Taylor Hatmaker
Taylor has reported on the tech industry for nearly a decade. Most recently, she was the tech editor of the Daily Dot. Prior to that, Taylor was a staff writer and deputy editor at ReadWrite, a tech and business reporter for Yahoo News, and the senior editor of Tecca.
At TechCrunch, Taylor mostly covers privacy and government. Her editorial interests include censorship, digital activism, LGBTQ issues and futurist consumer tech. You can contact her about those things but not boring things at taylor.hatmaker@techcrunch.com.
Disclosure: The author holds a small position in some cryptocurrencies, mostly because it seemed like a fun idea back in 2013 and then she forgot about it. Regrettably, it is not enough for a lambo.
Crunchbase profile →Featured Picks from Taylor Hatmaker
Latest from Taylor Hatmaker
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Trump’s website is coded with a broken server error message that blames Obama
If you’re a fan of Easter eggs hidden in source code, this is a pretty good one. Apparently, as Washington Post data reporter Christopher Ingraham observed on Twitter, some Trump administration and GOP websites have a portion of code with a joke that throws shade at Obama’s golf habits, the irony nowhere to be found. Read More
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Snapchat adds a 2017 year in review feature for saved memories
Snapchat users who snap and save can take a stroll down memory lane with the app’s new feature, “A Look Back at 2017.” If you’re the type that would rather ruminate than remain committed to Snapchat’s previously purely ephemeral philosophy, you can find your 2017 year in review in the memories tab. Read More
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Britain’s spy agency can’t stop losing cyber talent to major tech companies
The NSA isn’t the only secretive national intelligence agency having trouble keeping its tech-savvy recruits. In a new document from the Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament, Britain’s spy agency describes its difficulty in fending off tech companies keen to poach its workers. Read More
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A new bipartisan Senate bill seeks to bolster US election security at the state level
A bipartisan group of lawmakers in the Senate has introduced a bill designed to protect the technical integrity of American elections as the nation moves toward midterm season. Introduced in the Senate, the bill known as the Secure Elections Act. Read More
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Coinbase may have given away its own Bitcoin Cash surprise
On Tuesday, when Bitcoin Cash hit Coinbase, the popular user-friendly U.S.-based exchange, cryptocurrency’s reputation as the financial wild west was on full display. While anyone following along was well aware that Coinbase planned to add Bitcoin Cash, the currency created in August’s Bitcoin hard fork, things still got weird immediately. Read More
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Tech’s massive tax cut Christmas present from Trump just cleared Congress
The Republican tax bill is ready for the president’s signature. After forcing its second vote in two days, the bill passed the House with a vote of 224 to 201. The bill previously cleared the Senate with a narrow 51-48 vote along party lines, though Republican Senator John McCain was unable to cast a vote as he undergoes cancer treatment in his home state. Now the only thing standing… Read More
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White House petition site goes offline prior to late January relaunch
The White House petition portal established by the Obama administration is on pause, at the moment. The site, known as We The People, allows anyone to make a petition and collect digital signatures online. According to the site’s maintenance page, the relaunch won’t change the rules or erase the site’s archives. Read More
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Kaspersky Lab challenges the U.S. Government ban on its products in court
On Monday, Russian cybersecurity firm Kaspersky Lab announced its intention to push back against the U.S. Government’s ban on its software. The ban, which the Department of Homeland Security announced in September, has resulted in a lengthy back-and-forth between Kaspersky and the U.S. Government over allegations that the software maker’s products are an asset for Russian… Read More
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New York attorney general announces a multi-state lawsuit challenging the net neutrality vote
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, a leading voice in the fight against the FCC’s net neutrality rules repeal, has stepped forward with one of the first legal challenges to the commission’s controversial vote. Read More
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Facebook Messaging VP David Marcus joins Coinbase board
Coinbase is growing up fast — or at least trying to. As an emblem of its current effort to accommodate the massive demand on its platform, the mainstream U.S. cryptocurrency exchange just added Facebook Vice President of Messaging Products David Marcus to its board of directors. Read More
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Trump signs bill banning Kaspersky Lab software from federal use
Capping off months of controversy, espionage claims and international intrigue, the U.S. government ban on Kaspersky Lab software has been signed into law. The ban, wedged into the Fiscal Year 2018 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), would preclude all federal computers and connected networks from using antivirus software made by the Russian cybersecurity firm. “Considering the… Read More
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Trump wants to send astronauts to the Moon on the way to Mars
The Trump administration had previously signaled its intentions to send astronauts back to the Moon, but now that renewed space exploration objective is official. On Monday, the president signed Space Policy Directive 1, a document detailing a shift in U.S. policy that would reprioritize a mission to put American boots on the Moon for the first time in 45 years. Read More
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Alabama Supreme Court blocks order to preserve digital voting records
Following an eleventh-hour order instructing voting officials in Alabama to keep the digital ballots generated in Tuesday’s Senate election, the state’s Supreme Court has issued a stay to block that decision. The order to preserve the records was issued by the Montgomery County Circuit Court on Monday afternoon and the stay that will effectively nullify that order was issued… Read More
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Kaspersky Lab: D.C. office ‘no longer viable’ and will close
Following months of controversy and conflicting accounts, Kaspersky is pulling back in D.C. As Bloomberg initially reported, the Russian security firm is closing its office in the U.S. capital. The D.C. office specialized in developing Kaspersky’s relationship with the U.S. government and supplying its software for federal contracts. Read More
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Even if Section 702 expires, White House says warrantless surveillance is fine for a while
The fight over a critical loophole in U.S. surveillance law may not be resolved in Congress before the year ends, but the Trump administration appears to have no qualms about keeping it open, even if the law expires. The law, known as Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), is set to expire at the end of the 2017 calendar year unless renewed by lawmakers. Read More
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ProtonMail encrypted mail service adds support for Apple Mail, Outlook and Thunderbird
Mr. Robot’s email service of choice just expanded its support for a handful of popular email clients. ProtonMail just introduced a new tool, called ProtonMail Bridge, that could expand its relatively niche appeal to more mainstream users who aren’t yet comfortable with giving up their email client habits. ProtonMail, built around the encryption standard known as PGP (Pretty… Read More
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New Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen brings her cybersecurity focus to domestic defense
After a Senate vote on Tuesday, Kirstjen Nielsen has been confirmed as John Kelly’s replacement to lead the Department of Homeland Security. The top position at the DHS has remained open since Kelly left to join the White House as chief of staff in late July. Nielsen previously served on the Homeland Security Council in the George W. Bush administration. Read More
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New York attorney general joins 27 senators to call for a delay of critical net neutrality vote
Today in a press conference, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman elaborated on his office’s efforts to investigate the FCC’s flood of fake anti-net neutrality comments while calling for a delay of the agency’s vital net neutrality vote until the source of the fraudulent comments is identified. Read More
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Here’s what rumored Trump CIA pick Tom Cotton thinks about surveillance, Russia and other issues
As rumors build that the Trump administration plans to boot Rex Tillerson from his post atop the State Department in order to replace him with Mike Pompeo, it’s worth examining who would lead the CIA in Pompeo’s absence. Trump is reportedly considering Arkansas Republican Tom Cotton. Here’s a bit of background on Cotton in case the rumors come to pass. Read More
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Coinbase ordered to give the IRS data on users trading more than $20,000
Most digital currencies exist in a sort of twilight state just beyond the grasp of federal regulators, but the U.S. tax authority is starting to get savvy to this whole bitcoin thing. On Wednesday, a federal judge in San Francisco ruled that Coinbase must supply the IRS with identifying information on users who had more than $20,000 in annual transactions on its platform between 2013 and 2015. Read More
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