Saturday, April 23, 2022

Amazon acquires GlowRoad, an Indian social commerce startup focused on women, which has 6M+ resellers across 2,000 cities and raised ~$31M from Accel and others (The Economic Times)

The Economic Times:
Amazon acquires GlowRoad, an Indian social commerce startup focused on women, which has 6M+ resellers across 2,000 cities and raised ~$31M from Accel and others  —  - Amazon has acquired Glowroad in an all-cash deal.  — Glowroad's team will join Amazon, but will continue to run as an independent unit for now.



Leaked sales pitch: Anomaly Six, a US government contractor that claims it can track ~3B phones, demonstrated its capabilities by tracking CIA and NSA personnel (The Intercept)

The Intercept:
Leaked sales pitch: Anomaly Six, a US government contractor that claims it can track ~3B phones, demonstrated its capabilities by tracking CIA and NSA personnel  —  In partnership with  —  In the months leading up to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, two obscure American startups met to discuss …



EU's DSA requires Meta, Google, and other large online platforms to make their algorithms transparent to users, deal with misinformation during crises, and more (James Vincent/The Verge)

James Vincent / The Verge:
EU's DSA requires Meta, Google, and other large online platforms to make their algorithms transparent to users, deal with misinformation during crises, and more  —  The Digital Services Act will re-shape the online world  —  The EU has agreed on another ambitious piece of legislation to police the online world.



Research: hackers have stolen ~$2.9B in crypto wealth from 37 crypto hacks in 38 weeks since August, which is almost on par with the $3.2B stolen in all of 2021 (Paul Vigna/Wall Street Journal)

Paul Vigna / Wall Street Journal:
Research: hackers have stolen ~$2.9B in crypto wealth from 37 crypto hacks in 38 weeks since August, which is almost on par with the $3.2B stolen in all of 2021  —  Hacker steals $182 million over the weekend, the fifth largest hack on record  —  Cryptocurrency hacks are getting bigger.



Interview with Dave Limp, Amazon's head of devices and services, on why he thinks ambient computing will enhance the real world, Fire phone's failure, and Astro (Dave Lee/Financial Times)

Dave Lee / Financial Times:
Interview with Dave Limp, Amazon's head of devices and services, on why he thinks ambient computing will enhance the real world, Fire phone's failure, and Astro  —  When Amazon launched Alexa — its voice-activated virtual assistant — in 2014, it was met with scepticism.



Friday, April 22, 2022

Investigation details Binance's efforts to build ties with the Russian government, including handing over data on opposition leader Alexei Navalny in April 2021 (Reuters)

Reuters:
Investigation details Binance's efforts to build ties with the Russian government, including handing over data on opposition leader Alexei Navalny in April 2021  —  In April 2021, Russia's financial intelligence unit met in Moscow with the regional head of Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange.



Cookie tracking: Google rolls out 'Reject All' button in Europe, UK

After facing fines from European consumer and market regulators, Google has introduced an equal "Reject all" and "Accept all" buttons for tracking cookies on its platforms. https://ift.tt/VML431N

MotoGP 22 launched: 10 things you should know

https://ift.tt/CYEjBtR

How to permanently disable Google Pay account

https://ift.tt/LkTSpm3

As the EU prepares its third landmark tech law in the last few years, the US has enacted just two narrow federal tech laws in the past 25 years (Cecilia Kang/New York Times)

Cecilia Kang / New York Times:
As the EU prepares its third landmark tech law in the last few years, the US has enacted just two narrow federal tech laws in the past 25 years  —  Federal privacy bills, security legislation and antitrust laws to address the power of the tech giants have all failed to advance in Congress …



A look at Douban, a Reddit-like social network that China has targeted in its crackdowns; Douban was fined $1.65M in 2021 and has shut down popular forums (Viola Zhou/Rest of World)

Viola Zhou / Rest of World:
A look at Douban, a Reddit-like social network that China has targeted in its crackdowns; Douban was fined $1.65M in 2021 and has shut down popular forums  —  Douban's tight-knit communities have finally made it a target of Beijing's tech crackdown.  —  • HONG KONG



Thursday, April 21, 2022

A look at the evolution of crypto staking, from a useful tool to a quasi-Ponzi scheme, and how Yuga Labs is effectively paying people in ApeCoin to hold ApeCoin (Cobie)

Cobie:
A look at the evolution of crypto staking, from a useful tool to a quasi-Ponzi scheme, and how Yuga Labs is effectively paying people in ApeCoin to hold ApeCoin  —  Recently, I was contacted by a member of the board of ApeCoin, which is the BAYC token's equivalent of a board of directors I guess.



A look at Russia's efforts to promote homegrown social media like Rutube and VKontakte, even as local content creators choose to stick with Western services (Wall Street Journal)

Wall Street Journal:
A look at Russia's efforts to promote homegrown social media like Rutube and VKontakte, even as local content creators choose to stick with Western services  —  Kremlin cracks down on Western social media, but Russia's homemade alternatives are a tough sell



Oyster, an HR service aimed at distributed workforces, raises a $150M Series C led by Georgian at a $1B+ valuation, up from $475M in June 2021 (Nimah Quadri/Fortune)

Nimah Quadri / Fortune:
Oyster, an HR service aimed at distributed workforces, raises a $150M Series C led by Georgian at a $1B+ valuation, up from $475M in June 2021  —  Never miss a story: Follow your favorite topics and authors to get a personalized email with the journalism that matters most to you.



Filings: Apple spent $2.5M on US lobbying in Q1 2022, up 34% from $1.86M in Q4 2021; Google spent $2.96M in Q1, up 34% QoQ but flat YoY; Microsoft spent $2.5M (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg:
Filings: Apple spent $2.5M on US lobbying in Q1 2022, up 34% from $1.86M in Q4 2021; Google spent $2.96M in Q1, up 34% QoQ but flat YoY; Microsoft spent $2.5M  —  Apple Inc. spent a record quarterly high of $2.5 million on lobbying in the first three months of 2022 amid increased pressure …



Google launches Google Wallet for Android in India and partners with 20+ brands to let users store boarding passes, loyalty cards, event tickets, and more (Aamir Siddiqui/Android Authority)

Aamir Siddiqui / Android Authority : Google launches Google Wallet for Android in India and partners with 20+ brands to let users store b...