Techmeme
February 17, 2022, 9:55 AM

Top News

Reuters:
A profile of Saudi activist Loujain al-Hathloul, whose work with Citizen Lab to expose NSO Group spying on her iPhone using Pegasus triggered scrutiny of NSO  —  A single activist helped turn the tide against NSO Group, one of the world's most sophisticated spyware companies now facing …
Bloomberg:
Amazon reaches an agreement to accept Visa cards globally and will no longer charge Visa users an extra fee in Singapore and Australia  —  Amazon.com Inc. has agreed to accept Visa Inc.'s cards across its global network, settling a feud that threatened to damage the financial giant's business and disrupt e-commerce payments.
Kurt Wagner / Bloomberg:
Mark Zuckerberg names Nick Clegg as President of Global Affairs, reporting to Zuckerberg, meaning less involvement in policy for Zuckerberg and Sandberg  —  Meta Platforms Inc. Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg has promoted his top policy executive, Nick Clegg, to an even greater role inside …
Lawrence Abrams / BleepingComputer:
Mozilla warns that Firefox and Chrome 100 versions may break some sites, including HBO Go and Yahoo, due to user-agent strings with three-digit version numbers  —  Mozilla is warning website developers that the upcoming Firefox 100 and Chrome 100 versions may break websites …
Eric Benjamin Seufert / Mobile Dev Memo:
Daisuke Wakabayashi / New York Times:
Frank Chaparro / The Block:
USDC stablecoin developer Circle says its forthcoming SPAC deal now values the company at $9B, up from $4.5B when the deal was announced  —  Circle — the firm behind stablecoin USDC — announced on Thursday that it has scrapped its previous deal with special purpose acquisition company …
CoinDesk:
Canadian authorities have ordered regulated financial firms to cease transactions from 34 crypto wallets, worth over $870K, tied to funding the “Freedom Convoy”  —  Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Monero and Cardano addresses are all on the list.  —  The Ontario Provincial Police …
Ashley Carman / The Verge:
Spotify is acquiring Chartable and Podsights, two podcast analytics companies that let podcasters and networks include tags in shows to track listeners  —  Chartable and Podsights are being bought  —  Spotify is making more podcast acquisitions.  The company announced today it's acquiring …
Helen Coster / Reuters:
Sources: Trump's Truth Social app has opened to around 500 beta testers, one year after Trump was banned from major social networks  —  Details about former U.S. President Donald Trump's new social media app are trickling out as about 500 beta testers have begun using an early version of “Truth Social,” two sources told Reuters.
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft releases a new Windows 11 Preview build with a customizable Start menu, five new touch gestures, Live Captions, Task Manager redesign, and more  —  Microsoft is also bringing drag and drop back to the taskbar  —  Microsoft is bringing new touch gestures, Start menu folders …
Susan Dominus / New York Times:
A look at tech recruitment issues as the US unemployment rate for tech workers is 1.7% and 0.2% for cybersecurity experts, well below 4% for the general economy  —  Recruiters in tech are desperate for workers.  But candidates are the ones who hold all the power.
Drew Harwell / Washington Post:
Leaked pitch deck: Clearview AI told investors that it will have 100B facial photos in its database within a year, after growing to 10B+ since early 2020  —  The facial recognition company Clearview AI is telling investors it is on track to have 100 billion facial photos in its database within a year …
Financial Times:
Memo: ISS tells clients that Apple investors should vote against Tim Cook's $99M pay and bonus package, citing “concern” over stock award Cook received in 2021  —  Institutional Shareholder Services expresses ‘concern’ at chief executive's stock award last year
Tom Metcalf / Bloomberg:
Global financial watchdog FSB warns digital assets could soon threaten financial stability as they become more interconnected with the wider financial system  —  Global financial regulators said digital assets could soon threaten global financial stability due to their scale …
Phelim Kine / Politico:
Experts say automated transcription app Otter.ai and its competitors offer only lax security that could endanger sources  —  Otter.ai has saved reporters countless hours transcribing interviews.  Caveat emptor.  —  Mustafa Aksu is a wanted man.  —  Though he lives in Washington, D.C. …
Kif Leswing / CNBC:
Nvidia reports Q4 revenue of $7.64B, vs. $7.42B est., up 53% YoY, Gaming revenue of $3.42B, up 37% YoY, and Data Center revenue of $3.26B, up 71% YoY  —  - Nvidia reported fiscal fourth-quarter earnings on Wednesday.  — Data center sales rose 71%.  — Nvidia has been boosted …
Hayden Field / Morning Brew:
Q&A with Glen Neumann, creator of @ResNeXtGuesser, a Twitter bot that uses a neural network, ResNeXt, to attempt to correctly identify bizarre viral images  —  Computer engineer Glen Neumann breaks down ResNeXtGuesser, his bot that often hilariously reacts to bizarre images.

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Casey Newton / Platformer:
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