Techmeme
April 3, 2020, 4:40 PM

Top News

Casey Newton / The Verge:
Google uses aggregated anonymized location data from 131 countries to show which places are complying with social distancing and which aren't  —  New COVID-19 mobility reports show changes in traffic to stores, parks, transit stations, and more  —  Google is using location data gathered …
Reuters:
Researchers are using Facebook's location data to provide daily updates to US cities and states evaluating the effectiveness of social distancing amid COVID-19  —  SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Infectious disease researchers are using Facebook Inc mobile location data to provide daily updates …
Sam Biddle / The Intercept:
Civil liberties advocates say a data-driven approach to pandemic response is compatible with individual rights, but with limits and justifications at every step  —  In less than a decade, whistleblowers like the NSA's Edward Snowden and Cambridge Analytica's Christopher Wylie helped spur …
Micah Lee / The Intercept:
Researchers: Zoom sometimes uses encryption keys issued by servers in China, uses a flawed encryption method, and hence is not suited to communicate secrets  —  Meetings on Zoom, the increasingly popular video conferencing service, are encrypted using an algorithm with serious …
Drew Harwell / Washington Post:
Thousands of Zoom calls found via web search using Zoom's default file naming scheme after users saved them in unprotected spaces like open AWS S3 buckets  —  Many of the videos include personally identifiable information and deeply intimate conversations, recorded in people's homes.
Alex Konrad / Forbes:
Profile of Zoom CEO Eric Yuan, who says the company will “probably” suspend all tracking on Zoom's sites and consider open-sourcing its code in the future  —  Covering venture capital, software and startups  —  Zoom CEO Eric Yuan's kids finally care about what he does for a living.
Eric S. Yuan / Zoom Blog:
Mark Hachman / PCWorld:
Reuters:
Internal docs: Amazon to postpone Prime Day at least until August, expects a potential $100M hit from excess devices it may now have to sell at a discount  —  (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) is postponing its major summer shopping event Prime Day at least until August and expects potentially …
Zac Hall / 9to5Mac:
The new iPad Pro gets a privacy feature, first introduced on 2018 MacBooks, that disconnects hardware microphones when an attached MFi compliant case is closed  —  Recent Apple MacBooks have included an aggressive security feature that disconnects hardware microphones when the lid is physically closed.
Zac Hall / 9to5Mac:
Source: Apple's new entry level iPhone will be called iPhone SE, available in white, black, and red, with 64GB, 128GB, or 256GB storage options  —  9to5Mac has learned new information about Apple's long-rumored, entry-level iPhone model, including the marketing name, product colors …
Joseph Cox / VICE:
In a court filing, CEO of NSO Group says Facebook representatives approached NSO in 2017 to buy parts of Pegasus to monitor phones of users who installed Onavo  —  Facebook representatives approached controversial surveillance vendor NSO Group to try and buy a tool that could help Facebook better monitor …
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Leaked memo: Apple told employees that its retail stores in the US will remain closed and work-from-home procedures will remain in place until early May  —  - Apple's top retail, human resources exec sends memo to workers  — Work from home to also remain in place in U.S. on Covid-19

Sponsor Posts

Google:
Try Gemini 3 Pro  —  Google's newest and most intelligent AI model that helps you bring any idea to life
Shopify:
Shopify: Revolutionizing Commerce with Winter Edition '26  —  Over 150+ new features transform how merchants build, design, and grow—with technology that amplifies creative vision.
Zoho:
The best time to become a Zoho Partner  —  The business world is not only changing but it is being rebuilt.  Customers want connected ecosystems that will help them automate, unify their data, and do more with less.
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  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.

Featured Podcasts

Big Technology Podcast:
OpenAI's 2026 Priority, Disney's AI Play, Datacenter Buildout Trouble
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.
Hard Fork:
Australia Kicks Kids Off Social Media + Is the A.I. Water Issue Fake? + Hard Fork Wrapped
The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.
Subscribe to Hard Fork.
Access:
Why the next AI frontier is phone calls, with Beside CEO Maxime Germain
A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.
Subscribe to Access.
Great Chat:
So what happens after AGI?
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
Subscribe to Great Chat.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Ted Sarandos: Netflix and how tech changed storytelling
Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.
Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
Lachlan Cartwright Started in Tabloids. Now He's a Must-Read Media Gossip.
Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.
Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 4:40 PM ET, April 3, 2020.

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.

More News

Earlier Picks

John Gruber / Daring Fireball: