users

a16z-Funded Twitter Rival “Post News” Will Be Ceasing Operations

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Post News, a microblogging site that emerged in the days after Elon Musk’s Twitter acquisition, is shutting down just a year and a half after launching in beta. Founder Noam Bardin, previously CEO of Waze, broke the news in a post on Friday. “At the end of the day, our service is not growing fast enough to become a real business or a significant platform,” Bardin said. Instead of subscribing to various different publications, Post users could purchase individual articles from certain partner outlets. But perhaps it was too soon to try to capture this nascent movement in a social platform.

“Exploring the Possibility of AI for Safeguarding Youthful Internet Users in the UK”

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The tools would be part of a wider set of proposals Ofcom is putting together focused on online child safety. Consultations for the comprehensive proposals will start in the coming weeks with the AI consultation coming later this year, Ofcom said. AI researchers are finding ever-more sophisticated ways of using AI to detect, for example, deep fakes, as well as to verify users online. It found that 32% of the kids reported that they’d seen worrying content online, but only 20% of their parents said they reported anything. Among children aged 16-17, Ofcom said, 25% said they were not confident about distinguishing fake from real online.

“Cape Rakes in $61M from A16Z and Beyond for Privacy-Focused Mobile Service”

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That’s privacy by design.”The funding is notable in part because Cape appeal to users is not yet proven. The latest round is being co-led by A* and Andreessen Horowitz, with XYZ Ventures, ex/ante, Costanoa Ventures, Point72 Ventures, Forward Deployed VC, and Karman Ventures also participating. Those jobs may exposed him to users (government departments) who treated the security of personal information and privacy around data usage as essential. (Cape today also announced a partnership with USCellular — which itself provides a MNVO covering 12 cellular networks, and Doyle said that it’s talking with other telcos, too). Although payments for this might be anonymous, a user’s data is still routed through the network infrastructure of the underlying carrier, making a users movements and usage observable.

EDPB Demands Real Privacy Choice from Adtech Giants Such as Meta for EU Users

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The European Data Protection Board (EDPB) has published new guidance which has major implications for adtech giants like Meta and other large platforms. The guidance, which was confirmed incoming Wednesday as we reported earlier, will steer how privacy regulators interpret the bloc’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in a critical area. The full opinion of the EDPB on so-called “consent or pay” runs to 42-pages. However a market leader imposing that kind of binary choice looks unviable, per the EDPB, an expert body made up of representatives of data protection authorities from around the EU. “Online platforms should give users a real choice when employing ‘consent or pay’ models,” Talu wrote.

“Exclusive Interview with Reddit’s Chief Product Officer: Enhancing User Experience through Improved Translations, Enhanced Moderation, and Advanced Developer Tools”

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After its IPO, the platform is planning a slew of product features for the year ahead, and — spoiler alert — most of them are powered by AI. “I think the IPO was an important milestone, but we’re just focused on building for our users,” Reddit Chief Product Officer Pali Baht told TechCrunch. Reddit’s product roadmap includes faster loading times, more tools for moderators and developers, and an AI-powered language translation feature to bring Reddit to a more global audience. According to Reddit’s IPO filing, in December 2023, 50% of Reddit’s daily active unique users were from non-U.S. countries. The company will build on those updates with other new tools, like an LLM that’s trained on moderators’ past decisions and actions.

Embark on a Revolutionary Search Experience with AI-Enhanced Brave Search

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Privacy-focused search engine Brave announced Wednesday that it is revamping its answer engine to return AI-powered synthesized answers. Brave said that informational queries, such as the one listed about the new answer engine, will automatically rely on AI to present information in a summarized format. “The user only needs to enter a query as they are used to doing with a regular search engine. Multiple reports have pointed out that AI-powered search could have grave effects on the future of the web. “This challenge is not unique to Brave Search but present across most AI-powered answer engines and chatbots, premium or open.

European Privacy Group Takes Stance on Meta’s Controversial ‘Consent or Pay’ Strategy

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Yet a binary choice (aka “consent or pay”) is exactly what Meta is currently forcing on users in the region. The European Data Protection Board (EDPB) has been meeting this week to discuss adopting an opinion on so-called “consent or pay”, following a request made back in February by a trio of concerned data protection authorities. A spokeswoman for the EDPB confirmed to TechCrunch that it adopted an opinion on “consent or pay” on Wednesday morning, saying it will be published later today. However the choice Meta gives EU users is a binary one: Either consent to its use of personal data for targeted advertisng or pay a monthly fee to access ad-free versions of its social networks. But on the core issue of whether Meta’s mechanism complies with the EU’s long-standing data protection framework the Board’s opinion is key.

Mercury, a Fintech Startup Facing Regulatory Scrutiny, Launches into the World of Consumer Banking

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Business banking startup Mercury, founded in 2020, is now launching a consumer banking product. “We already have a few hundred thousand users of our business banking product, and a lot of people have expressed that they want a personal banking product,” he told TechCrunch in an interview. The person also said the fintech partner banking market as a whole has been the target of more regulatory scrutiny. Crossing overBut success in B2B banking doesn’t automatically queue up Mercury to handle consumer banking. Sign up for TechCrunch Fintech here.

Exploring LemFi’s Fintech Vision for the Diaspora of the Global South

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Inside LemFi’s play to be fintech to the Global South diaspora First, the Nigerian startup focused on migrants from Africa. These events spotlight the company’s growing influence in Africa’s remittance market, fuelled by a $33 million Series A funding round and the launch of services in the U.S. corridor, both announced last August. LemFi later expanded to serve other African diaspora communities in the country before entering the U.K. market in 2021 by acquiring RightCard for $2.5 million. Additionally, Daiyaan Alam, formerly leading partnerships at Delivery Hero subsidiary Foodpanda in Pakistan, is spearheading LemFi’s expansion efforts into Pakistan and South Asia. They join Allen Qu, former COO at Chinese-backed African fintech OPay, who leads the fintech’s growth among the Chinese diaspora.

Snap to Enhance Image Protection with Watermarks Generated by AI-Powered Technology

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Social media company Snap said Tuesday that it plans to add watermarks to AI-generated images on its platform. Other tech giants such as Microsoft, Meta, and Google have also taken steps to label or identify images created with AI-powered tools. Currently, Snap allows users to create or edit AI-generated images with Snap AI for paid users and a selfie-focused feature called Dreams. The company also added context cards with AI-generated images from tools like Dream selfies to better inform the user. In February, Snap partnered with HackerOne to stress its AI image-generation tools by adapting a bug bounty program.