Silicon Valley Tech News Roundup – August 15th

Apple and HomeFirst to find housing for homeless residents in North San Jose – 8/13

In a statement released on Friday, Apple announced its plans for outreach and relocation of homeless residents on their property in North San Jose. Around 60 people are living in an encampment on the vacant lot of Component Drive.

HomeFirst, a Milpitas-based non-profit, had their social workers meet with homeless residents this week to assess their needs and provide services that will be funded by Apple. While the exact amount is unknown, it is expected Apple will spend millions. The funds will go toward housing, assistance, and services for the residents of the encampment.

The statement by Apple said: “Apple has long been focused on helping to combat the housing crisis across California and working with partners to support at-risk communities and provide new affordable units… In San Jose, we have been closely coordinating with local partners for several months to identify housing alternatives and support for families who will be transitioning away from the Component Drive site.”

Andrea Urton, the CEO of HomeFirst, commended Apple’s efforts: “Apple is really leading the way… They could have just displaced people, but they didn’t.”
HomeFirst revealed its plan to move the residents to transitional housing and provide addiction and health counseling services. The long-term goal is to place all residents in permanent rental housing via a network of Santa Clara County landlords.

Component Drive is a part of a plot of undeveloped land owned by Apple. The company plans to create an affordable housing development on the property. Apple is in talks with San Jose officials about the project.

Hacker steals $600 million from Poly Network then returns it – 8/12

On Tuesday, an anonymous hacker stole over $600 million from Poly Network, a decentralized finance platform, using a vulnerability in their network. The company called the attack the largest theft in the industry history and asked the hacker to return the funds. Likewise, Poly Network asked other members in the cryptocurrency system to blacklist the assets coming from the addresses used by the hacker. Once the news of the theft spread, experts from Chainalysis, a blockchain forensics company, claim it would have been impossible for the hacker to withdraw the funds or launder the money.

Later in the week, the hacker returned all the money and refused the $500.000 bounty Poly Network offered. Chainalysis published the messages that the hacker sent along with the returned funds, and according to the notes, the hacker always planned to return the appropriated funds.

Poly Network thank the hacker for his cooperation and asked him to continue contributing to the industry security.

Reddit valued at $10 billion – 8/13

On Thursday, Reddit revealed its plans to raise $700 million in a Series F funding round. Fidelity Management is the company behind the round. The company also shared it raised $410 million from Fidelity Management in its second funding round since the beginning of the year.

Reddit is valued at over $10 billion. When compared to February 2019, it is triple its worth. In February 2021, the company did another capital raise that put its value at $6 billion. In the second quarter of 2021, Reddit had $100 million in advertising revenue (an increase of 192% compared to the same period last year). Reddit has 52 million active users and 100.000 SubReddit forums.

Speaking to CNBC’s “TechCheck” Steve Hoffman, the Co-Founder, and CEO of Reddit, said: “First order of business is make Reddit awesome. Make Reddit faster, more relevant, help it work for more people… And then we look to the future, so internationalization is a big effort of ours. Video will be another big effort of ours, so just same strategy. Just keep moving ahead.”

Facebook stops another project investigating its practices – 8/13

Algorithm Watch, a Berlin-based non-profit organization investigating how Instagram presents content to users, revealed Facebook bullied the researchers and shut down their project. Facebook is Instagram’s sister company.

The non-profit researches the Instagram algorithm and its decision-making related to human behavior. Users who participated in the project agreed to have their Instagram feeds monitored. So far, Algorithm Watch’s research concluded the Instagram algorithm preferred semi-nude images or that politicians’ posts with text were less likely to be promoted in feeds. Facebook disputed the findings. The non-profit also claims Facebook refused to cooperate with its researchers.

Algorithm Watch decided to stop the project because it cannot afford a legal battle with Facebook. They maintain their work is both legal and ethical. In a statement released by Algorithm Watch, Nicolas Kayser-Bril, a data journalist, said: “Digital platforms play an ever-increasing role in structuring and influencing public debate. Civil society watchdogs, researchers, and journalists need to be able to hold them to account.”