Mozilla report found more than a dozen TikTok influencers who had undisclosed paid relationships to post political messages; TikTok banned political ads in 2019 (Cat Zakrzewski/Washington Post)

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 Cat Zakrzewski / Washington Post:
Mozilla report found more than a dozen TikTok influencers who had undisclosed paid relationships to post political messages; TikTok banned political ads in 2019  —  TikTok has one of the strictest bans on political advertising in the tech industry.  But partisan influencers are flying under …

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A peer-reviewed study finds UK’s NHS contact-tracing app reduced the second wave by roughly 25%, averting ~594,000 out of 1.89M cases from October-December 2020 (BBC)

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 BBC:
A peer-reviewed study finds UK’s NHS contact-tracing app reduced the second wave by roughly 25%, averting ~594,000 out of 1.89M cases from October-December 2020  —  The NHS contact-tracing app had a significant impact on lowering the spread of the coronavirus in the UK, a peer-reviewed paper has found.

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Rapyd, a “fintech-as-a-service” provider, to acquire Iceland-based Valitor, which develops in-store and online payments technologies, for $100M (Omar Faridi/Crowdfund Insider)

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 Omar Faridi / Crowdfund Insider:
Rapyd, a “fintech-as-a-service” provider, to acquire Iceland-based Valitor, which develops in-store and online payments technologies, for $100M  —  – Twitter- Facebook- LinkedIn- Pinterest- Reddit- HackerNews- Telegram- Weibo- Email- Print- Subscribe

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Seoul-based 3i, an immersive experience startup focusing on metaverse tech, AI, and AR/VR, raises ~$24M Series A led by SV Investment (FinSMEs)

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 FinSMEs:
Seoul-based 3i, an immersive experience startup focusing on metaverse tech, AI, and AR/VR, raises ~$24M Series A led by SV Investment  —  3i Inc., a Seoul, South Korea immersive experience company specializing in metaverse technology, artificial intelligence, augmented and virtual reality …

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Interview with a16z General Partner Martin Casado as the company rolls out a new $400M fund focused on seed investments (Connie Loizos/TechCrunch)

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 Connie Loizos / TechCrunch:
Interview with a16z General Partner Martin Casado as the company rolls out a new $400M fund focused on seed investments  —  Andreessen Horowitz has begun to announce new funds almost as routinely as some startups have begun announcing follow-on rounds.  After announcing a third biotech fund …

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Many popular VPN services are owned by companies with shady track records, like London-based Kape Technologies, which also owns VPN review sites (Brian X. Chen/New York Times)

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 Brian X. Chen / New York Times:
Many popular VPN services are owned by companies with shady track records, like London-based Kape Technologies, which also owns VPN review sites  —  Many virtual private network services that were meant to protect your web browsing can no longer be trusted.  Here are other ways.

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A Pentagon audit from May cleared the use of two DJI drones built for government use, after the Interior Dept. grounded its fleet of China-made drones in Jan. (The Hill)

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 The Hill:
A Pentagon audit from May cleared the use of two DJI drones built for government use, after the Interior Dept. grounded its fleet of China-made drones in Jan.  —  Two drone models made by China’s largest manufacturer have been cleared for use by a Pentagon audit, according to a report summary obtained by The Hill.

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Polywork, a business-focused social network in private beta that emphasizes the work people do over job titles, raises $13M Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz (Jack Kennedy/Silicon Republic)

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 Jack Kennedy / Silicon Republic:
Polywork, a business-focused social network in private beta that emphasizes the work people do over job titles, raises $13M Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz  —  Peter Johnston’s Polywork has closed a Series A round that attracted investment from big names in Silicon Valley.

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Analysis: 740 organizations faced ransomware attacks and had their data posted to leak sites in Q2 2021, up 47% QoQ; attacks on retail sector grew 183% QoQ (Jonathan Greig/ZDNet)

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 Jonathan Greig / ZDNet:
Analysis: 740 organizations faced ransomware attacks and had their data posted to leak sites in Q2 2021, up 47% QoQ; attacks on retail sector grew 183% QoQ  —  Digital Shadows’ Q2 ransomware report highlighted that the number of victims posted to data leak sites increased by 47% compared to Q1.

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IDC: global tablet shipments grew 55.2% YoY, most since 2013, to reach 39.9M units in Q1; Apple led with 12.7M shipments, up 64.3% YoY; Samsung 8M, up 60.8% YoY (Mike Peterson/AppleInsider)

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 Mike Peterson / AppleInsider:
IDC: global tablet shipments grew 55.2% YoY, most since 2013, to reach 39.9M units in Q1; Apple led with 12.7M shipments, up 64.3% YoY; Samsung 8M, up 60.8% YoY  —  Apple’s iPad retained the dominant share of the tablet industry in the first quarter of 2021 as the product segment grew more than 50% year-over-year.

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