Author: TechBrunch

Google tests US machine learning-driven technology to determine the age of users and filters content from all products accordingly. The company said it would consider data from Google accounts, including the types of details users searched and the categories of videos they watched on YouTube. If your company's tools determine that a user is under the age of 18, you will receive an email with details about how Google products will change. For these users, Google will disable the timeline on maps, stop personalized ads, restrict age-restricted ad categories, and prohibit access to adult-themed apps in the Play Store. The…

Uber Eats announced Wednesday that restaurants and merchants will be able to chat with customers to prevent order issues. The app also introduces new AI tools for merchants, and invites users to send photos of their orders if the item doesn't have a menu image yet. The new “live order chat” feature allows merchants to send real-time messages to customers to see exchanges of sold-out items, clarify special requests, and check in on dietary and allergy preferences. Uber says users cannot start chatting with merchants as they can only send messages to customers if they first contact them. Live Order…

Proton, a privacy-centric productivity tool company, today released a new Authenticator app, allowing users to log in to their services using dynamically generated two-factor authentication codes. Starting today, free apps are available on all platforms, including iOS, Android, Windows, MacOS, Linux and more. This app allows users to sync code and accounts across devices. The company said, like its other products, Proton Authenticator is open source and uses end-to-end encryption to protect user data. Users can easily import login codes from other authentication apps, the company said. Additionally, the app automatically backs up your code and works without having to…

Figma will begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday at one of 2025's most anticipated IPOs. The IPO is 40x oversubscribe and VCS has been previously reported to TechCrunch and Bloomberg. In other words, the demand for stocks is 40 times the number of shares sold by the company and its existing investors. Therefore, we cannot be surprised that Figma, which offers design software, priced the first stock at $33 per share, beyond the previously announced range. The company said Monday that the expected price range is between $30 and $32, with a previously announced range of…

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitted that in the second quarter it drove users to spend on the company's app. Consumers are increasingly complaining about the prevalence of “AI Slops,” or flooded social apps with content generated with low quality AI, but Meta says that AI systems are improving helping users connect with recommended content. “AI has significantly improved our ability to show people what they find interesting and useful,” Zuckerberg told investors in a second revenue call. “Advanced recommendation systems have significantly improved quality, which has led to a 5% increase in time spent on Facebook and 6% increase on…

Google has proposed a sweep change to its Play Store and Advertising Policy in India, and aims to allow the platform to have more real money gaming apps in order to resolve the ongoing antitrust cases on its local online gaming platform Winzo. On Wednesday, Indian Competition Watchdog issued a public notice (PDF) on Google regarding “commitment proposals” offering to expand its access to play stores and advertising policies for more real money gaming apps in the South Asian market. Google has proposed to replace the current pilot program by allowing Google Play to distribute all real money games in…

Cybersecurity giant Palo Alto Network announced Wednesday that it aims to acquire identity management and security company CyberArc for $25 billion. The transaction, which is a mixed cash and stock, marks an entrance into Palo Alto's identity security space, according to a company's press release. According to the Financial Times, Palo Alto has been shopping ever since Nikesh Arora took over as CEO and chairman of the company in 2018. The company's acquisition of Cyberark is the largest ever. Other acquisitions of Palo Alto include an estimated $400 million Dig Security in October 2023. Talon Cyber Security was estimated at…

A new startup called GARM brings end-to-end encrypted messaging to the Bluesky social network, allowing users to have more secure options for chat than existing DMs on Bluesky. After more than two years of development, the service plans to launch Bluesky's encrypted DMS in beta this week, gradually boarding new testers before they are released to the public. In time, many of the technologies Germ is building are open source, allowing Bluesky to deploy encrypted messaging into its own apps. Germ is designed to provide alternatives to existing, end-to-end encrypted platforms that are globally dominated, such as iMessage, Signal, and…

According to notifications filed in several US and seen by TechCrunch, hackers who violated the lives of US insurance giant Allianz earlier this month stole a large number of clients' Social Security numbers. Allianz Life revealed the violation last weekend on July 16, stolen personally identifiable information belonging to a “majority” of its 1.4 million customers, and confirmed that TechCrunch had stolen personally identifiable information belonging to financial experts and employees of Allianz Life. The company said its customer relationship database was breached in a social engineering attack. This is a trick in which a malicious hacker uses deception tricks,…

Meta recently released a new video editing app for creators called Edit. This new app is designed to rival Capcut by Bytedance, the popular short video editing app used by many creators. Meta first shared that he was working on editing in January after the refund-owned capcut was removed from the US app store when the Tiktok ban came into effect instantly. The app can then be returned online and downloaded, but as Tiktok's future in the US remains uncertain, Meta is ready to take advantage of the future Capcut absence with the new editing app. Create this guide to…