The Latest from Natasha Lomas
‘Orwellian’ AI lie detector project challenged in EU court
A legal challenge was heard today in Europe’s Court of Justice in relation to a controversial EU-funded research project using artificial intelligence for facial “lie detection” with
Aflorithmic nabs $1.3M for AI-driven personalized audio-as-a-service
London and Barcelona based audio-as-a-service SaaS startup Aflorithmic has scooped up $1.3 million in seed funding from Crowd Media Holdings, an Australia-based company focused on influencer-based 
TikTok will recheck the age of every user in Italy after DPA order
TikTok has agreed to re-verify the age of every user in Italy and block access to users who state they are younger than 13, the country’s data protection agency said today. The video-sharing soc
Apple urged to root out rating scams as developer highlights ugly cost of enforcement failure
Apple is facing calls to beef up enforcement against fake reviews and rating scams after a developer took to social media to shine a light on unfair practices he’s forced to compete with as a re
Twitter quietly rolls out Revue newsletters shortcut on web
If you were itching to launch an email newsletter via Twitter following its acquisition of the Dutch newsletter platform Revue last month, you’ll have to wait a bit longer for a fully featured i
Telemedico gets $6.6M to grow the reach of its digital health SaaS
Poland-based Telemedico has closed a €5.5 million (~$6.6 million) Series A round of funding. The round is led by Flashpoint Venture Capital, Uniqa Ventures, PKO VC, Black Pearls VC (an existing inve
Cadeera is doing AI visual search for home décor
In recent years we’ve seen a whole bunch of visual/style fashion-focused search engines cropping up, tailored to helping people find the perfect threads to buy online by applying computer vision
Uber’s Autocab acquisition gets eyed by UK competition watchdog
Uber’s plan to acquire Autocab, a maker of SaaS for booking and dispatch software for the taxi and private-hire vehicle industry, which also operates a global trip marketplace for taxis and PHVs
Apple’s Tim Cook warns of adtech fuelling a ‘social catastrophe’ as he defends app tracker opt-in
Apple’s CEO Tim Cook has urged Europe to step up privacy enforcement in a keynote speech to the CPDP conference today — echoing many of the points he made in Brussels in person two years a
Facebook’s ‘oversight’ body overturns four takedowns and issues a slew of policy suggestions
Facebook’s self-regulatory ‘Oversight Board’ (FOB) has delivered its first batch of decisions on contested content moderation decisions almost two months after picking its first case
UK’s competition watchdog still eyeing Facebook’s Giphy buy
The UK’s competition regulator will make a decision on whether or not Facebook’s purchase of Giphy has a ‘realistic prospect’ of substantially lessening competition by March 25
ProtonMail, Threema, Tresorit and Tutanota warn EU lawmakers over ‘anti-encryption’ push
Four European apps which secure user data via end-to-end encryption, ProtonMail, Threema, Tresorit and Tutanota, have issued a joint-statement warning over recent moves by EU institutions that they sa
Facebook’s secret settlement on Cambridge Analytica gags UK data watchdog
Remember the app audit Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg promised to carry out a little under three years ago at the height of the Cambridge Analytica scandal? Actually the tech giant is very keen that
Fleksy adds an art marketplace to spice up its keyboard app
Fleksy, an autocorrecting AI keyboard which competes with big-guns like Google’s Gboard and Microsoft’s Swiftkey, has a new way to catch users’ eyes: Art keyboards. It’s just l
Grindr on the hook for €10M over GDPR consent violations
Grindr, a gay, bi, trans and queer hook-up app, is on the hook for a penalty of NOK100,000,000 (aka €10M or ~$12.1M) in Europe. Norway’s data protection agency has announced it’s notifie
Google claims almost no change in ad revenue from targeting proposals in its Privacy Sandbox — but privacy upside less clear
As Google’s Privacy Sandbox remains under scrutiny over competition concerns, the tech giant has released an update claiming experimental ad-targeting techniques it’s developing as part of
Apple hit with another European class action over throttled iPhones
A third class action lawsuit has been filed in Europe against Apple seeking compensation — for what Italy’s Altroconsumo consumer protection agency dubs “planned obsolescence”
TikTok has until Friday to respond to Italy’s order to block users it can’t age-verify after girl’s death
TikTok has until Friday to respond to an order by Italy’s data protection agency to block users whose age it cannot verify, TechCrunch has learned. The GPDP made an “immediate” order
Google threatens to close its search engine in Australia as it lobbies against digital news code
Google has threatened to close its search engine in Australia — as it dials up its lobbying against draft legislation that is intended to force it to pay news publishers for reuse of their conte
UK resumes privacy oversight of adtech, warns platform audits are coming
The U.K.’s data watchdog has restarted an investigation of adtech practices that, since 2018, have been subject to scores of complaints across Europe under the bloc’s General Data Protecti