Techmeme
December 6, 2021, 12:00 PM

Top News

Ben Smith / New York Times:
A document from TikTok's engineering team in Beijing details the product's addictive algorithm, which optimizes for “retention” and “time spent”  —  It's the most successful video app in the world.  Our columnist has obtained an internal company document that offers …
Emma Roth / The Verge:
Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile all have programs that collect additional customer data, like app usage and web history, and they are generally opt-out  —  Verizon says it's to better “understand your interests”  —  The My Verizon app might be collecting information about your browsing history …
Andrew E. Kramer / New York Times:
US investigators traced ransomware payments back to companies in Moscow skyscraper Federation Tower East, suggesting Russia tolerates ransomware operators  —  Cybersecurity experts tracing money paid by American businesses to Russian ransomware gangs found it led to one of Moscow's most prestigious addresses.
Julian E. Barnes / New York Times:
The head of US Cyber Command says the US military has “taken actions” against ransomware groups, the first public acknowledgement of the offensive measures  —  Gen. Paul M. Nakasone, the head of Cyber Command, said a new cross-functional effort has been gathering intelligence …
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Many customers complain that T-Mobile and Verizon have failed to deliver promised rebates for promoted Apple products in a straightforward manner  —  Some customers are finding that wireless carriers are denying rebates used to promote Apple Inc.'s newest iPhones, iPads and watches.
Reuters:
Alibaba appoints a new CFO and will reorganize its e-commerce businesses under two new divisions, one domestic and one international  —  Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (9988.HK) said Toby Xu, will succeed Maggie Wu as the company's chief financial officer from April, a move it described as part of the company's leadership succession plan.
Bloomberg:
Investigation: Swiss company Mitto, which offers automated text messages to companies in 100+ countries, helped governments secretly surveil mobile phone users  —  Mitto AG's network used to track people via mobile phones, former employees say.  —  The co-founder of a company that has been trusted …
Jon Porter / The Verge:
WhatsApp will let users set all chats to disappear by default after 24 hours, seven days, or 90 days  —  Its disappearing messages feature is getting an upgrade  —  WhatsApp is adding new functionality to its disappearing messages feature, which lets users set messages in a chat to automatically be deleted after a set period of time.
Benedict Evans:
Overview of macro tech trends, with a focus on Web3, metaverse, and the move to the cloud, which is just beginning as on-prem IT spend still dwarfs cloud spend  —  The most exciting themes in technology today are transformative visions for 2025 or 2030: crypto, web3, VR, metaverse... and then everything else.
Ben Thompson / Stratechery:
Amazon's extensive supply chain investments, mostly focused on domestic US logistics, make it very attractive to third-party merchants and customers  —  It seems like a Christmas miracle.  From CNBC: … The intended takeaway of this article — which originated as a digital special report …
Alistair Gray / Financial Times:
GroupM: global ad revenue will reach $763B in 2021, up 18.7% from 2019; Alphabet, Meta, and Amazon control 80-90% of the digital ad market outside China  —  Alphabet, Meta and Amazon have doubled their share of ad revenues in past 5 years, industry estimates
Financial Times:
Researchers describe Meta's roadblocks, including pre-publication review and restrictive contracts, to stifle research that might cast it in a negative light  —  Last March, Orestis Papakyriakopoulos, a researcher at Princeton University, applied to use a special data access tool that allows academics to do research on Facebook.

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Earlier Picks

Issie Lapowsky / Protocol:
David Streitfeld / New York Times:
Christopher Mims / Wall Street Journal:
RT:
Emma Roth / The Verge:
Tim Copeland / The Block: