The #1 Period Tracker on the App Store Will Hand Over Data Without a Warrant
By: Vice News Date: June 27, 2022 Stardust, an astrology-focused menstrual tracking app that launched on the App Store last year, is one of Apple’s top three most-downloaded free apps right now. From sometime around Sunday evening until Monday mid-morning, it was in the number one spot. It’s also one of very few apps that […]
‘An Invisible Cage’: How China Is Policing The Future
By: NY Times June 22, 2022 The more than 1.4 billion people living in China are constantly watched. They are recorded by police cameras that are everywhere, on street corners and subway ceilings, in hotel lobbies and apartment buildings. Their phones are tracked, their purchases are monitored, and their online chats are censored. Now, even their future is […]
The European Commission has a Big New Plan for Startups. Here’s What You Need to Know About it
By: Sifted June 22, 2022 European policymakers are going to publish the most comprehensive plan so far for how to help European startups grow and compete globally. The stakes are high — Europe wants to produce its own deeptechs to compete with innovations coming from the US and China — and the EU realises […]
What Does the ESG Reckoning Mean for VC?
By: Sifted June 23, 2022 “If I had to choose between switching to renewable energy or keeping staff on, I’d definitely put aside that energy transition,” Micol Chiesa, formerly head of impact at Five Seasons Ventures told me this week. “And that’s a fair choice,” she added. Her comments sum up the current reckoning […]
Four Takeaways From a Times Investigation Into China’s Expanding Surveillance State
By: The New York Times Date: June 21, 2022 China’s ambition to collect a staggering amount of personal data from everyday citizens is more expansive than previously known, a Times investigation has found. Phone-tracking devices are now everywhere. The police are creating some of the largest DNA databases in the world. And the authorities […]
Asset Owners Join Forces Against Dual-Class Shares
By: Pensions & Investment Date: June 14, 2022 Asset owners in the U.S. and U.K. are joining forces to address dual-class share structures, with the launch Tuesday of the Investor Coalition for Equal Votes. Led by RPMI Railpen, London, which runs £37 billion ($46.2 billion) of assets on behalf of the railway pension […]
Human-Like Programs Abuse our Empathy – Even Google Engineers Aren’t Immune
By: The Guardian Date: June 14, 2022 The Google engineer Blake Lemoine wasn’t speaking for the company officially when he claimed that Google’s chatbot LaMDA was sentient, but Lemoine’s misconception shows the risks of designing systems in ways that convince humans they see real, independent intelligence in a program. If we believe that text-generating […]
TikTok Addicts to Benefit from In-App Screen-Time Controls
By: The Guardian Date: June 9, 2022 TikTok addicts will be able to further limit their time on the app, the company has said, with a new pair of screen-time settings coming to the service imminently. Like many of its competitors, TikTok already allows users to set a maximum screen-time allowance for each […]
Big Tech Has Spent $36 Million on Ads to Torpedo Antitrust Bill
By: Wall Street Journal Date: June 9, 2022 Advocacy groups bankrolled by big technology companies have poured at least $36.4 million into TV and internet ads opposing antitrust legislation that would bar dominant tech platforms from favoring their own products and services, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis. By comparison, groups supporting the antitrust legislation […]