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Multiple investigations from The Markup have been recognized in a range of categories by the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing’s 2022 . Best in Business Awards Working for an Algorithm Dara Kerr’s stories documenting attacks on gig workers and ride-hail drivers won in the Features and Travel/Transportation categories. In addition to a that revealed through gripping personal narrative how Uber’s failure to swiftly comply with subpoenas left drivers vulnerable, reporting in our “ ” series was also honored for the crisis and creating that tracks carjackings or attempted carjackings of gig workers nationwide. months-long investigation Working for an Algorithm quantifying the only database Congrats to the entire team that worked on this series: Dara Kerr, Maddy Varner, Ko Bragg, Kris Fischer, Gabriel Hongsdusit, Maria Puertas, Jill Jaroff, Sid Hastings, and Anson Chan, and our publishing partner The Verge. Still Loading Our investigation, “ ,” won in the Data Journalism and Media/Entertainment categories. that a quartet of telecom giants disproportionately offered lower-income and least-White neighborhoods slow internet service for the same price as speedy connections they offered in other parts of town. Still Loading Our story revealed Until The Markup published this investigation, customers receiving the worst deals had no idea about the disparity. Since publication, investigative reporters Leon Yin and Aaron Sankin have briefed local-, federal-, and state-level lawmakers and regulators about our findings. They’ve how to localize the story for their own communities, which many publications did. created a guide showing other journalists We also worked with Outlier Media before launch, sharing our data analysis, and Outlier focused on Detroiters on publication day. published its own story Dozens of news organizations also republished The Markup’s story through our partnership with the Associated Press for this project. The investigation has also proved a crucial resource for government officials working to bring more Americans online. Congrats to the team that worked on this series: Leon Yin, Aaron Sankin, Evelyn Larrubia, Joel Eastwood, Gabriel Hongsdusit, Paroma Soni, Jeremy Singer-Vine, Maria Puertas, Jill Jaroff, and our publishing partners. The Pixel Hunt Stories from our “ ” series won honorable mentions in the Investigative and Technology categories. Pixel Hunt The three stories recognized by the award revealed that about patients from medical websites, dozens of have sent patients’ sensitive health information to multiple big tech companies, and that have been sending users financial information to Facebook. Facebook is receiving sensitive medical information telehealth startups tax filing websites Since publication, mental health startup Cerebral has , have been filed, and our work has been the Department of Health and Human Services, in U.S. Senate , and in from eight senators to subjects of our stories. admitted to disclosing users’ sensitive health data in violation of HIPAA multiple class action lawsuits cited by hearings letters Congrats to the team that worked on this series: Simon Fondrie-Teitler, Todd Feathers, Surya Mattu, Colin Lecher, Angie Waller, Katie Palmer of STAT, Rina Palta, Micha Gorelick, Gabriel Hongsdusit, Maria Puertas, and Jill Jaroff. Congratulations as well, to our partners at STAT and The Verge, who either coreported or copublished these stories with us. Congratulations to all of . this year’s SABEW Awards honorees By The Markup Also published here Photo by on Uwe Conrad Unsplash

The Markup Wins Four Journalism Awards in the 2022 Best in Business Awards

An investigation by The Markup into online tracking by hospitals was recognized by the Association for Health Care Journalists, winning third place in the large investigative category of AHCJ’s . Awards for Excellence in Health Care Journalism AHCJ awards the best health reporting in print, broadcast, and online media and announced The Markup’s award in the online media division on Feb. 22, 2023. In the story recognized by AHCJ, “ ,” we revealed that 33 of the top 100 hospitals in the U.S., along with at least seven health care systems, were sending patients’ sensitive health information to Facebook through a web tracking tool. Facebook Is Receiving Sensitive Medical Information from Hospital Websites The tool, known as the Meta Pixel, exposed patients’ internet “IP” addresses, effectively linking their medical information and doctor’s appointments to their identity. Under the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA, health data linked to an IP address is protected, and organizations covered by HIPAA, like hospitals, cannot share it with third parties without patient consent or a contract that requires the third party to provide the same level of protection. A former senior privacy adviser to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services was quoted in our investigation saying, “I cannot say [sharing this data] is for certain a HIPAA violation. It is quite likely a HIPAA violation.” The investigation revealed that the health care providers sent Facebook, at times, patients’ specific conditions, the search terms they entered to find the right doctor, the name and dosage of their medication, their sexual orientation, and the name of their doctor. The investigation was enabled by the Pixel Hunt project, a collaboration between The Markup and Mozilla Rally. The project was a crowd-sourced undertaking in which anyone could install in order to send The Markup data on the Meta Pixel as it appeared on sites that they visited. Mozilla’s Rally browser add-on This allowed The Markup to discover when sensitive information was sent to Facebook from within password-protected patient portals. Impact In North Carolina, where several health care systems’ patient portals were sending sensitive information to Facebook, lawmakers demanded a probe, and the attorney general’s office . began an investigation In the U.S. Senate, on the issue during a hearing of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia later to Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook parent company Meta. Jon Ossoff of Georgia questioned Facebook cited The Markup’s investigation in a letter The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), citing our story, issued updated guidance on the “ ,” confirming that “tracking technologies” on patient portal pages are generally covered by HIPAA privacy rules. Use of Online Tracking Technologies by HIPAA Covered Entities and Business Associates Additionally, HHS said that such rules also cover pages that might be encountered by nonpatients and before a password is entered, such as appointment pages and health condition information pages. Before this HHS guidance was issued, there was disagreement in the health law sector on whether such pages were covered under HIPAA. Patients of hospitals in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Chicago, and of two regional health care systems brought at least five class action lawsuits against Meta, alleging that the company broke various state and federal laws. The health care providers themselves also further amended their practices. As of Oct. 20, 2022, at least 35 of the 40 hospitals and health systems identified in our story had removed the pixel from at least portions of their websites. At least five health care systems sent HHS and a combined 6.4 million patients “breach” notifications, required under HIPAA, stating that data submitted to their websites may have been inappropriately sent by the trackers. The Markup also strongly believes in showing our work and for the Pixel Hunt series, which included the hospital tracking investigation. did so A huge congratulations to the entire team that worked on the piece: Todd Feathers, Simon Fondrie-Teitler, Angie Waller, Surya Mattu, Rina Palta, Micha Gorelick, Gabriel Hongsdusit, Maria Puertas, and Jill Jaroff. Congratulations to all of this year’s Awards for Excellence in Health Care Journalism . honorees By The Markup Also published here Photo by on Giorgio Trovato Unsplash

The Markup Honored by AHCJ Awards for Revealing That Several Hospitals Were in Bed With Facebook 

There are annual seasonal changes in the human organism

Hospital Websites are Giving Facebook Sensitive Information

This article is a collaboration with Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting. Facebook is collecting ultrasensitive personal data about abortion seekers and enabling anti-abortion organizations to use that data as a tool to target and influence people online, in violation of its own policies and promises. In the wake of a signaling the likely end of nationwide abortion protections_,_ privacy experts are sounding alarms about all the ways people’s data trails could be used against them if some states criminalize abortion. leaked Supreme Court opinion A joint investigation by Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting and The Markup found that the world’s largest social media platform is already collecting data about people who visit the websites of hundreds of crisis pregnancy centers, which are quasi-health clinics, mostly run by religiously aligned organizations whose mission is to persuade people to choose an option other than abortion. Meta, Facebook’s parent company, prohibits websites and apps that use Facebook’s advertising technology from sending Facebook “ ” data. sexual and reproductive health After investigations by in 2019 and in 2021, the social media giant to help detect sensitive health data and blocked data that contained any of 70,000 health-related terms. The Wall Street Journal New York state regulators created a machine-learning system But Reveal and The Markup have found Facebook’s code on the websites of hundreds of anti-abortion clinics. Using , a Markup tool that detects cookies, keyloggers, and other types of user-tracking technology on websites, Reveal analyzed the sites of —with data provided by the University of Georgia—and found that at least 294 shared visitor information with Facebook. Blacklight nearly 2,500 crisis pregnancy centers In many cases, the information was extremely sensitive—for example, whether a person was considering abortion or looking to get a pregnancy test or emergency contraceptives. In a statement to Reveal and The Markup, Facebook spokesperson Dale Hogan said, “It is against our policies for websites and apps to send sensitive information about people through our Business Tools,” which includes its . advertising technology “Our system is designed to filter out potentially sensitive data it detects, and we work to educate advertisers on how to properly set up our Business Tools.” Facebook declined to answer detailed questions about its filtering systems and policies on data from crisis pregnancy centers. It’s unknown whether the filters caught any of the data, but our investigation showed a significant amount made its way to Facebook. Credit:https://www.facebook.com/privacy/center More than a third of the websites sent data to Facebook when someone made an appointment for an “abortion consultation” or “pre-termination screening.” And at least 39 sites sent Facebook details such as the person’s name, email address, or phone number. Facebook takes in data from crisis pregnancy centers through a tracking tool called the that works whether or not a person is logged in to their Facebook account. Meta Pixel The pixel is largely an advertising tool that allows businesses to do things like buy Facebook ads targeted to people who have visited their website or to people who share similar interests or demographics with their site’s other visitors. This is a mostly automated process in which the business does not have access to information about the specific users being targeted. It’s how this data is later used. not clear Crisis pregnancy centers and other businesses can choose whether to install pixel on their websites, though many website builders and third-party services automatically embed trackers. In 2020, The Markup of the 80,000 most popular sites use the ad tracker, and Facebook has said are on websites across the internet. found that 30 percent millions of pixels Facebook says pixel data can be . stored for years That personal data can be used in a number of ways. The centers can deliver targeted advertising, on Facebook or elsewhere, aimed at deterring an individual from getting an abortion. It can be used to build anti-abortion ad campaigns—and spread misinformation about reproductive health—targeted at people with similar demographics and interests. And, in the worst-case scenario now contemplated by privacy experts, that digital trail might even be used as evidence against abortion seekers in states where the procedure is outlawed. “I think this is going to be a wake-up call for millions of Americans about how much danger this tracking puts them in when laws change and people can weaponize these systems in ways that once seemed impossible,” said Albert Fox Cahn, founder and executive director of the New York–based Surveillance Technology Oversight Project. Facebook and crisis pregnancy centers “are operating with virtually no rules,” he said. Facebook has that are supposed to block sensitive personal data. But the platform’s filters have often proved to be porous against the vast amount of information they take in every day. policies and filters Essentially, that means the company is putting the onus on its advertising clients to monitor themselves. And Facebook does not have an incentive to crack down on violations of its advertising policies, said Serge Egelman, research director of the Usable Security & Privacy Group at UC Berkeley’s International Computer Science Institute. “That costs them money to do. As long as they’re not legally obligated to do so, why would they expend any resources to fix this?” Using Data to Make Abortion “Unthinkable” Crisis pregnancy centers market themselves as being in the “pregnancy resource” business, offering a range of free or low-cost services from pregnancy tests to baby clothing and “options consultations.” But their mission, articulated by Heartbeat International, the largest crisis pregnancy center network in the world, is : “to make abortion unwanted today and unthinkable for future generations.” far more sweeping Although many centers resemble medical clinics, the majority are not licensed medical facilities. Thus, most are not required to follow most privacy protections against the sharing of personal health information, including the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA. In recent years, crisis pregnancy centers have become increasingly savvy about targeting people using sophisticated digital tools and infrastructure. Heartbeat International, for example, has developed suites of products to help individual centers improve their online presence, digital advertising, and data management. These online tools enable the centers to amass , including medical histories, details about prior pregnancies, and even ultrasound photos, and store and share that information with networks of anti-abortion partners. highly personal information As Heartbeat International says on its webpage marketing its : “Big data is revolutionizing all sorts of industries. Why shouldn’t it do the same for a critical ministry like ours?” data management system When asked about Heartbeat International’s data-sharing practices, spokesperson Andrea Trudden said, “Heartbeat International encourages all pregnancy help organizations to utilize a variety of marketing to reach those seeking pregnancy help.” But, she said, “we do not require affiliates to provide such details to us.” Crisis pregnancy centers also have been documented as spreading false or misleading information about abortion, contraceptives, and other reproductive health topics, including on Facebook. In 2021, the Center for Countering Digital Hate found that Facebook showed ads promoting an unproven medical procedure known as abortion pill reversal . as many as 18.4 million times Many of those advertisements were linked to Heartbeat International’s Abortion Pill Rescue Network project, which did not respond to a request for comment. How We Tracked the Data To test how Facebook and crisis pregnancy centers have been using the data the pixel collects, Reveal reporter Grace Oldham created a new Facebook profile in late April solely for this investigation. Then, while logged in to Facebook, she visited the 294 crisis pregnancy center websites that Blacklight found to have a pixel, clicking through each website and, when available, filling out appointment request forms. Oldham conducted the research in a clean browser with a cleared cache. In early May, she and Reveal data reporter Dhruv Mehrotra used Meta’s to and review the data of the clean Facebook account. Privacy Center download They found that Facebook retained data about Oldham’s interactions with 88 percent of those crisis pregnancy center websites, linking her behavior to her Facebook profile. For instance, Facebook knew Oldham had scheduled an appointment with the Pregnancy Resource Center of Owasso, Okla. That state’s Republican governor, Kevin Stitt, signed in late May that bans virtually all abortions from the point of fertilization and took effect immediately. a law The Owasso center did not respond to a request for comment, but after we reached out, Facebook’s tracking pixel was removed from every page on the center’s website. Our analysis found that in if Roe v. Wade is overturned, at least 120 crisis pregnancy centers sent data to Facebook about their website visitors. states that will ban most or all abortions In Tennessee, for example, where the is poised to outlaw abortion statewide, Facebook retained data from Oldham’s interactions with 11 centers. Next Steps Resources in Dunlap sent data to Facebook about every single page Oldham visited on its site. Human Life Protection Act Facebook stored that data and knew that Oldham had submitted an appointment request with the center. Next Steps’ executive director, Debbie Chandler, told Reveal and The Markup that the people she hired to manage her website and marketing disagreed that “any private information was being sent to Facebook.” Credit:Nextstepinfo.org We also found that anti-abortion marketing companies gained access to some of Oldham’s pixel data, even though she never interacted with their websites. These included Choose Life Marketing, whose website claims to help crisis pregnancy centers develop digital strategies to “reach more abortion-minded women,” and Stories Marketing, a social media marketing company for “pregnancy centers and life-affirming organizations.” Those organizations also added Oldham’s Facebook profile to audience groups capable of targeting her and people like her with ads for their services as well as anti-abortion messaging. Choose Life Marketing and Stories Marketing did not respond to requests for comment. custom In their online materials, the marketing companies explain why Facebook plays such an important role in their digital strategies. “Facebook ads have the highest return on investment (ROI) of any type of online marketing—even twice the ROI of Google Ads,” Stories Marketing , adding, “Facebook ads can also be placed on Instagram and other apps for free, extending your reach at no extra cost.” says According to : “Retargeting is an effective method of keeping your center at the forefront of their minds.… This digital marketing method can also help build credibility and trust as women go through the decision-making process because your center’s name becomes familiar to them.” Choose Life We first ran our analysis in February and repeated it using the same methodology in early May. The results of both analyses were similar. As of Tuesday, Facebook still had data about Oldham’s interactions on crisis pregnancy center websites. Abortion Data Collection “Ripe for Abuse” Cahn, of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, expressed concerns about how law enforcement agencies could use Facebook data to find people seeking abortions should the procedure become illegal in some states. “It’s ripe for abuse,” he said of Facebook’s data collection. “It seems indefensible to me that we are allowing companies to have so much power to expose our most intimate moments to these platforms and have them use it against us.” In recent years, law enforcement agencies have barraged tech companies like Google and Uber with for user data. demands Often, these legal requests don’t target individual suspects but instead compel the company to divulge data about people in a particular place or searches using specific keywords. According to the most recent data available from , the company received nearly 60,000 government requests for data from July to December 2021 and complied 88 percent of the time. Facebook’s Transparency Center Although crisis pregnancy centers could provide law enforcement with data about anyone who had voluntarily provided personal information, they probably don’t have the technology to disclose specific information about individuals who had merely visited their websites. But Facebook is different. Because the social media company can link activity on a crisis pregnancy center site to an individual’s profile, Facebook is in a much better position to divulge granular data about the center’s website visitors than the center itself. Data from search engine histories played a key role in a 2018 criminal case, in which for second-degree murder after suffering a pregnancy loss at home. a Mississippi woman was indicted The evidence included internet searches the woman had allegedly conducted for how to “buy Misoprostol abortion pill online.” The charges eventually were dropped. “There’s nothing to stop police from using Facebook ad-targeting data the same way they’ve been using Google’s data, as a mass digital dragnet,” Cahn said. Laura Lazaro Cabrera, a legal officer at London-based , said that even metadata, like the titles of webpages or URLs, can be revealing. Privacy International “Think about what you can learn from a URL that says something about scheduling an abortion,” she said. “Facebook is in the business of developing algorithms. They know what sorts of information can act as a proxy for personal data.” Getting Facebook to Fix the Problem Privacy experts have been warning for years that Facebook’s laissez-faire attitude toward how clients use its advertising technology is vulnerable to exploitation. After The Wall Street Journal and New York state regulators exposed how the social media behemoth collected sensitive user data from popular health apps that chart everything from heart rates to menstrual cycles, Facebook claimed to have implemented sophisticated filtering mechanisms to detect and prevent it from taking in sensitive health data. According to , the filters were supposed to block “70,000 terms related to topics such as sexual health and medical conditions.” the Journal But our investigation found that Facebook has continued to ingest data from webpages with obvious sexual health information— including ones with URLs that include phrases such as “post-abortion,” “i-think-im-pregnant,” and “abortion-pill.” Despite Facebook’s official policy prohibiting websites from sending it , it’s unclear what, if anything, the platform does to educate its advertising clients about the policy and proactively enforce it. sensitive health information One way for Facebook to prevent anti-abortion organizations from misusing its ad technology would be to strengthen the filters it already has in place or to discontinue the pixel tool entirely. But the reality, said Egelman of UC Berkeley, is that the company’s in advertising revenue creates a huge financial disincentive to block user information. $115 billion a year “This is their business. The more data they get, the more targeted advertising they can do, and that’s the gravy train for them: targeted ads,” he said. “If they’re proactive about cutting off sites like that, it impacts their revenue in multiple ways.” In the absence of Facebook action, Egelman says he thinks that the best fix is public pressure and tough legislation. That’s what happened last year, when critical backlash prompted Meta-owned Instagram to its plans for a kids’ version of its social media software. shelve While no comprehensive federal data privacy legislation currently exists in the United States, a called the American Data Privacy and Protection Act was released in early June that, if passed, could increase the Federal Trade Commission’s power to regulate and enforce how companies can use sensitive health data. draft of a bill Until then, however, it remains up to state legislatures to enact consumer privacy protections. Brandie Nonnecke, founding director of the CITRIS Policy Lab at UC Berkeley, said the European Union is creating stronger protections that would apply through the . Digital Services Act The new guidelines, which are awaiting formal approval by the European Parliament and E.U. Council, will require large online platforms, like Facebook, and search engines to proactively identify ways their systems could be abused and create strategies to prevent that misuse. “We’re not in a place where there is robust enough transparency and accountability on these data ecosystems and how they’re being used,” she said, “and especially the vulnerabilities to individuals.” By and Grace Oldham Dhruv Mehrotra Byard Duncan and Surya Mattu contributed to this story. It was edited by Nina Martin, Soo Oh, Rina Palta, and Andrew Donohue and copy edited by Nikki Frick. Grace Oldham can be reached at , and Dhruv Mehrotra can be reached at goldham@revealnews.org . Follow them on Twitter: dmehrotra@revealnews.org @grace_c_oldham and . @dmehro Also published here Photo by on Glen Carrie Unsplash

Facebook and Anti-Abortion Clinics Have Your Info 

Crypto Crash? Not Really... 

Looking for the best AR software for your app? This guide will help you choose from the 10 best AR programs that lead in 2022. Keep reading to find also our tips on what to consider while selecting an augmented reality platform. 4 Top Augmented Reality Platform Technologies Before deciding on the best AR programs, let’s first discuss the most popular AR technologies that you can implement into your app. Marker-Based AR This type of augmented reality is also known as image recognition or recognition-based AR. Augmentation happens when the camera recognizes a required marker. It could be an image, an object, a text, or a sound. A simple example is an AR book. Characters go live when you point a smartphone camera at the book. Face AR works almost the same way as marker-based, but the marker is a face. Face AR You've surely used this augmented reality platform technology. Snapchat filters and are the most vivid examples. Instagram face effects employs face recognition and tracking technology to let users apply 3D filters, Snapchat-like lenses, real-time makeovers, face masks, and avatars to augment user appearances. Face AR software This way, you drive user engagement, increase sessions, and boost in-app sales. This AR software type is a perfect match for the communication, e-commerce, education, advertising, and gaming industries. Let's imagine you run an e-commerce business. You integrate face augmented reality software and offer users a . virtual try-on feature This makes them excited as they can try before they buy. In turn, it boosts user engagement, increases session time, and drives sales. Want to Boost Sales with AR Software?Get a 14-Day Free Trial Right Now Location-Based AR This type of AR software solutions uses a smartphone’s GPS, camera, compass, and accelerometer to tie an object to a specific area. Pokemon GO is the best example. Users could spot virtual creatures at specific locations displayed on an in-app map. Projection-Based AR Frequently referred to as spatial AR, this technology allows the rendering of virtual objects in a physical space on or around the user. Activation happens when a user touches a surface lit by a projector to interact with virtual objects that are integrated into the environment. Users and virtual objects can move within a specified zone in the area where the projector and camera are placed. 10 Best AR Software Solutions in 2022 Meishe Meishe is one of the best Beijing-based augmented reality platforms. It offers face tracking and AR software along with a video editing SDK. The key features of Meishe's AR toolkits are 2D/3D masks, background separation, triggers, beautification, gesture recognition, etc. The core offerings by Meishe: Efficient and accurate face detection Rich sticker effects Beauty makeup Gesture detection Face prop making tools. What Brands Trust Meishe? Asus, Xiaomi, Oppo, Splice, and Vivo are using the AR software solutions by Meishe. How Much Does It Cost? The augmented reality platform offers a free trial period and requires contacting for getting pricing details. What Platforms Are Supported? Meishe's augmented reality SDK supports mobile, web, and desktop platforms. Banuba Face AR SDK Banuba is among the top face AR software focused on face-related augmented reality. The key product is called Face AR SDK. It is an advanced augmented reality platform with multiple features and a list of high-profile users. Face AR is about empowering your business with increased sessions, , and grown sales. better user engagement The 4 key modules of our SDK are: AR face filters Unity face tracking functionality AR beautification features Web AR software. They all are about real-time facial animated Snapchat-like 3D filters. Using face-tracking technology, we offer >1,000 ready-made AR effects. They include makeup, hair color, face morphing, background segmentation, beautification, game filters, LUTs, and . many others What's more, Banuba is among the few commercially available augmented reality kits with a . Try it right now in your browser. background segmentation for web apps What Brands Trust Banuba AR Software? Meta, Gucci, Samsung, Voicemod, Paltalk, and Smilegate are already using augmented reality platforms by Banuba. How Much Does It Cost? fully depends on the set of features you need. The more features you need, the higher is the subscription fee. Our pricing What Platforms Are Supported? Our augmented reality toolkit is compatible with iOS, Android, Windows, Mac, Web, and Unity. DeepAR DeepAR enters the list of the 14 best AR programs with its advanced augmented reality SDK. Since 2014, the company has been employing scientists from MIT, ESIEE Paris, and other institutions to create next-gen AR software. They've created and released multiple augmented reality tools including: AR face filters Beautification & makeup tools Hair and background segmentation Emotion detection Body tracking. The company offers hundreds of ready-made 3D masks that you can try in real-time . here What's more, you can utilize Creator Studio - an all-in-one hub to combine masks, special effects, and filters. Simply put, it's a place where you can generate AR effects yourself. It improves user-generated content and increases user engagement along with in-app sessions. Also, the company offers the advertising augmented reality toolkit. It allows you to utilize premium AR ad units for web, iOS, Android, and Unity platforms. What Brands Trust DeepAR? Google, Coca-Cola, Lego, Tencent, and RayBan are using DeepAR's augmented reality platforms to drive sales. How Much Does It Cost? The product's pricing is based on monthly active users (MAUs). You can use its AR toolkits for free having up to 10 MAUs. What Platforms Are Supported? Supports mobile platforms, desktop, and web. ARGear/Seerslab Seerslab is a Korean AR software company serving augmented reality business needs since 2014. Its main product is ARGear SDK - an augmented reality toolkit for developers. It includes 3 main components: with key features AR SDK to create, manage and monitor your AR content Advanced console with >1,000 AR filters. Augmented reality content Simply put, it's an all-in-one toolbox for your AR business needs. From creating content to managing and monitoring its efficiency. ARGear focuses on 6 use cases: to drive adoption 5G to boost the shopping experience Commerce to drive a fun and unique streaming experience Live Streaming to increase engagement and interactivity Video Calls to empower your app with AR features AR Camera to change the way we see, imagine, and learn. Education What are the core features of AR SDK by ARGear? Facial Landmark Engine Facial Landmark Trigger 2D Animation Sticker / Effects Face Mask 3D Animation Sticker 3D Avatar Virtual Background What Brands Use ARGear? Samsung, eBay, LG, Pepsi, Codac, and Amway are utilizing easy to use augmented reality software by Seerslab. How Much Does It Cost? You can use it for free with limitations. The pricing depends on MAUs, content, and network usage if you need more. What Platforms Are Supported? The AR SDK supports Android, iOS, and Unity platforms. Vuforia One of the best software for augmented reality by Qualcomm, Vuforia serves AR needs successfully. Just to know, renowned Qualcomm was a leading company in building wireless communication means and SoC electronic microchips within its powerful R&D labs. Vuforia specializes in releasing AR software solutions for manufacturing, service, and marketing needs. BAE Systems, Toyota, Volvo Group, Howden, and Cannondale are well-known brands that use Vuforia's augmented reality SDK. How does this SDK work? It uses a QCAR library in C++ as the core element with real objects (image cube, cuboid, cylinder) and target rendering functionality. Simply put, QCAR recognizes real objects and lets your app array virtual objects in the required locations and proportions.  The key SDK features include: Extended Tracking & Smart Terrain Vuforia Object Scanner to recognize 2D/3D objects Text recognition with in-built 100,000-word English vocabulary VuMarks to detect barcodes that can contain data or act as markers Virtual buttons that can turn any surface into a touchscreen Smart glasses support Storing data on the device or in the Cloud. How Much Does It Cost? It has free and paid subscription plans with a free trial: Classic – $499 per time, Cloud – $99 per month, Pro for commercial use, Individual pricing. What Platforms Are Supported? Vuforia AR software solutions support Android, iOS, Universal Windows Platform, and Unity. Wikitude Wikitude is among the best AR programs and frameworks to create augmented reality apps. First launched back in 2008 by an Australian development company, Wikitude holds its top position in serving market AR needs. The company constantly enhances its AR SDK with the latest release in 2020. of the augmented reality toolkit are: The main features Object & scene tracking Instant image tracking Multiple image targets Cloud recognition Geo AR technologies AR bridge for integrations. The platform offers high flexibility for engineers to generate customized solutions and render objects. The one and only limitation is to use JavaScript code along with Wikitude JS or Native SDK. What Platforms Are Supported? The AR SDK supports Android, iOS, and Windows for tablets. How Much Does It Cost? Wikitude provides a free trial with watermarks and paid subscription plans (starting from €1,990 per app). ARKit ARKit is perhaps one of the most popular augmented reality software kits first introduced at WWDC 2017 by Apple. The leader of AR toolkits was designed specifically to create mobile AR apps for the iOS platform. This means ARKit is a perfect choice if you launch apps for iPhones and iPads. What's more, the product supports Arkit Unity with a unique feature: you no longer need to connect additional markers like iBeacon to orientate and route. The key AR SDK features include: 2D image detection and tracking 3D objects and space recognition; Multi shared AR experience for creating multiplayer AR games; Horizontal planes detection Lighting estimation Facial tracking. How Much Does It Cost? The ARKit augmented reality platform is open-source and free. ARCore ARCore is a top AR SDK software and Google's response to Apple's ARKit. The product was released back in 2018 and provides a great difference from its main competitor. ARCore supports both Android and iOS platforms and offers 3 core technologies: Motion tracking Environmental recognition Lighting recognition. They all help you embed virtual content into real environments. The AR SDK software's core is an advanced 3D model. It reacts to any changes in lighting and creates shades. What's more, mobile devices don't affect the model operation in space. This means generated targets are automatically attached to any environmental surfaces. of the augmented reality SDK include: The key features Phone’s motion and position tracking Lighting estimation Surface, size, and location detection to understand an environment Placing texts and virtual objects in a certain spot and sharing them with other app users; Working with Java/OpenGL, Unreal, and Unity; Creating 3D objects with Tilt Brush and Blocks VR building tools. What Platforms Are Supported? One of the best AR programs supports Android 7.0+, iOS 11+, Android NDK, Unity for Android, Unity для iOS, Unreal Engine. How Much Does It Cost? ARCore is completely open-source and free. MaxST MaxST AR SDK software is yet another powerful augmented reality toolkit for mobile development. The product focuses on industrial AR needs serving such global giants as KIA, Hyundai, Samsung, Nokia, LG, and others. MaxST AR software provides 2 different AR SDK software: a 2D toolkit for image tracking and 3D kit for scanning and recognizing surroundings. The latter offers : 8 key functions to place desired content in the space Instant tracker to extract feature points, track surroundings, and save them Visual SLAM to track targets and augment virtual objects on a map Object tracker to augment virtual contents by marker recognition & tracking Marker tracker to recognize target images and augment virtual contents Image tracker for a cloud-based image recognition service Cloud recognizer to augment virtual contents QR code tracker for fast and accurate results. QR/Barcode reader What Platforms Are Supported? MaxST supports Android, iOS, Windows, and macOS platforms. How Much Does It Cost? The augmented reality platform is available for free (with watermarks) and includes paid subscription EasyAR EasyAR is among the top yet underestimated AR software solutions released by an Asian company. It offers 3 AR products: AR Cloud, EasyAR Sense, and CRS. AR Cloud is a cloud-based augmented reality platform that empowers travel, real estate, education, and business marketing domains. EasyAR Sense is an advanced AR SDK to track motion, surface, 3D objects, and planar images. EasyAR Cloud Recognition Service (CRS) is a web platform offering cloud-based image recognition technologies and large databases. Compared to the above AR software solutions, the product doesn't provide an all-in-one built-in object manager. This means you can identify targets by regenerating previously defined 3D models. This way, objects are created in runtime. The key features of EasyAR include: image recognition 3D objects identification Cloud recognition Smart Glass employment AR-based screen recording Transition of files to storages export, import, and integration of assets. What Platforms Are Supported? The augmented reality tools support Android, iOS, UWP, Unity Editor, Windows, macOS. What Brands Use EasyAR? KFC, Vogue, and Pepsi utilize EasyAR solutions to drive their business. How Much Does It Cost? The augmented reality SDK is free but requires a generated key. 5 Tips to Choose Your Augmented Reality Platform In most cases, AR development is both pricey and time-consuming. These reasons make you often choose ready-to-use SDKs as they save resources on integrating AR into your products or services. Now we want to go through 5 tips and things you should consider while choosing AR software solutions. Let's take our Face AR SDK as an example. Launch Date If you need a quick product launch to occupy a niche or gain a competitive advantage in the market, then a proprietary SDK could be the best option. Our AR SDK software saves your development time. The matter is that our face AR features can be quickly integrated into your app. On the other hand, in-house development can take months or even years before these features go live. Development Costs Some open-source solutions like provide you with a set of ready-to-use features and modules. They can give you a good and fast start.But during the development process. OpenCV they require more investments In contrast, you know proprietary SDK licensing costs in advance. They are fixed and let you plan investments and activities transparently. What's more, you can integrate such AR features when you need them without limitations. AR Content Using open-source AR software could be enough for introducing basic AR technologies. But what happens if you need to create original AR content? It may include AR masks, filters, avatars, furniture, or virtual surface enhancements? This takes additional effort and may lead to higher costs and time spent by your business. This is especially true for face AR development. It requires solid niche experience and expertise. In this case, you can benefit from the native object libraries and tools for creating custom AR content like Face Filters SDK. Platforms Platform compatibility is another crucial aspect. For sure, you may want to run your apps on multiple platforms. The more platforms you cover, the more audience you get. But many AR software solutions focus solely on supporting 1 or 2 platforms. This brings limitations to your growth strategy. In contrast, proprietary solutions like Banuba SDK optimize technology for each platform. Feature Stack The more features an SDK offers, the more you can scale your app. But scalability may become an issue if AR software solutions solve narrow tasks only. This means you should choose a large-scale AR SDK with potential features you may want to add in the future. For sure, you may initially overpay for those features you don't currently use. But you will win anyway. Replacing your infrastructure and changing the AR software provider is way more pricey. Conclusion Augmented reality allows extending, enhancing, and modifying real-world objects around us via technology. And we hope our list of the 10 best AR programs helped you choose the most easy to use augmented reality software for your business. The blog post was originally published at . Banuba Blog

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