Techmeme
May 21, 2020, 9:15 PM

Top News

Casey Newton / The Verge:
Zuckerberg: Facebook could get to about half of staff working remotely permanently in 5-10 years and will be the “most forward-leaning company on remote work”  —  In January, as reports about the spread of a novel coronavirus emerged from China, Mark Zuckerberg began to prepare for a potential pandemic.
Dylan Byers / NBC News:
Facebook says it will let many of its 50,000 employees work from home permanently, “aggressively” open up remote hiring, first in the USA, then elsewhere  —  Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Thursday that the social media giant will start allowing many of its 50,000 employees …
Salvador Rodriguez / CNBC:
Zuckerberg says employees working remotely who move to different locations may have their compensation adjusted based on their new locations  —  - Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Thursday said he predicts that 50% of the company's employees could be working remotely within the next five to 10 years.
Jessica Bursztynsky / CNBC:
Netflix says it will ask customers who have been inactive for a year or more if they want to keep their subscriptions, canceling accounts that take no action  —  - Netflix will start asking customers who haven't used its platform in the past year if they want to keep their subscriptions.
Alex Heath / The Information:
Internal memo: Magic Leap has raised $350M from new and existing investors and is withdrawing notices laying off remaining employees  —  Magic Leap CEO Rony Abovitz told employees Thursday his struggling augmented reality firm had raised $350 million from existing and new investors.
Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple is seeking an executive to lead its original podcasts effort and is acquiring podcasts that would tie into shows on its TV+ service  —  - Company is seeking executive to lead development of new shows  — Apple faces threat from Spotify's growing podcast ambitions
David Jagneaux / UploadVR:
Facebook says its $1,000 enterprise-edition Oculus Quest, which sells as part of the Oculus for Business platform, is now available for companies to purchase  —  Today Facebook announced that its enterprise-edition Oculus Quest that sells for $1,000 as part of its Oculus for Business platform …
Candy Cheng / Bloomberg:
Shopify says it will allow its 5,000 employees to work from home indefinitely  —  - Canadian e-commerce company switching to ‘digital by default’  — Offices will be closed until end of year and redesigned  —  Shopify Inc. will allow its 5,000 employees to work from home indefinitely …
BBC:
Court in Netherlands rules that, under GDPR, a woman must delete photos of her grandchildren that she posted on Facebook without their parents' permission  —  A woman must delete photographs of her grandchildren that she posted on Facebook and Pinterest without their parents' permission, a court in the Netherlands has ruled.
Dana Mattioli / Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Amazon has decided to move its annual Prime Day event to September and has started allowing unlimited nonessential goods shipments to warehouses  —  E-commerce giant also allows nonessential goods shipments, indication of wider variety of products  —  Amazon.com Inc. AMZN -.25% …
Dieter Bohn / The Verge:
Google rolls out new accessibility features for Android, including Assistant-powered, customized buttons called Action Blocks for tasks like playing music  —  Live Transcribe, Sound Amplifier, and Google Maps also get new updates  —  For Global Accessibility Awareness Day …
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:
Facebook unveils a new Messenger feature to alert users about malicious activity, aimed at preventing scams and unwanted interactions with those under 18  —  In an effort to beat back a rise in scams and other unwanted interactions during the pandemic, Facebook today unveiled …
Steven Melendez / Fast Company:
Report: the official COVID-19 contact tracing app for North Dakota is sharing location data with Foursquare and an advertising ID with Google  —  The official COVID-19 contact tracing app for the state of North Dakota, designed to detect whether people have potentially been exposed to the coronavirus …
Sarah Holder / CityLab:
Nextdoor is building close ties with local law enforcement and public officials in the US, worrying some civil rights advocates  —  The hyper-local social media platform Nextdoor is winning over local law enforcement and other government officials in the U.S., alarming civil rights advocates.
Sohee Kim / Bloomberg:
Samsung has started construction on a 5nm fabrication facility in Pyeongtaek, South Korea to take on TSMC's contract chipmaking business  —  - Korea's largest company started building a new 5nm chip line  — Expansion coincides with U.S. rules threatening TSMC's clients
More: Wccftech
Techdirt:
Despite qualms from some experts, Google and Apple's exposure notification API enables the most privacy-respecting approach to contact tracing in history  —  Apple and Google have now released their update to their mobile operating systems to include a new capability for COVID-19 exposure notification.

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