Poorly regulated stem cell treatments have blinded some macular degeneration patients. But a new technique is showing therapeutic promise.
Source: Wired
Panera Bread’s online ordering system was leaking customer information for eight months, and as many as 37 million customers might have had sensitive private information exposed to outside parties.
The post Panera Bread’s data leak might affect more than 37 million customers appeared first on Digital Trends.
Source: Digital trends
New research confirms that the river’s worst floods aren’t just the result of bad weather—they’re the result of bad engineering.
Source: Wired
The Department of Defense is working on a multibillion-dollar cloud services contract. Amazon’s rivals are already claiming Amazon is being favored for the job.
Source: CNET
The Insurance Institute’s latest round of crash testing evaluated 7 different small SUVs, including the BMW X1, Chevy Equinox, Jeep Compass and Mitsubishi Outlander Sport.
Source: CNET
Could the internet’s issues with harassment spill into virtual spaces? One survey says yes.
Source: CNET
Available only for current models, the new feature rolls out this week via a free, over-the-air software update.
Source: CNET
Facebook is spelling out in plain english how it collects and uses your data in rewritten versions of its Terms Of Service and Data Use Policy, though it’s not asking for new rights to collect and use your data or changing any of your old privacy settings.The public has seven days to comment on the changes (though Facebook doesn’t promise to adapt or even respond to the feedback) before Facebook will ask all users to consent to the first set of new rules in three years.
Unfortunately since the changes to the language and structure of the terms are so wide-reaching, it’s difficult to do a direct comparison of the differences between the old TOS and DUP, and the new versions embedded below.
Perhaps the most interesting part of the expanded, plain language terms are the specifics of how Facebook collects data from your devices. Conspiracy theories about it snooping on people through its microphone, and confusion about it collecting SMS and call log history likely pushed Facebook to give people details about what data its slurping up.
Facebook now explains that:
Information we obtain from these devices includes:
• Device attributes: information such as the operating system, hardware and software versions, battery level, signal strength, available storage space, browser type, app and file names and types, and plugins.
• Device operations: information about operations and behaviors performed on the device, such as whether a window is foregrounded or backgrounded, or mouse movements (which can help distinguish humans from bots).
• Identifiers: unique identifiers, device IDs, and other identifiers, such as from games, apps or accounts you use, and Family Device IDs (or other identifiers unique to associated with the same device or account).
• Device signals: Bluetooth signals, and information about nearby Wi-Fi access points, beacons, and cell towers. • Data from device settings: information you allow us to receive through device settings you turn on, such as access to your GPS location, camera or photos.
• Network and connections: information such as the name of your mobile operator or ISP, language, time zone, mobile phone number, IP address, connection speed and, in some cases, information about other devices that are nearby or on your network, so we can do things like help you stream a video from your phone to your TV.
• Cookie data: data from cookies stored on your device, including cookie IDs and settings. Learn more about how we use cookies in the Facebook Cookies Policy and .
Facebook has also clarified how new products it’s launched since the last TOS update like Marketplace, fundraisers, Live, 360, and camera effects work. It explains how every user’s experience is personalized. Facebook also makes it clear that it, WhatsApp, and Oculus (as well as Instagram) are all part of one company.
If Facebook can give users a better understanding of how it works, it might be able to diffuse privacy scandals and backlashes before they happen.
Facebook updated Terms Of Service – 4/4/18 by Josh TechCrunch on Scribd
Facebook updated Data Use Policy – 4/4/18 by Josh TechCrunch on Scribd
Source: TechCrunch
Founders don’t always see a startup all the way through to an “exit”. It happens a lot more often than you realise. In fact, it’s quite often the case in Silicon Valley, despite the mythic status the ‘founder story’ has attained there in recent times. So it’s actually a sign of maturity that founders in Europe are making moves of this nature.
The most recent was George Bevis, founder of startup business bank Tide, who has decided he’d rather find a CEO experienced at scaling a business after the initial startup phase. And today two more UK founders have decided to call it a day and move on.
Alicia Navarro will today step down from the role of CEO of Skimlinks — the commerce monetisation platform for content publishers — handing the reigns to Sebastien Blanc, currently Chief Revenue Officer. Sources say the move was been amicably approved by the Skimlinks board. Both Navarro, and her co-founder Joe Stepniewski who was Chief Product & Strategy Officer, are to now leave the day to day running of the company, although Navarro will become “President” and maintain a role as “founding visionary, client and partner advocate, and board member.” The company will also now go on the hunt for a Chairman.
Under Navarro’s leadership, Skimlinks raised $25 million in venture funding and built a monetisation platform that today includes over 57,000 publisher clients running Skimlinks technology on 4.5 million websites around the world, driving billions in e-commerce sales.
Blanc brings a wealth of experience to the role. In a statement, Navarro said “he has a drive for excellence and a disciplined growth mindset that will take Skimlinks to the next level. As our Chief Revenue Officer for the past two years, Seb was instrumental in driving an acceleration in growth and efficiency that helped Skimlinks reach profitability. Skimlinks’ culture is one of our most important assets. Seb’s deep appreciation for our team, our customers, and our mission make him my natural choice to take over the responsibility of the company I started and led for ten years.”
Blanc has over 15 years experience in the media and advertising industry as an investor, advisor, and senior executive. Prior to joining Skimlinks, Blanc was a director at Quantcast, where he built and led the global media buying operations across five countries and signed the first 3,000 private deals with premium publishers. He joined Quantcast through their acquisition of the UK startup Struq, a programmatic advertising and retargeting specialist, where he launched the US operation and took revenues from $0 to $10 million in 18 months.
Blanc said: “Over the last two years, as CRO of Skimlinks, I have enjoyed working with Alicia and seeing her lead with a level of passion and dedication that only a founder can truly bring. She built a great business and a great team. I am looking forward to building upon what already makes us special, and finding new ways to deliver value for our customers and opportunities for growth to our people.”
He told me: “The main plan is to continue the current strategy of encouraging large content publishers to increase the amount of commerce they do as part of revenue. The goal is to double down and give them better tools to do that. Big publishers have just started working on eCommerce revenue. But most publishers are making very low revenue per user. So “service journalism” and “commerce journalism” can become a real revenue source.”
John Brimacombe, Partner at Sussex Place Ventures and lead investor in Skimlinks’ Series A, will assume the role of interim executive chairman while the company conducts a search for a permanent chairman. Brimacombe commented, “Alicia is a model founder. Along with her co-founder Joe Stepniewski, Alicia took Skimlinks from an idea to more than $50 million in annual revenues. As the company now enters a new chapter of growth, Alicia made the bold decision to find a successor and guide the board through a thoughtful process to select a new CEO. I deeply respect and appreciate all that Alicia and Joe have done, and I’m delighted to work with Seb in his role as CEO.”
Joe Krancki, Partner at Frog Capital commented: “Since we led their Series C, Skimlinks has solidified its position as a lucrative partner to many of the world’s best-known digital publishers, becoming the undisputed leader in the category they created for commerce-related content monetisation. We’re thrilled to have Seb carry Alicia’s vision forward as the new CEO of Skimlinks and continue transforming the way publishers earn revenue from their content.”
So what will Navarro do now?
She plans to help start and build other early-stage companies, mainly in an advisory role, and also public speaking.
“This has not been an easy decision, as you would expect. I am incredibly proud of what we’ve achieved as a team. However, my passion and talents lie in turning an idea into a thriving business,” she says. People will now be able to follow her exploits on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Source: TechCrunch
Amazon is bringing “hands-free” access to Alexa – a feature currently found on its flagship Fire HD 10 tablet – to the rest of its Fire tablet line, the company announced this morning. Starting this week, owners of either the Fire 7 and the Fire HD 8 (2017) will be able to launch Alexa using their voice, whenever the tablet’s screen is in use or the device is connected to power.
While Alexa has been available on Amazon’s devices for some time, it wasn’t until the Fire HD 10 arrived that Alexa could be used in a hands-free mode. Now that same functionality will roll out to Amazon’s other tablets through a free, over-the-air software update.
Once enabled, device owners will be able to talk to Alexa without touching their tablet – asking her to do things like play a song, turn off the lights, start or pause a movie, check your calendar, control your smart home (including viewing video from connected cameras or doorbells) and more.
The feature essentially turns the tablet into a poor man’s Echo Show, the $230 Echo device with a screen. Of course, there are some drawbacks to Alexa on tablets. The speakers aren’t as good as a full-sized Echo, and tablets don’t have the mic array you’d find on an Echo, either. But being able to say “Alexa,” is a familiar experience for users who expect to be able to talk to a device’s virtual assistant hands-free, as they can with Siri or Google Assistant on other devices.
Alexa on the Fire HD 10 is a better experience than on the 7 or HD 8 because customers can access Alexa hands-free even when the screen is on standby. It also doesn’t require a power connection.
But because the Fire 7 or Fire 8 HD device has to be plugged in or the screen has to be in use, it’s a better option for using the tablet as a smart display, rather than a full replacement for an Echo that works anytime.
Amazon says the feature is rolling out this week.
Source: TechCrunch