Techmeme
January 9, 2020, 8:25 PM

Top News

Mike Isaac / New York Times:
Facebook says it won't back down from allowing lies in political ads but will give users the option to see fewer political ads in their feed and in Instagram  —  The company was under intense pressure to adjust its policies.  But in this presidential election year, no big changes are planned.
Mark Zuckerberg:
Zuckerberg gives up annual personal challenges, shares his goals for the next decade including a new private social platform, AR/VR, and new forms of governance  —  Every new year of the last decade I set a personal challenge.  My goal was to grow in new ways outside my day-to-day work running Facebook.
Kia Kokalitcheva / Axios:
Lime says it is laying off about 14% of its workforce, roughly 100 employees, and shuttering operations in 12 markets as it seeks to become profitable this year  —  Scooter company Lime is laying off about 14% of its workforce (roughly 100 employees) and shuttering operations in 12 markets …
Joseph Cox / VICE:
Brochure shows a surveillance vendor is offering spying capabilities to local police via hidden cameras in tombstones, vacuum cleaners, and baby car seats  —  A surveillance vendor that works with U.S. government agencies, such as the FBI, DEA, and ICE, is marketing spying capabilities …
Emma Williams / Microsoft 365 Blog:
Microsoft announces a Walkie Talkie feature and off-shift access controls for Teams, SMS sign-in for Azure Active Directory, shared device sign-out, more  —  Companies at the forefront of digital transformation recognize how critical it is to enable all of their people with the right technology and tools.
Thomas Brewster / Forbes:
MalwareBytes: an Android phone offered free by Assurance Wireless as part of the US Lifeline Assistance program comes pre-installed with Chinese malware  —  For years, low-income households have been able to get cheap cell service and even free smartphones via the U.S. government-funded Lifeline Assistance program.
Monica Nickelsburg / GeekWire:
Microsoft releases “Project Artemis”, a tool that scans online chats for patterns that may indicate a predator is grooming children for sexual abuse  —  Microsoft released a new tool Thursday that scans online chats for people seeking to sexually exploit children.
Louise Matsakis / Wired:
Amazon warned holiday shoppers that Honey, a browser extension for comparison shopping and rewards acquired by Paypal for $4B in November, was a “security risk”  —  The retail giant warned holiday shoppers that Honey, a popular browser extension, was a “security risk.”  Honey denies the claim.
Bloomberg:
Government data shows iPhone sales in China rose by 18.7% YoY to ~3.18M units in December while overall smartphone shipments were ~30M, down 13.7% YoY  —  - December numbers validate confidence in Apple's latest models  — The U.S. phone maker is defying a slump in the local market
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Verizon eliminates bundles and contracts for Fios line of TV, broadband, and phone services, will now sell them as standalone products via “Mix & Match on Fios”  —  Verizon — feeling the pain of customer cancellations over high pay-TV prices — is killing off bundles …
Ian Sherr / CNET:
Facebook starts testing a desktop redesign, announced last April, with a small set of users, plans to offer the new look more broadly sometime before the spring  —  Facebook 's begun giving some users access to its redesigned desktop experience, first announced in April, that's less cluttered and uses brighter icons.
Thanks:@iansherr
David Gilbert / VICE:
Facebook moderators in Ireland say company policies, including tracking toilet breaks and setting unrealistic quality standards, add to their trauma  —  Want the best of VICE News straight to your inbox?  Sign up here.  —  DUBLIN — When Valera Zaicev began working in Dublin …
Susan Decker / Bloomberg:
Medical technology company Masimo sues Apple, claims it infringes on 10 patents and has stolen its tech related to blood oxygen level and heart rate monitoring  —  - Medical technology company says Watch uses stolen secrets  — Apple accused of stealing technology for non-invasive monitors
Dan Goodin / Ars Technica:
Mozilla patches an actively exploited Firefox zero-day flaw that could allow attackers to take control of computers by accessing sensitive memory locations  —  Flaw allows attackers to access sensitive memory locations that are normally off-limits.  —  Mozilla has released a new version …
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Reddit bans the impersonation of an individual or entity in a misleading or deceptive manner, but impersonation that's satire will still be allowed  —  But impersonation that's satire will still be allowed  —  Today, Reddit updated its policies about impersonation to no longer allow impersonation …

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:
Simplify your billing processes by integrating Zoho Billing with Zoho Cliq  —  Handling billing in a customizable subscription model can quickly become a headache.  If a SaaS company offers three packages for its email client …
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.
Big Technology Podcast:
Apple's Bad iPad Ad, AI Assistant Hype, Netflix's Big Live Ambitions
The Big Technology Podcast, hosted by journalist Alex Kantrowitz, takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
Techmeme Ride Home:
Tue. 05/14 - GPT-4o
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 8:25 PM ET, January 9, 2020.

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

Earlier Picks

Lauren Feiner / CNBC:
Joseph Cox / VICE:
Dieter Bohn / The Verge:
Devindra Hardawar / Engadget: