Users register their addresses to access a private network visible only to their neighbours. Nextdoor, currently active in about 247,000 neighbourhoods in 11 countries, will also open a new engineering office in Toronto. (The Logic)

Talking point: Nextdoor bills itself as a local alternative to sprawling social networks like Facebook and Twitter, betting that displaying users’ real names and addresses prompts them to behave in a neighbourly fashion. The app reports higher activity during disasters and has partnered with the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to help alert users about extreme weather conditions. But the network has seen its share of controversy—it’s had to combat racial profiling in affluent, mostly white neighbourhoods, where users would often target people of colour in alerting their neighbours of allegedly suspicious activity. It’s also had to create separate forums for political discussion to rein in heated conversations during elections.