TechCrunch Industry News

With Twilio under pressure from activist investors, it's looking at whether to sell Segment, the company it bought in 2020 for $3.2 billion. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

SoftBank Group’s Masayoshi Son has made no secret of his intent to double down on red-hot artificial intelligence industry. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has opened a second investigation into EV startup Fisker’s Ocean SUV, after the agency received four complaints about the vehicle rolling away unexpectedly, including one injury. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A coalition of more than two dozen digital and democratic rights groups, NGOs and not-for-profits, including noyb and Wikimedia Europe, have written to the European Union’s regulatory body for data protection urging it to reject a tactic that’s been controversially seized upon by Meta in its latest bid to circumvent the bloc’s privacy laws. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.co...

Lucid Motors is lopping thousands of dollars off the price of its most affordable electric sedans as it looks to boost demand after a disappointing year of sales. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

TikTok has launched a native and “reimagined” app on the Apple Vision Pro, the company announced on Thursday. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Bold provides low-cost payment terminals, called dataphones, that enable small and medium businesses to accept link payments. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The U.S. Department of Defense is notifying tens of thousands of individuals that their personal information was exposed in an email data spill last year. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A consumer-grade spyware operation called TheTruthSpy poses an ongoing security and privacy risk to thousands of people whose Android devices are unknowingly compromised with its mobile surveillance apps, not least due to a simple security flaw that its operators never fixed. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Cruise has named its first “chief safety officer” as part of the company’s effort to rehabilitate itself following an incident — and ensuing controversy — last year that left a pedestrian stuck under and then dragged by one of its robotaxis. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Bugcrowd — the startup that taps into a database of half a million hackers to help organizations like OpenAI and the U.S. government set up and run bug bounty programs, cash rewards to freelancers who can identify bugs and vulnerabilities in their code — has picked up a big cash award. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Oregon may soon become the latest state to pass right-to-repair legislation. Last month, Google lent its support in an open letter, calling Senate Bill 1596 “a compelling model for other states to follow.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Pinterest announced a new ad deal with Google as the company aims to ramp up its ad revenue. Google is the social platform’s second third-party ad partner after Amazon signed a multiyear deal with Pinterest last year. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Meta is challenging a fee levied by the European Union on larger online platforms under its rebooted ecommerce rules. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The FCC’s war on robocalls has gained a new weapon in its arsenal with the declaration of AI-generated voices as “artificial” and therefore by definitely against the law when used in automated calling scams. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

California’s auto regulator, the Department of Motor Vehicles, is investigating an incident that occurred on Tuesday, where a driverless Waymo car collided with a cyclist, according to a report by Reuters. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Snap’s stock plunged 30% on Tuesday after announcing Q4 2023 results that didn’t meet analyst expectations. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

With a month away from the Digital Markets Act (DMA) deadline, WhatsApp is preparing to allow other messaging networks in its app. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Invite-only dating app Blush has raised $7 million in seed funding to scale and expand its exclusive platform. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Yandex N.V., the Dutch parent company of the eponymous Russian internet giant, is selling the last of its remaining Russian businesses at a steep discount. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

After almost a year as an invite-only app, Bluesky is now open to the public. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The recent surprise announcement that Meta will soon be shutting down a Facebook Groups API is throwing some businesses and social media marketers into disarray. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The makers of two phone surveillance services appear to have shuttered after the owner agreed to settle state accusations of illegally promoting spyware that his companies developed. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Podcastle, a podcasting platform that has boosted its product with various generative AI-driven features, has raised $13.5 million in a Series Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Education tech company Blackbaud agreed to settle with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission over the company’s security practices that resulted in a 2020 data breach. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices