Techmeme
March 29, 2020, 11:50 PM

Top News

Jon Fingas / Engadget:
Report: CDC, state and local authorities in the US have started using anonymized location data from mobile ads to help plan their response to the pandemic  —  The use of phone location tracking to keep tabs on COVID-19 is becoming increasingly common, and the US appears to be no exception.
Mark Wyciślik-Wilson / BetaNews:
Microsoft says that there has been a 775% increase in use of its cloud services in regions that have enforced social distancing or shelter in place orders  —  This weekend, Microsoft has given an insight into the impact the coronavirus pandemic has had on its services.
New York Times:
Sources: Facebook's security team had disinfo concerns about The Daily Wire's sites in 2019, clashing with the policy team, which prevented action being taken  —  After spending billions to avoid a repeat of 2016, the tech giants are careening from crisis to crisis as their foes change tactics.
Timothy B. Lee / Ars Technica:
As the Authors Guild voices its opposition to Internet Archive's National Emergency Library, a look at the legal issues related to digital book lending  —  Massive online library project is venturing into uncharted legal waters.  —  One of the casualties of coronavirus-related social distancing measures …
Dan Primack / Axios:
HQ Trivia, which laid off its entire staff and shut down in February, has been acquired by an undisclosed investor and has already returned, airing another show  —  HQ Trivia, the live game-show app that shut down in February and laid off its entire staff, is unexpectedly returning tonight with a new show.
Stephanie Kirchgaessner / The Guardian:
Data from a whistleblower appears to show Saudi Arabia tracking the location of its citizens in the US by exploiting flaws in the SS7 phone network protocol  —  Exclusive: Whistleblower's data suggests millions of tracking requests sent over four-month period
More: TechCrunch
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
Crowdsourced data from Candor shows 267 tech companies have frozen hiring, 44 had layoffs, 36 rescinded offers, while 111, like Zoom and Twitter, are hiring  —  The coronavirus has taken a toll on the workforce, and now you can see a list of who's hiring, freezing hires, laying off people …
Casey Newton / The Verge:
Big Tech's response to COVID-19 may have paused the tech backlash that dominated the coverage of companies like Facebook and Amazon over the past 3+ years  —  The backlash against tech giants may not be over — but at the very least it's on pause  —  On March 5th, as COVID-19 began …

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