It’s been over five years since NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden lifted the lid on government mass surveillance programs, revealing, in unprecedented detail, quite how deep the rabbit hole goes thanks to the spread of commercial software and connectivity enabling a bottomless intelligence-gat…
Read More »Hackers breach Healthcare.gov system, taking files on 75,000 people
A government system used by insurance agents and brokers to help customers sign up for healthcare plans was breached, allowing hackers to siphon off sensitive and personal data on 75,000 people. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services confirmed the breach in a late Friday announcement, but r…
Read More »In State Tectonics, an explosive ending for the future of democracy
An omnipotent data infrastructure and knowledge-sharing tech organization has spread across the planet. Global conspiracies to disseminate propaganda and rig elections are ever present. Algorithms determine what people see as objective truth, and terrorist organizations gird to bring down the monop…
Read More »Free societies face emerging, existential threats from technology
Bilal Zuberi Contributor Share on Twitter Bilal Zuberi is a partner at Lux Capital, and is on the boards of Evolv Technology, CyPhy Technologies, and Nozomi Networks, among others. Silicon Valley is currently, and correctly, under fire for the failure of leading platforms such as Facebook, Google a…
Read More »Apply for free tickets to Startup Battlefield Latin America 2018
We’re just a few short weeks away from the inaugural Startup Battlefield Latin America 2018 that takes place November 8 at the Tomie Ohtake Institute in São Paulo, Brazil. That’s when up to 15 of Latin America’s exceptional early-stage startup founders will launch their companies to the world as th…
Read More »Gearing up to step into virtual reality
For the past two years, we’ve been closely following the advances of new VR experiences. Much of this gear is still in development, but if you’re eager to dive in and get a sense of what’s available right now, we’ve put together our current recommendations for mobile, PC, console and budget VR head…
Read More »Watch BepiColombo’s twin spacecraft launch tonight on a mission to Mercury
Humanity is about to return to the hottest planet in the solar system. BepiColombo is a mission to Mercury conducted jointly by the European and Japanese space agencies, due to launch in just a few hours aboard an Ariane 5 rocket. But while there's just the one launch, there are two spacecraft.
Read More »New ‘Dark Ads’ pro-Brexit Facebook campaign may have reached over 10M people, say researchers
A major new campaign of disinformation around Brexit, designed to stir up UK ‘Leave’ voters, and distributed via Facebook, may have reached over 10 million people in the UK, according to new research. The source of the campaign is so far unknown, and will be embarrassing to Facebook whi…
Read More »Domio just raised $12 million in Series A funding to build “apart hotels” across the U.S.
Hotels can be pricey, and and travelers are often forced to leave their rooms for basic things, like food that doesn’t come from the minibar. Yet Airbnb accommodations, which have become the go-to alternative for travelers, can be highly inconsistent. Domio, a two-year-old, New York-based out…
Read More »Convene uses landlord partnership model to outclass WeWork
Recent reports that Softbank may take a majority stake in WeWork has added fuel to the already hot market for start-ups in the workspace and property tech sectors. One of the more compelling companies that stands to benefit from this trend is New York-based Convene. Started by co-founders Ryan Simo…
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