and bone marrow. Histopathological examination of skin biopsies showed cutaneous eosinophilic infiltration in 71.9% (105/155) patients. There was no significant difference in skin eosinophil infiltration among the three groups (P = 0.629). The most common histopathologic characteristics are spongiosis and hyperplasia. Bone marrow biopsy histopathology showed that 93.2% (41/44) of DABE patients were accompanied by bone marrow eosinophil infiltration, and most of them were from the moderate or severe eosinophilia groups (Table 3). Screening for the F/P fusion gene, which has been associated with HES, was negative in 2 patients. For the immunophenotype analysis of peripheral blood lymphocytes, no abnormal T and B lymphocytes were found in all 3 patients.

The most common diagnosis in DABE patients was eczema/dermatitis (207/397, 52.1%), followed by drug eruption (66/397, 16.6%), systemic disease (50/397, 12.6%) including HES or tumor, autoimmune bullous diseases (34/397, 8.6%), psoriasis (23/397, 5.8%), and other diseases (17/397, 4.3%). The diagnosis of eczema/dermatitis was dominant in the mild eosinophilia group (P < 0.001), while the diagnosis of systemic disease (HES or tumor) was more common in the severe eosinophilia group (P < 0.001, Table 4).

Table 4 Final Diagnoses in the Study Groups

In this study, we also evaluated the response to therapeutic drugs in three groups with elevated blood eosinophils. Glucocorticoids (370/392, 93.2%) were the most commonly used drug to treat DABE, followed by antihistamines (322/397, 81.1%), immunosuppressants (129/392, 32.5%), antibiotics (14/392, 3.5%), retinoids (14/392, 3.5%), biologics (5/392, 1.3%), other drugs (7/392, 1.8%). In the mild eosinophilia group, the usage rate of antihistamines was significantly higher than that in the moderate and severe groups (P = 0.032), while the usage rate of antibiotics was opposite (P < 0.001, Table 5). There was no statistically significant difference in the usage rate of other drugs among the three groups.

Table 5 Treatment in the Study Groups

An elevated level of blood eosinophils may be the first important clue in a laboratory result. We analyzed in detail the demographics, clinical characteristics, laboratory results, related diagnoses and treatments in DABE patients. Our results demonstrated that blood eosinophil level is associated with different clinical types in DABE patients. Blood eosinophil level plus other information such as age, history of atopy, history of drug sensitization, disease duration, distribution of skin lesions, and abnormal blood parameters may be helpful for further diagnosis.

Our study revealed three distinct patterns: (1) Mild eosinophilia associated with localized skin lesions, atopic history, mildly elevated total serum IgE level, diagnosed with eczema/dermatitis, and frequent antihistamines use. (2) Moderate eosinophilia has the characteristics of both mild group and severe group. (3) The severe eosinophilia group had a high proportion of elderly people without atopic history, but with acute onset, generalized skin lesions, and high blood LDH levels, and the majority of them were diagnosed with systemic diseases (HES or tumor) (Figure 1).

Figure 1 The characteristics of demographics, history, lesion manifestation, examination, and diagnoses in DABE patients with mild, moderate, and severe blood eosinophilia. (-) The laboratory result was negtive. The laboratory result was mildly elevated. The laboratory result was dramatically elevated.

Abbreviations: DABE, dermatoses associated with blood eosinophilia; IgE, immunoglobulin E; LDH, lactate dehydrogenase.

The predominance of eosinophils in eczema is not surprising since T helper 2 (Th2) lymphocytes always induce the recruitment of eosinophils in inflamed areas.12 Dermatological results showed that eosinophil activation and toxic granule protein deposition were involved in the acute and chronic lesions of atopic eczema.13 Cetinkaya et al suggested that transient, mild eosinophilia in children is associated with atopic eczema, whereas persistent, severe eosinophilia may be associated with congenital immune deficiency.14 This is similar to our data, where patients under the age of 18 were mostly clustered in the mild eosinophilia group and were diagnosed with eczema. Our results also show that atopic eczema is often related to mild blood eosinophilia, and this relation is more pronounced when accompanied by atopic history and mildly elevated serum total IgE.15

The skin is one of the organs most commonly affected by adverse drug reactions (ADRs). Eosinophils play a key role in drug-induced lesions.16 The incubation period for drug exposure can vary from days to years. Correspondingly, the duration of drug eruption includes acute exacerbation and chronic relapse. Our study showed that 16.6% (66/397) of the patients had lesions and different degrees of elevated blood eosinophils due to drug exposure. The incidence of drug sensitization was 14.7%, 18.6%, and 28.6% in the mild, moderate, and severe eosinophilia groups, but there was no statistical difference among the three groups. Severe eosinophilia with organ damage of the heart, liver, and kidney is associated with more serious systemic adverse drug reactions, such as drug eruption with eosinophilia and systemic symptoms (DRESS).17 Similar to the study of Yang et al, we suggested that the circulating eosinophil count was positively correlated with the severity of drug eruption, and the circulating eosinophil count could also be a prognostic indicator of drug eruption.18 Therefore, any patient with unexplained eosinophilia must obtain a detailed medication history.

Although eosinophilia is generally considered to be insignificant in psoriasis, our results showed 22 cases of psoriasis with mild eosinophilia, including 14 cases of vulgaris, 5 cases of pustulosa, 3 cases of erythrodermic. Retinoids are the first-line drugs for the treatment of psoriasis. Correspondingly, the use of retinoids is clustered in the mild eosinophilia group. There are no published reports investigating the overall incidence of eosinophilia associated with psoriasis. In psoriasis patients, the number of eosinophils labeled with ECP polyclonal antibody was significantly higher than that in healthy controls.19 Sueki et al reported a case of psoriasis vulgaris in which peripheral blood eosinophilia paralleled with the Psoriasis Area and Severity Index (PASI) score, and improvement in psoriasis was directly correlated with decline in eosinophilia.20 Another study showed that peripheral blood eosinophilia appears to be associated with severe forms of psoriasis, such as generalized pustulosa and erythrodermic forms.6 In conclusion, the combination of mild blood eosinophilia and psoriasis appears to be a relatively common condition. It would be significant to further investigate this association in a larger series of cohorts.

Although parasitic infection is one of the most important causes of eosinophilia,21 only 1% (4/397) of DABE in our study were caused by parasitic infection (including 1 case of hookworm infection, 1 case of insect bite dermatitis, 2 cases of scabies) and both were from the mild eosinophilia group. It was reported that 1.0% of children with eosinophilia had parasitic infections, compared with 4.8% of non-parasitic infections.14 In another study, the frequency of parasitic infections in hypereosinophilia was 5.7%.22 Differences between these studies may be strongly related to various socioeconomic levels. Based on the epidemiological importance of parasitic infection, we suggest that for DABE patients with a history of travel to endemic areas and persistent eosinophilia, it is necessary to develop further stool and dermatoscopy to detect eggs and parasites.

Peripheral blood eosinophilia has been reported in 61% of bullous pemphigoid (BP) cases and 46% of pemphigus cases.23,24 In our study, 8.6% (34/397) of DABE patients were diagnosed with autoimmune bullous diseases. Research has shown the strong relation between circulating eosinophil counts and the classic phenotype of BP (vesicles and erosions).25 There was a positive correlation between the severity of BP and peripheral blood eosinophils in the study of Gore Karaali et al.26 Diagnosis of autoimmune bullous disease was mostly in the moderate eosinophilia group through semantic connectivity map analysis.27 Unfortunately, we did not detect these patterns, which may be due to the lack of enough patients with autoimmune bullous disease in our cohort.

In the severe eosinophilia group, DABE patients were more diagnosed with systemic diseases (HES and tumor), and they had a lower proportion with atopic history and a higher proportion of older age. Severe blood eosinophilia was associated with higher levels of IgE and LDH. HES is a diagnosis of exclusion, excluding allergies, infections, rheumatism, and other diseases.28 In various studies, more than 50% of patients with HES develop pleomorphic skin lesions, often delaying diagnosis and treatment.29,30 Khallaayoune et al reported a case diagnosed with BP who showed resistance to conventional treatment and persistent eosinophilia, and finally this patient was considered as BP-associated HES.31 Patients with HES should be carefully examined, especially bone marrow biopsy, F/P fusion gene, and immunophenotyping of peripheral blood lymphocytes. Because HES with the fusion gene is at risk of developing to the malignant end, eventually progressing to eosinophilic leukemia. It is worth noting that some HES patients have allergies, rhinitis, asthma, and other comorbidities at the same time, which is difficult to distinguish from atopic eczema.30

This study could help to better understand the relationship between dermatoses and blood eosinophilia, potentially improving diagnoses and treatments for patients. The level of blood eosinophilia corresponds to different dermatoses, and careful history and targeted examination are crucial for differential diagnosis.

This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Southwest Hospital of Army Medical University (KY2023100). This retrospective study conformed to the ethical guidelines of the Declaration of Helsinki, and patients privacy and personal identity information are protected. Exemption from informed consent will not have any adverse impact on patients health and rights. Therefore, the patient consent is not required for this retrospective study.

The authors thank all participants in this study for their enthusiastic cooperation.

This research was funded by Natural Science Foundation of China (82073442).

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.

1. Wechsler ME, Munitz A, Ackerman SJ, et al. Eosinophils in health and disease: a state-of-the-art review. Mayo Clin Proc. 2021;96(10):26942707. doi:10.1016/j.mayocp.2021.04.025

2. Rothenberg ME, Hogan SP. The eosinophil. Annu Rev Immunol. 2006;24:147174. doi:10.1146/annurev.immunol.24.021605.090720

3. Long H, Zhang G, Wang L, Lu Q. Eosinophilic skin diseases: a comprehensive review. Clin Rev Allergy Immunol. 2016;50(2):189213. doi:10.1007/s12016-015-8485-8

4. Leiferman KM, Peters MS. Eosinophil-related disease and the skin. J Allergy Clin Immunol Pract. 2018;6(5):14621482.e1466. doi:10.1016/j.jaip.2018.06.002

5. Radonjic-Hoesli S, Brggen MC, Feldmeyer L, Simon HU, Simon D. Eosinophils in skin diseases. Semin Immunopathol. 2021;43(3):393409. doi:10.1007/s00281-021-00868-7

6. Mansur AT, Gktay F, Yaar SP. Peripheral blood eosinophilia in association with generalized pustular and erythrodermic psoriasis. J Eur Acad Dermatol Venereol. 2008;22(4):451455. doi:10.1111/j.1468-3083.2007.02489.x

7. Shomali W, Gotlib J. World Health Organization-defined eosinophilic disorders: 2022 update on diagnosis, risk stratification, and management. Am J Hematol. 2022;97(1):129148. doi:10.1002/ajh.26352

8. Leru PM. Eosinophilic disorders: evaluation of current classification and diagnostic criteria, proposal of a practical diagnostic algorithm. Clin Transl Allergy. 2019;9(1):36. doi:10.1186/s13601-019-0277-4

9. Hougaard M, Thomsen GN, Kristensen TK, et al. A retrospective cohort study of patients with eosinophilia referred to a tertiary centre. Dan Med J. 2022;69(4): A07210558

10. Acharya KR, Ackerman SJ. Eosinophil granule proteins: form and function. J Biol Chem. 2014;289(25):1740617415. doi:10.1074/jbc.R113.546218

11. Valent P, Klion AD, Horny HP, et al. Contemporary consensus proposal on criteria and classification of eosinophilic disorders and related syndromes. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2012;130(3):607612.e609. doi:10.1016/j.jaci.2012.02.019

12. Akdis CA, Arkwright PD, Brggen MC, et al. Type 2 immunity in the skin and lungs. Allergy. 2020;75(7):15821605. doi:10.1111/all.14318

13. Kiehl P, Falkenberg K, Vogelbruch M, Kapp A. Tissue eosinophilia in acute and chronic atopic dermatitis: a morphometric approach using quantitative image analysis of immunostaining. Br J Dermatol. 2001;145(5):720729. doi:10.1046/j.1365-2133.2001.04456.x

14. Cetinkaya PG, Aytekin ES, Esenboga S, et al. Eosinophilia in children: characteristics, etiology and diagnostic algorithm. Eur J Pediatr. 2023;182(6):28332842. doi:10.1007/s00431-023-04961-x

15. Crnkovi HT, Bendelja K, imi Klari A, Tomi Raji M, Drkulec V, Aberle N. Family history and cord blood eosinophil count as predictors for atopic manifestations. Cent Eur J Public Health. 2019;27(4):267271. doi:10.21101/cejph.a5601

16. Hoetzenecker W, Ngeli M, Mehra ET, et al. Adverse cutaneous drug eruptions: current understanding. Semin Immunopathol. 2016;38(1):7586. doi:10.1007/s00281-015-0540-2

17. Duong TA, Valeyrie-Allanore L, Wolkenstein P, Chosidow O. Severe cutaneous adverse reactions to drugs. Lancet. 2017;390(10106):19962011. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(16)30378-6

18. Yang J, Yang X, Li M. Peripheral blood eosinophil counts predict the prognosis of drug eruptions. J Investig Allergol Clin Immunol. 2013;23(4):248255.

19. Kim TY, Park HJ, Kim CW. Eosinophil cationic protein (ECP) level and its correlation with eosinophil number or IgE level of peripheral blood in patients with various skin diseases. J Dermatol Sci. 1997;15(2):8994. doi:10.1016/S0923-1811(97)00614-2

20. Sueki H, Nakada T, Iijima M. A case of psoriasis vulgaris with peripheral blood eosinophilia, parallelling the psoriasis area and severity index (PASI) score. Clin Exp Dermatol. 2004;29(5):549550. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2230.2004.01566.x

21. Rothenberg ME. Eosinophilia. N Engl J Med. 1998;338(22):15921600. doi:10.1056/NEJM199805283382206

22. Rosenberg HF, Dyer KD, Foster PS. Eosinophils: changing perspectives in health and disease. Nat Rev Immunol. 2013;13(1):922. doi:10.1038/nri3341

23. Crotty C, Pittelkow M, Muller SA. Eosinophilic spongiosis: a clinicopathologic review of seventy-one cases. J Am Acad Dermatol. 1983;8(3):337343. doi:10.1016/S0190-9622(83)70036-8

24. Morais KL, Miyamoto D, Maruta CW, Aoki V. Diagnostic approach of eosinophilic spongiosis. An Bras Dermatol. 2019;94(6):724728. doi:10.1016/j.abd.2019.02.002

25. Garrido PM, Aguado-Lobo M, Espinosa-Lara P, Soares-Almeida L, Filipe P. Association of peripheral blood and cutaneous eosinophils with bullous pemphigoid disease severity and treatment outcomes. Actas Dermosifiliogr. 2022;113(9):881887. doi:10.1016/j.ad.2022.05.021

26. Gore Karaali M, Koku Aksu AE, Cin M, Leblebici C, Kara Polat A, Gurel MS. Tissue eosinophil levels as a marker of disease severity in bullous pemphigoid. Australas J Dermatol. 2021;62(2):e236e241. doi:10.1111/ajd.13547

27. Radonjic-Hoesli S, Martignoni Z, Cazzaniga S, et al. Characteristics of dermatological patients with blood eosinophilia: a retrospective analysis of 453 patients. J Allergy Clin Immunol Pract. 2022;10(5):12291237.e1228. doi:10.1016/j.jaip.2022.02.018

28. Salomon G, Severino M, Casassa E, et al. Skin manifestations of hypereosinophilic syndrome are polymorphous and difficult to treat: a retrospective cohort study. Ann Dermatol Venereol. 2022;149(2):139141. doi:10.1016/j.annder.2021.12.002

29. Ogbogu PU, Bochner BS, Butterfield JH, et al. Hypereosinophilic syndrome: a multicenter, retrospective analysis of clinical characteristics and response to therapy. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2009;124(6):13191325.e1313. doi:10.1016/j.jaci.2009.09.022

30. Neve S, Beukers S, Kirtschig G. Hypereosinophilic syndrome in an atopic patient. Clin Exp Dermatol. 2009;34(8):e643646. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2230.2009.03356.x

31. Khallaayoune M, Sialiti S, Meziane M, Senouci K. Bullous pemphigoid-like rash revealing hypereosinophilic syndrome. BMJ Case Rep. 2021;14(6). doi:10.1136/bcr-2021-242695

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Derm In The News: November 26-December 2 – Dermatology Times

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Carle Illinois College of Medicine: Skin in the Game: CI MED Student Launches Free Dermatology and Wound Care Clinic

A physician innovator from the Carle Illinois College of Medicine is launching Urbana-Champaigns first-ever free clinic focused on skin care. The Skin and Wound Care Community Clinic aims to address care gaps and provide accessible, culturally competent dermatological and wound care services to underserved populations, including under- and uninsured patients, homeless individuals, and those with limited access to healthcare. The clinic, set to open in the spring of 2024, will offer services such as skin and wound exams, skin cancer screenings, diabetic foot exams, skin biopsies, and patient education on preventing skin cancer and pressure injuries.

The landscape of cosmetic dermatology in India is undergoing a transformative shift as clinics actively seek the latest technologies and innovations to enhance natural aesthetics. Regenerative medicine is at the forefront of this revolution, offering treatments such as stem cell therapy, exosomes therapy, and advanced platelet-rich plasma (PRP) therapy like Growth Factor Concentrate (GFC). These therapies not only accelerate natural healing processes but also provide solutions for aging, hair loss, and facial rejuvenation.

Top headlines from this week to share with your patient:

Mohiba Tareen, MD, of Tareen Dermatology, who introduced the most advanced non-surgical treatment for common skin cancer in Wright County, Minnesota Image-Guided Superficial Radiation Therapy. This non-invasive treatment involves multiple visits and sessions but is described as quick and simple. The technology, brought to Wright County by SkinCure Oncology, uses ultrasound imaging to direct low-level x-rays to targeted areas of the skin, offering a 99.3% cure rate for early-stage non-melanoma skin cancer. With Minnesota ranking high in skin cancer cases, Tareen emphasizes the importance of this tool in treating skin cancer in the region.

A woman in Edinburgh, UK, waited almost four years to see an NHS dermatologist for her severe psoriasis. Initially diagnosed in 2017, she was referred for light therapy in 2019 but began treatment only in September 2023. The delay, exacerbated by COVID-19, reflects a broader issue of long waits for dermatology services in the NHS, with over 8,000 people joining the waiting list for a dermatology outpatient appointment.

Have you seen any dermatology headlines this week that we may have missed? Share with us by emailing our team atDTEditor@mmhgroup.com.

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Derm In The News: November 26-December 2 - Dermatology Times

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The Surprisingly Long History of Auto-Tune, the Vocal-Processing … – Open Culture

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In the fall of 1998, pop music changed forever or at least it seems that way today, a quarter-century later. The epochal event in question was the release of Chers comeback hit Believe, of whose jaggedly fractured vocal glissando no listener had heard the likes of before. The glow-and-flutter of Chers voice at key points in the song announced its own technological artifice, writes critic Simon Reynolds at Pitchfork, a blend of posthuman perfection and angelic transcendence ideal for the vague religiosity of the chorus. As for how that effect had been achieved, only the tech-savviest studio professionals would have suspected a creative misuse of Auto-Tune, a popular digital audio processing tool brought to market the year before.

As its name suggests, Auto-Tune was designed to keep a musical performance in tune automatically. This capability owes to the efforts of one Andy Hildebrand, a classical flute virtuoso turned oil-extraction engineer turned music-technology entrepreneur. Employing the same mathematical acumen hed used to assist the likes of Exxon in determining the location of prime drilling sites from processed sonar data, he figured out a vast simplification of the calculations theoretically required for an algorithm to put a real vocal recording into a particular key.

Rapidly adopted throughout the music industry, Hildebrands invention soon became a generic trademark, like Kleenex, Jell-O, or Google. Even if a studio wasnt using Auto-Tune, it was almost certainly auto-tuning, and with such subtlety that listeners never noticed.

The producers of Believe, for their part, turned the subtlety (or, technically, the smoothness) down to zero. In an attempt to keep that discovery a secret, they claimed at first to have used a vocoder, a synthesizer that converts the human voice into manipulable analog or digital signals. Some would also have suspected the even more venerable talkbox, which had been made well-known in the seventies and eighties by Earth, Wind & Fire, Stevie Wonder, and Roger Troutman of Zapp. Though the Cher effect, as it was known for a time, could plausibly be regarded as an aesthetic descendant of those devices, it had an entirely different technological basis. A few years after that basis became widely understood, conspicuous Auto-Tune became ubiquitous, not just in dance music but also in hip-hop, whose artists (not least Rappa Ternt SangaT-Pain) used Auto-Tune to steer their genre straight into the currents of mainstream pop, if not always to high critical acclaim.

Used as intended, Auto-Tune constituted a godsend for music producers working with any singer less freakishly skilled than, say, Freddie Mercury. Producer-Youtuber Rick Beato admits as much in the video just above, though given his classic rock- and jazz-oriented tastes, it doesnt come as a surprise also to hear him lament the technologys overuse. But for those willing to take it to ever-further extremes, Auto-Tune has given rise to previously unimagined subgenres, bringing (as emphasized in a recent Arte documentary) the universal language of melody into the linguistically fragmented arena of global hip-hop. As a means of generating digital soul, for digital beings, leading digital lives, in Reynolds words, Auto-Tune does reflect our time, for better or for worse. Its detractors can at least take some consolation in the fact that recent releases have come with something called a humanize knob.

Related content:

The Evolution of Music: 40,000 Years of Music History Covered in 8 Minutes

How the Yamaha DX7 Digital Synthesizer Defined the Sound of 1980s Music

What Makes This Song Great?: Producer Rick Beato Breaks Down the Greatness of Classic Rock Songs in His New Video Series

The Distortion of Sound: A Short Film on How Weve Created a McDonalds Generation of Music Consumers

How Computers Ruined Rock Music

Brian Eno on the Loss of Humanity in Modern Music

Based in Seoul,Colin Marshallwrites and broadcasts on cities, language, and culture. His projects include the Substack newsletterBooks on Cities,the bookThe Stateless City: a Walk through 21st-Century Los Angelesand the video seriesThe City in Cinema. Follow him on Twitter at@colinmarshallor onFacebook.

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Drowning in Potential The Guardsman – The Guardsman Online

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Melody Schwartz

GNYENG@proton.me

Night fell after a long day and I was spent. The light from my laptop glowing too bright white like that which is described as off in the eternal distance when one has a near-death experience. Except this was the never ending bright white light of my laptop symbolizing work past-due and future-due forever more work ever awaiting me. The day was already dedicated to an earlier shift of serving others at yet another obligation to myself and the world to keep the wheels turning and on this sputtering car, the machine that is me. I had school too so I could make more money working eventually, maybe. Ive been roadrashed and running down the road fueled by hope, following the promise of yet another light at the end of the tunnel. One I was having to practically squint to see. This evening though, I could suddenly no longer see this tiny light no matter how hard I focused. This promising light I was holding onto with my internal eyes for dear life WAS the fire inside of me I have felt dwindling for years. Blinding. Blinking. Blipping. Breaking.

Ive woken up every day for a while now, smelling smoke in my mind. I know something is burning and just keep my fingers crossed that the scent of swirling char can be traced back to a creative and fulfilling ignition of self burning off into the air but deep down I know it is simply the smell of me burning down and out. The flame has been blown low and almost out by the harsh winds of change, many a time over time and reignited, time and time again, by gasoline I barely had to spare for myself to keep moving forward.

On this weeknight the flame launched itself high, but this was a fire animated by rage. So I wrote down my rage trying to turn the accumulation of things inward outward. I had hit a wall, burnt toast now on fire was me now, on my couch sitting in front of my laptop trying to meet all of the requirements of living with purpose-ishness. To keep other, other lights on and the rest of the bills paid. Most of us dont get to grow past purpose-ishness into the real territory of pure unadulterated fulfilling purpose and I was pissed about that. What was I working for? Toward? Who was I working for? Why any of this? What did I have to prove except that I have the ability not to die? To be accountable for no worthwhile reason as seasons come and go. Unless of course I went through the mental gymnastics of injecting more meaning and value into the work I had little choice in doing. Be careful not to look at the variables which brought you to wherever you are too long, and dare not compare those variables to variables of others either. Comparison is the death of joy Teddy Roosevelt said. The kind of thing someone who is rich and tired of answering questions about how they have so much of that would say. This isnt about Teddy Roosevelt.

Working off of the rush of fire I wrote this. To cope, to spew, to put a hand out to you. Are you feeling how Im feeling? Do you see what I see? Are you hustling like Im hustling? Do you think about productivity? Are

you obsessed with maximizing your time and efforts here on planet Earth-America? Theres so much connected to this topic Its hard to know where to begin in pouring out what I see in front of me: productivity obsession, rampant achievement oriented action, the chokehold of personal responsibility, technological advancement and adjustment at top speed, the turtle speed of political progress (and not like in the story of The Hare and the Tortoise) couple with the inability of a government to offer support to a workforce it barely comprehends, general pressure to optimize, the baffling reality of the contents of something like an Underearners Anonymous meeting, best practices, life hacks, etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. ad infinitum.

Working off of the rush of fire I wrote the above and the below. To cope, to spew, to put a hand out to you. Are you feeling how Im feeling?

Holding the image of a visualized map of connection in my mind to lay out this topic, related areas, themes and data points would be so huge. It is overwhelming, frankly. I will do my best to lay it out a little with my words but please bear with me and remember I will be struggling to encompass the total scope of this collective frustration.

As Ive continued contemplating the topic of what Ill refer to as the phantom of productivity Ive heard various ads that feel relevant. One was for Calm Business which is an extension of the Calm app but geared toward people who need assistance in dealing with work related stress. Another one was a streaming ad for some eye drops with a script that included something like you could be doing MORE to alleviate your dry eyes. There would be so many data points one could thread and connect here eventually sewing things together into one fucked up quilt. Ive begun collecting pieces of related scrap fabric from the world to share with you. This quilt will cover my deathbed rather than keep me warm if the world doesnt change.

Before I continue let me just say that there isnt anything inherently wrong with feeling compelled to improve oneself. To be productive. It is a good thing to be motivated to do. I just want people to reflect on why they believe in their approach to productivity and optimization. I want people to explore and unpack their motivations and consider the driving forces behind hustle culture and its inevitable side effect burnout. Different people from different economic groups/classes are affected by these impulses and pressures in varied ways. I observe many people disproportionately affected by the pressure to do more than is humanly possible putting excess responsibility on themselves to personally improve in hopes that they may elevate themselves out of any variety of difficult situations they are facing. At the core the responsibility many of us feel around the need to be productive may be tied to a desire to feel in control in an out of control world. We want to have more opportunities and choices than we do so we try until we can no longer try anymore. To have a fighting chance we analyze, refactor, enhance and attempt to keep up with a global economy. We ask ourselves how to approach being our best selves more often? Living my best life. The gamification of everything. Comforting ourselves with actions that do (to a degree) improve our situations but also overwhelm us. Especially considering the increasing wealth gap. If these things are within our reach to improve it is maybe easier to cope with difficult realities and feel less crushed by the odds that are stacked against so many of us and the hard facts of life. Which as we all know, is unfair. Tough cookies. Too bad.

Unfortunately I notice a lot of people blame themselves unfairly for their failure to meet certain standards. We do of course have a part in the outcome of things, sure but absorbing so much of the responsibility for the outcome alleviates the powers that be because our rage about the unjust world turns inward first before it can manifest itself in the world and produce positive outward action for change. Before people feel confident enough to demand that they too matter. Often the community or society blames people for their rough circumstances too. Even portions of the community which pride themselves on their conscientiousness. If only they empowered themselves and improved it would change. Their lives would be better. Try harder! As if a possible tactic that moves you toward a hypothetical solution ALWAYS works out to solve the issue. It is a ridiculous lens many people do look through. This pulling yourself up by your bootstraps achievement society angle. The meritocracy of it all. All I can say is .. .theres a reason theres an asterisk on most things which lead to a footnote with the disclaimer results may vary.

As I type this I am reminded of an interaction I had with a student in a previous class I took who asked me what I was doing for the 4th of July. He phrased his question as such Are you going to BBQ with your family for the holiday? to which I replied honestly No, to be transparent I dont really have a family to BBQ with. I do like BBQ though. So maybe Ill have that. to which he replied Oh. No judgment.. This took me aback and I responded Thank you for not judging me for circumstances that were completely out of my control. Glad I wont be viewed poorly for pulling a bad hand. He added Yeah. Its not fair but people do judge. I could only say hmm from there as he was probably unfortunately right on some level about this kind of judgment but the absurdity of it and this interaction remained and the emotional gut punch it delivered sticks with me. By his logic the onus would be on me to not have had a parent who passed away early on in my life and another who suffered from extreme mental illness. Lest I be looked down upon or assumed to be xyz. This, that or the other thing.

What does that have to do with productivity? It may not seem an obvious connection, but I see one because it relates to the fact that people have these distorted viewpoints about what is within our control, the burden we must own and how to measure the world and the people in it according to that viewpoint. So my point here is that these sorts of worldviews directly impact how people navigate the world and the

likelihood that they will assume most things can merely be solved by simply trying harder. Its all within our power! Haha I wish.

Many shudder at the notion of AI but live in rejection of the many things that make us human. Life is funny that way. How we contradict ourselves. We strive to be some exceptional, synthesized version of ourselves We look inward and scrutinize. So many of us are affected by this pressure to be the best we can be. The opportunity to improve ends when were dead but maybe were closer to that much sooner than we think. Hands tied behind our backs by access to solutions to every problem under the sun. Too many options to exhaust to potentially change our lives ourselves before we look beyond. Little time to reflect.

Focusing on doing things just so to get particular results potentially arrests progress because we lose sight of so much. There isnt just one rat race. There are many and the wheels keep spinning. Where to draw the line? I like to challenge myself and find myself competing with myself whether I like it or not. Analyzing what I should do, what I could do, what I must do to empower myself, what is needed and non-negotiable so that I dont wither away It all creeps through my mind. Competition is fine and wanting to excel seems reasonable but I feel a bubbling anxiety all the time around this. I am burdened by guilt for not blocking my time better when it is already blocked to the nth degree. I reflect on how I could have utilized this, that or the other thing more intelligently. Time is running out. Bills are due. The only way up is to jump, jump, jump!

Why do we feel compelled to forever improve while we also lower our expectations for our lives?

We seek an optimal version of ourselves. You could even interpret this goal of self improvement to be in harmony with a Transhumanist philosophy which defines itself by advocating for the enhancement of the human condition by utilizing technologies that might eventually lead to expanding our capacities as human beings to the point that we would evolve past our current condition to become posthuman. A sprint toward the aspirational self. Utilizing technology to help us do more. Plagued by less overall. Achieving more. Less illness. Less bothered. Less poor. More sleep. More means. More muscles. More respect. More years to toil and boil. The aspirational self can survive AND thrive. A genderless Ubermensch for our age, if you will. From gym rats to mindful manifestors the path to your higher self can look different but productivity is key regardless of which expression of personal excellence you pursue.

We all take our vitamins to delay and decrease the suffering associated with our inevitable decline. Our bodies are as much our houses as the houses we cant afford to live inside of no matter how cleverly we schedule our weeks or the world we cant afford to neglect but cant afford to pay attention to either. The intangible house beyond our home. Our body is maybe a realm we have more control over than most. It is our machine even if it is rented out to pay the bills. We try, try, try to keep it well oiled so it may survive the symptoms of a conflicted time, society and world slipping away with the ice caps. Self care to prepare. Prepare to do more, and more. Sometimes when I think about productivity and hustle culture in The United States I cant help but imagine someone trying to get fit in a gym thats on fire. It makes me want to laugh and cry. It gives the feeling of smiling with a mouth full of blood.

I see our relationship with optimization in this country as a relationship with death, which is funny because on the surface it looks to be concerned with the opposite. Health and wellness, for one. For some in the extreme they may even be seeking immortality. In actuality or through impact. A song that will never die or a body that lives on through science. Whatever the personal goals are at play for the individual, it remains that the obsession with productivity and perfection often keeps us from living and being present. Disconnected and at a deficit. A rupture to repair mentality in tow, keeping us motivated but also disempowered.

Now is the time to shift our thinking before our actions seal our fate and declare one too many times that we are okay with living in this impossible way. We are willingly optimizing ourselves to fit the needs of this countrys machine rather than making IT optimize to accommodate the needs of the people. There is much good and plenty to be proud of here in The U.S.. Wepersevere, we compete and we fight to survive. We should be proud of our resilience but our pride should not blind us from the reality that most of us are suffering in this system. Or did we evolve to rise and grind? You tell me.

Again, Id like to posit to all of you that optimization obsession leads to the opposite because it keeps us from living and appreciating our imperfections. Our humanity. Not to mention optimization obsession or this perfect ideal people strive toward just puts us on a path toward perfection which isnt attainable or human and might even be in line with moving toward our replacement via AI or other Transhumanist outcomes and endeavors.

We are acting to almost unconsciously eradicate ourselves by rejecting our individual/ collective needs and interests as human beings with productivity obsessions that offer supposed worth, value and protection from decay. The anxiety to maximize every moment seems omnipresent. A ghost haunting us all. For what? For who? What is the benefit, really? Also theres an element of this obsession with productivity which feels related to our lacking healthcare system and the responsibility we put on ourselves since we cant count on our government to support us in attempting to cure what ails us so you guessed it we can continue to be viable in the workforce and as resources to society. Thats a whole other shit pie to chew on, though. I dont think any of us expect life to be a cakewalk but should we not be whipping things into shape as opposed to whipping ourselves?

Striving toward perfection and optimizing the self doesnt promise innovation, fulfillment or a better quality of life. It just moves the goal post and distracts us from the big picture, ourselves and each other. We cant find balance with it in this country because we arent afforded a reasonable work/life balance in the first place. Thats entitlement. Bratty. Maybe we dont even believe we deserve that subconsciously because of internalized programming about what is and isnt valuable, reasonable etc? We are failures if we arent doing the MOST at absolutely every moment so we lowball ourselves. Shoot the future in the foot. Act against our best interest as a collective people. Somehow the difficulties of life are totally our fault if we dont maximize opportunity from every angle. Even the ones we cant predict. In my opinion most people wont even acknowledge that the internal relationship to this is as harsh as I describe but I see faces that say otherwise every day even if they cannot utter out loud with their own mouths because we are after all lucky to be alive. The odds that any of us would even exist are so incomprehensible that maybe thats enough and maybe we should want for nothing more than to try? If we bring religious beliefs into this conversation it becomes even more layered. Regardless, we soldier on. We get a counselor, a psychiatrist, a friend who will listen. We do what we can. We dont want to feel or be seen as victims so we delete the contributing factors in favor of focusing on something within our grasp. The free will argument and grit! How very American. Well, let me just say maybe your free will isnt so free. Maybe your will is just willing. Too willing, perhaps. Creating value helps to keep us alive and feeling worthy which incentivizes being super productive to have the most perceived value and self worth. By that logic its kind of like lets all kill ourselves being well oiled machines so as not to die! lol

A better self for a better world? More like a better corpse.

What does our humanity mean to us? How much value does it hold?

Page 7 of 7 Melody Schwartz Drowning in Potential

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Google Urges Immediate Action: Security Update Released Amid Active Chrome Exploit Threat – NDTV

Posted: at 3:05 am

Google fixes flaws in the Chrome browser.

Google has released seven security updates for Chrome to address critical vulnerabilities that could be exploited by cyber attackers. The updates fix bugs that could have allowed cyber attackers to take control of affected devices. Google said that it may restrict access to bug details and links until a majority of users are updated with a fix.

Google will also retain restrictions if the bug exists in a third-party library that other projects similarly depend on but haven't yet fixed.

Google recommends that users of the Google Chrome browser and other browsers built on the Chromium engine promptly install and activate the latest update. This critical security update aims to address an exploit (CVE-2023-6345) that is confirmed to be active in the wild, emphasizing the importance of keeping browsers up to date for enhanced security.

In the advisory, Google has highlighted fixes that were contributed by external researchers.

High CVE-2023-6348: Type Confusion in Spellcheck Reported by Mark Brand of Google Project Zero on 2023-10-10

High CVE-2023-6347: Use after free in Mojo. Reported by Leecraso and Guang Gong of the 360 Vulnerability Research Institute on 2023-10-21

High CVE-2023-6346: Use after free in WebAudio. Reported by Huang Xilin of Ant Group Light-Year Security Lab on November 9, 2023

High CVE-2023-6350: Out of bounds memory access in libavif Reported by Fudan University on 2023-11-13

High CVE-2023-6351: Use after free in libavif. Reported by Fudan University on 2023-11-13

High CVE-2023-6345: Integer overflow in Skia Reported by Benot Sevens and Clément Lecigne of Google's Threat Analysis Group on 2023-11-24

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Google begins process of deleting inactive Gmail accounts – ABC News

Posted: at 3:04 am

  1. Google begins process of deleting inactive Gmail accounts  ABC News
  2. Google is deleting inactive accounts. Here's what that means  NPR
  3. Make Sure Your Google Accounts Are Active, or They Might Be Deleted  The New York Times

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Federal judge vows to investigate Google for intentionally destroying chats – The Verge

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Judge James Donato is overseeing Epic v. Google, a case that could determine the future of the Android app store but testimony in this case may have more repercussions for Google too.

On Friday, Judge Donato vowed to investigate Google for intentionally and systematically suppressing evidence, calling the companys conduct a frontal assault on the fair administration of justice. We were there in the courtroom for his explanation.

I am going to get to the bottom of who is responsible, he said, adding he would pursue these issues on my own, outside of this trial.

Testimony in the Epic v. Google trial and in a parallel DOJ antitrust suit against Google in Washington, DC revealed that Google automatically deleted chat messages between employees, and that employees all the way up to CEO Sundar Pichai intentionally used that to make certain conversations disappear. Pichai, and many other employees, also testified they did not change the auto-delete setting even after they were made aware of their legal obligation to preserve evidence.

And Pichai, among other employees, admitted that they marked documents as legally privileged just to keep them out of other peoples hands.

On November 14th, Pichai told the court that he relied on his legal and compliance teams to instruct him properly, particularly Alphabet chief legal officer Kent Walker and so Judge Donato hauled Walker into court two days later.

But the judge was not satisfied with Walkers testimony, either, accusing him of tap-dancing around.

Walker said he never attempted to audit whether employees were actually retaining evidence it was left up to individual employees to decide which communications might be relevant to a legal case, and more than one employee testified in court they had the wrong idea of what was relevant.

The most serious and disturbing evidence I have ever seen in my decade on the bench

Today, Judge Donato said it was deeply troubling to me as a judicial officer of the United States that Google acted this way, calling it the most serious and disturbing evidence I have ever seen in my decade on the bench with respect to a party intentionally suppressing relevant evidence.

This conduct is a frontal assault on the fair administration of justice. It undercuts due process. It calls into question just resolution of legal disputes. It is antithetical to our system, said Judge Donato.

And yet, the judge decided today that he would not issue a mandatory inference instruction one that would tell the jury they should proceed with the understanding that Google destroyed evidence that could have been detrimental to its case.

Instead, there will be a permissive jury instruction the jury may infer that the missing evidence might have helped Epic and hurt Google.

The best course of action is for the jury itself to decide whether it will make an inference. I am not going to constrain the jurys discretion by making that inference for them, he said.

Even though it would be well within bounds to issue a mandatory inference instruction, said Judge Donato, I can pursue these issues on my own, outside of this trial, in subsequent trials.

I am going to get to the bottom of who is responsible, he said. That is going to be separate and apart from anything that happens here, but that day is coming.

Google declined to comment to The Verge on Judge Donatos statements. Walker testified in court that the auto-delete setting is now off by default for all Google employees.

Today, Epic and Google rested their case in Epic v. Google. Well be returning on December 11th for closing arguments and jury instructions.

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Google adds Photomoji, profiles, and custom colors to RCS in Messages – The Verge

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November has been a big month for RCS the mobile messaging protocol championed by Google and now, the company is capping it off with the announcement of a milestone and some festive new features. First, the number: according to Google, over 1 billion monthly active users are using RCS in Google Messages. Thats huge, considering support was scarce just a handful of years ago, though not entirely surprising since its been the default messaging service on Android phones for a few years now.

As for the new messaging features, a couple of them might sound familiar to iOS users. Theres a new feature that ties into your Google account to create a Contact Poster-like profile with your name and photo. Google is adding something called Photomoji, which lets you cut people out of your photos and use the photos to react to messages as you would with an emoji.

Apple offers something similar in iOS 17, though you have to turn your photo cutouts into stickers to add them to iMessage conversations. Based on an extremely scientific study of, like, five of my friends, this isnt catching on very quickly.

Google Messages will also let you attach an emoji when you send a voice message, which Google calls a mood. Thats a nice way to help someone get the tenor of your message at a glance. Emoji shared in group chats or used as reactions will sometimes include an animation, too. And in a little nod to the whole green bubble / blue bubble situation, Google Messages will now let you change the color of the chat bubbles on each of your conversations.

I spoke to Android messaging VP and GM Sanaz Ahari about the new features and where RCS is generally, which of course, means asking about Apple. Theres good reason to be excited about RCS on the iPhone because as Ahari aptly puts it group chats are just really, really broken today between Android and iOS. Apples commitment to supporting the RCS universal profile 2.0 means that image and video sharing across platforms will get much better, but Ahari acknowledges that the 2.0 spec doesnt include end-to-end encryption.

We are actively working with the GSMA and Apple is a member of the GSMA to evolve the spec to include not only end-to-end encryption, but also a lot of features that arent in the RCS spec that were working on adding back to the spec. Threaded replies, read receipts, and reactions are a few of those features that are unlikely to be supported for iPhone users as the standard exists today. Overall, what we hope is that the modern messaging features and end-to-end encryption will be a reality cross-platform.

Thats all a ways off, but in the meantime, Googles new messaging features will be trickling out to RCS users on Android phones. Todays feature drop also includes some handy smart home integrations with Wear OS so you can set your Google Home status, trigger a group of lights, or start a routine from your watch. It all rolls out starting today, with the new messaging features debuting first in open beta.

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These major retailers accept Google Pay in the US – Android Police

Posted: at 3:04 am

You don't need Apple or Samsung to make payments with your phone. You can use Google Pay even on a budget Android phone. Be careful, though, because Google Pay uses a different technology than Apple to communicate with your bank and it isn't accepted at many US retailers. The good news is that most major stores accept it. We compiled this list of the major US retailers who accept Google Pay to take the guesswork out of it.

Google Pay is a newcomer to the digital payment landscape. Samsung Pay and Apple Pay rolled out in 2015, and Google struggled to catch up. First, there was Android Pay. Then there was Google Wallet, which didn't have a payment system built in. Then, in 2020, Google Pay was launched. Better late than never.

Google Pay works similarly to Apple Pay and Samsung Pay. Tap your phone on an NFC terminal, and with the happy ding of a bell, you've made a transaction. It's behind the scenes that you see the differences. For starters, Google Pay stores your card on the Google servers. Your card number and your bank authentication are used to make the payment. It is the digital copy of tapping your NFC-compatible debit card. Apple Pay doesn't work the same.

Apple creates a secure token to represent your card. This token looks like a debit card number, although it is randomly generated. Apple requests a Device Access Number (DAN) from your bank, which it links to this token. When you tap Apple Pay, the merchant and Apple only see the token, not your card number. Apple has no idea what your actual card number is. That remains between you and your bank.

This makes Apple Pay more secure. Google's servers are secure and have yet to be hacked, so your bank information should be safe there.

Samsung Pay works similarly to Google Pay, but it has a leg up on Apple and Google. It can use NFC and MST. NFC allows you to tap your phone or card to make a payment. MST, Magnetic Secure Transmission, is the slightly older method of swiping the magnetic strip on your bank card along a receiver in the terminal. Samsung Pay allows your phone to spoof this and trick the terminal into thinking a card was swiped, thus making Samsung Pay available almost everywhere.

Any place that accepts Apple Pay also accepts Google Pay. It seems that the Apple Pay sticker you see on shop doors is a generic term for mobile payments, much like how we call all tissues Kleenex. This is because both systems rely on NFC. If you can tap your card, you can use a mobile payment.

Not all major retailers in the US accept mobile payments. Many smaller retailers are behind on the times, mainly for financial reasons. Transaction fees on a bank-supplied NFC terminal can take a big slice of a small business' revenue. Here are the major retailers that accept Google Pay.

Almost all the grocery chains in the US accept Google Pay.

While most US restaurants and fast food chains accept Google Pay, a few franchises may not. Ask a staff member if you're unsure. The following accept Google Pay:

Gas stations are one of those categories of retailers that are taking a long time to catch up. Switching pumps to include NFC payments is expensive, so most gas stations require you to visit the cashier to use Google Pay. The following companies accept Google Pay at many of their pumps (not all):

Exxon Mobile only accepts Apple Pay with the Speedpass+ app, but not Google Pay. This may change in the future.

The big cinema chains accept Google Pay.

Most home improvement chains in the United States do not accept Google Pay. We're not sure why this is, but it probably comes down to cost. A few accept it, including the following:

Most major retailers accept Google Pay. The ones that don't are usually hardware stores or smaller businesses. The following major retailers do not accept any form of mobile payment, including Google Pay:

Kroger and Walmart offer payment apps similar to Apple Pay. Download Kroger Pay or the Walmart app from the App Store to use your phone to make payments at these stores.

Google Pay is a fast and easy way to make payments. Tap your phone, and you're set. Google Pay lives in your Google Wallet, where you can also store your loyalty cards, and, in some states, your ID in Google Wallet. You still need to pay for your lumber in cash, however.

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Google Search Partners Is Unsafe, But It Can Be Fixed – AdExchanger

Posted: at 3:04 am

Lou Paskalis, AJL Advisory AJL Advisory

The most recent study from Adalytics is perhaps the most alarming one yet, as it reveals that the Google Search Partner (GSP) platform appears to have no controls in place to ensure users of the service do not see their ads running on all manner of unsuitable sites.

Adalytics found ads appearing next to pornography and on sites on the federal governments SDN list, which contains tens of thousandsof companies, organizations and individuals who have been identified as posing a threat to US national security and foreign and economic policy, according to Wikipedia.

One would reasonably expect that, at a minimum, Google would filter porn sites and those listed by the government as threats to national security out of the core GSP offering. But apparently no such effort has been made, judging by the hundreds of screenshots included in the Adalytics study. This latest lapse of trust raises questions about Googles stewardship of the dollars that advertisers invest in its services.

Google very clearly states in its terms of service that it does not reveal the vendors in its network, which should at least give advertisers pause about using the service as an extension of their search campaigns beyond Google-owned properties.

The problem, however, is that GSP is set up as an opt-out on each search campaign that a marketer deploys. And based on the findings from the Adalytics study, it appears that many marketers including a significant number of US government entities such as the FBI, US Treasury and US Army were unaware they need to opt out to protect themselves from problematic ad placements.

Its worse if youuse Googles Performance Max, a goal-based tool that allows performance advertisers to access all Google Ads inventoryacross a single campaign. Its designed to complement keyword-based search campaigns with access to Googles other media channels like YouTube, Display, Discovery, Gmail and Maps.

The problem is that Google offers PMax customers no way to opt out of GSP. At best, this is an egregious oversight, particularly for a solution that Google is pushing so aggressively.

By setting up the GSP platform and PMax like this, Google has exposed any search clients who fail to opt out of the service in their search campaigns or who use PMax at all to significant compliance and reputational risk.

The companys response to concerns over this risk is to characterize GSP as a minuscule part of its overall search volume, which is not a viable response to a regulator. And that defense certainly wont fly in the court of public opinion, where it takes just a single screenshot to ignite public backlash and potential boycotts.

I know many people who work at Google, and they are almost universally high-integrity individuals who work hard on behalf of their customers. GSP and PMax, as they are currently set up, are not representative of the kind of solutions that Ive come to expect from Google and the leaders I know there. Both offerings are a poor reflection on a company that has enjoyed a very good reputation among media vendors for a long time. This GSP scandal is not their finest hour, and characterizing it as minuscule in scale does not mitigate the enormous reputational risk it could create for any marketer unwise enough to use it.

The good news is that marketers can easily eliminate this risk entirely if theyre careful.

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Every search campaign deployed on Google is set by default to include Google Search Partners. TURN IT OFF when you are building a search campaign on Google. And, unfortunately, the forced inclusion of GSP in PMax means that marketers shouldnt use that tool either until Google gives marketers the option to exclude GSP from campaigns placed on PMax.

Unfortunately, as I understand it, you have to opt out separately for each individual campaign you mount and for each country that a campaign will run in. Thats actually more work than it might sound like for major multinational marketers who routinely deploy campaigns of a near global magnitude.

However, the risk of having your brand appear as search ads in some of the vilest environments you can imagine justifies any amount of effort to avoid that outcome.

But what frustrates me most about this situation is how easily it can be remedied in a way that will benefit all parties. By taking these three simple steps, Google can make the GSP network safe for all advertisers.

1. GSP should be an opt-in service, not one that requires the marketer to opt out. Google Search and PMax campaigns should not run on GSP unless an advertiser willfully opts in.

2. GSP should offer category-level exclusion options for marketers so that, at a minimum, they can opt out of running ads on categories of sites they deem to be unsuitable (e.g., pornography and sites that appear on the federal governments SDN lists).

3. GSP should filter vendors on the service for overall brand safety and suitability BEFORE allowing them to become part of the GSP network.

Frankly, these steps should have been taken when Google Search Partners was originally set up. The fact that they werent raises questions that need to be answered.

For now, though, I would prefer to see Google fix the problem by taking the actions outlined above and, in so doing, make GSP a safe tool for those who wish to take advantage of it without exposing their brands to reputational risk.

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