| 2:35 PM • | Casey Newton / The Verge: Facebook's decisions around influencers' ads made for politicians, like exempting them from its Ads Library, seem inconsistent with the aim of earlier policies |
| 2:20 PM • | Mishaal Rahman / XDA Developers: Android 11 boosts privacy with temporary app permissions, like iOS' “Allow Once” option, and requiring apps use Scoped Storage API, despite developer backlash |
| 1:55 PM • | Alex Clayton / Meritech Capital: Financial analysis of 12 high-growth SaaS companies that went public in 2019, including Cloudflare and Slack, shows median annual revenue of $242M, up ~48% YoY |
| 1:40 PM • | Juli Clover / MacRumors: Apple sends a cease and desist letter to the author of “App Store Confidential”, published in Germany by an ex-Apple employee, claiming it reveals trade secrets |
| 1:25 PM • | Andrew J. Hawkins / The Verge: Uber introduces a new On-Trip Reporting feature, letting riders discreetly report non-emergency safety issues in real time, available now in the US and Canada |
| 1:20 PM • | Abner Li / 9to5Google: Google officially launches Android 11 Developer Preview, arriving earlier than expected, with new display types, improved messaging, biometrics, and more |
| 1:00 PM • | Katie Paul / Reuters: IRS lawsuit against Facebook, alleging the company owes $9B+ in taxes after shifting profits to Ireland, begins in San Francisco |
| 12:50 PM • | Joseph Cox / VICE: Yodlee, America's largest financial data broker, says the data that it sells is anonymous, but a leaked Yodlee doc shows millions of people could be unmasked |
| 12:40 PM • | Cecilia D'Anastasio / Wired: Study: the seven most-watched YouTube Gaming channels in January streamed recorded, autoplaying videos promoting cheats that linked to credential-stealing sites |
| 12:25 PM • | Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: TikTok announces new Family Safety Mode parental controls to limit kids' usage with screen time management, DM limits, and more, coming first to the UK |
| 12:15 PM • | Cameron Wilson / BuzzFeed: Facebook has 17M users in Australia but just seven fact checkers, from AFP and Australian Associated Press, who completed 220 fact checks since April 2019 |
| 12:10 PM • | Brian Krebs / Krebs on Security: Overview of recent security woes at Citrix, from slowly patching VPN flaws to hackers infiltrating its networks after brute forcing employees' passwords |
| 12:05 PM • | Dan Primack / Axios: Inside Founders Fund's deal process, where smaller investments only need limited partner approval, as it has raised its seventh fund and a $1.5B growth fund |
| 11:50 AM • | Chris O'Brien / VentureBeat: SentinelOne, which provides autonomous, real-time, AI-based endpoint security protection, raises $200M Series E led by Insight Partners at a $1B+ valuation |
| 11:45 AM • | Manish Singh / TechCrunch: Swiggy, India's largest food delivery startup, raises $113M Series I led by Prosus Ventures, source says at a $3.6B valuation; Swiggy has raised ~$1.57B to date |
| 11:40 AM • | Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat: Colorado-based Outrider, which operates a SaaS platform for fully- and semi-autonomous truck fleets, emerges from stealth with $53M in seed and Series A |
| 11:25 AM • | Abner Li / 9to5Google: Google begins rolling out two Google Docs features: autocorrect, enabled by default, and Smart Compose, for paying customers |
| 11:15 AM • | Manish Singh / TechCrunch: Indian education platform Unacademy raises $110M Series E from General Atlantic, Sequoia Capital India, Facebook, and others |
| 11:10 AM • | Tom Warren / The Verge: Microsoft launches a unified Office app for iOS and Android, combining Word, Excel, and PowerPoint into a single app; standalone versions will remain available |
| 11:05 AM • | Nick Turner / Bloomberg: Groupon says it will shutter Groupon Goods, its e-commerce platform for physical products, after reporting worse-than-expected results; stock drops over 40% |
| 10:45 AM • | Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch: Online learning marketplace Udemy, which offers over 150,000 courses, raises $50M from Japanese publisher Benesse Holdings at a $2B post-money valuation |
| 10:20 AM • | Billy Steele / Engadget: As Photoshop turns 30, Adobe begins rolling out new desktop and mobile features, including bringing the Object Selection tool to iPad |
| 10:05 AM • | Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch: EU issues proposals to drive digitization across industries and sectors, including rules for high risk AI systems and a regulatory framework for data governance |
| 9:50 AM • | Duncan Riley / SiliconANGLE: ForgePoint Capital raises $450M for its second cybersecurity investment fund, taking its funds under management to $750M |
| 9:15 AM • | Dave Gershgorn / OneZero : Profile of Japan-based NEC, which has been a longtime provider of facial recognition services globally and garners less scrutiny than new entrants in the space |
| 8:45 AM • | Paul Sawers / VentureBeat: Whatfix, which helps companies onboard users and improve employee training, raises $32M Series C led by Sequoia Capital India |
| 8:20 AM • | Richard Cooke / Wired: A tribute to Wikipedia, which is one of the few remaining places that retains the faintly utopian glow of the early World Wide Web |
| 7:50 AM • | Michael del Castillo / Forbes: Coinbase becomes a Visa Principal Member, allowing it to issue bitcoin debit cards for other crypto companies and traditional firms |
| 6:30 AM • | Taiga Uranaka / Bloomberg: Sources: Japan's Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group is investing $700M in ride hailing giant Grab, intends to market its financial services to Grab's users |
| 6:10 AM • | Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch: Aisera, which uses AI to help with customer service and internal operations, raises $20M Series B led by Norwest Venture Partners |
| 5:40 AM • | George P. Slefo / Ad Age: Consumer insights provider Hitwise is shutting down after 24 years, following allegations that it purchased sensitive user data from Avast's Jumpshot |
| 2:10 AM • | Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat: Huntress, a SaaS cybersecurity provider, raises $18M Series A led by ForgePoint Capital as it expands into additional market segments and geographies |
| 11:25 PM • | Josh Constine / TechCrunch: Facebook is internally testing a tabbed version of News Feed for mobile that includes the Most Relevant, Most Recent, and Already Seen feeds |
| 11:10 PM • | Doris Yu / Tech in Asia: Indonesia-based Eureka, which provides consumer intelligence to mobile carriers and enterprises by using AI and mobile data analytics, raises $20M Series B |
| 10:35 PM • | Steve O'Hear / TechCrunch: Atomico announces its fifth fund has closed at $820M, bringing their total assets to $2.7B; Atomico will mostly fund European startups at Series A |
| 10:15 PM • | Hugh Son / CNBC: LendingClub is acquiring Boston-based online bank Radius Bancorp in a deal valued at $185M, making it the first US fintech company to acquire a bank |
| 9:40 PM • | Kurt Wagner / Bloomberg: Twitter acquires Chroma Labs, which makes tools for video and photo creation, will split team across product, design, and engineering, shut down Chroma Stories |
| 9:00 PM • | Johana Bhuiyan / Los Angeles Times: Sources: Uber shuts down its customer support office in LA, laying off ~80 employees and outsourcing their jobs to a support office in Manila |
| 8:30 PM • | Corbin Davenport / Android Police: Mozilla releases its VPN service Firefox Private Network on Android in a closed beta for $4.99/month |
| 8:15 PM • | Annie Musgrove / Tech.eu: London-based Concirrus, which builds an AI-based predictive analytics platform to help insurance providers rate customers, raises $20M Series B led by AlbionVC |
| 7:15 PM • | Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat: UltraSense Systems, maker of ultrasound technology to sense movement and gestures through a range of materials like metal, glass, and wood, raises $20M Series B |
| 6:05 PM • | Steven Overly / Politico: Judge rules that Huawei does not have grounds to sue the US government over a law banning federal agencies and their contractors from buying Huawei products |
| 5:50 PM • | Manish Singh / TechCrunch: India opens cases against hundreds of VPN users in Kashmir; those found guilty of promoting “unlawful activities and secessionist ideology” face up to 7 years |
| 4:55 PM • | Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica: ISPs seek an injunction against a Maine law requiring opt-in consent before sharing customer info like browsing histories, saying it violates free-speech rights |
| 4:10 PM • | Nikhilesh De / CoinDesk: BitGo acquires Harbor, issuer of tokens backed by real world assets, and will now hold broker-dealer, transfer agent, and qualified custodian licenses |
| 3:20 PM • | Andy Greenberg / Wired: Eclypsium report shows that many PC peripherals, like USB hubs and webcams, have a major security flaw: their firmware can be updated with “unsigned” code |
| 2:40 PM • | Nilesh Christopher / VICE: An Indian election candidate created multiple deepfakes of his own video with him speaking different languages to access voters, reaching ~15M WhatsApp users |
| 2:25 PM • | Meagan Simpson / BetaKit: Vancouver-based Semios, which develops a real-time crop data and pest management platform that connects to IoT sensors, raises ~$75M in private equity funding |
| 2:15 PM • | Alfred Ng / CNET: ElectionGuard, the open-source voting machine software Microsoft announced in May 2019, gets its first real-world test today in a local vote in Fulton, WI |
| 1:55 PM • | Eileen Yu / ZDNet: Facebook's “deeply concerned” the Singaporean gov't is using its “fake news” law to ban access to a FB page, saying it goes against earlier pledge to not censor |
| 1:25 PM • | Nicholas Quah / Hot Pod News: Patreon has launched Patreon Capital, which provides creators with cash advances they pay back with slight interest using income earned on the platform |
| 1:03 PM • | Josh Horwitz / Reuters: China has partnered with Alibaba and Tencent to expand a QR code-like system for tracking individual citizens' health, with a nationwide rollout planned |
| 12:40 PM • | Aarian Marshall / Wired: A look at how Uber drivers' strategies have changed in California after AB5, which has allowed drivers to see estimated ride payouts and destinations |
| 11:50 AM • | Robert Hof / SiliconANGLE: Dell announces it is selling its RSA cybersecurity firm to a consortium led by private equity firm Symphony Technology Group for $2.075B |
| 11:30 AM • | Saeed Azhar / Reuters: Sources: SoftBank has invested $2.5B of its own cash into investments since October, as it seeks to re-establish credibility ahead of a planned Vision Fund 2 |
| 11:07 AM • | Lauren Kaori Gurley / VICE: Kickstarter employees vote 46-37 to unionize with the Office and Professional Employees International Union |
| 11:00 AM • | Darrell Etherington / TechCrunch: Elon Musk says all advanced AI development should be regulated, including at Tesla, and that OpenAI, which he cofounded, “should be more open” |
| 9:55 AM • | Jon Fingas / Engadget: Ring makes two-factor authentication mandatory and pauses use of most third-party analytics services as it devises ways to limit data sharing with third parties |
| 9:40 AM • | Karen Hao / MIT Technology Review: Interviews with current and former employees reveal how OpenAI has become more secretive as it tries to juggle its ideals with the need to finance its research |
| 9:00 AM • | Sam Byford / The Verge: TrendForce analysis of coronavirus on tech industry: smartphone production will decline 12% YoY this quarter, but next-gen game consoles should be unaffected |
| 8:45 AM • | Dr. Ian Cutress / AnandTech: Qualcomm unveils Snapdragon X60 5G modem built on a 5nm process, offering up to 7.5 Gbps download and 3 Gbps upload speeds |
| 8:20 AM • | Steve Streza: iOS users not subscribed to Apple's services are constantly forced to look at ads for those services, either in first-party apps or through push notifications |
| 7:45 AM • | Bloomberg: Sources: iPhone SE 2 is on track to launch in March despite coronavirus crisis, and updated iPad Pro models with a new camera system are expected in H1 2020 |
| 6:25 AM • | Andreessen Horowitz: AI-centric businesses face scaling challenges and lower gross margins due to high compute usage and ongoing human support compared to traditional software firms |
| 2:30 AM • | Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: Report: 2019's total web traffic to top 100 sites was up 8% from 2018, driven by mobile; the top 10 sites saw 167.5B monthly visits in 2019, up 10.7% YoY |
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