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Techmeme
February 7, 2019, 1:50 PM
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Top News

BBC:
Germany orders Facebook to stop combining data from WhatsApp, Instagram, and third-party sites with data in user's main Facebook account, without user's consent  —  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.
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Twitter reports Q4 revenue of $909M, up 24% YoY, ad revenue of $791M, up 23% YoY, net income of $244M, and MAUs of 321M, down by 9M YoY; stock is down 9%+  —  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.
Stephen Nellis / Reuters:
Sources: Apple has moved its modem engineering unit to its in-house hardware technology group led by Johny Srouji, Apple's SVP of hardware technologies  —  Apple Inc has moved its modem chip engineering effort into its in-house hardware technology group from its supply chain unit …
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 …
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.
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Apple releases iOS 12.1.4 to fix Group FaceTime security flaw  —  Update your devices right now  —  Apple is releasing iOS 12.1.4 today to fix a security flaw in the company's Group FaceTime feature.  Discovered last week, the bug allowed anyone to call a phone or Mac and listen in before the other person picked up.
Dana Hull / Bloomberg:
Self-driving car startup Aurora raises $530M, led by Sequoia with Amazon, T. Rowe Price, and others participating, valuing the company at more than $2.5B  —  The self-driving startup Aurora Innovation Inc. has raised $530 million from a group of investors led by Sequoia Capital …
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.
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
Kate Clark / TechCrunch:
Airbnb hires Fred Reid, formerly the president of Delta Airlines, as its first-ever global head of transportation  —  Airbnb made it easier for travelers to find a place to crash.  Now it wants to make it easier for them to get around.  —  The $31 billion home-sharing giant has hired Fred Reid …
More: Axios
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Starting Feb. 28, Facebook's “Why am I seeing this?” button on ads will show when a user's info was uploaded for ad targeting and if it was by a brand or agency  —  Facebook's crack down on non-consensual ad targeting last year will finally produce results.
Olivia Zaleski / Bloomberg:
Sources: on-demand delivery startup Postmates has confidentially filed an IPO and could be valued at more than $1.85B  —  - Company could be valued at more than $1.85 billion in IPO  — Postmates working with JPMorgan and Bank of America on listing  —  Postmates Inc. has filed …
More: TechCrunch
Steve O'Hear / TechCrunch:
Cluno, which lets users lease a car for an all-inclusive monthly fee, raises $28M Series B to invest in its app and develop an API for car dealers  —  Cluno, the Munich startup providing what it calls a “car subscription” service, has raised $28 million in Series B funding.
More: FinSMEs.  Thanks:@sohear
Ron Miller / TechCrunch:
Gong.io raises $40M Series B led by Battery Ventures, to enhance CRM tools with its natural language processing tech  —  With traditional CRM tools, sales people add basic details about the companies to the database, then a few notes about their interactions.

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This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 1:50 PM 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.

From Mediagazer

Todd Spangler / Variety:
The Writers Guild of America sues Paramount and WBD in an effort to stop their merger, claiming the deal would hurt wages and working conditions for writers

Naman Ramachandran / Variety:
BBC DG Matt Brittin says the BBC and UK public service broadcasting face “real jeopardy” as license fee erosion drives BBC's third consecutive annual deficit

Reuters:
Sources: Lionsgate has attracted takeover interest from France's Bolloré Group, owner of Canal+, and Banijay, which just completed an $8B merger with All3Media

More News

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

Earlier Picks

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
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
James Vincent / The Verge:
Google says Gmail is now blocking an extra 100M spam messages each day by using TensorFlow-trained machine learning models
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
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