The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) announced on Friday that it has raided and shut down the operations of the notorious REvil ransomware gang. The unprecedented move — which will undoubtedly send a message to other ransomware groups operating out of the country — saw the Russian authorities conduct raids at 25 addresses across the […]
House committee investigating Jan. 6 subpoenas Meta, YouTube, Twitter and Reddit
The House committee leading the investigation into the January 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol issued subpoenas to four major tech companies Thursday. January 6 select committee chairman Bennie G. Thompson (D-MS) sent letters to YouTube parent company Alphabet, Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta, Reddit and Twitter demanding for those companies to provide […]
UK class action lodged against Meta seeks $3.1B for breach of competition law
A competition legal expert, backed by a powerful litigation fund, is set to mount a multibillion-dollar class action suit against Facebook/Meta for breach of competition law on the basis that it abused its dominance of social networking in the U.K. for several years. If successful, the action would see Facebook having to pay $3.1 billion […]
GoFundMe gets Classy (literally) with acquisition of nonprofit giving platform
GoFundMe announced today that it will acquire Classy, a nonprofit fundraising software company. This is an all equity deal, though the company did not disclose the financials. Anyone can make a GoFundMe, from a local food pantry to a community member in need. But Classy is more specialized, working directly with nonprofits. Since its 2010 […]
HeyCharge’s underground charging solution raises $4.7M Seed led by BMW i Ventures
EV charging continues to be a high-growth business, for obvious reasons. Since 2007, one of the largest players has been ChargePoint, the floated US company which with a widespread EV charging network. But plenty of startups are snapping at its heels. One of them is Germany-based HeyCharge, which realised there was a problem with how […]
Global Processing Services adds $100M to its coffers to grow its embedded finance and API payments platform
Embedded finance continues to be the engine driving the growth of fintech, with one group of companies building core banking, payments and other financial technology, and a much bigger group tapping that technology through APIs to build customer-facing businesses. Today, one of the bigger players on the core technology side — Global Processing Services — […]
In bad news for US cloud services, Austrian website’s use of Google Analytics found to breach GDPR
A decision by Austria’s data protection watchdog upholding a complaint against a website related to its use of Google Analytics does not bode well for use of US cloud services in Europe. The decision raises a big red flag over routine use of tools that require transferring Europeans’ personal data to the US for processing […]
Music app AmpMe lowers pricing after accused of being an App Store scammer
Around the same time Apple was touting its sizable App Store revenue growth this week, developer and noted App Store critic Kosta Eleftheriou brought to light what appeared to be yet another App Store scammer hiding in plain sight. On Twitter, Eleftheriou documented the earnings for a music syncing app called AmpMe, which claims to […]
Setting up high-conversion lead magnets that deliver value
Sales stand and fall on leads, but attracting prospects and optimally converting them into buyers is an art that many have yet to grasp.
How the mobile app ecosystem adapted to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021
The COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact the mobile app ecosystem, according to an annual retrospective released today by app intelligence firm Sensor Tower. In the early days of the pandemic, a number of apps saw rapidly increased usage — like that focused on online shopping, entertainment, business and education, for example. Though much of the […]