Techmeme
January 4, 2021, 2:20 PM

Top News

New York Times:
Executives of the Alphabet Workers Union say discrimination and harassment continue and the company cracks down on those who are to speak out  —  Our company's motto used to be “Don't be evil.”  An organized work force will help us live up to it.  —  Ms. Koul and Mr. Shaw are, respectively …
Megan Rose Dickey / TechCrunch:
A group of over 200 Google and Alphabet workers have announced their plan to form a union, open to both employees and contractors  —  A group of more than 200 Google and Alphabet workers have announced their efforts to form a union.  With the help of Communication Workers of America Union's Campaign …
Hugh Son / CNBC:
Haven, the Amazon-Berkshire-JPMorgan venture to disrupt healthcare, is disbanding after three years  —  - Haven began informing employees Monday that it will shut down by the end of next month, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter.  — Many of the Boston-based firm's 57 workers …
Reuters:
Alibaba founder Jack Ma has not appeared in a public setting since a late October forum in Shanghai, where he was critical of China's regulatory system  —  BEIJING (Reuters) - Alibaba founder Jack Ma's absence from public view in the past two months, including missing the final episode …
Joe Rossignol / MacRumors:
Kuo: Apple to release AirTags item trackers, an AR device, its first devices with Mini-LED displays, more Apple Silicon Macs, and new AirPods in 2021  —  Apple plans to release its long-awaited AirTags item trackers, an unspecified augmented reality device, and other new products in 2021 …
Kim Lyons / The Verge:
Slack confirms it has suffered a widespread outage since 10am ET but is now returning for some users, who may experience “degraded performance”  —  Users began reporting problems around 10AM ET  —  Slack is down on the first full work day of 2021.
New York Times:
A British judge rules against extraditing Julian Assange to the US, which has accused him of violating the Espionage Act, citing mental health concerns  —  U.S. officials want the WikiLeaks founder to face charges of violating the Espionage Act.  But a judge in London ruled that he was at extreme risk of suicide.
Zak Doffman / Forbes:
While Facebook touts e2e encryption on WhatsApp, Apple's privacy labels highlight how much user metadata WhatsApp collects compared to iMessage  —  WhatsApp, the world's leading messenger with 2 billion users sending 100 billion messages each day, popularized secure messaging.
Eileen Yu / ZDNet:
Singapore now says local law enforcement can access COVID-19 contact tracing data; 78% of its population has adopted the TraceTogether app and wearable token  —  Under the country's Criminal Procedure Code, the Singapore Police Force can obtain any data — including information gathered …

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The Verge:
Hannah Ellis-Petersen / The Guardian: