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Android Developers Blog: #WeArePlay | How Memory Lane Games helps people with dementia

Posted by Robbie McLachlan – Developer Marketing

In our latest #WeArePlay film, which celebrates the people behind apps and games, we meet Bruce – a co-founder of Memory Lane Games. His company turns cherished memories into simple, engaging quizzes for people with different types of dementia. Discover how Memory Lane Games blends nostalgia and technology to spark conversations and emotional connections.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBDJH8h7FYs

What inspired the idea behind Memory Lane Games?

The idea for Memory Lane Games came about one day at the pub when Peter was telling me how his mum, even with vascular dementia, lights up when she looks at old family photos. It got me thinking about my own mum, who treasures old photos just as much. The idea hit us – why not turn those memories into games? We wanted to help people reconnect with their past and create moments where conversations could flow naturally.

Can you tell us of a memorable moment in the journey when you realized how powerful the game was?

We knew we were onto something meaningful when a caregiver in a memory cafe told us about a man who was pretty much non-verbal but would enjoy playing. He started humming along to one of our music trivia games, then suddenly said, “Roy Orbison is a way better singer than Elvis, but Elvis had a better manager.” The caregiver was in tears—it was the first complete sentence he’d spoken in months. Moments like these remind us why we’re doing this—it’s not just about games; it’s about unlocking moments of connection and joy that dementia often takes away.

One of the key features is having errorless fun with the games, why was that so important?

We strive for frustration-free design. With our games, there are no wrong answers—just gentle prompts to trigger memories and spark conversations about topics they are interested in. It’s not about winning or losing; it’s about rekindling connections and creating moments of happiness without any pressure or frustration. Dementia can make day-to-day tasks challenging, and the last thing anyone needs is a game that highlights what they might not remember or get right. Caregivers also like being able to redirect attention back to something familiar and fun when behaviour gets more challenging.

How has Google Play helped your journey?

What’s been amazing is how Google Play has connected us with an incredibly active and engaged global community without any major marketing efforts on our part.

For instance, we got our first big traction in places like the Philippines and India—places we hadn’t specifically targeted. Yet here we are, with thousands of downloads in more than 100 countries. That reach wouldn’t have been possible without Google Play.

What is next for Memory Lane Games?

We’re really excited about how we can use AI to take Memory Lane Games to the next level. Our goal is to use generative AI, like Google’s Gemini, to create more personalized and localized game content. For example, instead of just focusing on general memories, we want to tailor the game to a specific village the player came from, or a TV show they used to watch, or even local landmarks from their family’s hometown. AI will help us offer games that are deeply personal. Plus, with the power of AI, we can create games in multiple languages, tapping into new regions like Japan, Nigeria or Mexico.

Discover other inspiring app and game founders featured in #WeArePlay.

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27/04/2025
Kodeco Podcast: How to Read Code – Podcast V2, S3 E1

In the first full-length episode of this season, we go back to basics as Senior iOS Dev Mani Ramezan takes us through, step by step, how to come up to speed on a large code base. Whether you’re just starting a new role or beginning to contribute to a new open source project, listen along to learn some useful tips.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Android | Google Podcasts | Spotify |

[Subscribe in Apple Podcasts] [Listen in Spotify] [RSS Feed]

Interested in sponsoring a podcast episode? Check out our Advertise With Kodeco page to find out how!

Show Notes

Tune in as Mani, Suz, Jenn and Dru start off talking about how to read a code base and venture off into a bevy of advice for newer devs. Listen all the way to the end to learn what Mani thinks human developers, even brand new ones, can do that AI that cannot.

Some highlights:

Start with a bug, so you have a meaningful goal to guide your exploration.

Struggling at step one: setting up the build environment? Improve the process, then document for the next dev.

It’s OK to not know all the things. Start by treating each library as a black box. Wait to learn it until you need to.

Mentioned in This Episode

Look at Jenn’s Debugging Buddy!

Have fun with rubber duck debugging!

Have fun with rubber duck debugging!

Contact Mani and the Hosts

Follow Kodeco

Where to Go From Here?

We hope you enjoyed this episode of our podcast. Be sure to subscribe in Apple Podcasts or Spotify to get notified when the next episode comes out.

Hoping to learn more about a particular aspect of mobile development or life and work as a dev? Please write in and tell us and we’ll do our best to make that happen! Write in too if you yourself would like to be a guest or your have a particular guest request and we’ll see what we can do. Drop a comment here, or email us anytime at podcast@teamkodeco.com.

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26/04/2025
How Non-Profits Can Leverage Feedback for Impact

For non-profits, every dollar and every decision counts. Maximizing impact while staying within budget requires organizations to listen closely to donors, volunteers, beneficiaries, and community members. The most successful non-profits use feedback to shape their programs, improve operations, and build stronger relationships with each of those critical stakeholder groups.

By adopting a feedback-driven approach, non-profits ensure that their initiatives remain aligned with community needs and donor priorities. Here’s how non-profits use feedback to do more and drive their mission forward:

1. Use feedback to improve program delivery

A non-profit’s programs define its mission and influence its impact. But how do organizations ensure that their services truly meet the needs of the people they aim to serve? The answer lies in continuous feedback:

Beneficiary Input: Direct feedback from the communities you serve is invaluable. Conducting regular surveys and focus groups helps identify gaps in services and ensures programs remain relevant and effective.

Volunteer Insights: Volunteers are often on the front lines of service delivery. Their experiences provide important perspectives on how programs can be improved.

Donor Expectations: Understanding what motivates donors to give can help tailor fundraising campaigns and ensure transparency in impact reporting.

Enhance Digital Experience: Gathering feedback on digital interactions allows non-profits to improve their websites, apps, and online donation processes, ensuring a seamless experience.

2. Use feedback to improve operations

With potentially limited resources, non-profits must find ways to streamline operations without sacrificing service quality. One of the best ways to achieve this is by leveraging automation and internal feedback:

Automated Surveys and Data Collection: Using automated tools to gather feedback from beneficiaries, volunteers, and donors saves time and ensures a steady flow of input.

Optimize Volunteer Coordination: Feedback often reveals pain points in the volunteer experience, helping non-profits improve scheduling, training, and engagement efforts.

3. Strengthen donor and community trust

Trust and transparency are critical for non-profits. By regularly engaging with donors and the community, organizations build long-lasting relationships and encourage ongoing support. Non-profits also handle sensitive donor, volunteer, and beneficiary information, making data security and compliance with privacy regulations crucial for maintaining trust.

Improve Fundraising Strategies: Understanding donor preferences through surveys helps tailor fundraising campaigns, leading to better participation and support.

Ensure Compliance and Data Security: Use a secure feedback platforms that meets industry standards to ensure anonymity when promised, and maintain transparency about how collected data will be used.

4. Use feedback to tell your story

Many non-profits use feedback not just to improve operations but also to share powerful stories. Collecting testimonials from beneficiaries and volunteers allows organizations to create compelling narratives that inspire donors and supporters. A well-told impact story, backed by real feedback, can drive more engagement and financial contributions.

Highlight Real Experiences: Collect direct quotes and testimonials from beneficiaries to illustrate the real-world impact of your programs.

Use Data to Support Stories: Combine emotional storytelling with data-driven insights to build credibility and demonstrate measurable outcomes.

5. Make Feedback Collection a Continuous Process

One-time feedback collection is helpful, but the best non-profits build ongoing feedback loops into their operations. This means regularly checking in with stakeholders, identifying patterns in responses, and making iterative improvements based on real data.

Use Multiple Channels: Make it easy for stakeholders to provide feedback through surveys (sent via email or SMS), focus groups, social media, and one-on-one conversations.

Act on Feedback Quickly: When people see their input leads to real changes, they are more likely to continue engaging.

Measure and Report Progress: Track feedback trends over time and share the improvements made based on stakeholder input. After making improvements or changes, close-the-loop with respondents who helped make those improvements possible.

What to look for in your feedback platform

The success of the five strategies above depends on choosing the right feedback platform. When selecting a feedback platform for your non-profit, it’s important to choose a tool that is user-friendly, adaptable, and capable of delivering actionable insights. Here’s what to look for:

Easy Survey Creation and Customization: The right platform lets you create branded, customized surveys quickly and easily. With Alchemer, you can design surveys without any technical expertise and get help from experts when needed to analyze results.

Diverse Question Types: Look for a platform that offers a variety of question types to collect richer data. Alchemer, for instance, provides over 40 options, including Likert scales, Net Promoter Scores® (NPS®), and the ability to collect files and images, helping you gather both quantitative and qualitative feedback.

Personalization for Specific Audiences: Personalizing surveys ensures you engage each audience in a meaningful way. Features like multilingual surveys, pre-populated answers, anonymous responses, and survey logic create a more relevant experience for every respondent.

Integrations: Choose a platform that integrates easily with your existing tools, such as donor management systems, CRM platforms, or project management software. Alchemer offers numerous pre-built integrations helping you connect feedback data with your current systems for seamless analysis.

Conclusion

By consistently gathering feedback from staff, volunteers, donors, and communities, non-profit organizations can pinpoint areas for growth and make informed decisions that drive greater impact.

From donor engagement to volunteer satisfaction, community involvement, and program effectiveness, Alchemer provides the tools you need to ensure your non-profit thrives. With decades of experience supporting organizations like yours, we’re here to help you make a lasting difference.

Learn more about how we can support your mission by visiting our non-profit solutions page.

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21/04/2025
How to Avoid the Perils of Short-Term Thinking For Long-Term Success

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

At my company, Jotform, our intern program is serious business.

When a new class of interns signs on to work with us, their first week is spent in training, getting them up to speed on who we are, what we do and how we do it. Then, we team them up with experienced staff and get them working on their own projects. By the time they depart our offices to return to the classroom, we’ve planted the seeds to make them successful employees.

Working with interns is a time- and resource-consuming proposition. But it’s also an investment. Some of our best employees are former interns; standout workers who we knew had the potential to learn and grow into bigger roles.

Sometimes, it might be easier to hire candidates with the experience we’re looking for. To me, that’s a prime example of short-term thinking, a mindset that can seriously harm your company in the long run. By nurturing young employees, we not only save money on recruiting a prestige hire that may or may not work out; we also develop the talents of someone we already know we want on our team.

Too often, though, leaders go with the easier-sounding option; the one that sounds most appealing right now. Here’s why that’s a mistake.

Related: Why Long-Term Strategic Planning is the Lifeline Your Business Needs Right Now

Focus on sustainable growth

If your company, like mine, is built around Software as a Service (SaaS), building a subscriber base requires a lot of time — and a lot of happy customers — to reach sustainability. This is one of the hazards of taking outside investment — it creates the illusion of success without actual organic growth.

The cautionary tale that looms largest in my mind is that of Theranos, the doomed blood-testing startup that was valued at $9 billion. Theranos was subsumed by hype, but in the end, the technology the company was theoretically built around didn’t even exist. Eventually, Theranos evaporated into a giant cloud of fraud allegations and even a lengthy prison sentence for its founder, Elizabeth Holmes.

Theranos is an extreme case of VC funding gone awry, but it does show what can happen to a founder under extraordinary pressure to produce results quickly, and the mirage of success that VC funding can create.

Rather than taking outside funding, I advocate for bootstrapping. It’s less glamorous, sure, but it also fosters real, sustainable growth, enables innovation and builds resilience. Most importantly, you have the freedom to operate on your own timeline, gather user feedback and focus on developing a product that really works.

Related: Focusing on Speed When Building Your Company is a Mistake. Here’s Why.

Beware of the scarcity mindset

Short-term thinking doesn’t just come from a desire for instant gratification. It can also come from fear.

In particular, the scarcity mindset, an idea developed by Princeton University psychology and public affairs professor Eldar Shafir and Harvard University economist Sendhil Mullainathan, explains how having limited resources — be it time, capital, etc. — narrows our mental bandwidth, creating a tunneling effect that allows only the space to focus on short-term goals.

“Every psychologist understands that we have very limited cognitive space and bandwidth,” Shafir explained. “When you focus heavily on one thing, there is just less mind to devote to other things.”

Founders, especially in the early days of starting a business, are constantly at risk of developing a scarcity mindset. After all, who ever really feels like they have enough resources? But the consequences of caving to scarcity can be grave: Short-term thinking not only stifles creativity, it can lead to knee-jerk, ill-conceived decisions you wouldn’t have made if you were thinking clearly.

Don’t let a scarcity mindset become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Instead, practice cultivating an abundance mindset. A great place to start is by focusing not on what you don’t have, but on what you do. If you’re a bootstrapped founder, you have the greatest of all resources: Time. Give yourself the luxury of trying out different ideas, and not beating yourself up if they don’t work out the way you hoped. The best ideas come from experimentation.

Remember also that change is incremental, so don’t assume you can overhaul your way of thinking in a single day. Pick one area in which you feel like a scarcity mindset is holding you back, and start there.

Related: This Is How Thinking About Abundance Has Helped Me Build a Success Mindset

Envision the future

Short-term thinking is an easy trap when the future seems so theoretical. Maybe you love pizza — sure, you know it’s not great for your health. But when presented with the opportunity to enjoy eating it today, your future self has a way of dimming from view.

Researchers have found that those with the ability to see and empathize with their future selves possess the quality of “self-continuity.” In other words, if you can see your future self as clearly as your present self, you’re more likely to make decisions that are beneficial in the long term.

So how do you make the future seem less abstract? Try conducting a self-interview. You can do this by envisioning sitting down with your Future Self, and asking them where they would advise your Present Self to focus your time and attention. What do you want to accomplish in 10 years from now? In 20 years? In 50 years? By identifying these long-term goals, you can start to plan accordingly in the present.

It’s easy to fall into the trap of short-term thinking. But by focusing on sustainable growth, practicing an abundance mindset and making the future as tangible as the present, you can make decisions that will serve you in the long run and keep your business growing for years to come.

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20/04/2025
How to Build a Personal Finance & Money Budgeting Mobile app

A money budget management app is a good idea to be used in 2023. Why do we say this? A good reason is to understand how money can be saved with a small change. The mobile application does this for its users. A simple thing but very urgent for users. According to stats, the cash flow of every teenager in his lifestyle is about 56% and that is very high.

Don’t you think if your child does spend the same amount needs to be controlled?

It is possible with a personal mobile application for money and finance management. The app would help you to estimate the financial situation of the user regularly to give better control over his spending. This can be possible with an app.

In this blog, we are going to discuss the money financing app and how to build it in 2023. So let’s get started.

What do you mean by Money Financing Mobile App?

The money financing mobile application is an ecosystem that helps its user to overcome financial spending and issues. The app evaluates the accurate estimation of your daily spending and controls how to manage it effectively. The user can measure his small or big money estimation on the app. It consists of smart personal assistance where the user can take the real-time calculation of his finances, any taxes, investment solutions, or any insurance guide- all in one.

For industry entrepreneurs, you should take the financing app into your gut after its presence is required after the pandemic. It is important to understand that money-budgeting apps, are great for you to start. The mobile application solutions are featured with an umbrella of solutions for every genre of the user.

7 Features to Build the Money Budgeting Mobile App

The money budgeting mobile application consists of great features which make the overall journey of the user great and such that it solves the purpose of the user. The application is developed to boost the revenue of the business and the best UX. below are the essential features integrated into the mobile application making it unique from other existing apps in the market.

1. Account Management

The account management feature helps you to easily integrate your account with other financing apps or integrations, for fast access and estimation of spending.

The financial details are included in the single app to access everything like card details, UPI, mutual funds, etc for easy navigation and management.

Gen-Z especially is more prone to spending and fails to know where they spent last. The quick app would help them without letting them in trauma.

2. Real-Time Alerts

Real-time alerts behave like an eye that notifies you when you spend more than your daily limit. This feature helps the most when some third party or hacker accesses your app without your knowledge.

3. Chatbots for quick tips

The chatbots are companions at the time of any help. It assists the user in the middle of navigation- to use the app properly. While using the chatbot the application is less with AI technology that analyzes the digital behavior of users on multiple platforms. With the quick AI mechanism, the app can predict the habit and average spending of users mostly.

4. UX Experience

User experience on the application is very crucial to understand. With the UX feature, you can evaluate the performance of your app. The budgeting app must be fixed with simple, and defined buttons that would be easy to use. The easy navigation and proper use of design elements give the perfect UX.

5. Real-Time tracking of spending

The personal financing application is used to take care of money spending and perfect evaluation of user behavior of the user. The features work great for real-time analytics.

If the user spends more than the daily limit, then the app will give an alert or instant notification. Real-time tracking narrows down the budgeting evaluation and optimizes the money spent from every source.

6. Simple to understand

The simplistic application works like a wonder for the users. Using simple and meaningful value the customer is treated as valuable. If the interface is complex, the user can easily leave it. A bunch of things deviates the user to leave the interface in the middle.

7. Financial advice and consultation

Users always looking for one destination budgeting app where they will get financial advice and consultation from experts. A quick decision-making expert in real-time would be a great fit for users. It limits the user from annoying spending and evaluates in making wise decisions on spending.

Steps to Develop the Money Budgeting Apps

Every successful application is developed by an array of expert developers. The mobile application has passed through steps of the SDLC that will make the powerful app significant in the market. A personal budgeting app or financing app can be developed with the below-following steps.

1. Research for Idea

Research from the beginning and identify the market gaps if any. Only the valid research process performed by the experts would be implemented after discussion with the client. In this stage, the expert gathers all the essentials required for the financing app. The initial preparation at the beginning should undergo a superior app in the end without any bugs.

2. Create the MVP

MVP is the minimum viable product that represents the demo idea of the niche app. The developer must identify which programming language and technology would be suitable for mobile app development. The app consists of an array of dependencies on third API and tools, hence MVP is the prototype that contains all the elements to check the performance of the app and identify any lag in a short time. That will save cost failure, time, and performance of the app.

3. App Development

The financial budgeting app development requires the integration of multiple APIs, third parties, tools, technologies, and lots of complexities. The app developer turns down all the details and creates a bug-free codebase.

4. App Designing

The app design introduces new UI design elements for a seamless experience for the users. Your app must be flawless to navigate and captivating which engages users for a long on the platform.

5. App Testing

Once the application is ready with the development and designing process it would move to a testing place, where automated testing is performed.

If any bug is found in this stage then it will move to the developer again to resolve. The QA performs the testing and gives fine acknowledgment to the developers and designers.

6. Launch the App

The final launch of the app is persisted on the play store which is available for the users to install and save their monthly income expenditure details.

Conclusion

Money financing application is very essential in 2023. There is a major scope for the entrepreneurs that we already discussed. While beginning with the money budgeting app, take the help of financial advisors for a better evaluation of your money financing app.

Vervelogic Solutions has an array of developers, designers, QA, project managers, and a perfect team to understand your app details and brief out with intrinsic ideas to create a successful journey for the business. For more details request a quote on our website.

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16/04/2025
How Property Valuation Apps in 2023 Are Important

Properties are a source of asset for you and we will support you with favorable ideas in this blog. If you are planning to buy or sell or list properties, then you should read this blog.

Property investment or selling could cause fraud, so it is better for you to avoid any fraud. Including the business, you can develop the property valuation app to evaluate better investing for the properties. Here in this blog, there is something for every one of you- buyer, owner, and lister.

The market evaluation for real estate has valued at $3.6 Trillion with an annual rate of 5%, which gives a favorable option for lenders, owners, and buyers to find property ideal scope for the properties they are interested in. The mobile application market for real estate properties is $10B showcasing a great scope of this market in the future.

Benefits for Property Evaluation Apps in 2023

Are you a seller? If yes, then you always want to get the best deal for your property. The real estate property listing platform helps you to list your property on top. For that, your property must have prime features like a self-introduction of your property via video or ads. That helps to expand your property sale value.

