Techmeme
March 31, 2020, 3:45 AM

Top News

Josh Dzieza / The Verge:
Around 60 employees staged a walkout at a Staten Island, NY fulfillment center to protest the impact of Amazon's COVID-19 response on warehouse workers  —  As Amazon workers across the country test positive for the virus, employees believe collective action is the only way to get the company to meaningfully clean its facilities
Bloomberg:
Amazon confirms that it fired a worker, who led the Staten Island warehouse strike, for violating its quarantine measures; worker says firing was in retaliation  —  - Worker Chris Smalls says labor activism led to his dismissal  — Amazon says Smalls violated safety conditions, quarantine
Emil Protalinski / VentureBeat:
Microsoft debuts a Family Safety mobile app and AI-powered PowerPoint and Excel features as part of its 365 Family and Personal subscriptions, coming April 21  —  Microsoft today announced that on April 21, Office 365 will become Microsoft 365, or “the subscription for your life.”
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: in early March, Apple started letting some engineers take home early versions of future devices to continue work during the lockdown period  —  With its 175-acre campus in Cupertino, California, and several dozen more offices across the rest of the world, Apple Inc. wasn't designed as a work-at-home company.
New York Times:
New York's AG sent a letter to Zoom expressing concern over security vulnerabilities and privacy practices as more users conduct sensitive tasks on the service  —  As the videoconferencing platform's popularity has surged, Zoom has scrambled to address a series of data privacy and security problems.
Timothy B. Lee / Ars Technica:
A US federal court rules that simply breaking a site's terms of service does not constitute criminal hacking under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act  —  Courts have struggled to interpret the vague Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.  —  A federal court in Washington, DC, has ruled that violating …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
App Annie: videoconferencing apps saw a record 62M downloads during the week of March 14-21, up 45% from the prior week  —  Work-from-home policies, social distancing and government lockdowns have increased the demand for video conferencing apps, for both business and personal use.
Zara Stone / OneZero :
Ina Fried / Axios:
After changing its rules, Twitter is cracking down on COVID-19 misinformation from prominent accounts, including Brazilian President Bolsonaro and Rudy Giuliani  —  It's notable that Twitter, like other social networks, has announced stricter rules on virus-related misinformation than other types of false posts.
Sean Lyngaas / CyberScoop:
HackerOne expels mobile voting vendor Voatz from its security program over hostile interactions with researchers, the first time it's cut ties with an org  —  HackerOne, a company that pairs ethical hackers with organizations to fix software flaws, has kicked mobile voting vendor Voatz off its platform …
The Information:
Facebook says it has struck a deal to license tech and purchase AR displays from microLED firm Plessey, which sources say Apple recently looked at buying  —  Facebook has struck a deal to buy all of the augmented reality displays made by British firm Plessey, as the social network looks …
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.
Violet Blue / Engadget:

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