Techmeme
March 17, 2021, 1:40 AM

Top News

Dan Sullivan / Tampa Bay Times:
A Florida teen who hacked well-known Twitter accounts last summer and used them to ask for BTC, netting $100K+ worth, was sentenced to 3 years in a plea deal  —  Graham Ivan Clark, 18, agreed to plea guilty to fraud charges for a hack of several Twitter accounts last summer.
CNBC:
SEC filing: Uber will reclassify its UK drivers as “workers”, granting them vacation pay, minimum wage, and pension plan access, but not full employee benefits  —  - Uber will reclassify all U.K.-based drivers as workers.  — Under the new designation, more than 70,000 drivers …
Dara Khosrowshahi / London Evening Standard:
Uber's thinking on UK driver rights has evolved and worker flexibility “should not come at the expense of social protections”  —  T  —  hree weeks after I became CEO of Uber in 2017, our licence to operate in London was revoked.  It was not how I expected to start my new job …
Noam Cohen / Wired:
Wikimedia Foundation debuts Wikimedia Enterprise, a premium service for delivering Wikipedia content to companies like Google, but a free option will remain  —  The Big Four all lean on the encyclopedia at no cost.  With the launch of Wikimedia Enterprise, the volunteer project will change that—and possibly itself, too.
The Verge:
A group of 15 AGs update their antitrust complaint against Google, taking aim at Chrome's Privacy Sandbox and other privacy updates related to ad targeting  —  ‘Google is trying to hide its true intentions behind a pretext of privacy,’ say prosecutors  —  State antitrust watchdogs …
Leah Nylen / Politico:
Sara Fischer / Axios:
Kurt Wagner / Bloomberg:
Facebook says it will publish an annual report detailing its impact on human rights, and will establish a fund to support human rights activists and journalists  —  - Social media giant to give board formal updates on the issue  — Company has been criticized for role in Myanmar, Sri Lanka
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Google announces second-generation Nest Hub with sleep tracking, powered by a Soli radar chip, for $100, shipping on March 30  —  In deciding to not put a camera on what was initially called the Home Hub, Google made its first Assistant Smart Display ideal for nightstands.
Danny Palmer / ZDNet:
McAfee researchers detail a Chinese cyberespionage campaign targeting at least 23 telcos in the US, Europe, and SE Asia to steal data, including for 5G tech  —  Cybersecurity researchers at McAfee detail an ongoing cyber espionage campaign which is targeting telecoms companies around the world.
William Turton / Bloomberg:
Leaked audio from a February 8 meeting reveals Parler's chief policy officer saying: “We are not going after misinformation in any way”  —  Leaked recordings of meetings detail role of Rebekah Mercer at social-media platform  —  Conservative donor Rebekah Mercer has been writing checks …
Kif Leswing / CNBC:
Sensor Tower: if a 15% commission was in place in 2020, Apple would have missed out on an estimated $595M, or 2.7%, and Google $587M, or 5%, in app store fees  —  - Apple and Google have announced changes to app store fees that impact app makers making less than $1 million per year.
Kif Leswing / CNBC:
Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge:
Intel's 11th Gen desktop chips launch, with the flagship Core i9-11900K sporting eight cores, two less than last gen, and boosted clock speeds of up to 5.3GHz  —  Rocket Lake-S looks to combine the best parts of Intel's 14nm process with its 10nm designs  —  Intel's next-generation desktop chips …
James Vincent / The Verge:
Instagram says it's introducing new policies to limit interactions between teenagers and adults, including banning adults from DMing teens who don't follow them  —  Teen users will also be shown safety prompts when messaging ‘suspicious’ adults  —  Instagram is introducing …
Ari Levy / CNBC:
Health care referral service Grand Rounds, which was last valued at $1.34B, is merging with Doctor On Demand, last valued at $875M, in an all-stock deal  —  - Grand Rounds and Doctor On Demand, two venture-backed digital health companies, are merging in a deal that will form a multibillion-dollar entity.

Sponsor Posts

Google:
Try Gemini 3 Pro  —  Google's newest and most intelligent AI model that helps you bring any idea to life
Shopify:
Transform ML Experimentation with Tangle  —  Save months of compute time with Tangle, built by Shopify.  Try this open-source platform to simplify ML workflows, ensure reproducibility, and seamlessly share with collaborators.
Zoho:
Contract Signed.  Project Ready.  Tasks Created.  —  Every project begins with a promise; a contract that outlines the deliverables, the timelines, and the terms.  But for most businesses …
Bitrix24:
Bitrix24 powers the next generation of high-performing businesses  —  Chat, projects, CRM, and automation — all in one place.  Replace dozens of tools so your team moves faster, collaborates smarter, and grows effortlessly.
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

Access:
Is Roblox making the internet better or worse? We asked the CEO
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:
Why LinkedIn is turning PMs into AI-powered "full stack builders" | Tomer Cohen (LinkedIn CPO)
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.
Great Chat:
Code red: our favorite tech rivalries
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
Subscribe to Great Chat.
Big Technology Podcast:
How An AI Model Learned To Be Bad — With Evan Hubinger And Monte MacDiarmid
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.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
PBS Lost a Billion Dollars. Now what? With CEO Paula Kerger
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.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 1:40 AM ET, March 17, 2021.

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

Benjamin Mayo / 9to5Mac:
Ryan Weeks / The Block:
Bloomberg:
Financial Times:
Rita Liao / TechCrunch: