Techmeme
February 11, 2022, 3:40 PM

Top News

Dustin Volz / Wall Street Journal:
Senators Wyden and Heinrich: declassified docs show a CIA bulk surveillance program collecting Americans' data without clear judicial or congressional oversight  —  The lawmakers called for the immediate declassification of details about the surveillance program and what data was collected
Paul Alcorn / Tom's Hardware:
Intel forms a Custom Compute Group to build blockchain hardware and plans to ship cryptocurrency mining chips in 2022; Block, Argo, and Griid are customers  —  Intel has officially entered the cryptomining business.  —  Intel's Raja Koduri penned a blog post that officially announces …
Mishaal Rahman / Esper Blog:
A deep dive into Android 13's new features and changes, including a photo picker, per-app language preferences, Quick Settings tiles, a Hub mode, and UI changes  —  Although Google only just unveiled the final beta release of Android 12L, the feature update for tablets and other large screen devices …
Jon Porter / The Verge:
The UK's CMA accepts Google's plan to phase out and replace third-party cookies with the Privacy Sandbox and will closely monitor the product's development  —  The UK's competition regulator will keep a ‘close eye’ on development  —  Google's plan to phase out third-party cookies and replace …
Ron Amadeo / Ars Technica:
Google will wind down Currents, the paid and private Google+ for enterprises, starting in 2023; Google shut down the consumer version of Google+ in April 2019  —  Who remembered that “Google Currents” was still available for businesses?  Anybody?  —  Google+ is dead—again!
New York Times:
A real life test to secretly follow a person using AirTags, Tiles, and a LandAirSea GPS tracker  —  A vast location-tracking network is being built around us so we don't lose our keys: One couple's adventures in the consumer tech surveillance state.  —  In mid-January, my husband and I were having an argument.
Juli Clover / MacRumors:
Bloomberg:
A profile of Bolt Financial co-founder Ryan Breslow, who stepped down as CEO of the payments startup in January; sources: he retains a 25% stake worth ~$2.75B  —  Ryan Breslow has managed to alienate some of the biggest names in Silicon Valley.  Y Combinator co-founder Paul Graham tweeted …
Wall Street Journal:
Zendesk rejected a $17B takeover from private equity firms that sources say are Hellman & Friedman, Advent, and Permira; sources: Thoma Bravo is also interested  —  Communications firm rejects bid from private-equity consortium; Thoma Bravo circles, too, and Jana Partners plans proxy fight
Foo Yun Chee / Reuters:
The European Publishers Council, whose members include News UK, files an EU antitrust complaint against Google for its alleged anti-competitive ad practices  —  Google (GOOGL.O) on Friday was targeted in an antitrust complaint by the European Publishers Council over its digital advertising business …
Will Parker / Wall Street Journal:
Zillow posted a consolidated net loss of $528M in 2021, up from $162M YoY, after losing $881M on its home-flipping business that it closed in November  —  Real-estate company says in a letter to shareholders that it is targeting revenue of $5 billion by 2025
Russell Brandom / The Verge:
The Senate Judiciary Committee advances the EARN IT Act, targeting Section 230 sexual exploitation content protections, despite numerous free speech concerns  —  Critics say the EARN IT Act would ‘make it far riskier for platforms to host user-generated content’
Mike Masnick / Techdirt:

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More News

Alizeh Kohari / Rest of World:

Earlier Picks

Mike Sorrentino / CNET:
Sergiu Gatlan / BleepingComputer:
Catie Keck / The Verge: