ICE bought vehicles equipped with fake cell towers to spy on phones
The federal contract shows ICE spent $825,000 on vans equipped with “cell-site simulators” which allow the real-world location tracking of nearby phones and their owners.
Exclusive
One startup’s paper-thin stainless steel could change how bridges are built
By coating regular rebar with a thin layer of stainless steel, Allium Engineering could reduce the amount of concrete needed to build a bridge while also prolonging its life.
Security bug in India’s income tax portal exposed taxpayers’ sensitive data
TechCrunch verified that the security bug in the Indian Income Tax Department’s e-Filing portal exposed taxpayers’ data to other users. The security researchers who found the flaw say the data leak is now fixed.
Anker offered Eufy camera owners $2 per video for AI training
Hundreds of Eufy customers have donated hundreds of thousands of videos to train the company’s AI systems.
Event startup Partiful wasn’t stripping GPS locations from user-uploaded photos
The event planning startup, which has raised over $27M from a16z and others, fixed the bug after TechCrunch found that Partiful was not removing granular location data from users’ profile photos.
Sources: Naveen Rao’s new AI hardware startup targets $5B valuation with backing from a16z
Former Databricks AI chief is raising $1 billion to build an Nvidia rival through a novel approach.
Microsoft is about to launch free Xbox Cloud Gaming with ads
Microsoft is getting ready to announce an ad-supported version of Xbox Cloud Gaming. Sources familiar with Microsoft’s plans tell The Verge that the software maker has started testing ad-supported games streaming internally, allowing employees to play select titles free without a Game Pass subscription. I understand that the free ad-supported version of Xbox Cloud Gaming […]
Flai is the latest startup bringing AI to car dealerships
The YC-backed startup has raised a $4.5 million seed round as it looks to win over more businesses by replacing cumbersome phone trees with AI-powered software.
New deep tech fund Wave Function Ventures raises $15 million
Former SpaceX Falcon 9 engineer Jamie Gull, who started the fund, has already made nine investments.
Sources: Gusto paid $600M to acquire Guideline, plans to divest customers linked to rivals
While the HR Tech Guideline was last valued at $1.15 billion, the sale will likely yield a profit for most investors.