Techmeme
March 17, 2018, 10:35 PM

Top News

New York Times:
Sources and documents reveal how Cambridge Analytica used harvested personal information from 50M Facebook profiles to build psychological profiles of US voters  —  LONDON — As the upstart voter-profiling company Cambridge Analytica prepared to wade into the 2014 American midterm elections, it had a problem.
Paul Grewal / Facebook:
Facebook suspends Trump- and Brexit-affiliated data analytics firm Cambridge Analytica after reports it and affiliated psychologist lied about data retention  —  We are suspending Strategic Communication Laboratories (SCL), including their political data analytics firm, Cambridge Analytica, from Facebook.
Carole Cadwalladr / The Guardian:
Profile of Christopher Wylie, the former Cambridge Analytica employee who is now blowing the whistle on his ex-employer's data harvesting practices  —  Now, 28-year-old Christopher Wylie goes on the record to discuss his role in hijacking the profiles of millions of Facebook users in order to target the US electorate
Kurt Wagner / Recode:
How Facebook's old terms of service allowed Cambridge Analytica to get data on 50M people from just 270K users of an app that used Facebook Login  —  Facebook says it isn't at fault.  —  Cambridge Analytica, the data analytics firm that helped Donald Trump get elected president …
More: Mashable
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Amazon is rolling out a new “Brief Mode” for Alexa that replaces verbal confirmations with chimes  —  Amazon confirmed it's rolling out an optional “Brief Mode” that lets Alexa users configure their Echo devices to use chimes and sounds for confirmations, instead of having Alexa respond with her voice.
Ananya Bhattacharya / Quartz:
Google Maps adds “plus codes”, a simple digital addressing system, to help with navigating to places without clear addresses in countries like India  —  Mapping a city like New York, where streets and avenues are neatly arranged in a grid, is a piece of cake.  But a city in India is a different animal.
Lauren Goode / The Verge:
Fitbit will add period tracking to its app and Versa and Ionic smartwatches this Spring  —  But it's stopping short of tracking fertility  —  Fitbit's new smartwatch Versa isn't being overtly marketed at women.  Doing that might alienate its male customers, who currently make up more than half of Fitbit's user base.

Sponsor Posts

Soxton:
Fast, affordable law for startups  —  Soxton automates startup legal so founders can move faster and sleep better.  We handle incorporation, advisor, employment and commercial contracts.  Join the waitlist for early access!
Equals:
Stop vibe coding analytics  —  Equals AI turns questions about your business into auditable spreadsheet models and dashboards.  Build once, iterate for years.
Zoho:
App Spotlight: Autocomplete Address Via Google for Zoho CRM  —  App Spotlight brings you hand-picked solutions that enhance your Zoho apps and tools.  Visit Zoho Marketplace to explore all of our apps, integrations …
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Salesforce 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:
Who Wins The AI Superapp Battle?, Apple's Consumer AI Victory, World Cup Automation Mistake
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:
Fable Ban Reversed + Dr. Dana Suskind on Parenting With A.I. + Prediction Market Drama
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.
The Upstarts Podcast:
Blitzy's Brian Elliott: Cursor And Claude Code Are Looking At Your Enterprise Code 'Through A Straw'
Veteran tech reporter Alex Konrad sits down with breakout entrepreneurs taking on the status quo to shake up their fields in AI, design, nuclear energy, space, and more.
Subscribe to The Upstarts Podcast.
The Nick, Dick and Paul Show:
Re-Release: The Death of Hollywood? W/ Allan Loeb
Nick Bilton, Dick Costolo, and Paul Kedrosky pull back the curtain on AI, startups, and the future rushing toward us, all with healthy dose of irreverence.
Subscribe to The Nick, Dick and Paul Show.
Great Chat:
Maybe Twitter isn't real life
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:
Connecting the Unconnected: Doreen Bogdan-Martin
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.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 10:35 PM ET, March 17, 2018.

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

Joseph Cox / Motherboard:

Earlier Picks

Reuters:
Bloomberg:
Tom Warren / The Verge: