TECH CRUNCH – Sep 17 – Apple is changing how subscriptions work on its App Store. Before, any lapse in payment could cut off the customer from being able to use the app's subscription-based features and make it more difficult for the developer to reacquire the customer. Now, developers will have the option to instead offer a "grace period" for auto-renewable subscriptions, which gives Apple more time to collect payment on the developer's behalf. The new Grace Period, which is opt-in, not opt-out on the developer's part, is enabled from App Store Connect, where developers manage their apps.
Category: Outlets – Tech Crunch
Apple Tweaks Its App Store Algorithm as Antitrust Investigations Loom
TECH CRUNCH – Sep 11 – That Apple has used its App Store to offer itself a competitive advantage is nothing new. Apple displayed its apps in the No. 1 position on the Top Charts, for example, or banned apps that competed with iOS features or positioned its apps higher than competitors in search. Now, in the wake of antitrust investigations in the U.S. and abroad, as well as various anti-competitive lawsuits, Apple has adjusted the App Store's algorithm so fewer of its own apps would appear at the top of the search results.
Facebook Users’ Phone Numbers Found Online
TECH CRUNCH – Sep 5 – The exposed server contained ~419M records over several databases on users across geographies, including 133M records on U.S.-based Facebook users. The server wasn't protected with a password so anyone could find and access the database. Each record contained a user's Facebook ID and the phone number listed on the account. This is the latest security lapse involving Facebook data after the Cambridge Analytica scandal, which saw ~80M profiles scraped to help identify swing voters in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Facebook spokesperson Jay Nancarrow said the data had been scraped before Facebook cut off access to user phone numbers.
This Is Your Life in Silicon Valley Podcast: The League Founder & CEO Amanda Bradford
TECH CRUNCH – Aug 20 – In this week’s edition of This is Your Life in Silicon Valley features Amanda Bradford, founder/CEO of The League. Amanda talks about modern dating, its limitations, its flaws, why ‘The League’ will win. She talks about her days at Salesforce and how it influenced her decision to build a dating tech product that focused on data, and funnels. She goes in on all of the popular dating sites, including Bumble and others, providing her take on what’s wrong with them.
Group Dating App 3fun Exposed Sensitive Data on 1.5M Users
TECH CRUNCH – Aug 8 – The researchers from Pen Test Partners called the app a "privacy train wreck." ~1.5M users of the group dating app had their personal data exposed, including their real-time location, because of a vulnerability in the app. 3fun bills itself as a "private space" for kinky, open-minded people. Because the app wasn't properly secured, the researchers found they could plug in any coordinates they wanted to spoof their location, revealing sensitive information on anyone within any location of their choosing, including government buildings, military bases, and intelligence agencies. The researchers contacted 3fun on July 1 to report the bugs. Munro said the app maker took weeks to fix the issues.
Digital Identity Startup Yoti Raises £8M
TECH CRUNCH – Aug 2 – Yoti, the London startup offering a digital identity platform and app that lets users prove who they say they are when accessing services or making age-verified purchases, has raised £8M in additional funding. The startup had raised £65M in total since being founded in 2014. Yoti has formed a variety of partnerships including Heathrow Airport, which is working with Yoti to explore biometric travel for passengers; NCR, which is using Yoti to improve age-verification at self-checkouts; and Yubo, which is deploying Yoti to verify the age of users and to "safeguard" young people online.
by Steve O'Hear
See full article at Tech Crunch
This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.com
Muzmatch Raised $7M
TECH CRUNCH – July 26 – Muzmatch, a matchmaking app for Muslims, has just raised a $7M Series A. The app has now ~1.5M users, across 210 countries. The funding will help fuel growth in key international markets, is jointly led by US hedge fund Luxor Capital, and Silicon Valley accelerator Y Combinator – the latter having previously selected Muzmatch for its summer 2017 batch of startups. Last year the team also took in a $1.75M seed. The team has grown from four people seven months ago to 17 now. With the Series A the plan is to further expand headcount to almost 30. Muzmatch was already profitable two years ago.
by Natasha Lomas
See full article at Tech Crunch
This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.com
Tinder’s New Security Feature Protects LGBTQ+ Users in Hostile Nations
TECH CRUNCH – July 24 – Users who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer on Tinder will no longer automatically appear on the app when they arrive in an oppressive state. This feature, called Traveler Alert, relies on users' phone network connection to determine its location. From there it will give users the choice to keep their location private. If users opt-in to make their profile public again, Tinder will hide their sexual orientation or gender identity from their profile to safeguard the information from law enforcement and others who may target them. There are 69 countries that consider same-sex acts illegal. Nine of the countries, including Iran, Sudan, and Saudi Arabia allow for prosecutors to pursue the death penalty against same-sex acts and relationships.
Facebook Settles With FTC: $5B and New Privacy Guarantees
by Devin Coldewey & Natasha Lomas
See full article at Tech Crunch
Bumble CEO Responds to Reports of Misconduct at Parent Company
TECH CRUNCH – July 10 – Following an extensive report in Forbes about Bumble's parent company and its billionaire founder Andrey Andreev, the female-first dating app's founder Whitney Wolfe Herd has issued a statement. She says she was "mortified by the allegations" and "saddened and sickened to hear that anyone, of any gender, would ever be made to feel marginalized or mistreated in any capacity at their workplace." The allegations went beyond portraying a sexist work environment and detailed racist attitudes of the Badoo founder.