Techmeme
March 17, 2021, 1:40 AM

Top News

Dan Sullivan / Tampa Bay Times:
A Florida teen who hacked well-known Twitter accounts last summer and used them to ask for BTC, netting $100K+ worth, was sentenced to 3 years in a plea deal  —  Graham Ivan Clark, 18, agreed to plea guilty to fraud charges for a hack of several Twitter accounts last summer.
CNBC:
SEC filing: Uber will reclassify its UK drivers as “workers”, granting them vacation pay, minimum wage, and pension plan access, but not full employee benefits  —  - Uber will reclassify all U.K.-based drivers as workers.  — Under the new designation, more than 70,000 drivers …
Dara Khosrowshahi / London Evening Standard:
Uber's thinking on UK driver rights has evolved and worker flexibility “should not come at the expense of social protections”  —  T  —  hree weeks after I became CEO of Uber in 2017, our licence to operate in London was revoked.  It was not how I expected to start my new job …
Noam Cohen / Wired:
Wikimedia Foundation debuts Wikimedia Enterprise, a premium service for delivering Wikipedia content to companies like Google, but a free option will remain  —  The Big Four all lean on the encyclopedia at no cost.  With the launch of Wikimedia Enterprise, the volunteer project will change that—and possibly itself, too.
The Verge:
A group of 15 AGs update their antitrust complaint against Google, taking aim at Chrome's Privacy Sandbox and other privacy updates related to ad targeting  —  ‘Google is trying to hide its true intentions behind a pretext of privacy,’ say prosecutors  —  State antitrust watchdogs …
Leah Nylen / Politico:
Sara Fischer / Axios:
Kurt Wagner / Bloomberg:
Facebook says it will publish an annual report detailing its impact on human rights, and will establish a fund to support human rights activists and journalists  —  - Social media giant to give board formal updates on the issue  — Company has been criticized for role in Myanmar, Sri Lanka
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Google announces second-generation Nest Hub with sleep tracking, powered by a Soli radar chip, for $100, shipping on March 30  —  In deciding to not put a camera on what was initially called the Home Hub, Google made its first Assistant Smart Display ideal for nightstands.
Danny Palmer / ZDNet:
McAfee researchers detail a Chinese cyberespionage campaign targeting at least 23 telcos in the US, Europe, and SE Asia to steal data, including for 5G tech  —  Cybersecurity researchers at McAfee detail an ongoing cyber espionage campaign which is targeting telecoms companies around the world.
William Turton / Bloomberg:
Leaked audio from a February 8 meeting reveals Parler's chief policy officer saying: “We are not going after misinformation in any way”  —  Leaked recordings of meetings detail role of Rebekah Mercer at social-media platform  —  Conservative donor Rebekah Mercer has been writing checks …
Kif Leswing / CNBC:
Sensor Tower: if a 15% commission was in place in 2020, Apple would have missed out on an estimated $595M, or 2.7%, and Google $587M, or 5%, in app store fees  —  - Apple and Google have announced changes to app store fees that impact app makers making less than $1 million per year.
Kif Leswing / CNBC:
Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge:
Intel's 11th Gen desktop chips launch, with the flagship Core i9-11900K sporting eight cores, two less than last gen, and boosted clock speeds of up to 5.3GHz  —  Rocket Lake-S looks to combine the best parts of Intel's 14nm process with its 10nm designs  —  Intel's next-generation desktop chips …
James Vincent / The Verge:
Instagram says it's introducing new policies to limit interactions between teenagers and adults, including banning adults from DMing teens who don't follow them  —  Teen users will also be shown safety prompts when messaging ‘suspicious’ adults  —  Instagram is introducing …
Ari Levy / CNBC:
Health care referral service Grand Rounds, which was last valued at $1.34B, is merging with Doctor On Demand, last valued at $875M, in an all-stock deal  —  - Grand Rounds and Doctor On Demand, two venture-backed digital health companies, are merging in a deal that will form a multibillion-dollar entity.

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