Author: TechBrunch

If you're reading this, consider it your signal. Here are opportunities to impact the future of technology. TechCrunch Surps 2025 is currently accepting speaker applications. Join the stage at Moscone West, San Francisco on October 27th-29th this year and share ideas with over 10,000 technical leaders, VCs and innovators that will shape the following: Please apply to speak in 2025 We are looking for a keen mind to guide interactive breakout sessions and authentic roundtables on topics that keep founders and technology leaders at night. If it sounds like you, don't wait – apply to sabotage and speak 2025 by…

Snapchat introduces sponsored AI lenses, a new form of advertising that allows brands to engage with consumers in an immersive way. Snapchat has been offering brands the opportunity to pay sponsored lenses on the platform for years, but now they can take advantage of AI-generated experiences powered by Snap's unique generation AI technology. With these interactive lenses, brands will help users communicate and engage in a more fun and interactive way when compared to traditional advertising. Because users can see themselves being transported into scenes generated by various AI. When a user takes a selfie for an AI lens, SNAP…

The founder, who created his own name to help restaurants connect better with diners, raised $50 million, his latest startup. Blackbird Labs has built the Payment-Loyalty Meat Blockchain Platform to grow its business repeatedly, while reducing some of the frictions around transactions. With around 1,000 restaurants currently signed up, CEO Benleventhull said he plans to use the money to launch the latest product, the Blackbird Club, to expand to markets outside of Charleston in New York (its home base), San Francisco and South Carolina. (Charleston, do you ask? “Charleston punches above the class,” Rental said in an interview. “It's a…

Meta introduces teenage accounts to Facebook and Messenger. This feature automatically registers younger users to app experiences with built-in protections, is available on these platforms in the US, UK, Australia and Canada before expanding to additional regions in the future. The teen account was first rolled out to Instagram last September after Instagram and other popular social networks were burned by US lawmakers for not doing enough to protect their teens. As part of Tuesday's announcement, Meta said on Instagram that it will bring new built-in protections to teenage accounts. The expansion to Facebook and Messenger will automatically make teens…

The UK government has lost its bid to keep the details of the surveillance order brought against Apple secret, according to a newly released decision by the UK Court of Supervisory Powers. The decision posted by the London Court of Investigation on Monday means that some of the legal cases will be held publicly despite objections from the UK government. In Monday's ruling, a court judge said he would not accept that the revelation of naked details of the case would damage public interest or be a disadvantage to national security. This is the first general perception that a case…

Thirteen years ago, when Chris Farmer founded SignalFire, an early-stage venture company in data analysis at the core of his investment strategy, many were skeptical of his approach. Traditional wisdom has determined that early companies do not have enough data to make their investment algorithms effective. “This was a very radical idea and everyone thought I was crazy,” Farmer (pictured above, on the right, CTO and partner Ilya Kirnos) told TechCrunch. There have been a lot of changes since Signalfire raised its first $53 million fund 2015. Today, more venture companies are adopting data-driven strategies in addition to, or sometimes…

The leak sites used by the Everest Ransomware gang were hacked and tainted this weekend, TechCrunch learned. A leak site that forced the victim to pay ransom demand by publishing stolen files, claiming, “Don't commit a crime.” At the time of writing, the site was still slandered. It is not clear whether the gang experienced a data breach as a result of the hack. Image credit: TechCrunch (screenshot) Everest is a prolific Russian-related ransomware gang that has claimed multiple hacking and data breach credits since its founding in 2020, including the theft of data from more than 420,000 customers from…

How has Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg added to the signal group chat with Trump administration officials discussing plans for airstrikes in Yemen? The simplest explanation: National Security Advisor Mike Waltz saved Goldberg as a mobile contact and accidentally added him. In fact, when Waltz first claimed that Goldberg's phone number was “sucked” by another contact, Goldberg scoffed, “This isn't a 'matrix'.” However, the Guardian concluded that an internal investigation conducted by the White House Information Technology Bureau had more complicated things. Automatic iPhone proposals play an important role. After Goldberg sent an email to the White House to comment on…

For years, US-based tech companies have grown India's vast and growing internet user base. Openai is no exception. However, AI Labs claim that India is one of the fastest growing ChatGpt markets, while third-party data suggests that Openai may be struggling to turn its momentum into revenue. According to Analytics Firm Sensortower, Indian users have spent $8 million on ChatGPT subscriptions through in-app purchases since 2023. This does not include purchases via the ChatGpt web app. But in particular, it's just a small portion of the $330 million Sensol Tower that we users spent on ChatGPT within the app. One…

President Donald Trump has extended the deadline for the Tiktok ban for 75 days. Trump shared a post about Truth Social on Friday. The announcement will be made one day before the ban is scheduled to come into effect. “My administration has worked very hard to save Tiktok, and we have made great strides,” Trump wrote. “This transaction requires more work to ensure that all necessary approvals are signed, which is why we are signing an executive order to keep Tiktok up and running for another 75 days.” Today's announcement marks the second time Trump has extended the deadline for…