Stream of Reading (Prepare to be Forwarded) – An Archive of What I'm Reading
TikTok quietly updated its earlier this week in a way that allows the company to automatically collect extensive data on users in the United States —including data about their faces and their voice . The policy change, first spotted by , specifically states that TikTok “may collect biometric identifiers and biometric information as defined under…
We just think we are. A few days after the January 6th insurrection, shareholders at two major companies filed a resolution asking that Home Depot and Omnicom undertake audits to prove that their ad budgets haven’t been funding disinformation and extremism online. This, as far as we know, is the first time the link between…
With the , it shouldn’t be surprising that tech companies—specifically those in the app space—have swooped in left and right to . Want to monitor your blood pressure? . Mental health got you down? . And of course, there are apps to ease of the multimillion-dollar headache plaguing the country at large: . And none…
Adam Neumann was flying high. Literally. His office-rental giant WeWork was months away from being valued at $47 billion. Revenue was doubling annually. And Mr. Neumann was zipping across the Atlantic Ocean in a Gulfstream G650 private jet with friends last summer, smoking marijuana. After the group landed in Israel and left the plane, the flight crew…
The growth virus can infect century-old corporations the same as SV startups Ranjan here, and I’d like to talk to you about Theranos. I’ve long been obsessed with this story, to the point of a borderline creepy fascination with Sunny Balwani back in 2016. John Carreyrou’s Bad Blood was one of the best books from…
Here’s an argument you hear a lot: the gigantic cash burn rates at the likes of Tesla and Uber are nothing new, because today’s established tech greats also churned through tons of cash in their early years. In fact, we keep hearing from champions of these glamor stocks on business TV shows and pundits’ blogs…
At the Atlantic earlier this week, Sidney Fussell reported on Airbnb’s policies toward hosts installing cameras to observe their customers and the platform’s apparent ambivalence about enforcing them. As Fussell notes, Airbnb hosts are permitted to have cameras installed in living rooms, common areas, and outdoor spaces, but not bathrooms and sleeping areas. They are…
(Reuters) – Lyft Inc was valued at $24.3 billion in the first initial public offering (IPO) of a ride-hailing startup on Thursday, raising more than it had set off to do as investors overlooked uncertainty over its path to becoming a profitable company. Lyft’s IPO sets the stage for the stock market debut of…
Airbnb, once a saviour from overpriced hotels, has become the new overpriced hotels since becoming the short-term accommodation staple. But with the rise of community living and workcations, an alternative might be to just sleep where you cowork. That’s the idea behind PodShare, a coworking space with beds, which has three locations in Los Angeles….
Last week news came out that Mic, a publication that I once worked at for the better part of two years, laid off its entire editorial staff. Staffers were given zero warning. Management told them during a Thursday morning meeting that their computer access would be cut off at 2 p.m., that they’d get just…