Note: Techmeme is hiring part-time editors. Go here to apply, or tell a friend!
Techmeme
February 26, 2020, 1:20 PM

Top News

Rob Price / Business Insider:
Facebook says it will now ban ads that promise to cure or prevent COVID-19, or attempt to “create a sense of urgency” about it  —  - Facebook is tightening up its rules on ads that reference the coronavirus outbreak.  — It is banning ads that mentioned it if they attempt to …
Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet:
PayPal's looking into unauthorized transactions that appear to stem from its Google Pay integration; researcher says it may involve a bug reported but not fixed  —  All signs point to an attack exploiting PayPal's Google Pay integration. … Hackers have found a bug in PayPal's Google Pay integration …
Betsy Swan / The Daily Beast:
Clearview AI, provider of facial recognition search to police, says an intruder accessed its entire list of customers and how many searches they have conducted  —  Clearview AI, which contracts with law enforcement after reportedly scraping 3 billion images from the web, now says someone got …
Rebekah Valentine / GamesIndustry.biz:
Facebook has acquired Sanzaru Games, developer of Asgard's Wrath, for an undisclosed amount; the game studio will remain independent under Oculus Studios  —  Studio behind Asgard's Wrath to join Oculus Studios and continue VR development  —  Facebook has acquired Asgard's Wrath developer Sanzaru Games for an undisclosed amount.
Salesforce:
Salesforce says Keith Block has stepped down as co-CEO but will still advise Marc Benioff; Gavin Patterson named President and CEO of Salesforce International  —  Salesforce (NYSE: CRM) today announced that Keith Block has stepped down as co-CEO of Salesforce and Marc Benioff is Chair and CEO of the company.
Reuters:
Ex-Apple employees and supply chain experts say preparation for new iPhone production, which usually starts early in the year, may be delayed due to COVID-19  —  SAN FRANCISCO/TAIPEI (Reuters) - Travel restrictions to China because of the coronavirus have come just as Apple Inc's (AAPL.O) …
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Paul Sawers / VentureBeat:
Plume, which develops an AI-powered adaptive home Wi-Fi mesh network system, raises $60M Series D at a $510M valuation, bringing its total raised to $127M  —  Plume, a Comcast-backed startup that develops an AI-powered adaptive home Wi-Fi mesh network system, has raised $85 million in a mixture of equity and debt financing.
Eric Newcomer / Bloomberg:
Sources: Invite Media reduced its assets before Google's $80M acquisition in 2010 to avoid requiring FTC approval, the kind of deal the FTC is now re-examining  —  The 2010 acquisition of Invite Media could come up for new scrutiny  —  Something unusual was underway in early 2010 at Invite Media …
Hannah Gilberstadt / Pew Research Center:
Pew: 74% of US adults have little or no confidence in tech companies like Facebook and Google preventing misuse of their platforms to influence 2020's election  —  Nearly three-quarters of Americans (74%) express little or no confidence in technology companies like Facebook …
Tom Krisher / NBC Bay Area:
NTSB says the driver in a 2018 Tesla accident was distracted by a game on his phone and that the NHTSA's hands-off approach to self-driving tech is “misguided”  —  Just before the crash, the Tesla steered to the left into a paved area between the freeway travel lanes and an exit ramp
Matt Novak / Gizmodo:
US DOD has adopted a series of ethical principles for the use of AI, says recommendations came after 15 months of consultation with “leading AI experts”  —  The U.S. military has adopted new ethics guidelines for the use of artificial intelligence in its futuristic robot tanks …
Amal S / Reuters:
Google says it will spend $10B on offices and data centers in the US this year, focusing on 11 states including MA and NY, down from $13B in 2019  —  (Reuters) - Alphabet Inc's (GOOGL.O) Google said on Wednesday it would invest more than $10 billion in offices and data centers across the United States this year.
Alfred Ng / CNET:
A look at US schools' growing use of mobile phone tracking tech from companies like Inpixon, using scanners to pick up Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and cell signals  —  Teachers often lament that phones can be a distraction in classrooms.  Some governments have even banned phones outright in schools.

Sponsor Posts

Google:
Generate videos with Veo 3 in Google Gemini  —  Create high-quality, 8-second videos with Veo 3, our state-of-the-art AI video generator.  Try it with a Google AI Pro plan or get the highest access with the Ultra plan.
UiPath:
UiPath Unveils 10 Innovations that Will Shape the Agentic Future  —  Orchestration engine, API workflows and agentic testing among key features of new UiPath Platform™ for agentic automation, launched at UiPath DevCon 2025
Zoho:
6 Tips to Unlock Revenue with Transactional Emails  —  This is a guest post by Tabular.You might think of transactional emails as boring necessities, but the truth is, they're far more powerful than you realize.
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

Lenny's Podcast:
Why Uber's CPO delivers food on weekends | Sachin Kansal
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.
Techmeme Ride Home:
Big Meta/Anduril Deal Is A Big Deal
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe to Techmeme Ride Home.
The Social Radars:
Ron Conway, Founder, SV Angel Part 4 (Bonus)
Come be a fly on the wall as Y Combinator's Jessica Livingston and Carolynn Levy talk to some of the most successful founders in Silicon Valley about how they did it.
Subscribe to The Social Radars.
Hard Fork:
The A.I. Jobpocalypse + Building at Anthropic with Mike Krieger + Hard Fork Crimes Division
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.
The Logan Bartlett Show:
Rick Smith (CEO, Axon): The Wild Ride From Near-Bankruptcy to $50B+
A podcast hosted by Logan Bartlett, an investor at Redpoint Ventures, covering tech with industry insiders.
Subscribe to The Logan Bartlett Show.
The Talk Show With John Gruber:
'Sewing Machine Repair Shop', With Patrick McGee
The director's commentary track for Daring Fireball. Long digressions on Apple, technology, design, movies, and more.
Subscribe to The Talk Show With John Gruber.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 1:20 PM ET, February 26, 2020.

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

Pranav Dixit / BuzzFeed News:

Earlier Picks

The Walt Disney Company:
Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet:
Kurt Schlosser / GeekWire: