Germany's antitrust watchdog orders Facebook to stop combining WhatsApp and Instagram data without consent in Germany; Facebook says it will appeal decision
Germany's competition authority has told Facebook it can only continue gathering so much data about users from beyond its app and website if it gets individuals' consent.
Microsoft introduces background blur feature to Skype, which uses AI to detect the user's hair, hands, and arms, and blur distracting objects in the background
Slobs of the world, don't work too hard KonMari-ing your apartment or office ahead of your next important Skype call.
Spotify buys podcast producer Gimlet Media, sources say for ~$230M, and Anchor, a startup which makes it easier for users to record and distribute podcasts
1. Rare double win for @betaworks and (GV and private) @mgsiegler / @msquinn 2. Gimlet far less valuable than Anchor in long run, but content is hard so it's a jump start.3. Audio = asynchronous = hug...
Leaked documents show around 250 bounty hunters and related businesses had access to AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint customer location data for at least five years
In January, Motherboard revealed that AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint were selling their customers' real-time location data …
Sources: Apple has moved its modem engineering unit to its in-house hardware technology group led by Johny Srouji, Apple's SVP of hardware technologies
Apple Inc has moved its modem chip engineering effort into its in-house hardware technology group from its supply chain unit …
Twitter Q4 beats with revenue of $909M, up 24% YoY, a net income of $244M, and ad revenue up 23% YoY to $791M, but misses on MAUs with 321M; stock down 9%+
After strong results from Facebook and Snap this quarter, all eyes were on Twitter to see if the other big, publicly listed social network could deliver a hat trick of growth.
For Spotify to succeed as a podcast app, it needs to clearly separate podcasts from music, help users discover podcasts better, and allow creators to monetize
Some suggestions for improvement — Spotify announced today that the company plans to spend up to $500 million on podcast-related acquisitions.
Microsoft joins Google, Facebook, and Arm as a member of the OpenChain Project, which aims to standardize open-source software licensing
Microsoft Corp. wants to support more standardization of open-source software licensing, so today it's putting its weight behind the OpenChain Project as its latest platinum member.
Google experiment finds 45% traffic decline to news sites with search results without snippets, in a moderate version of what is proposed in EU's Article 11
In the next few days, European legislators meet to decide on a final text of the European Copyright Directive.
Match Group: Q4 total revenue was $457M, up 21% YoY, vs. $449M est., as Tinder's total average subscribers grew to 4.35M, up 1.2M YoY; stock up 10%+ after hours
Olivia Carville / Bloomberg :
Starting Feb. 28, Facebook's “Why am I seeing this?” button on ads will show when a user's info was uploaded for ad targeting and if it was by a brand or agency
Facebook's crack down on non-consensual ad targeting last year will finally produce results.
Atrient, a vendor of player reward kiosks for casinos, allegedly ignored serious security flaws, and a researcher who uncovered flaws was assaulted by its COO
Following a serious vulnerability disclosure affecting casinos globally, an executive of casino technology vendor Atrient …
Following a lawsuit, Instacart CEO apologizes for changes that meant some tips were used to boost base pay, says affected workers will get retroactive pay
On the heels of a recently-filed class action lawsuit over wages and tips, as well as drivers and shoppers speaking …
Facebook's revenue from China-based advertisers reached an estimated $5B in 2018, or about 10% of its total sales, helped by its local advertising resellers
SHENZHEN — Facebook's apps and websites have been blocked in China for years. The company has no office in the country that supports its social networking services. Tweets: @paulmozur and @dorianelau...
Report: some iPhone apps use Glassbox's analytics SDK to record in-app user interactions without permission, and recordings sometimes don't mask sensitive data
And there's no way a user would know — Many major companies, like Air Canada, Hollister and Expedia, are recording every tap and swipe you make on their iPhone apps.
Seattle-based KenSci, which helps hospitals predict mortality risk using AI, raises $22M Series B led by Polaris Partners
Transitioning an elderly patient to palliative care can be a difficult decision for caregivers, but it's one that families and clinicians across the globe make every day.
Self-driving car startup Aurora raises $530M, led by Sequoia with Amazon, T. Rowe Price, and others participating, valuing the company at more than $2.5B
The self-driving startup Aurora Innovation Inc. has raised $530 million from a group of investors led by Sequoia Capital …
News aggregator Nuzzel is sold to Scroll, which is building a news subscription service; Nuzzel founder Jonathan Abrams, COO Kent Lindstrom are leaving company
News aggregator Nuzzel has found a new home and leadership and is undergoing some product changes.
Match Group acquires dating app Hinge, in which it bought a controlling stake last year; plans international expansion of Hinge, which grew 4x YoY in Q4 2018
Last year, Match Group acquired a 51 percent stake in the relationship-focused dating app Hinge, in order to diversify its portfolio of dating apps led by Tinder. Tweets: @johnwilson Tweets: John S. W...
Study comparing 30 European nations on net neutrality enforcement finds that zero rating business practices by wireless carriers increases cost of wireless data
When an ISP decides to exempt certain applications or services from cutting into a user's data cap, that's zero rating. Tweets: @psawers Tweets: Paul Sawers / @psawers : Except the EU only has 28 (soo...
Cluno, which lets users lease a car for an all-inclusive monthly fee, raises $28M Series B to invest in its app and develop an API for car dealers
Cluno, the Munich startup providing what it calls a “car subscription” service, has raised $28 million in Series B funding.
Angela Ahrendts to leave Apple in April after five years, as Apple names 30-year company veteran Deirdre O'Brien SVP of Retail + People reporting to Tim Cook
the jobs of two senior execs. Many employees were shocked. “It's an incredible amount of work,” this person said. Jack Nicas / @jacknicas : ICYMI: Angela Ahrendts, the former Burberry CEO, is departin...
A security researcher who has shared iOS flaws before demos a macOS Keychain exploit, won't share details with Apple because of the lack of a macOS bug bounty
Benjamin Mayo / 9to5Mac :
Sonos' stock falls as much as 15% after announcing its CFO Mike Giannetto will retire later this year; it has hired an executive search firm to find a new CFO
Kevin Kelleher / Fortune :
Google says Gmail is now blocking an extra 100M spam messages each day by using TensorFlow-trained machine learning models
ridding Gmail of 100 million more spam messages with TensorFlow Christopher Baugh / iPhone in Canada Blog : Gmail's TensorFlow ML Integration Blocks 100 Million More Spam Messages Every Day Abner Li /...
The US's first online census in 2020 may be more inclusive and efficient, but some experts fear the Census Bureau is opening itself up to new risks
Issie Lapowsky / Wired : Tweets: @caitlin__kelly and @issielapowsky Tweets: Caitlin Kelly / @caitlin__kelly : The 2020 census is going digital. One reason why? The Census Bureau handed out 17 million...
Interview with MoviePass CEO Mitch Lowe and EVP Khalid Itum about what went wrong, as they embark on an apology tour to win back distributors and customers
You Say Podcasting, I Say Streaming Radio Tweets: Andrew Gruttadaro / @andrewgrutt : MoviePass was glorious, disastrous, beautiful, potentially revolutionary, messy—and they're still alive. I wrote ab...
Research: US riders who used both Uber and Lyft in Q4 2018 accounted for ~1/3 of the companies' ride-sharing revenue; 15% of revenue was from Lyft-only riders
Rani Molla / Recode :
Tink, a Sweden-based platform offering open banking APIs, raises €56M round led by Insight Venture Partners to expand to more European markets
Steve O'Hear / TechCrunch :
Uber exec Jason Droege and CEO Dara Khosrowshahi talk about Uber Eats, which research shows has grown from 3% of US food delivery market in 2016 to 24% in 2018
Biz Carson / Forbes : Thanks: @lauramandaro
On-demand e-scooter startup Lime raises $310M Series D, led by a16z, Bain Capital, Fidelity, GV, and IVP, at a $2.4B valuation
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat :
Facebook's top global communications executive, Caryn Marooney, is leaving after eight years; Debbie Frost, Facebook's longest-serving PR exec, is also leaving
she handles all the policy and public affairs stuff. Also also: Elliot Schrage, who announced he was leaving last summer, is still in the building working on “special projects”
A look at Pigeonly, InmateAid, and Flikshop, built by ex-convicts, and how they act as social networks to connect those in prison with friends and family
Olivia Carville / Bloomberg : Tweets: @michigancpr and @ndahlberg Tweets: @michigancpr : Beyond giving prisoners an easier, cheaper and more fulfilling way to communicate, the men who started these a...
Interviews with 49 people illuminate Wisconsin's disastrous deal with Foxconn, championed by Trump, that saw $4.5B in promised incentives with little return
all interns —into a room to say they should seek other jobs because there wasn't enough work...” http://www.bloomberg.com/... Catherine Rampell / @crampell : A report from the Wisconsin Legislative Fi...
Fortnite's longevity will hinge on its ability to evolve and be a social network, which could allow Epic to build a Metaverse rivaling big internet platforms
Matthew Ball / REDEF : Tweets: @bakergavin and @mariosundar Tweets: Gavin Baker / @bakergavin : 1) Fantastic. Just reread this after @lainypainter highlighted. I had no idea the Epic CEO has been foc...
If Reddit lands a $150M Tencent investment, they'd make strange bedfellows: Tencent helps build the Great Firewall; Reddit's product, banned in China, is speech
So Tencent either shouldn't adhere to Chinese censorship (very rich coming from US reporters)? Or Tencent shouldn't invest in non-China companies? https://gizmodo.com/... Ryan Ford / @theryanford : Th...
Inside Oracle's ad software arm Data Cloud, built with ~$3B of acquisitions since 2014, that has reported disappointing financials and seen layoffs
Nico Grant / Bloomberg :
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Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.