Techmeme
January 18, 2019, 5:55 PM

Top News

Washington Post:
Sources: FTC commissioners met to discuss imposing a record-setting fine against Facebook for failing to safeguard user privacy, violating 2011 consent decree  —  U.S. regulators have met to discuss imposing a record-setting fine against Facebook for violating a legally binding agreement …
Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:
Max Schrems files GDPR complaints against Amazon, Apple, Netflix, Spotify, YouTube, others for failing to provide required info about data they collect on users  —  European privacy campaigner Max Schrems has filed a fresh batch of strategic complaints at tech giants, including Amazon, Apple, Netflix, Spotify and YouTube.
Business Insider:
Satya Nadella says Cortana won't challenge Alexa and Google Assistant directly; Microsoft will focus on making it a skill on other voice platforms instead  —  - Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella says that it no longer sees its Cortana smart assistant as a competitor to Amazon's Alexa.
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Facebook confirms it is testing LOL, a feed of funny videos and GIF-like clips pulled from News Feed posts by top meme Pages  —  How do you do fellow kids?  After Facebook Watch, Lasso, and IGTV failed to become hits with teens, the company has been quietly developing another youthful video product.
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Airbnb held informal talks to buy discounted hotel booking app HotelTonight; HotelTonight was valued at $463M in a March 2017 funding round  —  A deal would give the home-sharing company more inventory and help it move into hotel bookings  —  Airbnb Inc. has held talks …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Twitter says a bug led to the “Protect your Tweets” setting being disabled for some Android users for almost five years, making their tweets public  —  Twitter accidentally revealed some users' “protected” (aka, private) tweets, the company disclosed this afternoon.

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More News

Issie Lapowsky / Wired:
Joseph Cox / Motherboard:
Naman Ramachandran / Variety:
Ashley Feinberg / HuffPost:

Earlier Picks

Sara Salinas / CNBC:
Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge:
Paul Lamkin / Wareable:
Tim Cook / TIME:
Nathaniel Gleicher / Facebook:
Brian Barrett / Wired: