Techmeme
February 7, 2019, 6:35 AM

Top News

Peter Kafka / Recode:
Joseph Cox / Motherboard:
Leaked documents show around 250 bounty hunters and related businesses had access to AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint customer location data for at least five years  —  In January, Motherboard revealed that AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint were selling their customers' real-time location data …
BBC:
Germany's antitrust watchdog orders Facebook to stop combining WhatsApp and Instagram data without consent in Germany; Facebook says it will appeal decision  —  Germany's competition authority has told Facebook it can only continue gathering so much data about users from beyond its app and website if it gets individuals' consent.
Megan Rose Dickey / TechCrunch:
Following a lawsuit, Instacart CEO apologizes for changes that meant some tips were used to boost base pay, says affected workers will get retroactive pay  —  On the heels of a recently-filed class action lawsuit over wages and tips, as well as drivers and shoppers speaking …
Victoria Song / Gizmodo:
Microsoft introduces background blur feature to Skype, which uses AI to detect the user's hair, hands, and arms, and blur distracting objects in the background  —  Slobs of the world, don't work too hard KonMari-ing your apartment or office ahead of your next important Skype call.
Kara Swisher / Recode:
Facebook's top global communications executive, Caryn Marooney, is leaving after eight years; Debbie Frost, Facebook's longest-serving PR exec, is also leaving  —  After a bruising year for the social media giant, longtime communications head Caryn Marooney is helping search for her replacement.
Austin Carr / Bloomberg:
Interviews with 49 people illuminate Wisconsin's disastrous deal with Foxconn, championed by Trump, that saw $4.5B in promised incentives with little return  —  “This is the Eighth Wonder of the World.”  —  So declared President Donald Trump onstage last June at a press event at Foxconn's …
Mike Wheatley / SiliconANGLE:
Microsoft joins Google, Facebook, and Arm as a member of the OpenChain Project, which aims to standardize open-source software licensing  —  Microsoft Corp. wants to support more standardization of open-source software licensing, so today it's putting its weight behind the OpenChain Project as its latest platinum member.
James Vincent / The Verge:
Google says Gmail is now blocking an extra 100M spam messages each day by using TensorFlow-trained machine learning models  —  Google is using its machine learning platform, TensorFlow, to eke out additional gains  —  Google has recruited its in-house machine learning framework, TensorFlow …
Rani Molla / Recode:
Research: US riders who used both Uber and Lyft in Q4 2018 accounted for ~1/3 of the companies' ride-sharing revenue; 15% of revenue was from Lyft-only riders  —  Customers are shopping between the two ride-hail leaders and taking the car with the better price.  —  Ride-sharing customers are becoming less loyal.
Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch:
Report: some iPhone apps use Glassbox's analytics SDK to record in-app user interactions without permission, and recordings sometimes don't mask sensitive data  —  And there's no way a user would know  —  Many major companies, like Air Canada, Hollister and Expedia, are recording every tap and swipe you make on their iPhone apps.

Sponsor Posts

Tribe AI:
Build AI products that matter  —  Tribe AI helps organizations rapidly deploy AI solutions that have real business impact.  We bring together world class AI talent and tooling to drive differentiated results.
Prospect:
A running list of the best startups to join  —  We've analyzed thousands of startups using the same data VCs use and distilled our list down to the top 2%.  Discover and join the next Stripe, Airbnb, or Coinbase today.
Zoho:
15 live chat best practices to improve customer support  —  Every interaction customers have with your business shapes their perception about you and can either make them more loyal or send them elsewhere looking for alternatives.
Techmeme Leaderboards:
Discover the top reporters on AI, VR, policy, and much more  —  We've analyzed Techmeme's news crawl to identify the most influential and prolific writers on 48 news topics.  Download reports immediately for just $100.
The Kevin Rose Show:
Carolina Reis Oliveira & Alessandra Zonari | OneSkin: Aging Myths, Senescent Cells, and How to Age Slower (#56)
Gain unconventional wisdom and insights through conversations with top expert in AI, investing, wellness, technology, and culture.
Techmeme Ride Home:
Fri. 05/10 - Apple Apologizes For The "Crush" Ad
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or RSS.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 6:35 AM ET, February 7, 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.

More News

Patrick Howell O'Neill / Gizmodo:
Benjamin Mayo / 9to5Mac:
Nico Grant / Bloomberg:
Ryan Felton / Consumer Reports:

Earlier Picks

Motherboard:
Apple:
Robert Hackett / Fortune: