Stories for Oct. 24, 2013
Privacy activists get second shot at Facebook PRISM investigation in Ireland
The Irish data protection chief turned down a request to investigate Facebook’s alleged complicity in the NSA’s PRISM scheme, but campaigners Europe v Facebook have won the right to a judicial review of the decision. Read more »
Stories for Oct. 23, 2013
75% of AT&T customers now own smartphones and they’re buying a lot more data
photo: AT&T
Despite having three out of every four contract customers already owning a smartphone, AT&T’s continued to grow its smartphone base in the third quarter. What’s more existing smartphone customers are upgrading their data plans. Read more »
In Brief
Pinterest raises a whopping $225M, bringing total funding to more than $0.5B
Pinterest has confirmed an AllThingsD report that it has raised a $225-million Series E round of funding led by Fidelity Investments, with previous investors including Andreessen Horowitz, FirstMark Capital, Valiant Capital and Bessemer Venture Partners chipping in as well. The investment comes at a $3.8-billion valuation, and the total amount of money raised by Pinterest is now around — brace yourself — $538 million. Pinterest recently started to experiment with ads, or promoted pins, as the company calls them – but so far it isn’t charging brands any money for these experiments.
