Daily Crunch: French data watchdog investigates Criteo

Criteo faces a privacy investigation, an e-discovery startup raises $62 million and hackers hack other hackers. Here’s your Daily Crunch for March 10, 2020.

1. Adtech giant Criteo is being investigated by France’s data watchdog

Criteo is under investigation by the French data protection watchdog, the CNIL, following a complaint filed by privacy rights campaign group Privacy International.

Back in November 2018, a few months after GDPR (Europe’s updated data protection framework) came into force, Privacy International filed complaints against a number of companies operating in the space — including Criteo. A subsequent investigation by the rights group found adtech trackers on mental health websites sharing sensitive user data for ad targeting purposes.

2. Everlaw announces $62M Series C to continue modernizing legal discovery

Everlaw is bringing modern data management, visualization and machine learning to e-discovery, the process in which legal entities review large amounts of evidence to build a case. CapitalG (Alphabet’s growth equity investment fund) and Menlo Ventures led the round.

3. Hackers are targeting other hackers by infecting their tools with malware

Cybereason’s Amit Serper found that the attackers in this years-long campaign are taking existing hacking tools and injecting a powerful remote-access trojan. When the tools are opened, the hackers gain full access to the target’s computer.

4. Amazon creates $5M relief fund to aid small businesses in Seattle impacted by coronavirus outbreak

The fund will provide cash grants to local small businesses in need during the novel coronavirus outbreak. The money will be directed toward small businesses with fewer than 50 employees or less than $7 million in annual revenue, and with a physical presence within a few blocks of Regrade and South Lake Union office buildings.

5. Stitch Fix’s sharp decline signals high growth hurdles for tech-enabled startups

Shares of Stitch Fix, a digitally-enabled “styling service,” are off sharply this morning after its earnings failed to excite public market investors. The firm, worth over $29 per share as recently as February, opened today worth just $14.75 per share. (Extra Crunch membership required.)

6. Facebook Stories tests cross-posting to its pet, Instagram

Facebook’s latest colonization of Instagram has begun — the social network is testing the option to cross-post Stories to Instagram, instead of just vice-versa.

7. Sequoia is giving away $21M to a payments startup it recently funded as it walks away from deal

Sequoia Capital has, for the first time in its history, parted ways with a newly funded company (Finix) over a purported conflict of interest and, almost more shockingly, handed back its board seat, its information rights, its shares and its full investment.

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