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Yi-Ling Liu / New York Times:
Profile of China-based Blued, one of the largest gay dating apps in the world, which has succeeded by navigating complex rules while staying clear of activism — Blued, one of the biggest gay dating apps in the world, has succeeded because it plays by the ever-shifting rules for L.G.B.T.Q. China …
FinSMEs:
AutoRABIT, which provides cloud-based DevOps, backup, and recovery services specifically designed for the Salesforce platform, raises $12.5M Series A — AutoRABIT, a San Ramon, Calif.-based provider of enterprise-grade cloud DevOps solutions for the Salesforce ecosystem, raised $12.5M in Series A funding.
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:
Health Data Analytics Institute, which provides an AI-powered service to predict health care outcomes, announces $16M round, which it will use to launch an API — Making sense of disparate data is a task at which AI excels. Health Data Analytics Institute (HDAI) is a case in point …
Jessica Saunders / Atlanta Business Journal:
Atlanta-based supply chain tech company Dematic acquires UK-based logistics automation software company DAI for ~$133.5M, as Dematic parent KION completes deal — Supply chain technology company Dematic is expanding its software offerings with the acquisition of a UK-based company that specializes in logistics automation software.
Terje Solsvik / Reuters:
Online classifieds company OLX Brazil, a leading player in Brazil's digital real estate ads, has agreed to buy rival Grupo ZAP for $642M in an all-cash deal — OSLO (Reuters) - Online marketplace OLX Brazil has agreed to buy competitor Grupo ZAP for 2.9 billion reais ($642 million) …
Alex Sherman / CNBC:
Interview with Vision Fund chief Rajeev Misra, who admits the fund made many investment mistakes and denies he smeared other high-ranking SoftBank executives — - Rajeev Misra, who leads SoftBank's Vision Fund, has largely been quiet as criticism has mounted.
Mike Orcutt / MIT Technology Review:
How North Korean hackers laundered $100M in stolen Bitcoin by using hundreds of automated transactions to “peel” small amounts off the original — Hackers working for Kim Jong-un have become experts at covering their tracks on the Bitcoin blockchain.
Sarah Emerson / OneZero :
While tech companies push remote work for their employees, gig workers receive little support amid COVID-19 outbreak and face income loss for self-quarantine — Amazon, Uber, and Lyft have sent memos asking workers to follow protocols that might not be feasible
Natasha Mascarenhas / TechCrunch:
Kleiner Perkins closes its 19th fund, KP19, at $700M to focus on early stage investments, reveals 30 out of 34 KP18 investments were either seed or Series A — After going “back to the future” with a $600 million fund last year, VC firm Kleiner Perkins is aiming for some “returns of the Jedi” with its freshest (and refocused) fund.
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: AT&T is discussing Google's dominance in the ad sector with DOJ officials as the government weighs whether to bring an antitrust action against Google — Cooperation comes two years after AT&T was at loggerheads with DOJ over Time Warner acquisition
Following on the heels of several major cancellations of events the past few days, including the SXSW conference in Austin and the tech conference SaaStr, Stanford University, which is located in the heart of Silicon Valley in Palo Alto, California, announced late Friday that the school would cancel in-person classes for the final two weeks of the university’s winter quarter in response to the expanding outbreak of novel coronavirus, or COVID-19.
In a statement posted by the university, Stanford’s provost Persis Drell announced that the university would cancel two weeks of classes leading up to the university’s winter quarter exams, and “to the extent feasible” migrate classes to online formats.
In addition, professors are being encouraged by the administration to find ways of delivering functionally equivalent course material through online formats, and all exams for winter quarter are expected to be delivered remotely. The policy takes effect immediately starting with classes this coming Monday, March 9.
Furthermore, the university is canceling its annual Admit Weekend, where newly-admitted prospective freshman visit the palm-lined campus and learn more about the school before making a final decision on where to head for their undergraduate degrees. Tours of the campus have also been canceled.
The university in a separate note today acknowledged that two students are in self-isolation after “possible exposure” to the novel coronavirus. The university emphasized that neither student has affirmatively tested positive for the infection at this time.
The San Francisco Bay Area has seen increasing numbers of potential exposures to the novel coronavirus. Stanford itself has been on the vanguard of responding to the global pandemic, announcing the development of its own test earlier this week to detect the infection.
Mikey Campbell / AppleInsider:
Apple launches free repairs for iPad Air models made from Mar. 2019-Oct. 2019 affected by the “blank screen issue” that leaves the display permanently disabled — Apple on Friday launched a repair service program for third-generation iPad Air models suffering from a so-called …
Kang-Xing Jin / About Facebook:
Facebook is temporarily banning ads and listings that sell medical face masks, and outlines changes to keep Instagram users “safe and informed” on COVID-19
On Friday, Facebook announced that it would further attempt to limit coronavirus-related chaos on its platform by banning commerce listings and advertisements for medical face masks.
“We’re monitoring COVID19 closely and will make necessary updates to our policies if we see people trying to exploit this public health emergency,” Facebook Director of Product Management Rob Leathern said in an update on Twitter. “We’ll start rolling out this change in the days ahead.”
Update: We’re banning ads and commerce listings selling medical face masks. We’re monitoring COVID19 closely and will make necessary updates to our policies if we see people trying to exploit this public health emergency. We’ll start rolling out this change in the days ahead.
— Rob Leathern (@robleathern) March 7, 2020
“We are temporarily banning advertisements and commerce listings that sell medical face masks,” a Facebook spokesperson told TechCrunch. “Our teams are monitoring the COVID19 situation closely and will make necessary updates to our policies if we see people trying to exploit this public health emergency.”
Facebook will also limit any ads for medical products that imply a limited supply or create a sense of urgency among potential buyers, as well as ads that make guarantees for COVID-19 “cures” or prevention. Along with those changes, in the next few days Facebook will begin blocking coronavirus-themed groups and pages from its algorithmic recommendations.
As fears of a novel coronavirus epidemic swell worldwide, online platforms have scrambled to stop price gouging and health misinformation. Amazon is working to eradicate “high priced offers” on products like hand sanitizer and face masks from its marketplace, while Ebay has banned all listings for N95 and N100 face masks, hand sanitizer and alcohol wipes. The online auction site will also reject any listings exploiting terms like “COVID-19” and “coronavirus.”
On Wednesday, Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) wrote an open letter to Amazon’s Jeff Bezos expressing concern over “continued reports of price gouging and a lack of transparency” on the site.
“No one should be allowed to reap a windfall from fear and human suffering,” Markey wrote, adding that online retailers have a “particular responsibility” to protect consumers in the midst of the coronavirus outbreak.
Earlier this week, Facebook announced that coronavirus-related searches on its platform would be greeted with an automatic pop-up featuring information from the World Health Organization and local health authorities.
“Given the developing situation, we’re working with national ministries of health and organizations like the WHO, CDC and UNICEF to help them get out timely, accurate information on the coronavirus,” Mark Zuckerberg wrote in an update on his company’s efforts. “We’re giving the WHO as many free ads as they need for their coronavirus response along with other in-kind support.”
The company is also focused on curtailing potentially life-threatening coronavirus misinformation, removing ads, conspiracy theories and treatment claims with no scientific basis. Facebook’s decision to disable ads for face masks comes at a time when health authorities are urging well people to forgo buying the masks, both because they are not necessary for healthy individuals to wear and because demand for the masks is constricting their supply for the medical workers who need them most.
Derek B. Johnson / Federal Computer Week:
DOJ indicts former DHS watchdog and a subordinate for software and data theft; prosecutors say they planned to use stolen info to sell software back to DHS — The Department of Justice announced it has indicted Charles K. Edwards, a former acting inspector general for the Department of Homeland Security …
SpaceX is launching its 20th resupply mission the International Space Station tonight, but this one has a bittersweet twist: It’s the last such mission that will use the first iteration of the Dragon spacecraft that has flown on all of the company’s missions for NASA thus far. Starting this summer, its successor will take its place.
Tonight’s mission will bring a variety of supplies, experiments, and new components to the ISS as usual. Launch is scheduled for 8:50 PM Pacific time, and you can watch it below.
The Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 first stage both flew on previous missions, the Dragon on two others, making it the third of its kind to make it to a third mission. And it will also be the last of its kind to do so.
Dragon has spawned two successor craft, Crew Dragon and Cargo Dragon (sometimes with a “2” appended), the former of which has understandably gotten the lion’s share of attention. But the revised cargo spacecraft very well see more use.
The exact differences between the old and new Dragon aren’t completely clear, but we know that there have been significant improvements to the avionics, power systems, onboard software, and of course the general shape of the thing. Naturally there won’t be life support or an escape system on the craft, which isn’t intended in this form to carry passengers.
This new, improved Cargo Dragon has its first commercial mission scheduled for August, and its sister craft, Crew Dragon, may very well by flying by then as well if everything goes according to plan.
Nick Statt / The Verge:
Postmates adds Drop Options amid COVID-19 concerns, letting users meet Postmates at the door, at curbside, or have no-contact, with deliveries left at the door — The on-demand food delivery industry marches on — Food delivery platform Postmates is starting what the company is calling a …
Sean O'Neill / Skift:
Trump admin demands that Beijing-based Shiji Group unwind its acquisition of StayNTouch, a cloud platform for hotels, because it threatens US national security — This is a highly unusual action. It's unclear why the U.S. government would believe a company would compromise the sensitive personal data …