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February 7, 2019, 8:35 AM
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Top News

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.
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 …
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Twitter Q4 beats expectations with revenue of $909M, up 24% YoY, a net income of $244M, and ad revenue up 23% YoY to $791M, but misses on MAUs with 321M  —  After strong results from Facebook and Snap this quarter, all eyes were on Twitter to see if the other big, publicly listed social network could deliver a hat trick of growth.
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.
Peter Kafka / Recode:
Spotify buys podcast producer Gimlet Media, sources say for ~$230M, and Anchor, a startup which makes it easier for users to record and distribute podcasts
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 …
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.
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 …
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.
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.
More: Engadget
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.
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 …
Biz Carson / Forbes:
Uber exec Jason Droege and CEO Dara Khosrowshahi talk about Uber Eats, which research shows has grown from 3% of US food delivery market in 2016 to 24% in 2018  —  hen early investors were pitched on Uber's original plan for a car-service app in 2008, it wasn't until the second-to-last slide …
Thanks:@lauramandaro
Steve O'Hear / TechCrunch:
Munich-based startup Cluno, which lets users lease a car for an all-inclusive monthly fee, raises $28M Series B led by Peter Thiel's Valar Ventures  —  Cluno, the Munich startup providing what it calls a “car subscription” service, has raised $28 million in Series B funding.
Thanks:@sohear

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From Mediagazer

Reuters:
The UK says it is leaning towards intervening in Paramount's $110B WBD takeover, citing concerns over media freedom and the provision of on-demand programming

Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:
Axel Springer closes its £575M acquisition of Telegraph Media Group, ending a three-year saga, and names Carolin Hulshoff Pol as TMG CEO, replacing Anna Jones

Benjamin Mullin / New York Times:
NPR retracts an article saying Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito was retiring; he has made no such announcement, and a spokesman called the story “inaccurate”

More News

Patrick Howell O'Neill / Gizmodo:
If Reddit lands a $150M Tencent investment, they'd make strange bedfellows: Tencent helps build the Great Firewall; Reddit's product, banned in China, is speech
Benjamin Mayo / 9to5Mac:
A security researcher who has shared iOS flaws before demos a macOS Keychain exploit, won't share details with Apple because of the lack of a macOS bug bounty
Nico Grant / Bloomberg:
Inside Oracle's ad software arm Data Cloud, built with ~$3B of acquisitions since 2014, that has reported disappointing financials and seen layoffs
Ryan Felton / Consumer Reports:
Survey of 110 hospitals and five agencies from 47 US cities: 1,500+ e-scooter-related injuries since late 2017; quick spread of e-scooters surprised some cities

Earlier Picks

Motherboard:
Inside the illicit world of “iCloud unlocking”, where cybercriminals trick iPhone owners or Apple staff into removing iCloud accounts to resell iPhones
Apple:
Angela Ahrendts to leave Apple in April after five years, as Apple names 30-year company veteran Deirdre O'Brien SVP of Retail + People reporting to Tim Cook
Robert Hackett / Fortune:
Zcash discloses a flaw, first discovered in-house last March and fixed in October, that may have allowed “infinite” counterfeiting
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