Telegram founder: U.S. intelligence agencies tried to bribe us to weaken encryption

Pavel Durov, the Russian founder of the popular secure messaging app Telegram has revealed in a series of tweets that U.S. intelligence agencies tried twice to bribe the company's developers to weaken encryption in the app, presumably so it would be easier for the agencies to obtain communications sent via its users. Durov also says he was pressured by the FBI to do so.

And that was just 1 week. It would be naive to think you can run an independent/secure cryptoapp based in the US.

— Pavel Durov (@durov) June 11, 2017

Last December, augmented reality company Blippar, which had previously catered mostly to brands and advertisers, rolled out real-time facial recognition, along with a database of 70,000 recognizable faces. That database has since been expanded to 370,000 public figures, and Blippar's new beta launch today will add your face to the pile as well. 

The new face profiles, dubbed Halos, can be personalized with interactive AR bubbles that frame the face, allowing users to display their latest tweet, for example, or indicate their mood with animated personifications of emotions that recall the Pixar movie Inside Out. 

Blippar COO Danny Lopez claims the tech has a 99.67% accuracy rate because it captures the entire face in one go, via what's called the single-model or single-patch method. 

Having played around with the app, I found that it had no trouble detecting both Beyoncé and obscure Bollywood stars. But what I found most interesting about the face profiles system was its potential applications beyond the confines of Blippar's app. As Lopez noted, facial recognition tech is already being used for identity management in mobile banking. Another application for Blippar could be at conferences and for networking, Lopez says. For instance, you might use Blippar's technology to learn more about a speaker by scanning a photo, or even an attendee's face, if their profile included a bubble for their LinkedIn page.  PM

Employers in Massachusetts now have to provide "reasonable accommodation" for workers who use medical marijuana to treat an illness when not on the job, according to the latest ruling from the state's Supreme Judicial Court. 

The court ruled in favor of Cristina Barbuto, who was hired in an entry-level position at Advantage Sales & Marketing and subsequently fired. Barbuto was initially asked to take a drug test and disclosed that she would test positive for her offsite use of physician-prescribed marijuana to ease the symptoms of Crohn's disease. She was tested, offered the job, and terminated after one day of work. Her employer's position was that it would have been "facially unreasonable" to accommodate Barbuto's use, because marijuana is a Scheduled I Controlled Substance under federal law.

Now they and other employers in the state must permit the offsite use of medical marijuana, unless they can prove it's causing an undue hardship to the business. In 2015, the Colorado Supreme Court took the opposing stance and ruled in favor of the employer firing a worker for offsite use of medical marijuana. LD

If you've ever worn a virtual reality headset for an extended period, you've no doubt seen the world a little differently once you've taken it off. Maybe things seem a little more three-dimensional. Or less. But something's different. You probably didn't think, though, about how using that headset was impacting your vision.

Maybe you should. A new study released by The Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Future Visual Entertainment suggests that extended use of high-end VR headsets like HTC's Vive (or, presumably, the Oculus Rift) can have beneficial effects on preteens' vision, in some cases actually improving kids' myopia or hyperopia. The key, according to the study, is using a high-end headset with a "properly designed virtual image distance." 

It's probably worth taking the results of this study with a grain of salt, especially because it came to its conclusions by testing just 50 students, split almost evenly between fourth- and sixth graders, and because of other reports that allege that Sony's PlayStation VR might lead to eye problems. But there's been work done on the idea of using VR to help with vision disorders, like strabismus. Here's hoping a lot more research goes into this subject.

[Photo: Flickr user Andri Koolme] DT

Today in weird Amazon patents, the folks at GeekWire have uncovered a filing for a power-charging robot that comes to your aid in public places when the battery in your device needs a jolt. Here's how the inventors describe the need they're trying to fill:   

It can be quite inconvenient to a user when one of these devices runs out of battery power. This is especially true if the user does not have an available charging adapter for the device. Users may find themselves asking friends, or even strangers, to borrow a charging adapter.

The filing describes a fleet of robots that can be deployed in public places like malls or airports. And just to make sure the idea can be monetized, the description envisions ways to supplement the operating costs—like having the robot sell additional items or display advertising. Check out the full post from GeekWire. It's the strangest Amazon patent you'll see all day, even if it doesn't place in the top 10 for the month.

[Image: USPTO]  CZ

After being battered last week by two downgrades, shares of Snap Inc. were trading at an all-time low of $14.91 earlier today. So the stock has to hit bottom soon, right? Not necessarily. In a new research note from MoffettNathanson, the firm outlined two scenarios that could push Snapchat's parent company down even further:

1. Seasonal revenue declines: Snap has been fond of saying that its business model is more like the TV industry than a digital platform or social network. But like the TV industry, that model could be subject to seasonal revenue declines in Q2 and Q3, and it's a long way until fall. "[W]e think Snap's narrative that disappointing revenue growth is due to seasonality is a scary admission," analyst Michael Nathanson wrote. 

2. A post-lockup sell-off: A lockup on Snap shares that prevented employees from selling their stock expires at the end of the month. Traditionally, that means big sell-offs. (Recode wrote about this yesterday.) As Nathanson wrote, Facebook and Twitter both saw double-digit declines (10% and 18% respectively) after their lockups expired. 

MoffettNathanson launched coverage of Snap with a "sell" rating in March, but even the firm has been surprised by how poorly shares have performed. "We had no idea that the stock would collapse this far and fast," Nathanson wrote.

[Photo: Flickr user Anthony Quintano] CZ

Another Chipotle health crisis is brewing. A restaurant in Virginia is closed after a series of reports saying customers got violently ill, reports Business Insider. Symptoms include "vomiting, diarrhea, severe stomach pain, dehydration, and nausea," which Chipotle told BI is consistent with norovirus. The company adds that this means it did not come from its food supply. Nonetheless, Chipotle's stock is dropping. It is currently down over 6%, at a price of $367.39 per share compared to its opening of $395.25.

This is exactly what Chipotle doesn't need. For a refresher on the food safety issues that derailed the company's trajectory, check out our long read from last year.

I'm guessing Chipotle execs, too, are feeling nauseous.  CGW

A new study found that regularly using non-nutritive sweeteners (what we civilians call artificial sweeteners) may be associated with increased BMI and cardio-metabolic risk. In short, reaching for that pack of NutraSweet or Equal won't help you lose weight.

The study was conducted by looking at seven trials that included a total of 1,003 participants, as well as 30 cohort studies that had a whopping 405, 907 participants. They found that using a non-nutritive sweetener had no significant effect on BMI. Instead, consumption of non-nutritive sweeteners was associated with a modest increase in BMI as well as slight increases in weight and waist circumference, and higher incidents of obesity, hypertension, metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular events. Of course, the researchers want to do more research (it's their job after all) to determine why artificial sweeteners affect some people this way, and to figure out whether they are causing underlying health problems in the population. 

Check out the full study here while learning to love the taste of black coffee. ML

Remember July 2016? It was just a year ago but it feels like such a simpler time, doesn't it? 

While we were all talking about Pokémon Go, the ACLU was preparing a comprehensive report on how they would defend against the "one-man constitutional crisis" that would be a Trump presidency. When Trump took office five months later, they were ready in a way the rest of American wasn't. 

On Monday July 24 inside Fast Company's headquarters, the ACLU's executive director Anthony Romero will be in conversation with Fast Company senior editor Kathleen Davis to talk about how the ACLU has been leading the resistance. 

Get Tickets Here. 

[Photo Illustration: Joel Arbaje for Fast Company]

KD

Donald Trump Jr. isn't the only campaign operative to have been offered opposition material. Al Gore did, too. As Gore told Stephen Colbert on his late-night show yesterday, back in 2000, the then-vice president was preparing for a debate against George W. Bush when someone sent a member of his campaign Bush's entire debate prep handbook. Gore's campaign staffer didn't keep it, though—he took it the FBI and then recused himself entirely from the debate prep. Which is exactly what Trump Jr. did, right? Sigh.

When Colbert asked Gore if he has talked to Hillary Clinton aka "the only other living candidate who won the popular vote and did not become the President of the United States," Gore told him he spoke with her right after the election. "She's gonna be fine," he said. "The country's another matter." 

ML

A week ago, Uber's head of public policy and communications, Rachel Whetstone, confirmed she was leaving the company. Today Recode reports that she is joining Facebook. Kara Swisher writes that Whetstone will be working in "a newly created role as VP of comms of its WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger products." Before Uber, she worked comms at Google.

According to Recode, Whetstone was feeling increased pressure—both thanks to the daily public crises Uber encounters as well as heat from the company and its board.  CGW

The GOP has once again failed in its highly unpopular attempt to replace the Affordable Care Act after two Republican senators broke ranks and sunk the current Senate health care bill. Since it couldn't repeal and replace the bill with something more to its liking, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell has decided that the Senate should vote on a complete repeal of Obamacare without any replacement bill. McConnell's bill would repeal the ACA with a two-year delay, during which time the senators could presumably come up with a replacement—or all get voted out of office. McConnell is expected to call a vote on the matter in "the coming days," according to the Guardian, which also notes that this is similar to a bill that the Senate passed back in 2015, which was promptly vetoed by Barack Obama. 

It's an eyebrow-raising move, since the cost of repealing Obamacare is estimated at around $350 billion. It will be interesting to see how the so-called fiscally conservative Republican party can justify the cost of such a move. ML

Here are two comebacks I did not expect to see this year: Kesha and Google Glass. But here we are. While I'm very excited for the former's new music, the latter Google project is surely going to have people scratching their heads. 

In a Medium post, Glass project lead Jay Kothari explained that the revamped head-worn device is for the enterprise, which is something Google said it would do when the consumer version of Glass turned into such an utter failure. GE mechanics are already using the new specs, as are workers in an agricultural machinery company and at least one doctor's office. 

The basic idea is still the same: It's a small computer in front of the eyes that will give people instant references and tools to play around with. But most of the pictures show being matched with plastic protective eyewear (because that somehow makes the device look better). 

Will this latest iteration be just what Google needs to revitalize Glass? Who knows! Although here's a fun tech writer secret: The moment anyone writes "enterprise," 90% of eyes glaze over. So at the very least, this new version of Glass will most likely receive less public derision.

[Photo: Alphabet X]  CGW