Techmeme
January 22, 2020, 8:15 PM

Top News

VICE:
Leaked FTI Consulting report: investigators found a suspicious encrypted file on Jeff Bezos' iPhone, causing data transfers to jump by ~29,000%, but no malware  —  A report investigating the potential hack of Jeff Bezos' iPhone indicates that forensic investigators found a suspicious file but no evidence of any malware on the phone.
Stephanie Kirchgaessner / The Guardian:
UN special rapporteurs say they are “gravely concerned” about the alleged hacking of Jeff Bezos' phone by Saudi's MbS, calling for further investigations  —  ‘Grave concern’ expressed at evidence of possible ‘effort to silence Washington Post’  —  UN experts are demanding …
Stephanie Kirchgaessner / The Guardian:
Madhumita Murgia / Financial Times:
Google says it found five separate flaws in Apple's Intelligent Tracking Prevention tool for Safari that lets users' browsing behavior be tracked  —  Google researchers have exposed details of multiple security flaws in its rival Apple's Safari web browser that allowed users' browsing behaviour …
Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet:
Microsoft to forcibly install the Bing extension in Chrome for Office 365 ProPlus enterprise customers from mid-February, to change the default search to Bing  —  Microsoft will change the default search engine in Chrome from Google to Bing for its Office 365 ProPlus customers starting mid-February.
Miles Parks / NPR:
In a first for the US, a district encompassing Greater Seattle will let ~1.2M voters cast ballots via smartphones for an upcoming board of supervisors election  —  Toggle more options  —  A district encompassing Greater Seattle is set to become the first in which every voter can cast …
Bloomberg:
Sources: ByteDance is seeking a US-based CEO for TikTok and has interviewed candidates; current head Alex Zhu may still manage product and engineering in China  —  - Video app has come under fire in U.S. as security threat  —  Chinese internet giant ByteDance Inc. is seeking …
Anna Nicolaou / Financial Times:
Amazon says Amazon Music has 55M users across six different price tiers, including a free tier, “nearly all” of which are paying subscribers  —  Amazon's music streaming service has eclipsed 55m users, making the ecommerce group a serious contender in the market that has been historically dominated by Spotify and Apple.
Mary Ann Azevedo / Crunchbase News:
Email collaboration startup Front raises $59M Series C led by a group of CEOs from Atlassian, Okta, Qualtrics, and Zoom, following its $66M Series B in 2018  —  Front, an email collaboration startup, announced this morning it has closed on a $59 million Series C that quadruples its valuation.
Natasha Singer / New York Times:
UK government proposes sweeping changes to privacy protections for those under 18, requiring platforms turn on heightened privacy settings by default and more  —  New rules will require online services to overhaul how they treat the personal details of children in the country.
Tony Romm / Washington Post:
Federal filings: Google spent ~$150M on lobbying over the past decade in the US, followed by Facebook with ~$81M, and Amazon at nearly $80M  —  Federal disclosures filed late Tuesday reveal Amazon and Facebook each spent roughly $17 million to battle back Washington in 2019.

Sponsor Posts

Google:
Try Gemini 3 Pro  —  Google's newest and most intelligent AI model that helps you bring any idea to life
Shopify:
Shopify's new AI commerce stack  —  Their VP of Product digs into just-launched products to help entrepreneurs and developers build with the latest AI and tech.
Zoho:
From content collaboration to content intelligence: Zoho WorkDrive's 2025 journey  —  As 2025 draws to a close, we're reflecting on a year marked by meaningful progress, purposeful innovation, and continuous learning at Zoho WorkDrive.
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Hard Fork:
Why Roomba Died + Tech Predictions for 2026 + A Hard Forkin' Xmas Song
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.
Big Technology Podcast:
Sam Altman: How OpenAI Wins, AI Buildout Logic, IPO in 2026?
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.
Access:
Betting on reality with Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour
A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.
Subscribe to Access.
Lenny's Podcast:
The new AI growth playbook for 2026: How Lovable hit $200M ARR in one year | Elena Verna (Head of Growth)
Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.
Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
"Neither Side Is Used to Losing." Lucas Shaw on What's Next for Netflix and Paramount in the Battle for Warner Bros.
Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.
Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Ted Sarandos: Netflix and how tech changed storytelling
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 8:15 PM ET, January 22, 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

William D. Cohan / Fast Company:
Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge:

Earlier Picks

Yuan Yang / Financial Times:
Andrew J. Hawkins / The Verge:
The Information:
Joshua Fruhlinger / Thinknum:
Joseph Menn / Reuters: