Techmeme
January 27, 2020, 11:40 AM

Top News

Joseph Cox / VICE:
Documents reveal that Avast has sold its users' internet browsing data, through a subsidiary called Jumpshot, to clients like Pepsi, Google, and Microsoft  —  An antivirus program used by hundreds of millions of people around the world is selling highly sensitive web browsing data …
Tara Duggan / San Francisco Chronicle:
Grubhub admits to adding restaurants without their permission, after restaurateur found her Thai restaurant had a page on Grubhub and its subsidiary Seamless  —  Pim Techamuanvivit was managing her Michelin-starred Thai restaurant in San Francisco, Kin Khao, around 8:30 p.m. on Saturday when she got an unexpected call.
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:
Gravyty, a Massachusetts-based fundraising platform that uses AI to analyze donor behavior in order to help nonprofits reach fundraising goals, raises $21M  —  Nonprofit organizations send an average of 3 email newsletters and 2 donation appeals monthly, and for every 1,000 emails sent to subscribers, they raise an average of only $42.
Gary Marcus / The Gradient:
A critical look at OpenAI's GPT-2 text generation AI and why the knowledge acquired by systems like the GPT-2 has been superficial and unreliable  —  OpenAI's GPT-2 has been discussed everywhere from The New Yorker to The Economist.  What does it really tell us about natural and artificial intelligence?
Alex Wilhelm / TechCrunch:
Mural, a visual collaboration platform for enterprises, raises $23M Series A led by Radian Capital, with Gradient Ventures and Endeavor Catalyst participating  —  This morning Mural, a software startup focused on visual collaboration1, announced that it closed a $23 million Series A round of capital.
More: FinSMEs
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Currencycloud raises $80M Series E from Visa, BNP Paribas, and others for cross-border payment APIs that have transferred $50B+ and are used by ~350 companies  —  Sending money from one country to another — either because you are a business paying someone for a service …
Shannon Liao / CNN:
Inside game streaming wars, where Ninja reportedly got paid $20M to $30M to move to Mixer and streamers with 10K concurrent views on Twitch can get $10M+ offers  —  New York (CNN Business)When Jeremy Wang started streaming on Twitch in 2016, he was an unknown twenty-something with a few coding internships under his belt.
Dieter Bohn / The Verge:
With the launch of Razr pre-orders, Motorola released a video “Caring for razr”, which says “Screen is made to bend; bumps and lumps are normal”  —  Pre-sale begins today  —  Today's the day that the Motorola Razr is available for pre-sale for $1499, exclusively on Verizon.
Angela Strange / Andreessen Horowitz:
Fintech startups tackling every layer of banking stack, from core tech to KYC/AML, enable startups and companies like Apple to start adding financial services  —  This is an abbreviated version of a presentation I gave live at the a16z Summit in November 2019.  You can watch a video version on YouTube.
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
US mobile app subscription revenue jumped 21% in 2019 to $4.6B across the top 100 subscription apps in the Google Play and App Store  —  Outside of in-app purchases in mobile games, subscription revenue from non-game apps helped to boost 2019's mobile consumer spend — a figure …
More: Bloomberg
Monica Nickelsburg / GeekWire:
The protest of Amazon's business practices by 340+ staff openly challenges Amazon after two employees say they were threatened with firing over climate activism  —  Amazon employees are responding to threats of termination for their climate advocacy by intentionally violating the company's corporate communications policy.
Amazon Employees for Climate Justice:

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Featured Podcasts

Channels with Peter Kafka:
Brian Stelter on the 60 Minutes Mess; Nilay Patel on Apple's AI Problem
Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.
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Invest Like the Best:
Alex Sacerdote - How to Invest Through Technology Cycles
The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.
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Lenny's Podcast:
Father of the iPod and iPhone on building taste, judgment, and creativity in the AI era | Tony Fadell
Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.
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Big Technology Podcast:
Will Apple (Finally) Get AI Right At WWDC?, Anthropic's Worry, Microsoft vs. OpenAI
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.
The Upstarts Podcast:
Vanta's Christina Cacioppo: The Underdog Turning 'Nonsense' Compliance Into A $4.2B Security Standout
Veteran tech reporter Alex Konrad sits down with breakout entrepreneurs taking on the status quo to shake up their fields in AI, design, nuclear energy, space, and more.
Subscribe to The Upstarts Podcast.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
AI's Mythos Moment: Rishi Sunak on preparing governments for AI
Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.
Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.
 

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More News

Eric Niiler / Wired: