Techmeme
May 29, 2021, 11:40 PM

Top News

Tyler Sonnemaker / Insider:
Court docs detail Google's user location data collection, efforts to hide an off toggle deep in Android settings, pressure on partners like LG to do the same  —  - Google made it nearly impossible for users to keep their location private, according to newly unredacted court documents.
Chance Miller / 9to5Mac:
In an email to podcasters, Apple says it is delaying the launch of its Podcasts Subscriptions and channels until June and plans improvements to its Podcasts app  —  Apple has announced in an email to podcasters today that it is delaying the launch of Apple Podcasts Subscriptions.
New York Times:
Microsoft: hackers behind SolarWinds recently breached State Dept. aid agency to send emails with malicious code to 150 orgs, including NGOs critical of Putin  —  Microsoft reported that it had detected the intrusion and that the same hackers behind the earlier SolarWinds attack were responsible.
Jay Peters / The Verge:
WhatsApp reverses course and says it won't limit functionality for users who don't accept its new privacy policy  —  The new policy went into effect on May 15th  —  Earlier this month, Facebook-owned WhatsApp said that users would lose functionality over time if they didn't accept its new privacy policy by May 15th.
Devin Coldewey / TechCrunch:
Anthropic, a new startup from former GPT-3 researchers that aims to build large-scale, general AI systems, raises $124M Series A led by Skype's Jaan Tallinn  —  As AI has grown from a menagerie of research projects to include a handful of titanic, industry-powering models like GPT-3 …
BuzzFeed News:
Venmo will now let users control the visibility of their friends list, following a report in which Biden's Venmo account and connections were easily found  —  Venmo, the mobile payments app owned by PayPal, is changing its privacy settings after a BuzzFeed News story uncovered President Joe Biden's account earlier this month.
Aislinn Keely / The Block:
SEC charges five people with promoting BitConnect, which it alleges was an unregistered digital securities offering that raised $2B+ from retail investors  —  The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has filed a civil lawsuit against five people accused of promoting BitConnect, a now-defunct crypto Ponzi scheme.
Nora Caplan-Bricker / New Yorker:
Despite a wave of complaints, pushback from top universities, lawsuits, and accusations of bias, Proctorio's client list grew over 500% from 2019 to 2021  —  Despite students' complaints and the coming return to in-person learning, Proctorio and its rivals are betting on a lucrative future.
Doc Searls Weblog:
Apple's claims about respecting privacy aren't fully serious, as the iPhone default doesn't disallow apps from tracking users, instead expecting users to do so  —  If you haven't seen it yet, watch Apple's Privacy on iPhone |  tracked ad.  In it a guy named Felix (that's him, above) …
Tweets: @dsearls
Faris Mokhtar / Bloomberg:
Tech companies took up 22% of new office space in Singapore between 2015-2020, up from 8% between 2004-2014, led by Amazon, as financial firms reduced workspace  —  In the financial mecca of Singapore, a new crowd is flocking to its offices: technology companies.

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More News

Frank Chaparro / The Block:

Earlier Picks

Carrie DeCell / Knight First Amendment Institute:
Ari Levy / CNBC:
Bloomberg:
Liam Tung / ZDNet:
Michael Luciano / Mediaite: