FTC fines Fortnite maker Epic Games $520M over children’s privacy charges

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The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced Monday morning it will charge Epic Games with a $520 million settlement over charges related to children’s privacy. Epic Games, which makes popular all-ages games like “Fortnite” and “Fall Guys,” allegedly violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) by deploying “design tricks, known as dark patterns, to dupe … Read more

She Finds Keys to Ecology in Cells That Steal From Others

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Nature, red in tooth and claw, is rife with organisms that eat their neighbors to get ahead. But in the systems studied by the theoretical ecologist Holly Moeller, an assistant professor of ecology, evolution and marine biology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, the consumed become part of the consumer in surprising ways. Moeller … Read more

Foundation raises $7M to return ‘sovereignty’ to a chaotic crypto world

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Hot on the heels of Ledger announcing it’s working with iPod creator Tony Fadell to create its newest hardware wallet, competing hardware wallet startup Foundation Devices announced it has raised a $7 million seed round to double down on its “sovereign computing platform,” which it says is empowering its users to “reclaim their digital sovereignty.” … Read more

Successes of 2022: Android smartwatches are finally becoming interesting

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Micha Huigen / The Verge I used to sigh when reviewing Android smartwatches. I desperately wanted Android users to have a smartwatch that could go toe-to-toe with the Apple Watch, but it wasn’t happening. There was always something. Dismal battery life, a laggy OS, outdated or inaccurate health features, and more tumbleweeds than third-party apps … Read more

Revel raises $7.8M to become the Instagram and Robinhood of NFT platforms

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Revel, an NFT or “social collectibles” platform, raised $7.8 million in seed financing led by Dragonfly Capital, the startup’s CEO, Adi Sideman, exclusively told TechCrunch. “One way to describe Revel is a cross between Instagram and Robinhood, wrapped in social game economics,” Sideman said. Instagram is known as a social media platform while Robinhood is … Read more