Tech Brew Ride Home

How technology has impacted policing has come up on this show far more than you would expect, if you think about it. So, when listener of the show Matt Stroud got in touch to talk about his new book about the impact of technology on policing, I said: yes please. The book is coming out this week, it's called Thin Blue Lie: The failure of high tech policing. Reading the book, a couple of things surprised me. As you'll hear, policing wasn't very tech or data driven until very recently, and like in other areas, it just seems like throwing technology at a problem, does not solve everything magically. In fact, there can be serious unintended consequences. And also, I was surprised how much the theme and anecdotes in the book lined up with some of the things we've discussed on this show. IE: technology is a tool, but data and gadgets still need a human element to be used effectively, especially when you're dealing with, you know, humans.

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When issues of consumer data, and consumer privacy come up on the show, I think I've asked a couple of times before, what are the laws here? In the United States. Who owns my data? What are the rules? What mechanisms are in place to give me control over my data? Are there any? Well, Justin Brookman is the Director of Consumer Privacy and Technology Policy at Consumer Reports. He was also previously at the Federal Trade Commission... and as you'll hear, he confirms that there are essentially no nationwide rules or laws in place around a lot of this stuff. Whatever rules are in place are sort of tangential statutes that have been drafted into service in an attempt to address modern issues that the statutes weren't even designed for. Is a big federal data and privacy regulatory regime coming soon? What might it look like? And by the way, the states aren't waiting, they're beginning to pass consumer data and privacy laws, but do they even have the right to do that? Oh, and is the FTC about to bring the hammer down on Facebook? Spoiler alert, Justin thinks most definitely, because the FTC knows it needs to make a statement. Anyway, another episode where I educate myself on corners of the tech world I don't know super much about, and hopefully, education you along with me.

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Does Chris Cox’s departure from Facebook mean the pivot is real, Apple responds to Spotify’s complaint, and of course, the weekend longreads suggestions.

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FACEBOOK’S HEAD OF PRODUCT LEAVES AFTER PRIVACY PIVOT (Wired)

As Mark Zuckerberg Tightens Grip on Facebook, 2 Top Deputies Leave (NYTimes)

Addressing Spotify’s claims (Apple Newsroom)

The New Zealand Massacre Was Made to Go Viral (NYTimes)

Weekend Longreads Suggestions:

‘We Know Them. We Trust Them.’ Uber and Airbnb Alumni Fuel Tech’s Next Wave. (NYTimes)

DeepMind and Google: the battle to control artificial intelligence (1843)

Foursquare’s first decade, from viral hit to real business and beyond (Fast Company)

Meet The Billionaire Who Defied Amazon And Built Wish, The World’s Most-Downloaded E-Commerce App (Forbes)

How to Stop Your Roommates From Messing With Your Amazon Echo (Lifehacker)

Facebook’s data sharing is now under criminal investigation, and the company had a bad night with its services intermittently down across the globe, Dropbox is cracking down on freeloaders, Silicon Valley wants to build a monument to itself, and Google makes a π Day statement.

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Facebook’s Data Deals Are Under Criminal Investigation (NYTimes)

Google launches Android Q Beta 1 (Venture Beat)

Telegram gained three million new users during Facebook outage (The Verge)

Tumblr traffic dropped by nearly 100M views the month after it banned porn (TNW)

Dropbox device linking limits just got added for Basic accounts (SlashGear)

Microsoft announces Xbox Live for any iOS or Android game (The Verge)

In Silicon Valley, Plans for a Monument to Silicon Valley (NYTimes)

Silicon Valley Wants a Monument to Itself. Will It Scale? (NYMag)

Pi in the sky: Calculating a record-breaking 31.4 trillion digits of Archimedes’ constant on Google Cloud (Google Cloud Blog)

Spotify files a pretty timely anti-trust complaint against Apple, Microsoft tries to get a jump on Google’s steaming video game announcement, is Google scaling back its hardware ambitions, what is Discord and why is it going mainstream all the sudden, and maybe you already knew this, but scientists think they’ve proven that there’s no such thing as objective reality.

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Links:

Spotify files EU antitrust complaint against Apple (Reuters)

Apple Courts HBO and Showtime for Service to Challenge Netflix (Bloomberg)

Facial recognition's 'dirty little secret': Millions of online photos scraped without consent (NBC News)

Google has told dozens of employees on its laptop and tablet division to find new jobs at the company, raising questions about its hardware plans (Business Insider)

Verizon’s 5G service will cost $10 extra, launches in Chicago and Minneapolis on April 11th (The Verge)

Microsoft demonstrates xCloud game streaming a week before Google’s ‘future of gaming’ event (The Verge)

How an App for Gamers Went Mainstream (The Atlantic)

A quantum experiment suggests there’s no such thing as objective reality (MIT Technology Review)

Facebook self owns by taking down Senator Warren’s ads, Spotify will now give you Hulu for free, why the Bay Area is no longer the best place for startups, and the 30th anniversary of the World Wide Web.

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Links:

Facebook backtracks after removing Warren ads calling for Facebook breakup (Politico)

Apple’s March 25th event is official: ‘It’s show time’ (9to5Mac)

Spotify Premium now includes Hulu for no extra cost (The Verge)

Amazon’s Alexa has 80,000 Apps—and No Runaway Hit (Bloomberg)

Peak California (Byrne Hobart)

Goodbye, Silicon Valley, hello, Atlanta: Black entrepreneurs part of new migration to South (USA Today)

30 years on, what’s next #ForTheWeb? (Tim Berners-Lee)

The original Web proposal

Nvidia buys Mellanox, Tesla reverses course, a handy primer on how TikTok is different, and we check in on the smart takes from last week’s big stories.

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Nvidia to Buy Mellanox for $6.9 Billion in Data Center Push (Bloomberg)

Landlords to Tesla: You’re Still on the Hook for Your Store Leases (WSJ)

How TikTok Is Rewriting the World (NYTimes)

Facebook vs. Apple (Slate)

Facebook has a big, terrifying dream to be the communication backbone for the Western world (Business Insider)

ELIZABETH WARREN WANTS TO BREAK UP APPLE, TOO (The Verge)

Elizabeth Warren Wants To Break Up Amazon, Google And Facebook; But Does Her Plan Make Any Sense? (TechDirt)

How to Enable Dark Mode Nearly Everywhere It's Available Right Now (Gizmodo)

Sometimes the bonus episodes are for getting news in areas that I might have missed or might not have made our show, but I still find interesting. This week I reached out to Brady Dale of Coindesk, because I know he’s a listener and I knew he could give us some more background on Facebook’s recent moves in crypto, but also some other crypto news we haven’t gotten to and just the state of the crypto-space generally.

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You know MG Siegler. Once upon a time, he was one of the most prominent tech journalists in the land, when he wrote for TechCrunch. Now-a-days he is a prominent venture capitalist at GV. But he still likes to talk about gadgets. Maybe you’ve heard him do so on Gruber’s podcast. Today’s bonus episode is nothing sophisticated, no deep-dive level of journalism… it’s just two dudes looking at the recent slate of foldable phones and deciding if we want one.

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Linkedin.com/ride

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Senator Warren proposes breaking up big tech, Airbnb buys HotelTonight, why the big platforms are taking down vaccine content, and of course, the weekend longreads suggestions.

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Links:

Here’s how we can break up Big Tech (Warren For President)

Airbnb Wanted Travelers To Stay In Homes. Now It's Buying HotelTonight. (BuzzFeed News)

Three Reasons Behind Airbnb’s Deal for HotelTonight (The Information)

Turnitin to Be Acquired by Advance Publications for $1.75B (EdSurge)

Combatting Vaccine Misinformation (Facebook Newsroom)

Weekend Longreads Suggestions:

THE HYPOCRISY OF THE TECHNO-MORALISTS IN THE COMING AGE OF AUTONOMY (WarOnTheRocks)

HOW ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE WILL REVOLUTIONIZE THE WAY VIDEO GAMES ARE DEVELOPED AND PLAYED (TheVerge)

Delete Never: The Digital Hoarders Who Collect Tumblrs, Medieval Manuscripts, and Terabytes of Text Files (Gizmodo)

How Munchery’s high hopes led to its decline and fall (FastCompany)

Triton is the world’s most murderous malware, and it’s spreading (MIT Technology Review)