Techmeme
February 4, 2021, 7:30 AM

Top News

Brian Flood / Fox Business:
In an internal memo, John Matze says he has been terminated as Parler's CEO by its board of directors  —  “The future of Parler is no longer in my hands,” Matze wrote  —  EXCLUSIVE - Parler has terminated CEO John Matze, according to a memo Matze sent to staffers that has been obtained by Fox News.
Kashmir Hill / New York Times:
Canada's privacy authority says what Clearview AI does is mass surveillance, calls it illegal and unacceptable, and tells it to delete citizens' facial images  —  Canadian authorities declared that the company needed citizens' consent to use their biometric information, and told the firm to delete facial images from its database.
Annie Palmer / CNBC:
Amazon has started deploying AI-powered Netradyne cameras, which are always on and automatically upload footage, in its US delivery vehicles to monitor drivers  —  - Amazon has begun rolling out AI-enabled cameras from Netradyne in vehicles at a handful of contracted delivery partners across the U.S., CNBC has learned.
Bloomberg:
In an email to staff on February 1, Andy Jassy reaffirmed his commitment to making video games, following a scathing Bloomberg profile of Amazon Game Studios  —  One day before he was named the next chief executive officer of Amazon.com Inc., Andy Jassy reaffirmed his commitment to making video games …
Amazon Investor Relations:
CNBC:
CNBC:
Sources: Apple and Hyundai-Kia close to a car manufacturing deal; first “Apple Cars” will be “designed to operate without a driver and focused on the last mile”  —  - Apple is close to finalizing a deal with Hyundai-Kia to manufacture an Apple-branded autonomous electric vehicle …
Bloomberg:
Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
Myanmar's new military government has ordered local telecoms to block Facebook and its family of apps within the country until February 7  —  Myanmar's new military government has ordered local telecom firms to temporarily block Facebook in the Southeast Asian nation days after the military seized power …
BuzzFeed News:
Ben Thompson / Stratechery:
Jeff Bezos departs as perhaps the best CEO in tech history, having created three huge businesses: Amazon.com, AWS, and Amazon's marketplace/fulfillment services  —  It's the refunds that blow my mind.  —  You may be surprised to know that, despite the fact I live in Taiwan, I have an Amazon Prime account.
Brad Stone / Bloomberg:
Juli Clover / MacRumors:
Several Apple services are suffering an outage, including iCloud Backup, iCloud Drive, iCloud Notes, Photos, Calendar, Mail, Keychain, and Bookmarks  —  Several of Apple's services are experiencing an outage at the current time, with Apple noting service interrupts for iCloud Backup …
Pranav Dixit / BuzzFeed News:
India's IT ministry orders Twitter to block the recently restored accounts of dissidents and The Caravan magazine, or Twitter staff could face fines or jail  —  India's government has threatened to punish employees at Twitter with fines and jail terms of up to seven years for restoring hundreds …
The Information:
Carta, which launched a private stock exchange CartaX to help employees and investors sell stock in private startups, is now valued at $6.9B  —  Launching an exchange to help employees and investors sell stock in private startups may seem an odd choice for this year, given the boom in public listings that promise imminent cashouts.
Maya Averbuch / OneZero :
Members of Latin American diaspora populations have reconnected with their lost relatives using Facebook, which fills an information gap that governments cannot  —  Parents whose children disappeared decades ago are turning the world's biggest social network as a final lifeline.
Marc Andreessen / Andreessen Horowitz:
a16z names Sriram Krishnan as its newest GP, after roles at Facebook, Snap, Twitter; Krishnan has been consulting for nine months on an a16z “community project”  —  Welcome, Sriram Krishnan, our newest general partner, to Andreessen Horowitz!  —  Sriram is a well-known …
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
BigChange, which develops fleet management software, raises $102M from Great Hill Partners  —  We talk a lot these days about the future of work and the proliferation of new and better tools for distributed workforces, but companies focused on developing fleet management software …
More: Tech.eu and PR NewswireThanks:@ingridlunden
Wallace Witkowski / MarketWatch:
Qualcomm reports Q1 revenue of $8.24B, up 62% YoY but below $8.27B est., with net income of $2.46B, up 165% YoY; stock down 6%+ after hours  —  Revenue comes in just shy of expectations, while profit and outlook exceed projections  —  Qualcomm Inc. shares dropped in the extended session Wednesday …
Tim Starks / CyberScoop:
Study: the 116th US Congress, which ran from 2019-2020, introduced 316 cybersecurity bills, a 40% increase from the 115th Congress; 14 of the bills became law  —  Congress dramatically ratcheted up the number of cybersecurity bills introduced in the last two years compared to the prior session of Congress …
Source: Third Way
Sohini Podder / Reuters:
Shares of ON24, a maker of webinar and virtual event software, jumped nearly 54% in its debut Wednesday after raising $428M+ in its IPO  —  (Reuters) - Shares of Goldman Sachs-backed ON24 Inc jumped nearly 54% in their market debut on Wednesday, giving the webinar-marketing platform a market value of over $3.42 billion.
Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge:
Google rolls out an update for Android TV with a refreshed UI that is similar to Google TV on Chromecast  —  A fresh look for Google's (other) smart TV software  —  Google is rolling out a new update for Android TV that gives its smart TV OS a fresh new look — one that's almost identical …

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