Techmeme
February 16, 2022, 2:35 PM

Top News

Daisuke Wakabayashi / New York Times:
Google plans to bring Privacy Sandbox to Android, preserving its Ad ID system for two years, and says it'll be less disruptive than ATT for advertisers and devs  —  It says it will give other companies plenty of time to adapt to changes to its Android software.  Similar changes made by Apple affected big internet companies.
DKB:
Google search quality is declining because of too many ads, SEO, and “smart” AI, prompting people to append “reddit” to queries to get more authentic results  —  Reddit is currently the most popular search engine.  The only people who don't know that are the team at Reddit …
Kurt Wagner / Bloomberg:
Mark Zuckerberg promotes Nick Clegg to President for Global Affairs, a new role reporting to Zuckerberg, likely reducing Sheryl Sandberg's involvement in policy  —  Meta Platforms Inc. Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg has promoted his top policy executive, Nick Clegg …
Cat Zakrzewski / Washington Post:
Senators Blumenthal (D) and Blackburn (R) unveil the Kids Online Safety Act, requiring platforms offer extra safety and privacy tools for users under 16  —  A bipartisan pair of senators on Wednesday unveiled a sweeping bill that aims to give parents more control over their children's time online …
IEEE Spectrum:
Blind patients with Second Sight's electronic retinal implants are in danger of losing their artificial vision as the tech becomes obsolete and unsupported  —  Second Sight left users of its retinal implants in the dark  —  Barbara Campbell was walking through a New York City subway station during rush hour …
Will Oremus / Washington Post:
Twitter says CEO Parag Agrawal will take “a few weeks” of parental leave, less than three months after taking the job, a rare move for a Silicon Valley CEO  —  Parag Agrawal, 37, is just getting started in one of the technology industry's highest-profile jobs …
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft details changes to AltspaceVR to improve safety and moderation, including removing social spaces and making users sign in with a Microsoft account  —  You'll also need a Microsoft Account for AltspaceVR soon  —  Microsoft is removing all social hubs hosted in AltspaceVR …
Corin Faife / The Verge:
CISA, FBI, and NSA say Russian state-sponsored hackers targeted US defense contractors for at least two years, acquiring export-controlled technology and more  —  The state-sponsored actors acquired information on weapons, aircraft design, and combat communications systems over a period of years
Andrew J. Hawkins / The Verge:
Uber will let riders see a breakdown of their average ratings starting today and publishes data on US cities with the highest and lowest ratings  —  Also available: five-star ratings  —  For the first time, Uber is allowing its customers to see how many five-star ratings they've received from drivers …
Ilena Peng / Bloomberg:
Shopify beats with Q4 revenue up 41% YoY to $1.38B, as GMV rose 32% YoY to $54.1B, but says FY 2022 revenue growth will be below FY 2021; shares drop 15%+  —  Shopify Inc. said it expects revenue growth to be lower in 2022 than it was last year as online spending resets after the Covid-19 induced boom …
Aislinn Keely / The Block:
A coalition of crypto companies, including Coinbase, Circle, and Robinhood, announce TRUST, an anti-money laundering platform for securely sharing customer data  —  Quick Take  — A coalition of US crypto firms has created a centralized solution to the information sharing requirements of the travel rule.
Rafaela Lindeberg / Bloomberg:
Ericsson CEO says the company might have made payments to ISIS to gain access to transport routes in Iraq in 2018, causing shares to drop by over 8.5%  —  Ericsson may have made payments to the ISIS terror organization to gain access to certain transport routes in Iraq, in a shock admission following years of regulatory investigations.
Elizabeth Dwoskin / Washington Post:
Mark Zuckerberg outlines changes to Meta's corporate values, including “Move Fast Together”, “Live in the Future”, and “Meta, Metamates, Me”  —  Meta.  Metamates.  Me.  —  At a virtual all-hands meeting on Tuesday, Facebook escalated its attempts …
Cissy Zhou / Financial Times:
Chinese online streaming service Bilibili plans to hire 1,000 censors after the death of a 25-year-old worker; Bilibili had 2,413 censors at the end of 2020  —  Content monitoring team to be increased 40% amid debate on overwork  —  Chinese online video streaming service Bilibili plans …
Financial Times:
Sources: the UK Home Office is seeking changes to the Online Safety Bill to require platforms monitor “legal but harmful” content, worrying the tech industry  —  Radical powers in online bill would increase liability of global internet groups beyond current global regulation

Sponsor Posts

Tribe AI:
Build AI products that matter  —  Tribe AI helps organizations rapidly deploy AI solutions that have real business impact.  We bring together world class AI talent and tooling to drive differentiated results.
Zoho:
How you can grow your business with Zoho One  —  Zoho One is a comprehensive business suite, giving businesses the scalability, stability, security, and features they need for smooth operations.
Hamming:
Make AI Voice Agents trustworthy  —  Hamming AI automatically tests AI voice agents and continuously monitors them in production.
Techmeme Leaderboards:
Discover the top reporters on AI, VR, policy, and much more  —  We've analyzed Techmeme's news crawl to identify the most influential and prolific writers on 48 news topics.  Download reports immediately for just $100.
Techmeme Ride Home:
Thu. 11/14 - The FBI (!) Investigating Polymarket
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or RSS.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 2:35 PM ET, February 16, 2022.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.

More News

Chris Welch / The Verge:

Earlier Picks

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Kyle Alspach / VentureBeat:
Mitchell Clark / The Verge:
Monica Chin / The Verge: