Techmeme
March 29, 2020, 4:55 PM

Top News

Jon Fingas / Engadget:
Report: CDC, state and local authorities in the US have started using anonymized location data from mobile ads to help plan their response to the pandemic  —  The use of phone location tracking to keep tabs on COVID-19 is becoming increasingly common, and the US appears to be no exception.
Mark Wyciślik-Wilson / BetaNews:
Microsoft says that there has been a 775% increase in use of its cloud services in regions that have enforced social distancing or shelter in place orders  —  This weekend, Microsoft has given an insight into the impact the coronavirus pandemic has had on its services.
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
Crowdsourced data from Candor shows 267 tech companies have frozen hiring, 44 had layoffs, 36 rescinded offers, while 111, like Zoom and Twitter, are hiring  —  The coronavirus has taken a toll on the workforce, and now you can see a list of who's hiring, freezing hires, laying off people …
Financial Times:
China proposes an internet architecture called New IP to UN's ITU; critics say its top-down design would give governments granular control over the internet  —  New architecture would enable cutting-edge technologies but western countries fear more control for state-run internet services
Financial Times:
An in-depth look at China's New IP proposal, whose plans are being spearheaded by Richard Li, chief scientist at Futurewei, Huawei's California-based R&D arm  —  Huawei is developing the technology for a new network.  But what does this mean for the rights of users?
Joseph Cox / VICE:
Zoom updates its iOS app to remove Facebook SDK after concerns were raised over Zoom's failure to disclose Facebook data sharing in privacy policy  —  On Friday video-conferencing software Zoom issued an update to its iOS app which stops it sending certain pieces of data to Facebook.
Leo Kelion / BBC:
UK's NHS says it is working with Microsoft, Google, Palantir, and Faculty AI on a dashboard that shows the spread of the virus and NHS' ability to deal with it  —  The NHS has confirmed it is teaming up with leading tech firms to ensure critical medical equipment is available to the facilities …
Casey Newton / The Verge:
Big Tech's response to COVID-19 may have paused the tech backlash that dominated the coverage of companies like Facebook and Amazon over the past 3+ years  —  The backlash against tech giants may not be over — but at the very least it's on pause  —  On March 5th, as COVID-19 began …
ProPublica:
An in-depth look at China's Twitter propaganda machine, which uses over 10K fake Twitter accounts to promote the Chinese government's image abroad  —  Kalen Keegan, a college student at the University of Nebraska Omaha, immediately noticed when her Twitter account unleashed a torrent of posts in Chinese.
Peter White / Deadline:
Q&A with Jeffrey Katzenberg on launching Quibi on April 6 in the middle of a global pandemic, why Quibi only licenses rather than owns the content, and more  —  Quibi is one of the most anticipated platform launches of the year and it's also one of the most talked about in Hollywood circles.

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