Techmeme
February 13, 2020, 11:50 AM

Top News

Tom Warren / The Verge:
GSMA says it has canceled Mobile World Congress after the coronavirus made it “impossible” to hold the event  —  MWC 2020 is no more  —  The world's biggest phone show, Mobile World Congress, is no longer taking place this year.  After coronavirus threatened to throw MWC into chaos …
Lauren Feiner / CNBC:
Senator Gillibrand proposes creating a government agency to protect internet privacy, similar to a bill proposed by a pair of California House Democrats  —  - New York Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand just became the latest lawmaker to propose digital privacy legislation.
New York Times:
Andy Rubin's Essential Products, which raised $330M to build smartphones and was valued at $1B, says it is ceasing operations  —  The smartphone company founded by Mr. Rubin, a former Google executive, struggled to win over customers.  —  SAN FRANCISCO — Essential Products …
Theodore Schleifer / Vox:
Larry Ellison is hosting a fundraiser for Donald Trump next week; while Ellison has consistently backed Republicans, he wasn't a major Trump donor until now  —  Larry Ellison risks blowback from his employees at Oracle.  Phillip Faraone/Getty Images  —  It's the most significant endorsement …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Google's Area 120 launches GameSnacks, which offers casual games for low memory devices on 2G and 3G, launching initially in Indonesia on Gojek's GoGames  —  A new project called GameSnacks is launching today from Google's in-house incubator, Area 120, with the goal of bringing fast-loading …
Christina Farr / CNBC:
Sources: Google's scattered health care projects unify under Google Health, which now has over 500 employees and is led by former Geisinger CEO David Feinberg  —  - More than 500 people now work at Google Health, mostly out of the Palo Alto offices formerly occupied by smart home group Nest.
Darrell Etherington / TechCrunch:
Astranis raises $90M Series B from a16z and others to launch its first commercial satellites through which it wants to provide broadband internet  —  YC-backed Astranis has raised $90 million of new combined debt and equity funding in a Series B round led Venrock, with a sizeable contribution …
Robert Stevens / Decrypt:
Crypto lending and borrowing service BlockFi raises $30M Series B led by Valar Ventures, bringing its total raised to over $100M  —  The latest funding round pushed BlockFi's total funding to over $100 million.  —  Ethereum  —  Crypto lending and borrowing service BlockFi today announced …
More: CoinDesk
Khari Johnson / VentureBeat:
Democratic senators propose the Ethical Use of Artificial Intelligence Act that would place a moratorium on facial recognition use by federal agencies, police  —  Two Democratic U.S. Senators today proposed legislation that requires a moratorium on facial recognition use by federal agencies …
More: Axios
Sarah Holder / CityLab:
Nextdoor launches new app for public agencies like police, fire departments, and city halls, allowing them to post updates and push out geotargeted alerts  —  The neighborhood social network's new app is aimed at public agencies, and it lets local law enforcement more easily tap into the online community.

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More News

Edward Ongweso Jr / VICE:

Earlier Picks

Zeke Faux / Bloomberg:
Data Protection Commission:
Jon Porter / The Verge:
Financial Times:
Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Alex Hern / The Guardian: