Techmeme: Since 2011, a database error left more than 150,000+ young people off the jury rolls in East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana (Alan Blinder/New York Times)

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April 14, 2019, 12:30 AM

Top News

Jennifer Valentino-DeVries / New York Times:

A detailed look at how police forces use “geofence” warrants and Google's Sensorvault location history database to find witnesses and suspects near crime scenes — The tech giant records people's locations worldwide. Now, investigators are using it to find suspects and witnesses near crimes …

More: The Seattle Times, CNET, Gizmodo, 9to5Google, Newser, and LJ infoDOCKET

Tweets: @gabrieldance, @dhh, @dhh, @daiwaka, @jenvalentino, @zackwhittaker, @agthaler, @matt_cagle, @interfluidity, @kashhill, @orinkerr, @josephfcox, and @mattblaze

TechCrunch:

Microsoft says a “limited” number of its web email service accounts were breached between Jan. 1 and March 28 using a customer support agent's credentials — On the heels of a trove of 773 million emails, and tens of millions of passwords, from a variety of domains getting leaked in January …

More: The Verge, Engadget, ZDNet, MSPoweruser, Digital Trends, Thurrott, Softpedia News, The Hacker News, and 9to5Mac

Tweets: @tomwarren, @zackwhittaker, @tomwarren, and @zackwhittaker

Chance Miller / 9to5Mac:

As the key trial between Apple and Qualcomm starts on Tuesday, a report details the increasingly acrimonious relationship between the company CEOs — The legal battle between Qualcomm and Apple has grown increasingly tense since it began in early 2017. A new report from The Wall Street Journal explores …

Source: Wall Street Journal. More: AppleInsider, New York Times, Engadget, and Philip Elmer‑DeWitt

Tweets: @scottmaustin, @natisho, and @bzamayo

Nick Statt / The Verge:

Twitch releases its first original game, a karaoke title called Twitch Sings, with a “go live” button to start a Twitch broadcast, available for free on Windows — The live streaming platform is getting into game development — Since becoming the de facto game streaming platform …

More: TechCrunch, VentureBeat, Polygon, and Engadget

Tweets: @rrhoover and @twitch

Charlotte West / OneZero:

Q&A with people who still pay for email with EarthLink and AOL, which reported $600M revenue from email and dial-up in 2014 and estimated $400M in 2018 — It's not just Mike Pence and your grandma — a lot of people still use AOL and EarthLink, and pay for the privilege

Harry McCracken / Fast Company:

Profile of Amazon's HR chief Beth Galetti, the highest-ranking woman at the company and the only woman on the 18-person “S-Team” that reports directly to Bezos — Amazon's HR chief, former engineer Beth Galetti, is hiring hundreds of people a day. As the company's workforce swells, so do her challenges.

Tweets: @jill_bernstein, @mieky, @fastcodesign, @harrymccracken, and @fastcompany. Thanks:@mariedomingo

Harry McCracken / Fast Company:

Amazon's HR chief Beth Galetti talks about Peccy, a blobby orange internal mascot that is universally recognized by the company employees

Tweets: @davidlidsky, @stephaniemehta, @kathleenedavis, @fastcodesign, and @harrymccracken. Thanks:@technologizer

Hannah Karp / Billboard:

Sources: Amazon has entered into discussions to launch a free, ad-supported music service, offering a limited catalog, as early as next week — “Alexa, play free music.” — Amazon has entered into discussions to launch a free, ad-supported music service, sources familiar with the plan tell Billboard …

More: Engadget and hypebot

Katie Notopoulos / BuzzFeed News:

Facebook's transparency tool, which shows users the advertisers that used a contact list with their information, is a nightmare for a normal person to interpret — On Facebook under Settings, there's a page in the Ads section where you can view your Ad Preferences.

More: The Mac Observer. Tweets: @alexstamos, @katienotopoulos, @carnage4life, @antoniogm, @profcarroll, and @katienotopoulos

Alan Blinder / New York Times:

Since 2011, a database error left more than 150,000+ young people off the jury rolls in East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana — BATON ROUGE, La. — The Louisianans who were summoned to decide whether Grover Cannon killed a police officer were Asian, black, Hispanic and white.

Brian J. Barth / The Walrus:

Interview with RIM cofounder Jim Balsillie about his advocacy against the rise of surveillance capitalism in Canada and the Sidewalk Toronto smart city project — The entrepreneur who made billions putting BlackBerrys into pockets is now sounding the alarm about Big Tech's creep toward surveillance capitalism

Tweets: @hkanji and @jasonmoyse

NPR:

Current and former US officials and business execs describe hacking and IP theft by China and how victims would remain silent to avoid jeopardizing trade — Technology theft and other unfair business practices originating from China are costing the American economy more than $57 billion a year …

More: Forbes. Tweets: @catschuknecht and @npr

Oliver Lee Bateman / MEL Magazine:

How bodybuilding forums of the 2000s, which offered safe spaces to learn about anabolic drug use and trade insults, contributed to the internet trolling culture — It was never about the politics. It was always about the drugs. This is how a group of weightlifting pros …

Tweets: @wearemel, @wearemel, @moustacheclubus, @katienotopoulos, @wearemel, and @_cooper

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About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 12:30 AM ET, April 14, 2019.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.

From Mediagazer

CNN:

A list of times the Trump administration tested the limits of the First Amendment during his second term, stoking alarm among civil rights experts and critics

Robert D. McFadden / New York Times:

Lou Cannon, a veteran Washington Post reporter who wrote several influential biographies of Ronald Reagan, has died at 92

Paul Glynn / BBC:

HarperCollins UK drops children's author and comedian David Walliams following allegations of inappropriate behavior toward young women

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More News

Josh Horwitz / Reuters:

In a speech to employees, Alibaba founder Jack Ma defends the “996” work culture at Chinese tech companies, calling it a “huge blessing” for young workers

More: Bloomberg, South China Morning Post, Metro.co.uk, Inc42 Media, and TechCrunch

Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch:

Hackers claim they stole ~4K unique personnel records from sites related to the FBI National Academy Association, claim to have data from 1K+ more hacked sites

More: Engadget, Gizmodo, Associated Press, The Daily Caller, and Slashdot

Tweets: @jake_hanrahan and @zackwhittaker

Andrea Peterson / Ars Technica:

SS7, a mobile protocol that can be hacked to track users or intercept calls, remains flawed after decades due to the FCC's reliance on telecom industry advice

More: Security Boulevard. Tweets: @kansasalps, @kansasalps, @sean_z_writes, and @lizhempowicz

Sam Dean / Los Angeles Times:

Workers in the $43B video game industry are increasingly discussing unionizing, as many grapple with “crunch” as a routine hazard of their jobs

Tweets: @samaugustdean and @aflcio

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Dashlane, a popular password manager and identity management startup, raises $30M in debt financing, bringing its total raised to $100M+

More: SiliconANGLE and PYMNTS.com

Tweets: @eschalit and @techcrunch

Jessica Guynn / USA Today:

Facebook nominates PayPal exec Peggy Alford to its board, the first African-American woman, and won't nominate Reed Hastings and Erskine Bowles for re-election

More: Facebook, CNBC, TechCrunch, The Daily Caller, The Hill, Forbes, Business Insider, Variety, Silicon Valley Business …, Axios, CNN, and Telegraph

Facebook: Mark Zuckerberg. Tweets: @jguynn, @andrewrsorkin, @kurtwagner8, @sfiegerman, @usatoday, @sarafischer, @ceciliakang, and @alexeheath

Earlier Picks

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

HQ Trivia confirms Scott Rogowsky, its primetime host who had become the de facto face of the company, has left and will be replaced by Matt Richards

More: TMZ.com, Mashable, Gizmodo, Tubefilter, Just Jared, Comic Book, HuffPost, The Forward, Engadget, Variety, Kotaku, and The Verge

Tweets: @scottrogowsky, @scottrogowsky, @danprimack, @helenkennedy, @oneunderscore__, @ashleyesqueda, and @kerrymflynn