How stalkers used Bumble and Hinge to pinpoint victims’ locations

Stalkers can pinpoint their victims' location to two meters using dating apps...

View this email online in your browser By Rebecca Bellan Wednesday, July 31, 2024 Welcome to TechCrunch AM! This morning, we're contemplating why it's possible for anyone determined enough to pinpoint people's locations using dating apps. We also have a good story on BitClout's founder getting slammed with fraud charges, as well as notes on OpenAI's endorsement of AI bills, Meta's AI hallucinating at the worst time, a VC shakeup, a dating app for gamers, and tension at X. Let's dive in! — Rebecca TechCrunch Top 3 Image Credits: Gabby Jones/Bloomberg / Getty Images 1. Deleting all dating apps now! A group of researchers said they found vulnerabilities in the design of Bumble, Hinge, Badoo, Grindr, happn and Hily that allowed stalkers to pinpoint the location of their victims down to two meters. It's enough to make you swear off dating apps forever, or at least go try one of those run clubs I keep hearing so much about. Read More 2. SBF, Part 2? The SEC has charged BitClout founder Nader Al-Naji with fraud and unregistered offering of securities, claiming he used a fake identity to avoid regulatory scrutiny while raising over $257 million in cryptocurrency. The SEC also alleges Al-Naji AKA "DiamondHands" spent over $7 million on personal expenses like a Beverly Hills mansion and gifts for his family. It's giving Sam Bankman-Fried vibes. Read More 3. OpenAI wants a seat at the AI regulation table: The ChatGPT maker endorsed three Senate bills this week that could help shape the government's stance on AI. Why? The company probably wants to influence how AI is regulated, and based on Sam Altman's recent op-ed in The Washington Post, wants to steer the conversation towards AI dominance over China rather than AI safety in general. Read More Morning Must-Reads Image Credits: MirageC / Getty Images 🛡️ Protecting the weak links: Software supply chains are surprisingly fragile, and attacks that target them can wreak havoc as they can go undetected for a long time. Lineaje wants to help companies avoid that, and it has just raised a $20 million Series A to do that. Read More 🐅 Alex Cook leaves Tiger Global: TechCrunch got the scoop that Alex Cook, who oversaw some of Tiger Global's largest fintech investments and deals in India, is leaving the firm. This is the latest high-profile shift at Tiger after Scott Shleifer left, and has surprised some founders with close ties to Cook. Read More 🧵 Threads gets trendy: Threads is finally making it easier for people to explore trending topics. Users in the U.S. will now see a label that highlights related trending topics above posts, so you can see more posts related to that topic. Read More 🤝 Developers helping developers: Tel Aviv-based Lightrun has launched its first AI-based tool in private beta to help developers fix issues with their production code within minutes instead of hours. The launch of Runtime Autonomous AI Debugger comes as Lightrun also announced an $18 million SAFE round that it raised last year from GTM Capital. Read More 🌱 Turning plant waste into carbon capture: Applied Carbon had an idea: What if it could transform waste biomass into biochar that can store carbon for decades, even centuries? That could lock away up to 2 billion metric tons of carbon from industrial systems every year, while boosting crop yields on farms. The idea works, but now they have to scale it. Read More Around the Web 😵‍💫 Meta's AI is hallucinating at the worst possible time: The Verge reports that Meta's AI assistant thinks the recent attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump didn't happen. Yikes! Meta is blaming hallucinations in AI, which is really not an excuse. If AI companies can't solve hallucinations, their chatbots shouldn't let people ask questions about such sensitive topics. Read More 🚸 Think of the children! The Senate has passed a pair of bills to expand online privacy and safety protections for kids, reports The Washington Post. The bills force digital platforms to take "reasonable" steps to prevent harms to children, such as bullying, drug addiction and sexual exploitation. Now the bills just need to make it past the House. Read More ⚖️ A CEO in name only? Usually, the CEO gets the final say in a company's dealings. Not so at X, where owner Elon Musk has stymied some of CEO Linda Yaccarino's initiatives, like a deal with Visa that would have seen the card issuer commit more advertising dollars while partnering with X to build a payments product, The Wall Street Journal reports. Read More Before You Go Image Credits: Cavan Images / Getty Images 🎮 Goblin Mode and chill: Date Like Goblins is a new online dating platform that's geared towards gamers, particularly those who are neurodivergent or introverted. When it launches this fall, it'll let people connect via voice chat while playing video games, giving them the opportunity to meet a potential romantic partner in a comfortable environment — their favorite game! Read More   Check out some of our other newsletters: Startups Weekly TechCrunch AI TechCrunch Mobility Got a tip? tips@techcrunch.com Want to advertise on TechCrunch? advertise@techcrunch.com Has this been forwarded to you? Click here to subscribe to this newsletter. Update your preferences here at any time Copyright © 2024 TechCrunch, All rights reserved.Yahoo Inc. 110 5th St,San Francisco,CA Privacy Policy

Everybody needs a Friend

Plus, what ChatGPT's realistic voice sounds like now

View this email online in your browser By Christine Hall Tuesday, July 30, 2024 Good afternoon, and welcome to TechCrunch PM! For your reading pleasure, we have quite a few funding rounds and new venture funds, some acquisitions, a really big fine, an even bigger fine, and a data breach. Lots of news this afternoon, so buckle up! TechCrunch Top 3 Image Credits: Friend 😀 Positive reinforcement: Fortunately, there is a Friend for that. Avi Schiffmann, a Harvard dropout who built a Webby Award-winning website that tracks COVID-19, is working on an AI device, worn around the neck, that is designed to be treated as a companion. Read more 🩻 HealthEquity notifies of data breach: The Utah-based healthcare benefits administrator said that although the compromised data varies by person, it largely consists of sign-up information for accounts and information about benefits that the company administers. Read more 🏠 ClickHouse acquires PeerDB: For the majority of PeerDB customers, Postgres was the main source of data for their data warehouse. Clearly ClickHouse saw a growing market for a tool like this, too. Read more   A Message from Airtable Build an app in moments with Airtable Cobuilder. Imagine a team of developers working on your behalf. Just tell Cobuilder what you want to build, for who, and the AI will do it for you. The possibilities are endless – use Cobuilder to create your next product roadmap, content calendar or OKR tracker. No coding required. Just ideas. You imagine it. AI builds it. The magic is in making it yours. Learn More   Afternoon must-reads Image Credits: Gabby Jones/Bloomberg / Getty Images 💰 Why Wiz walked away: Why would any company walk away from Google? Wiz CEO Assaf Rappaport said he and his co-founders believe it can be even bigger, and they were willing to place a big bet on themselves. Read more 🦜 What did you say? OpenAI began rolling out ChatGPT's Advanced Voice Mode today, giving users their first access to GPT-4o's hyper-realistic audio responses. Read more ⭐ Meta owes Texas $1.4B: The state sued the social media platform over its use of facial-recognition technology, saying it violated the state's privacy protections. And it won. Read more 🖐️ U.S. Senate passes KOSA: The Kids Online Safety Act, proposed in 2022, requires that online platforms take reasonable steps to protect users from harm. Read more 🧳 Booking.com, Booking.reallybigfine: Spain's competition authority, the CNMC, handed down a €413.24 million ($447 million) fine to the online travel agency for allegedly abusing a dominant market position over the past five years. Read more 🤝 Airtable acquires Dopt: Dopt's new features that helped users add AI-based assistance tools to their respective services caught Airtable's eye. Read more 🗞️ When news goes nuclear: We say something "goes viral" because we tend to think of rumors and disinformation spreading the way that an infection spreads. Today, "goes nuclear" may be more accurate. Read more Money, money, money Image Credits: the_burtons / Getty Images 🌳 Branching out: FranShares, a Chicago-based startup, wants to offer investors another form of passive income — the chance to invest in franchises for as little as $500. Read more 💵 Moxxie Ventures closes third fund: Moxxie, which invests in pre-seed and seed startups, announced today that it closed a $95 million third fund, surpassing its target of $85 million. Read more 🙌 Kennet raises largest fund to date: Growth equity investor Kennet said that it's raised €266 million for its largest fund to date, Kennet VI, which is already being deployed into B2B SaaS companies across Europe. Read more 💡 Intelmatix raises $20M: The deep tech B2B startup targeting businesses in the Middle East and North Africa region wants help to tap into the power of AI for decision-making. Read more 🥞 Now, that's something to chew on: Siddhi Capital closed on $135 million for its second fund that will  invest in consumer packaged goods startups. Read more   A Message from EQUALS TRUE Sustanable Remote Teams: Scale & Savings Our sustainable diverse nearshore teams save our clients hundreds of thousands over traditional IT Services without sacrificing quality. Learn More   More stories to love Image Credits: hocus-focus / Getty Images 🎧 Spotify expands lyrics access for free users. Read more 🧑‍⚖️ EU calls for help with shaping rules for general-purpose AIs. Read more 🎉 Perplexity details plan to share ad revenue with outlets cited by its AI chatbot. Read more Around the web 🔻 Pershing Square scales back IPO: The closed-end fund, led by Bill Ackman, is now pricing its planned IPO at $2 billion instead of $25 billion, Bloomberg reports. Read more 📦 Amazon on the hook: CNBC reports that the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission agreed that Amazon can be made responsible for the recall of faulty products. Read more 🚶 XYZ Venture Capital forges a new path: The venture capital firm found success in backing former Palantir employees who went out on their own, Forbes reports. Now it is looking for other founders who got their start in a similar way, just at another company. Read more   Check out some of our other newsletters: Startups Weekly TechCrunch AI TechCrunch Mobility Got a tip? tips@techcrunch.com Want to advertise on TechCrunch? advertise@techcrunch.com Has this been forwarded to you? Click here to subscribe to this newsletter. 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