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Germany's antitrust watchdog orders Facebook to stop combining WhatsApp and Instagram data without consent in Germany; Facebook says it will appeal decision (BBC)

BBC: Germany’s antitrust watchdog orders Facebook to stop combining WhatsApp and Instagram data without consent in Germany; Facebook says it will appeal decision  —  Germany’s competition authority has told Facebook it can only continue gathering so much data about users from beyond its app and website if it gets individuals’ consent. Germany's antitrust watchdog orders

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Interview with MoviePass CEO Mitch Lowe and EVP Khalid Itum about what went wrong, as they embark on an apology tour to win back distributors and customers (Andrew Gruttadaro/The Ringer)

Andrew Gruttadaro / The Ringer: Interview with MoviePass CEO Mitch Lowe and EVP Khalid Itum about what went wrong, as they embark on an apology tour to win back distributors and customers  —  It was the greatest deal—or scam, depending on whom you ask—in movie history.  And then it fell apart. Interview with MoviePass CEO

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A ‘Google for bacterial DNA’ is helping scientists fight drug resistant infections

Ever since I read a 2014 WHO report stating that antibiotic-resistant bacteria could kill more people each year than cancer by 2050, I have been looking for signs of hope that we might avoid plummeting towards an apocalyptic nightmare of mass deaths by infection. But seriously … #saveantibiotics #AntibioticResistance #10yearscallenge pic.twitter.com/Js4lYBfnye — Kathryn Merkel (@KeepATXabx)

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Atrient, a leading casino marketing kiosk vendor, allegedly ignored serious security flaws and a researcher who uncovered flaws was assaulted by company's COO (Guise Bule/Secjuice.com)

Guise Bule / Secjuice.com: Atrient, a leading casino marketing kiosk vendor, allegedly ignored serious security flaws and a researcher who uncovered flaws was assaulted by company’s COO  —  Following a serious vulnerability disclosure affecting casinos globally, an executive of casino technology vendor Atrient … Atrient, a leading casino marketing kiosk vendor, allegedly ignored serious security

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Microsoft joins Google, Facebook, and Arm as a member of the OpenChain Project, which aims to standardize open-source software licensing (Mike Wheatley/SiliconANGLE)

Mike Wheatley / SiliconANGLE: Microsoft joins Google, Facebook, and Arm as a member of the OpenChain Project, which aims to standardize open-source software licensing  —  Microsoft Corp. wants to support more standardization of open-source software licensing, so today it’s putting its weight behind the OpenChain Project as its latest platinum member. Microsoft joins Google, Facebook,

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Research: US riders who used both Uber and Lyft in Q4 2018 accounted for ~1/3 of the companies' ride-sharing revenue; 15% of revenue was from Lyft-only riders (Rani Molla/Recode)

Rani Molla / Recode: Research: US riders who used both Uber and Lyft in Q4 2018 accounted for ~1/3 of the companies’ ride-sharing revenue; 15% of revenue was from Lyft-only riders  —  Customers are shopping between the two ride-hail leaders and taking the car with the better price.  —  Ride-sharing customers are becoming less loyal.

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Microsoft introduces background blur feature to Skype, which uses AI to detect the user's hair, hands, and arms, and blur distracting objects in the background (Victoria Song/Gizmodo)

Victoria Song / Gizmodo: Microsoft introduces background blur feature to Skype, which uses AI to detect the user’s hair, hands, and arms, and blur distracting objects in the background  —  Slobs of the world, don’t work too hard KonMari-ing your apartment or office ahead of your next important Skype call. Microsoft introduces background blur feature

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Sonos' stock falls as much as 15% after announcing its CFO Mike Giannetto will retire later this year; it has hired an executive search firm to find a new CFO (Kevin Kelleher/Fortune)

Kevin Kelleher / Fortune: Sonos’ stock falls as much as 15% after announcing its CFO Mike Giannetto will retire later this year; it has hired an executive search firm to find a new CFO  —  Sonos’ stock fell as much as 15% late Wednesday after the company said that its chief financial officer, Mike Giannetto,

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For Spotify to succeed as a podcast app, it needs to clearly separate podcasts from music, help users discover podcasts better, and allow creators to monetize (Ashley Carman/The Verge)

Ashley Carman / The Verge: For Spotify to succeed as a podcast app, it needs to clearly separate podcasts from music, help users discover podcasts better, and allow creators to monetize  —  Some suggestions for improvement  —  Spotify announced today that the company plans to spend up to $500 million on podcast-related acquisitions. For Spotify

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