Techmeme
January 9, 2020, 6:00 PM

Top News

Mike Isaac / New York Times:
Facebook says it won't back down from allowing lies in political ads but will give users the option to see fewer political ads in their feed and in Instagram  —  The company was under intense pressure to adjust its policies.  But in this presidential election year, no big changes are planned.
Emma Williams / Microsoft 365 Blog:
Microsoft says it will roll out Teams features aimed at deskless workers, like Walkie Talkie, SMS sign-in, and shared device sign-out, later this quarter  —  Companies at the forefront of digital transformation recognize how critical it is to enable all of their people with the right technology and tools.
Kia Kokalitcheva / Axios:
Lime says it is laying off about 14% of its workforce, roughly 100 employees, and shuttering operations in 12 markets as it seeks to become profitable this year  —  Scooter company Lime is laying off about 14% of its workforce (roughly 100 employees) and shuttering operations in 12 markets …
Mark Zuckerberg:
Zuckerberg extends his annual personal challenge to decade-long themes, listing a new private social platform, AR/VR, and new forms of community governance  —  Every new year of the last decade I set a personal challenge.  My goal was to grow in new ways outside my day-to-day work running Facebook.
Joseph Cox / VICE:
Brochure shows a surveillance vendor is offering spying capabilities to local police via hidden cameras in tombstones, vacuum cleaners, and baby car seats  —  A surveillance vendor that works with U.S. government agencies, such as the FBI, DEA, and ICE, is marketing spying capabilities …
Thomas Brewster / Forbes:
MalwareBytes: an Android phone offered free by Assurance Wireless as part of the US Lifeline Assistance program comes pre-installed with Chinese malware  —  For years, low-income households have been able to get cheap cell service and even free smartphones via the U.S. government-funded Lifeline Assistance program.
Louise Matsakis / Wired:
Amazon warned holiday shoppers that Honey, a browser extension for comparison shopping and rewards acquired by Paypal for $4B in November, was a “security risk”  —  The retail giant warned holiday shoppers that Honey, a popular browser extension, was a “security risk.”  Honey denies the claim.
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Verizon eliminates bundles and contracts for Fios line of TV, broadband, and phone services, will now sell them as standalone products via “Mix & Match on Fios”  —  Verizon — feeling the pain of customer cancellations over high pay-TV prices — is killing off bundles …
Dan Goodin / Ars Technica:
Mozilla patches an actively exploited Firefox zero-day flaw that could allow attackers to take control of computers by accessing sensitive memory locations  —  Flaw allows attackers to access sensitive memory locations that are normally off-limits.  —  Mozilla has released a new version …
David Gilbert / VICE:
Facebook moderators in Ireland say company policies, including tracking toilet breaks and setting unrealistic quality standards, add to their trauma  —  Want the best of VICE News straight to your inbox?  Sign up here.  —  DUBLIN — When Valera Zaicev began working in Dublin …
Bloomberg Law:
Docs: Lyft has offered to pay NY ride-share drivers about $100-$600 each to settle a lawsuit alleging it misclassified them as contractors instead of employees  —  Lyft Inc. has offered to pay New York ride-share drivers about $100 to $600 each to settle a lawsuit alleging the company misclassified …
Lauren Feiner / CNBC:
Google starts selling Android search privileges to the highest bidder in EU in a quarterly auction; Bing will appear only in UK between March 1 and June 30  —  - Android users in the EU will soon be able to choose their default search engine from a list of four options, including Google, when setting up their new phones or tablets.
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Reddit bans the impersonation of an individual or entity in a misleading or deceptive manner, but impersonation that's satire will still be allowed  —  But impersonation that's satire will still be allowed  —  Today, Reddit updated its policies about impersonation to no longer allow impersonation …
More: Input

Sponsor Posts

Meta:
Open Source AI: Available to all, not just the few  —  Meta's open source AI enables small businesses, start-ups, students, researchers and more to download and build with our models at no cost.
Zoho:
Introducing AI Forms: Create optimized forms with AI in Zoho Forms  —  The future of form creation isn't coming, it's here.  Forget everything you thought you knew about building online forms.
Genesys:
Executive Insights: The Era of Contact Center AI Copilots  —  How AI copilots are transforming customer experience and agent performance.
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.
Techmeme Ride Home:
Fri. 12/20 - Gemini Flash Thinking
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 6:00 PM ET, January 9, 2020.

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

Earlier Picks

Joseph Cox / VICE:
Dieter Bohn / The Verge:
Devindra Hardawar / Engadget:
Will Oremus / OneZero: