Alibaba goes big on Russia with joint venture focused on gaming, shopping and more

Alibaba is doubling down on Russia after the Chinese e-commerce giant launched a joint venture with one of the country’s leading internet companies. Russia is said to have over 70 million internet users, around half of its population, with countless more attracted from Russian-speaking neighboring countries. The numbers are projected to rise as, like in […]

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BlaBlaCar acquires carpool rival BeepCar from Russia’s Mail.Ru

Another acquisition for French carpooling platform BlaBlaCar: It’s picked up Russian Internet giant Mail.Ru’s relatively recent rival offering, BeepCar, in what’s being billed as both an acquisition and a partnership. BlaBlaCar says the move is aimed at consolidating its international growth. “Through this acquisition, we are doubling down our commitment to develop carpooling in Russia, […]

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Facebook gave a Russian firm with Kremlin ties an extension on data collection

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Hmmm, the Facebook data collection scandal just got more interesting.

It turns out that one of the 61 companies that got an extension to collect certain kinds of data was a Russian tech firm with ties to the Kremlin. 

Before 2015, apps like This Is Your Digital Life — the source of Cambridge Analytica‘s data on 87 million people — could collect information on the friends of their users. 

Basically, if you used an app, the developers could see what your friends “liked” even if they weren’t users. Facebook banned the practice in May 2015, but as it revealed to Congress several weeks ago in 700 pages of written responses, it gave some apps an extension.  Read more…

More about Facebook, Vladimir Putin, Mail.Ru, Cambridge Analytica, and Tech

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