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:

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:
Build vs Buy Embedded Analytics: The Decision That Defines Your Product Roadmap  —  Every SaaS product team eventually hits the analytics wall.  Your customers want insights inside your app.  Your roadmap has no room to spare.
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.

Featured Podcasts

Hard Fork:
The Future of Addictive Design + Going Deep at DeepMind + HatGPT
The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.
Subscribe to Hard Fork.
Great Chat:
Go touch some grass (but don't tweet about it)
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.
Lenny's Podcast:
An AI state of the union: We've passed the inflection point, dark factories are coming, and automation timelines | Simon Willison
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:
The future of AI might be on your finger
A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.
Subscribe to Access.
The Upstarts Podcast:
Axiom's Carina Hong: Solving Math's Hardest Problems With AI, And AI's Problems With Math
Veteran tech reporter Alex Konrad sits down with breakout entrepreneurs taking on the status quo to shake up their fields in AI, design, nuclear energy, space, and more.
Subscribe to The Upstarts Podcast.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Ryan Roslansky: Turning AI Anxiety into Skills for the Future of Work
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.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 3:40 PM ET, February 11, 2022.

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

Alizeh Kohari / Rest of World:

Earlier Picks

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