Author: TechBrunch

Apple's ad tech employees filed a lawsuit against their employer on Sunday over how the company monitors its employees, Semafor reported. Apple wants its employees to use Apple devices at work, but work-issued devices are so limited that many employees use personal devices or I also associate my device with my personal iCloud. To do so, the complaint says, employees must authorize Apple to install software that gives Apple access to search what's stored on their devices and in iCloud. The suit alleges that Apple's policies allow it to monitor employees even when they are off-duty. The employee claims Apple…

According to the Financial Times, OpenAI is considering expanding into advertising. Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar told the newspaper that the company is considering its advertising business model and plans to be “thoughtful” about when and where to advertise. In a subsequent statement, Friar emphasized that there were “no active plans to pursue advertising,” but the idea is clearly on the table. (The FT's report highlights a recent high-profile advertiser, ex-Google's Shivakumar Venkataraman.) ChatGPT makers have traditionally relied on subscriptions to support the development of generative AI tools. However, the costs of producing and delivering these models are eye-wateringly high,…

In recent years, the Polish government under President Donald Tusk has investigated the previous government's alleged use and misuse of Pegasus cell phone spyware. On Monday, Piotr Pogonowski, the former head of Poland's internal security service, was arrested and forcibly taken to testify before parliament as part of the current government's investigation into allegations of spyware abuse carried out in recent years under the previous government. According to the Financial Times, the Justice (PiS) Party. Contact Us Want more information about NSO Group? Or other spyware companies and incidents of abuse of their technology? From non-work devices, contact Signal (+1…

Signzy, a popular vendor that provides online “know your customer” identity authentication and customer onboarding services to some of the largest financial institutions, commercial banks, and fintech companies, has confirmed the security incident, TechCrunch exclusively learned. Reporting. The Bangalore-based startup, which serves more than 600 financial institutions around the world, including India's four largest banks, suffered a cyberattack last week, according to people who spoke to TechCrunch. On Saturday, Signzy told TechCrunch that he was aware of the security incident but declined to provide further details. India's Computer Emergency Response Team, known as CERT-In, separately confirmed to TechCrunch that it…

The Russian government has confirmed the indictment of a 32-year-old resident whom authorities accuse of creating and launching the ransomware attack. Russian prosecutors announced last week that they had charged an anonymous hacker in Russia's Kaliningrad Oblast with creating ransomware to obtain “illegal profits.” The arrest of suspected ransomware members from within Russia's borders is not uncommon, but it is not unheard of. The Russian government has a long history of protecting its citizens from actions by U.S. law enforcement, including prosecution and extradition related to cybercrime. In a short statement last week, the Kaliningrad Prosecutor's Office confirmed that it…

Spotify's annual Wrapped feature is coming soon, but it's been hugely popular over the years, giving listeners a fun, personalized summary of how they listen to their music. As a result, many companies are seizing the opportunity to create similar year-in-review experiences that provide users with a summary of their habits, preferences, and interactions over the past year. Here are some platforms and websites that mimic the Spotify Wrapped concept. amazon music Amazon Music's Spotify Wrapped equivalent is called “My Year in Review.” Unlike Spotify, Amazon's music streaming platform doesn't offer as many interesting stats or shareable insights. Instead, you'll…

According to the Financial Times, OpenAI is considering expanding into advertising. CFO Sarah Friar told the newspaper that the company is considering its advertising business model, but will be “thoughtful” about when and where to advertise. However, in a subsequent statement, she stressed that she had “no active plans to pursue advertising.” But it's clear the idea is being considered. (The FT's report highlights a recent high-profile advertiser, ex-Google's Shivakumar Venkataraman.) ChatGPT makers have traditionally relied on subscriptions to support the development of generative AI tools. However, the costs of creating and delivering these models are eye-wateringly high, limiting the…

World Labs, a startup founded by AI pioneer Fei-Fei Li, has announced its first project, an AI system that can generate video game-like 3D scenes from a single image. Many AI systems can convert photos into 3D models and environments. But World Labs scenes are unique in that they are interactive and changeable. “[Our tech] You can step into any image and explore it in 3D,” World Labs wrote in a blog post. “Everything is generated beyond the input image.” World Labs' systems transform images into interactive, explorable 3D scenes. Image credit: World Labs In a demo on World Labs'…

A new app called GoBlue has been launched to help people who want to track their followers on Bluesky, a Twitter-like social network that has grown rapidly in recent weeks to reach around 24 million users. To fill the gap in the Bluesky ecosystem of third-party apps and utilities, GoBlue provides a simple interface to track your own Bluesky analytics in your iOS dashboard. GoBlue developer Sven van der Zee pointed to the need for an analytics tracking app amid the rise of Bluesky as the social network becomes a strong competitor to Elon Musk's X. “I used to be…

Amazon Web Services (AWS)'s biggest conference of the year has begun, and all signs point to it being an eventful one. AWS re:Invent 2024 kicks off in Las Vegas on Sunday, with sessions scheduled to run until December 6th. The keynote featuring AWS CEO Matt Garman will be held on December 3rd at exactly 8am Pacific Time. AWS will be livestreaming the keynote on YouTube and will be covering everything presented on stage. Pay attention to that as well as the stories that pop up over the course of re:Invent. Notably, this is Garman's first time at re:Invent as AWS…