tech:

taffy

Avast acquires Piriform, makers of CCleaner

Security company Avast has acquired Piriform, a provider of device performance optimization software. Founded and based in London, UK, Piriform’s flagship product is the CCleaner system optimization software.

CCleaner is used by 130 million people, including 15 million Android users, according to the company. Avast says it will maintain the CCleaner brand of products along with Avast’s existing performance optimization products, Avast Cleanup and AVG Tune Up.

The Piriform team will be a part of the Avast consumer business unit, and report to Ondrej Vlcek, Avast CTO and EVP & GM, Consumer.

[Image courtesy: Piriform]

Just in

Oso Semiconductor raises $5.2M

Oso Semiconductor has raised $5.2 million in seed funding. The round was led by Engine Ventures.

OpenAI launches ChatGPT Gov for U.S. government agencies — CNBC

It’s called ChatGPT Gov and was built specifically for U.S. government use; writes Hayden Field. 

DeepSeek’s popular AI app is explicitly sending US data to China — Wired

Users have already reported several examples of DeepSeek censoring content that is critical of China or its policies, writes Matt Burgess and Lily Hay Newman. 

DeepSeek hit with large-scale cyberattack, says it’s limiting registrations — CNBC

DeepSeek on Monday said it would temporarily limit user registrations “due to large-scale malicious attacks” on its services; writes Hayden Field.