Techmeme: Sources: the Trump admin has bought access to a database tracking locations of millions of phones in the US and is using it for immigration and border control (Wall Street Journal)

Top News

Sources: the Trump admin has bought access to a database tracking locations of millions of phones in the US and is using it for immigration and border control — Commercial database that maps movements of millions of cellphones is deployed by immigration and border authorities

More: SiliconANGLE, Yahoo Finance, CNET, 9to5Mac, Android Authority, Vox, Gizmodo, AppleInsider, Wccftech, iMore, Mashable, The Verge, VICE, Input, The Mac Observer, and BORDER/LINES

Tweets: @ericgarland, @alistairmbarr, @justinhendrix, @ggreenwald, @rebeccaballhaus, @mhackman, and @cfarivar

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Instagram has internally prototyped an Instagram Partner Program that will let IGTV creators earn money by showing ads alongside their videos — Instagram may finally let IGTV video makers earn money 18 months after launching the longer-form content hub. Instagram confirms to TechCrunch …

More: TechCrunch, The Next Web, The Verge, Adweek, Input, Mashable, Tubefilter, The Next Web, Digital Trends, Social Media Today, Firstpost Tech, TechRadar.com, Cult of Mac, Engadget, and Digiday

Tweets: @wongmjane, @joshconstine, @ranimolla, @wongmjane, and @tailosivetech

Sara Fischer / Axios:

For the first time, Netflix details the government takedown requests it's received, says it's removed 9 pieces of content around the world since it was founded — Netflix has taken down just 9 pieces of content around the world in response to written government requests since it was founded 23 years ago …

More: The Verge, Polygon, Yahoo Finance, and The Next Web. Tweets: @neerajka

See also Mediagazer

Wall Street Journal:

Sources: SoftBank's Vision Fund 2 may end up raising less than half of the planned $108B, with nearly all of its capital coming from SoftBank itself — The new pool could end up being less than half its planned size, with nearly all of its capital coming from SoftBank itself

More: Seeking Alpha, CNBC, and New York Times

Tweets: @susanlitv and @lisaabramowicz1

CNBC:

Uber's stock is up ~10% after the company announced a Q4 loss that was narrower than expected and moved its profitability forecast forward — - Uber's revenue growth picked up in the quarter. — During the fourth quarter, Uber faced tighter regulations impacting its business in London and California and continued to slash costs.

More: The Verge, Input, PYMNTS.com, SiliconANGLE, Digital Trends, Wccftech, Channel NewsAsia, Yahoo Finance, and New York Times. Tweets: @cnbc

Uber:

Uber reports Q4 revenue of $4.1B, up 37% YoY, gross bookings of $18.1B, up 28%, and net loss of $1.1B; gross bookings from Uber Eats were $4.37B, up 71% YoY

More: Financial Times, TechCrunch, PYMNTS.com, CNET, CNBC, Financial Times, Reuters, TechSpot, CCN.com, Ars Technica, Axios, Nasdaq, Engadget, and Seeking Alpha

Tweets: @bizcarson, @lorakolodny, @dhh, @mjmcardle, @entirelyamelia, @ianguider, @madbastardsall, @danielledigest, @kateconger, @briansozzi, @susanlitv, @sameerpatel, @sfiegerman, @faizsays, @eringriffith, and @mikeisaac

Stan Choe / Associated Press:

Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, and Facebook account for ~18% of the S&P 500 index by market value — NEW YORK (AP) — Now that they've already taken over our lives, big tech companies are taking over the stock market. — The five biggest U.S. stocks — Apple, Microsoft …

Tweets: @benbajarin and @whatthebit

Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:

Paystand, which is building a blockchain-based platform to make commercial B2B transactions as easy as Venmo payments are for consumers, raises $20M Series B — Paystand has raised $20 million to modernize commercial payments using its blockchain-based platform so that paying a corporate bill …

More: Business Wire, The Block, CoinDesk, Ledger Insights, FinSMEs, Finextra, and Cointelegraph

Tweets: @iameduardolopez and @paystand

AnandTech:

64-core AMD Threadripper 3990X CPU review: great for rendering and scientific computing but has the same performance as AMD's 32-core CPU for other applications — The recent renaissance of AMD as the performance choice in the high-end x86 market has been great for consumers, enabling a second offering at the top-end of the market.

More: Wccftech. Thanks:@anandtech

Joe DeBlasio / Google Online Security Blog:

Google says starting with Chrome 82 in April, it will gradually start blocking “mixed content downloads”, which are non-HTTPS downloads started on secure pages — Today we're announcing that Chrome will gradually ensure that secure (HTTPS) pages only download secure files.

More: Yahoo Finance, XDA Developers, Threatpost, SecurityWeek, IT Management, gHacks Technology News, Softpedia News, SlashGear, ZDNet, BleepingComputer, 9to5Google, and Naked Security

Tweets: @estark37 and @glenngabe

Theodore Schleifer / Vox:

Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, and Twitter workers contributed ~$270K to the Bernie Sanders campaign, more than any other presidential candidate, in Q4 2019 — Sanders, an avowed democratic socialist, has been highly critical of tech companies. Their employees don't seem to mind.

More: Philip Elmer‑DeWitt. Tweets: @pinboard, @bykowicz, @teddyschleifer, @teddyschleifer, and @teddyschleifer

New York Times:

The number of reported child sexual abuse videos surged to 41M in 2019, surpassing the number of reported illicit photos; Facebook reported 85% of the total — In a first, videos outnumbered photos in reports to the authorities last year. Facebook found the most imagery, the bulk of it on its Messenger app.

Tweets: @mohammadfarooq_, @_andyburrows, and @alexstamos

Wall Street Journal:

NYSE owner Intercontinental Exchange abandons potential eBay takeover deal after a backlash from investors — Investors had pushed back against move to acquire e-commerce company — The parent company of the New York Stock Exchange abandoned its pursuit of eBay Inc. EBAY 2.36% …

More: SiliconANGLE, PYMNTS.com, and coinspeaker.com

Manish Singh / TechCrunch:

Bangalore-based education app Byju's raises a round from General Atlantic, which, source says, invested $200M, following a $200M raise from Tiger Global in Jan. — Indian education firm Byju's said on Friday that General Atlantic, an existing investor in the startup, has pumped additional money …

More: The Economic Times, BloombergQuint, and Inc42 Media

Robert Stevens / Decrypt:

Blockchain data management startup Fluree says it has signed a contract with US Air Force to securely share data within the military and with US allies — The US Air Force has signed a contract with blockchain data management company Fluree to more securely track and share information within the military.

More: Computerworld

Ben Lane / HousingWire:

HouseCanary, which develops software to automate residential real estate valuations, raises $65M Series C, bringing its total raised to $130M — Series C funding round grows fintech's total funding to $130 million — It seems that investors have some interest in automating real estate appraisals.

Sophia Kunthara / Crunchbase News:

India-based baby product retailer FirstCry has raised $150M from Softbank, bringing the Japanese conglomerate's stake to ~40% and its total investment to $300M — India-based baby product retailer FirstCry has raised another $150 million from Softbank, bringing the Japanese conglomerate's total investment …

More: Entrackr, DealStreetAsia, and The Financial Express

Sponsor Posts

ElevenLabs:

ElevenAgents by ElevenLabs — You know us for voice. Now meet ElevenAgents — featuring Expressive Mode, our most human-sounding AI voice technology in 70+ languages with ultra-low latency. Hear it for yourself.

Intel:

5G's most deployed platform — Powering live networks with built-in Inference across Core and RAN. That's the power of Intel Inside®

Zoho:

How Zoho Workplace makes your Zoho CRM lighter — If you use Zoho CRM daily, you already know it's powerful. It handles pipeline management, forecasting, automation, reporting, and everything that makes …

IDrive:

Protecting your Cloud Applications Data — Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Salesforce data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Sponsor Techmeme

Featured Podcasts

Cheeky Pint:

The 20-year journey to fully autonomous cars with Dmitri Dolgov of Waymo

Stripe cofounder John Collison interviews founders, builders, and leaders over a pint.

Subscribe to Cheeky Pint.

Invest Like the Best:

Mitchell Green - Lessons from Cold Calling 10,000 Companies

The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.

Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.

Grit:

The Silicon Valley Insider In The Pentagon | DoW Emil Michael

Grit explores what it takes to create, build and scale world-class organizations.

Subscribe to Grit.

Lenny's Podcast:

The art of influence: The single most important skill that AI can't replace | Jessica Fain (Webflow, ex-Slack)

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.

Access:

Live @ Nvidia's nerd Super Bowl, poker takes over tech, and the future of AI banking

A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.

Subscribe to Access.

Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:

Everybody Goes Home: How technology is helping prevent wildfires from spreading

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.

Add your podcast here

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 3:20 PM ET, February 7, 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.