On the property valuation mobile app, the buyer has everything to understand the features of different properties. That helps in finding the right property for yourself. You can ask queries regarding any property that you like on the platform. VR features help to get an insight into the property.

Realtors are real estate agents who get a commission for every sale of property. It is his business part to know a variety of properties and categorize them according to his offline business operation.

Key Points to Find Land Valuation

Let’s start to understand the key factors that help to understand the land valuation price. Based on the below factors you can find out the whether the given property is fair enough for you or not.

Location is the prime factor to consider for property listing. If you are a seller or owner of your property check out its locality. The properties that are available in posh locations, probabilities you have more scope of pricing. For example, in metro cities like Noida, Bangalore, or Pune your property gets the best prices for it. While the suburban cities tier B, and tier C places have a low cost of assets like properties.

According to a survey, people find properties for rent or for living that would have a great quality of construction for development. So if you are looking to list your property on the listing platform and estimate the property valuation in the market. If possible then hire experts to evaluate you price rates of your property.

You should find out the property’s age and its development year. The property valuation apps can help you to predict a property’s age which would fairly estimate its price.

Builder specification helps you to know who has made your property. That will emphasize its history and how quality is used for development. Higher branding builders charge much cost of the property.

Different Property Valuation Methods for Your Properties

When your property listings are landed under SEZs (safe economic zone) the price would eventually come in good condition. For unauthorized properties, it is better to avoid planning to shift to that location. Below are a few comparison methods, that come under property valuation apps.

With the property valuation app, you can find the effective price of your property and compare it with other properties. This will help to identify the best price for your property based on factors like age, location, quality, SEZ locality, etc.

Check the cost of properties of other properties mentioned on Property Valuation Apps for a better analysis of your property and its condition.

When you refurbish your old property and resell it, the property valuation app helps you to predict its value in real-time.

How Does Property Valuation App/Software Help You for Better Pricing?

As the economic market has touched the rich class, many investors come into the market of real estate property. 2023 is probably a great time for every big investor and business development company to find better analyses and solutions for property real estate.

With the property estimation mobile application you can estimate your property’s actual value/price in the real market. The mobile application has features including price details, location, ownership type, property age, etc. You would find the actual price of your property based on the current market situation and where it is inclining.

A better analysis of financing decisions for your property only on a personalized property valuation mobile app. If you are going to buy property or land, then the application helps you to evaluate the financial condition of the best properties for buying. You can find out the best deals and times of sale when prices are fairly down.

Evaluate Better Pricing

When you have a property to enlist and find the best renters or owners for it, then you could find it on the mobile app. Not only better pricing the app helps you to know more about your property value.

Reference Value of Property

The property rates would undergo great fluctuations in the uprising and downfalling rates. For a better approach, you should discuss with a lender or loan provider to know about your property details. The banks give you refinancing options when you do have 18%-20% equity at least for your property.

Predict Value Net of Property

The net value estimator of property helps the client to get an idea about the individual property investment. Does the property have any scope for future sale and gain or not? This interprets the potential value of the property.

On the other hand, the property valuation app helps the realtor to check their commission prices from the individual property. 5% from every property on average is what the real estate property agent commission acquires for him.

Business Model for Better Evaluation of Property Valuation Apps

Like every application, the property estimation/valuation mobile app has various business models. If you have a broad business model and vision for your property then you can evaluate the best mobile application for property valuation application.

With this model, the best properties are placed in the “SALE” category. This category is ideal for evaluating the better enclosure of properties.

Business Model for Rental Properties

Under the rental properties, the user can find apartments, rooms, and properties under their budget. This business model comes in a premium subscription.

Business Model for Listing

The recent posts for real estate properties are placed in the category whose visibility is potentially high.

Important Features to Develop Property Valuation Apps

Property valuation apps have a huge scope in the market to prevent users from any fraud. You can hire a property valuation mobile app development team that can prepare the mobile app from scratch keeping the important features as stated below.

The Currency Converter tool evaluates the quick conversion of international prices into local format. Such that international users can predict the cost of property on the platform in the currency they have used.

Decision-Making Algorithm

Technologies like AI and ML are used to evaluate property valuation application decisions like demographics of users, listing property analytics, pricing calculation, market price inflation, and other important factors in heat map format.

Mapping and Geolocation features map every individual property as a point. The dataset is prepared with mapping, and geolocation helps to trace the shortest distance of the property in the GPS.

Real Estate Agent Directory

Under the real estate agent directory, you can find a list of real estate agents with whom you can coordinate for marketing your property valuation apps.

The property valuation mobile app quickly connects the owner, buyer, or realtor to exclusive properties that are not possible to visit in real-time.

Conclusion

The property valuation app idea can be a successful hit for you in 2023. Investors or mobile app development client businesses have great scope in the real estate industry. One reason could be to bridge the gap between the existing market and property valuation needs. Hopefully, the blog, helps you to understand reason how property valuation apps in 2023 are important to evaluate your property value in the market.

Your finding for better properties and their evaluation could become easy with a property valuation app. For any guide or consultation, you can ask our experts.

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16/04/2025
How app developers can optimize ads revenue during COVID-19

Increase operational efficiency with automated features

Maximize revenue from multiple networks with mediation

Waterfall management takes up a lot of time and manual work. Ad Network Optimization offers an easy solution to help you automate that process and free up time to spend on other areas of your business. This feature automatically pulls in the freshest CPM value from each network in the waterfall and allows the one with the highest eCPM to serve the ad.  

Optimize AdMob demand on other platforms

If you are using a different platform to mediate AdMob demand, you can set your ad units to a Google optimized eCPM floor which allows Google to dynamically set the floors based on your preference. The AdMob Network’s eCPM floor placement will then be adjusted with the other ad networks automatically to help you maximize total revenue.

We hope the best practices shared here can help inform your monetization strategy during this time. If you’re interested in other tips to help your app business, check out Google Play’s best practices for your in-app products and subscriptions.

^{1. Google Data, Global English, Feb 26 – Apr 25, 2020 vs Feb 25 – Apr 25, 2019}

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15/04/2025
How to Maintain Software Quality with Outsourced Teams

Outsourcing software development has become a popular choice for businesses looking to save costs and access global talent. However, maintaining software quality while working with outsourced teams can be a major challenge. In this article, we will explore strategies and best practices for ensuring the quality of software when working with outsourced teams. From effective communication to setting clear expectations and standards, we will discuss the key steps that businesses can take to maintain software quality and achieve successful outcomes with their outsourced partners.

Clear communication and expectations

Establish clear guidelines and objectives for the outsourced team

Use project management tools for transparent communication

Regularly update on progress and any changes in requirements

Conduct regular meetings to address any issues or concerns promptly

For more information on effective communication in outsourcing, visit our hospitality and travel page.

Use of standardized processes and documentation

Ensures consistency and accountability in software development.

Facilitates communication and collaboration among outsourced teams.

Improves efficiency and reduces errors in the development process.

Enhances quality control and risk management in software projects.

For more information on mobile app development services in New York, visit AnyAlpha.

Regular code review and testing

Ensure outsourced teams conduct routine code reviews and testing to maintain software quality.

Utilize tools like GitLab, Jira, and Jenkins for efficient code collaboration and testing.

Learn more about code review and testing by visiting our CMS-CRM page.

Continuous monitoring and evaluation of performance

Regularly review outsourced team’s outputs

Utilize performance metrics to track progress

Provide feedback and guidance for improvement

Implement quality assurance measures

Visit AnyAlpha Web Designing Company in California for more information.

Establishing a strong partnership with the outsourced team

Clearly define roles and responsibilities

Foster open communication channels

Set clear expectations and goals

Provide regular feedback and updates

Build trust and mutual respect

Utilize collaboration tools effectively

For more information on how to maintain software quality with outsourced teams, visit AnyAlpha’s eCommerce Store Development Company.

Providing necessary resources and support

Ensure outsourced teams have access to required tools and technology

Offer guidance and training to enhance their skills

Regular communication and feedback to address any issues promptly

Provide a supportive work environment to promote productivity

Visit our website for more information about resources and support.

Addressing cultural and time zone differences

Foster open communication to bridge cultural gaps

Schedule meetings and milestones at convenient times for all parties

Utilize collaboration tools for efficient communication

Establish clear expectations and guidelines for all team members

Learn more about how to effectively manage outsourced software teams at Anyalpha Web Development Services.

Ensuring compliance with quality standards and regulations

Regular audits and performance evaluations

Clear communication of quality expectations

Training sessions on industry regulations

Utilizing tools for tracking and monitoring quality

Staying up-to-date with latest standards and regulations

For more information on ensuring compliance with quality standards and regulations, visit AnyAlpha

Encouraging feedback and open communication

Provide regular avenues for team feedback

Utilize collaboration tools for seamless communication

Foster a culture of transparency and trust

Encourage open dialogue to address issues promptly and effectively

For more information on how effective communication can maintain software quality with outsourced teams, visit Web Development in California.

Implementing quality assurance measures throughout the project lifecycle

Set clear quality standards from the outset

Regularly review and assess the outsourced team’s performance

Conduct thorough testing at each stage of development

Utilize automated testing tools to streamline the QA process

Provide feedback and incorporate changes promptly

For more information on software quality assurance, visit our website.

Conclusion

In order to maintain software quality with outsourced teams, it is essential to prioritize clear communication and set expectations from the beginning. Using standardized processes and documentation, regularly reviewing code, and performing thorough testing are also crucial steps. Continuous monitoring and evaluation of the team’s performance, establishing a strong partnership, providing necessary resources and support, addressing cultural and time zone differences, ensuring compliance with quality standards, encouraging feedback and open communication, and implementing quality assurance measures throughout the project lifecycle are all vital components. By following these practices, organizations can ensure that their outsourced teams deliver high-quality software solutions that meet their expectations and adhere to industry standards.

To ensure software quality with outsourced teams, it is essential to establish clear communication channels, set up regular feedback sessions, and provide detailed documentation. Additionally, utilizing a centralized platform like DeltaWriter can help streamline the collaboration process by allowing teams to track tasks, share files, and provide real-time updates. For more tips on maintaining software quality with outsourced teams, visit https://DeltaWriter.com.

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15/04/2025
What is E-E-A-T in SEO? How Does It Impact SERP Rankings?

With increasing digital competition, Search Engine Optimization or SEO is now not just a cakewalk. If you own a website and want it to be on the top of search pages, you need to meticulously plan your SEO strategies. Hence, while planning for such an advanced SEO strategy, a key factor to be focused on is E-E-A-T.

If you are an SEO expert, you at least must be aware of the full form of this abbreviation. But if you are a novice then you might may not have heard of it. However, in the simplest possible terms, it can be stated that E-E-A-T is a factor that you can’t afford to ignore while executing your SEO strategy. But Why So? Let’s Decode.

1. What is E-E-A-T?

Earlier it was just E-A-T i.e., Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness. However, in 2022, Google confirmed the inclusion of an additional E or the Experince. Such resulted in the origination of E-E-A-T. It can further be identified to be a key element of Google’s Quality Rating Guidelines.

The E-E-A-T factors can be compared with the working of the human brain. When you read any news/content/blog, your brain tries to critically evaluate the content on several factors. Similarly, Google evaluates the content and website through the E-E-A-T parameters. But what do these parameters mean?

Source: Google Guide

1.1 Expertise

Expertise simply reflects the knowledge and skill of the individual working on a specific content type or SEO strategy. For instance, content for a medical blog written by a healthcare professional is more likely to have accurate details as compared to a blog written by a writer from any other field.

As the individual has a degree in medicine, hence is well aware of the terminologies and the intricacies of the field in comparison to other writers. Hence, such a difference can easily be highlighted or noticed in the content written. So Google prefers providing users with content written by experts. So this is where you need to ensure that the content developed should reflect on expertise.

Irrespective of content marketing, it also applies to product/service pages. Your product/service description must have all the relevant information required. Such can include your product ingredients its use case other information that can help the user decide.

1.2 Authoritativeness

The next approach associated is the authoritativeness of the content or your website. Google crawlers scan for website authoritativeness on various factors. Such most commonly include;

Website’s Reputation: You must have seen several websites at the top positions in certain sectors.

For instance, irrespective of your concern related to SEO, whenever you search on Google, you will see an article link from SEMRUSH, among the topmost results. It is because, over the years, the website has built its authoritativeness, by delivering quality content, acquiring backlinks and eliminating any spammy content.

Post Details: A key way to ensure your content and website authoritativeness is to work on your post details. Such include mentioning the author’s name, the date published or if possible getting it peer-reviewed. However, these factors don’t guarantee your post ranking, but help in building authority and relevancy.

There are several other approaches that Google checks on to justify the website’s authoritativeness. These approaches are often mentioned by Google through its newsletters. Also, you can partner with a leading SEO company in Jaipur to ensure that your website and its content are regularly updated as per Google’s announcements.

1.3 Trustworthiness

The above two factors help in identifying the overview of the content or the website. However, along with these factors, there is also a need to check for the trustworthiness of the content. Let’s consider, a detailed content piece that has been written by an expert which includes all the industry-specific facts and definitions. Hence, it can reflect on expertise, but what about the credibility or the trustworthiness of the content?

Hence, this element is such a credibility of the content. Such would include mentioning the source from where the data has been picked. Also, evaluate the trustworthiness of your website. The organic user reviews and trustworthiness of your website and content help in improving trustworthiness. Apart from the content, if we consider a product/service website, then the trustworthiness depends on the image quality used, the reference to the claims made as well as user reviews.

1.4 Experience

A recently included element is the Experience. It simply indicates that along with the current statistics, there is also a need for experience. For instance; let’s take an example from the fintech sector, an article from a recently graduated student will talk more about the present and future. But a similar article if written by a veteran in fintech, then it will include a better overview and comparison of past, present and future of the industry.

An experienced author can indicate more about their personal experiences/opinions and can make content more interesting. There are several SEO tools that you can take help of to evaluate your website/content E-E-A-T ranking. However, the most accurate SEO tools are paid and may not be economical for website owners. So the best approach is to connect with the leading SEO experts and get your website optimised.

2. Why E-E-A-T Is Important?

The breakdown of the E-E-A-T factors may have helped you understand its role in optimizing search results for users. But why you should focus on such an aspect? Key Benefits associated with E-E-A-T.

Content Marketing with E-E-A-T factors helps you to reflect on your website or brand’s experience or expertise in the sector. With time these factors can help you climb up the SERP ladder and secure topmost rankings.

Helps in attracting organic traffic and positive word-of-mouth. Hence, you can easily attract new readers with every new post or content.

Makes the website both algorithm-friendly and user-friendly.

With time and relevant changes, your website gets advanced and is unlikely to get impacted by newly entered online players.

Constantly working on E-E-A-T factors helps you gain not only Google’s trust but also your audience’s trust. Such a trust factor can support you on days when you have a declining ranking due to any of the associated factors.

Such a factor does not apply only to content marketing but is significantly important for developing any product/service website.

3. Google’s Guidelines for E-E-A-T

Google has worked on developing a workbook of 168 pages containing quality guidelines. It aims to provide SEO experts and website owners with in-depth knowledge of quality websites. However, reading the entire document and interpreting every message is not feasible for everyone. So let’s leave it to the SEO experts/professionals. Here, we will highlight some of the important guidelines or factors mentioned by Google.

E-E-A-T is important for specific pages

If your webpage contains an element that the users are concerned about or must know about. Then focusing on E-E-A-T is important. If we talk about the overall scenario, it can be stated that almost every webpage has some sort of content that users are concerned about.

Let’s consider you are selling hair oil, then you need to ensure that you make authentic claims and provide references to it. Similar goes with the scenario if you are in the finance or healthcare sector.

Author/Content Writer Details

You need to be clear on the author and the writer’s details of the post/content. It is one of the most basic elements to be focused on to retain your website authority.

Eliminate Any Spammy Content

Throughout the guide, Google has mentioned several times and in different ways to eliminate any spammy or unauthorised content. Several authors make promising claims through their content, to attract audience attention. However, most of these claims are false and impact the user’s experience with the brand. Hence, any of such content must be eliminated.

3.1 E-E-A-T Ranking Levels

Lowest E-E-A-T

It reflects that your webpage has fraudulent or misleading content. However, there is also a chance that your website has not been well-optimized for the user experience. Google has stated multiple times that while planning your SEO strategy you must prioritise the user experience rather than just focusing on algorithms.

Lacking E-E-A-T

The next level is that your webpage has been designed to deliver a better user experience, but still lacks E-E-A-T qualities. Such a ranking can be given if any one of the four elements is missing. For instance; the author may have no experience, the content lacks trustworthiness, or your website has poor authority.

Higher Level of E-E-A-T

Such a rating is given to pages that can manage a balance between the four elements. These websites have quality backlinks and experienced author have invested their time to build the trustworthiness of their web pages.

Very High Level of E-E-A-T

At last, the highest rank is the very high level of E-E-A-T. However, it is for the webpages that have the exceptional quality of trustworthiness, credibility and expertise. However, gaining such a position requires a lot of experience and effort over the period.

4. Is E-E-A-T A SERP Ranking Factor?

Now you might be thinking that working on E-E-A-T can help you secure higher SERP rankings. But is it true?

Maybe or Maybe Not? Confused. Don’t worry, we will explain it to you.

If you follow the press releases and newsletters by Google, you must have observed that Google never states that doing this or that will lead you higher ranking. Not only Google, but every search engine player stresses more on user experience. If the user is satisfied then only they will use a search engine.

The same goes with Google, hence the introduction of E-E-A-T has always been aligned with improving the user experience. So, it can be summarised that if you are working towards the E-E-A-T factor then it will help enhance user experience. Further, if your website is delivering quality content and generating a better user experience, then there are chances that you might rank better.

Also, E-E-A-T are not the only four factors impacting your rankings on SERPs. There are several others, which constitute to be part of your entire SEO strategy. So, it can be summarised that E-E-A-T is not the factor having a direct impact on your ranking. But if you are ignoring it then definitely it would be challenging for you to rank competitively.

5. Tips To Improve Your Website’s E-E-A-T

Now let’s move on to identify key tips that can help improve your website E-E-A-T criteria.

5.1 Focus on organic and authenticity

It is recommended that every element of your website should reflect an authenticity or organic approach. If you are selling a product, consider attaching original/high-quality images, invite audiences to post reviews, and don’t manipulate the information. While creating content, you must always ask “Who, How and Why”. it will help you better evaluate your content and identify potential loopholes.

A common misconception that brands have is that should not have negative reviews on their website, hence they try to delete them. But such can impact their authenticity. It is recommended that you aim to have both positive and negative reviews, but more positive reviews than negative ones. Only the positive reviews leave an impression of being fake.

5.2 Work on quality backlinks

You must ensure that the websites or blog pages from where you are gaining backlinks are authoritative and trustworthy. You must also ensure develop quality and engaging content that can invite shares or influence other writers to quote your content. These practices actively help in boosting your website’s credibility.

5.3 Don’t just stick to a pre-determined approach

To score high on E-E-A-T it is important to adopt constant/continuous changes. Such change must be aimed towards improving your overall website rather than just optimizing a portion of it. Also, the SEO experts state that you must not always wait for any announcement from Google to make changes to your website. You must identify the need and should ensure constant optimization to suit audience needs.

5.4 Avoid Clickbaits or Spammy Content

Placing CTA across your website has never been wrong, but in the process, you must avoid misrepresentation or spam. Google also evaluates your CTA and checks for any spammy or misleading content claims being made. These factors lead towards creating clickbait. So if you are aiming for a higher E-E-A-T ranking you must avoid any kind of spammy content.

5.5 Integrate E-E-A-T Approach with SEO

SEO involves focusing on link building, keyword research, website optimization as well as other technical practices. Hence, rather than considering E-E-A-T as the only factor for content generation, you must keep it in mind while executing any of the SEO strategies. It is important to work on approaches that your website, meta tags and other aspects should also reflect trustworthiness and credibility.

Final Words

If you are still interested to know more in-depth about how these E-E-A-T factors you can connect with our SEO experts at VerveLogic. We are the leading performance marketing company in India having a team of SEO company in Jaipur. Our experts have worked with brands across the global marketplace and have helped them gain higher SERP rankings.

With over 18+ years of SEO experience, we can help you excel at the E-E-A-T level and attract organic traffic to your website. Also, can assist you with key practices that can help in your brand’s digital growth.

FAQs

How To Get My Website Optimized As Per E-E-A-T?

You can partner with an experienced SEO company in Jaipur, which can help you optimize your website as per the current and emerging SEO trends. They have a set of SEO tools, through which they are able to analyse your website ranking or level and based on such plan customised SEO strategies.

Can AI Help in Improving E-E-A-T?

E-E-A-T earlier was based only on expertise, but now a new element has been added which is experience. Hence, if you are taking the help of AI, it might give you an expert answer but will fail to deliver an experienced answer. So it is recommended that for now AI must be placed aside while focusing on SEO.

How can I measure my Website E-E-A-T level?

Various SEO tools can help you evaluate or determine your E-E-A-T levels. These tools precisely evaluate and judge your website on several factors. Based on such an evaluation they are able to provide a detailed audit report. Such a report includes the gap as well as key recommendations that can be adopted to eliminate the threat.

How Google Will Know that I Have Updated My Website?

No fixed duration or approach can define how and when Google with re-crawl your website for new content. It is an automated process, and every website has to wait for it. The best you can do is constantly monitor your website, and its SEO performance and work on potential gaps that can emerge.

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15/04/2025
How Geo Group’s Surveillance Tech Is Aiding Trump’s Immigration Agenda

Follow live updates on the Trump administration.

After a Honduran immigrant arrived in the United States in 2022, officials ordered him to use a government-issued app as part of an immigration surveillance program.

At least once a week, the immigrant, a former police officer in Honduras who was living in Louisiana, would take a selfie through the facial-recognition powered app to confirm his identity and location. By trading some of his privacy, he avoided being put in a detention center and obtained a work permit.

In February, he received a message: report to an immigration office so the tracking technology could be updated. When he arrived, federal agents were waiting. They handcuffed him and put him on a vehicle bound for a detention center, where he has been ever since, according to an account from his wife and Jacinta González, the head of programs for the advocacy group MediaJustice who is working with the detained immigrant. He and his wife declined to be named for fear of harming his legal proceedings.

The maker of the app he had used was Geo Group, the largest private prison operator in the United States. Over the past decade, the company has also built a lucrative side business of digital tools — including ankle monitors, smart watches and tracking apps — to surveil immigrants on behalf of the federal government.

Those products are now aiding President Trump’s deportation efforts by providing the whereabouts of unauthorized immigrants to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to legal aid groups and immigration organizations. No figures have been released about the number of arrests made from the digital monitoring program, but legal aid groups estimated it was at least in the hundreds. More than 30,000 immigrants were arrested in Mr. Trump’s first 50 days in office, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

“These are the people who are precisely being monitored,” said Laura Rodriguez, a lawyer with American Friends Service Committee, a legal aid organization in New Jersey with several clients in the monitoring program who were detained. “It’s just easy pickings.”

The use of Geo Group’s technology has made the company one of the Trump administration’s big business winners so far. Even as Mr. Trump slashes costs across the federal government, his agencies have handed Geo Group new federal contracts to house unauthorized immigrants. And D.H.S. is weighing the renewal of a longtime contract with the company — worth about $350 million last year — to track the roughly 180,000 people now in the surveillance program.

Republican lawmakers and administration advisers have also called for more surveillance of immigrants, including expanded location tracking and stricter enforcement of curfews.

Mr. Trump’s immigration policies have sent Geo Group’s stock price soaring and kept its share price afloat even as the stock market gyrates. While digital monitoring generates only about 14 percent of its $2.4 billion in annual revenue, the company, which is based in Boca Raton, Fla., has said its immigrant surveillance could more than double. Profit margins on the monitoring business hover at around 50 percent.

“The Geo Group was built for this unique moment in our country’s history and the opportunities that it will bring,” George Zoley, the company’s founder, said on an investor call days after Mr. Trump was elected.

The tracking program that Geo Group oversees, called Alternatives to Detention, was set up to keep tabs on unauthorized immigrants who face potential deportation. Rather than being placed in detention centers or released into the country without supervision, immigrants receive location tracking devices. They must quickly respond to alerts sent to the gadgets in order to confirm their whereabouts, or risk punishment.

The program highlights technology’s growing role in guarding borders, with demand for muscular digital tools opening lucrative avenues for private industry while expanding government authority. The boom has benefited companies like Palantir, Anduril and Cellebrite, which have won government contracts.

Supporters praised the effectiveness and cost savings of Geo Group’s tools, but critics warned that the technology usage might lead to deeper surveillance of immigrant communities.

“The government bills it as an alternative to detention,” but “we see it as an expansion to detention,” said Noor Zafar, a senior lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union.

At the same time, Geo Group’s products have been glitchy and expensive, according to more than a dozen current and former employees and government officials, as well as a review of the company’s federal contract and other records.

Each time an immigrant sends a selfie to check in through the company’s SmartLink app, which can happen millions of times a year, the federal government pays roughly $1, according to portions of Geo Group’s government contract obtained by The New York Times. The company charges $3 a day for any immigrant wearing its VeriWatch smartwatch. If the watch is lost, Geo Group bills the government $380, more than the cost of an Apple Watch SE.

ICE said in a statement that the monitoring program “effectively increases court appearance rates and compliance with release conditions.” The White House did not respond to requests for comment.

Attempts to modify the program and open the contract to rival bids have been stymied by Geo Group’s lobbying and connections on Capitol Hill and within ICE, according to senior D.H.S. officials and congressional staff members. Some senior ICE employees have gone on to work at the company.

Geo Group referred questions about how its monitoring technology is being used by the Trump administration to ICE. In a statement, Geo Group said it had “never advocated for or against, nor have we ever played a role in setting immigration enforcement policies.” The company added that its services are “closely monitored in accordance with strict government contract standards.”

From Prisons to Surveillance

Mr. Zoley, whose family moved to the United States from Greece when he was a child, started Geo Group in 1984 as a division of a security guard business. When the prison population exploded in the 1980s, the company expanded into running private prisons. It now has about 100 facilities.

In 1986, Geo Group won an ICE contract to build an immigrant processing facility in Aurora, Colo., to hold up to 150 people. By the 2000s, immigration had become a major business, which fluctuated based on who was in the White House and which party controlled Congress.

To diversify, Geo Group turned to digital surveillance. In 2011, the firm paid $415 million for Behavioral Interventions, a Colorado company founded in the 1970s to track cattle and which had expanded to monitoring parolees. Behavioral Interventions had an exclusive contract with ICE to digitally monitor thousands of recently arrived immigrants.

Mr. Zoley called the acquisition “transformative.” He was proved right when the government plowed hundreds of millions of dollars into remote surveillance of immigrants over the next decade, especially during the Biden administration.

The idea was that remote surveillance of immigrants facing removal proceedings would reduce the burdens on already-packed detention centers, relieve ICE officers of grunt work and save money. Digitally monitoring an immigrant costs about $4.20 a day, versus about $150 a day in a detention center, according to ICE.

“The program is meant to make sure we know who these people are and that they are on an adequate level of supervision,” said Deborah Fleischaker, the ICE chief of staff during the Biden administration.

By 2022, more than 300,000 immigrants were enrolled in the program. Geo Group’s sales soared, but revenue fell in 2023.

The company lobbied to expand the surveillance, said Jason Morín, a political science professor at California State University, Northridge who studies Geo Group. Ahead of the 2024 election, a Geo Group subsidiary gave more than $2 million in campaign contributions to Republican candidates, with the bulk going to groups supporting Mr. Trump and those running for Congress, according to Federal Election Commission records.

Wall Street analysts included Geo Group, which has about 18,000 employees, in ideas for stocks that would perform well if Mr. Trump were elected. With no real competition, some estimated the company’s digital monitoring business would generate nearly $700 million in revenue cumulatively through 2026. Its biggest shareholders include BlackRock and Vanguard.

Living in a Radius

For many unauthorized immigrants who are not detained at the border, the perilous journey to the United States ends inside Geo Group’s surveillance system.

After turning themselves in to immigration officers, they are given an ankle bracelet, a smartwatch or a smartphone with the company’s monitoring app. Rather than be overseen by ICE officers, they are watched by Geo Group case specialists.

Under the program, immigrants live more freely in the United States during a legal process that can play out over years. The trade-off is constant monitoring. Geo Group’s app has permission to continuously track a user’s location, according to a Times analysis of its code.

One Geo Group case worker in the Northeast, who declined to be identified for fear of retaliation, described using a Google Maps-like software to check immigrants’ locations. If immigrants were not home or lied about their whereabouts during a check-in, they received a strike. If an immigrant received three strikes, the case specialist would inform an ICE agent, who could increase monitoring, detain the person or expedite the person’s deportation.

Geo Group employees at field offices from Massachusetts to Alabama said they had often struggled to monitor up to 300 immigrants simultaneously. The case worker in the Northeast recalled being asked to make 12 home visits to immigrants in a single day. Each was limited to five minutes, despite requirements to do a full report on the immigrant’s living conditions, she said. Geo Group charged D.H.S. up to $88 a visit.

Those under surveillance are limited in where they can travel, lawyers and immigration rights groups said. If immigrants leave a set area of where they can be, the software alerts case officers. Because many check-ins must happen from home on a prescribed day — say on a Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. — people are often stuck waiting, affecting their ability to work or perform certain day-to-day tasks.

“Whatever radius is imposed, that becomes the size of their life,” said Laura Rivera, a senior lawyer for Just Futures Law, which focuses on tech usage for immigration enforcement.

Geo Group stores data collected from the surveillance program on its private servers, making it more cumbersome for the government to access and analyze, current and former ICE officials said. Former company employees described technical problems, such as relying on outdated servers that frequently crashed, weak batteries in the company’s smartwatches and a bug in which the app occasionally failed to tell an immigrant to check in, which could result in a penalty.

Keeping the Contract

In 2022, as Geo Group’s digital monitoring business ballooned, some Biden administration officials in the Department of Homeland Security questioned the cost and effectiveness of the tracking program.

The D.H.S. officials met to draft a plan to change it, including standards for assessing each immigrant’s risk of committing a crime or fleeing and what surveillance that merited, said six people familiar with the conversations who requested anonymity in order to discuss internal deliberations. The officials wanted to break up the contract into three parts to solicit new bids, the people said. Around the same time, D.H.S. tech workers were asked to develop cheaper alternatives to Geo Group.

The moves threatened Geo Group’s involvement in the monitoring program, with major financial implications for its bottom line. The company began lobbying to disrupt the plans, according to agency officials and Capitol Hill staff members.

Conservatives and some career ICE officials joined in. Thomas D. Homan, who was then working for a conservative immigration group and is now Mr. Trump’s border czar, wrote a Breitbart editorial attacking the plans and the midlevel Biden administration official responsible for them. A conservative group created a website dedicated to attacking the official.

Daniel Bible, ICE’s head of enforcement and removal operations at the time, also stalled the changes by ordering lengthy reviews and delaying approvals, two people said. Last year, he joined Geo Group as an executive. He did not respond to a message for comment.

The efforts eventually died and plans to develop cheaper alternatives to Geo Group’s tech never went beyond testing.

Geo Group said allegations that it had blocked changes to the surveillance program “are part of a politicized effort by open borders groups to interfere with the federal government’s immigration enforcement efforts and to abolish immigration enforcement writ large.”

Since Mr. Trump took office, fewer immigrants have crossed the border as the president has signed legislation like the Laken Riley Act, which mandates increasing detentions of immigrants with criminal histories in facilities like those owned by Geo Group.

The new law could also require “significant ramp-up in the electronic monitoring,” Mr. Zoley said on an earnings call in February, adding that his company was ready to scale up its surveillance “by several hundreds of thousands and upward to several millions of participants as required.”

Geo Group’s technology has repeatedly helped ICE officers carry out deportations, legal aid groups said. In January, ICE agents in Georgia tracked an immigrant to a job site and detained him, while another was grabbed outside a church, the groups said. More recently, an immigrant in New Jersey received a call from a Geo Group employee asking him to step outside his home because the tracker was not getting a signal. Agents were waiting for him.

Legal aid groups said they feared that the surveillance would soon be used for larger raids. In 2019, during the first Trump administration, agents in Mississippi used data harvested from Geo Group’s tools to help secure a warrant for a raid on a chicken processing plant. The ensuing sweep, which included workplaces across the state, led to the detention of 680 immigrants.

Alexandra Berzon contributed reporting.

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15/04/2025

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