About Us
Pricing
Briefing
Facebook

WhatsApp Delays Data Sharing With Facebook After User Backlash, as Rival App Signal Goes Offline

By Alex Heath
· · Source: The Information

WhatsApp is delaying a controversial update that further linked the encrypted messaging app with its parent company Facebook, prompting large spikes in downloads for rival apps. One beneficiary, Signal, went down completely for more than six hours Friday as a result of the surge in demand. The change to WhatsApp’s privacy policy, which users were recently asked to accept by February 8 or lose...

Get access to exclusive coverage
Read deeply reported stories from the largest newsroom in tech.
Latest Articles
 
Exclusive Facebook Policy
FTC Picks New Antitrust Top Cop to Battle Facebook, Probe Amazon
By Josh Sisco · May 15, 2021 11:58 AM PDT
Incoming FTC antitrust enforcement chief Eyitayo St. Matthew-Daniel. Credit: DOJ. Art by Mike Sullivan.
A little-known criminal antitrust prosecutor at the U.S. Department of Justice, Eyitayo St. Matthew-Daniel, is expected to be named the top antitrust enforcer at the department’s sister agency, the Federal Trade Commission, say three people familiar with the situation. The previously unreported pick comes from current Acting FTC Chair Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, who has advocated for more...
Latest Briefs
 
Court Blocks Facebook’s Bid to Stop U.S.-EU Data Transfer Ruling
By Kevin McLaughlin · May 14, 2021
Andreessen Horowitz Promotes Chris Lyons To General Partner
By Kate Clark · May 14, 2021
ViacomCBS Doesn’t Have to Pay Moonves
By Jessica Toonkel · May 14, 2021
Stay in the know
Receive a summary of the day's top tech news—distilled into one email.
Access on the go
View stories on our mobile app and tune into our weekly podcast.
Join live video Q&A’s
Deep-dive into topics like startups and autonomous vehicles with our top reporters and other executives.
Enjoy a clutter-free experience
Read without any banner ads.
A photo (top left) of a suspected detention center next to Artux Kunshan Industrial Park in Xinjiang, where an Apple supplier operated. Apple CEO Tim Cook (right). Photos by AP; Bloomberg. Collage by Mike Sullivan
Exclusive Asia Apple
Seven Apple Suppliers Accused of Using Forced Labor From Xinjiang
By Wayne Ma
Advanced-Connectek has made unglamorous but critical computer components for Apple for more than a decade.
Illustration by Laurent Bazart
Startups Markets
As SPAC Market Unravels, Startups Seek Alternatives
By Berber Jin
After the coronavirus pandemic jump-started demand for prescription delivery services, six-year-old Capsule Pharmacy decided to raise money to expand into new cities, hoping to target more customers who don’t want to visit pharmacies in person.
Tourists followed a tour guide through a backstreet in Florence, Italy, in 2017. Photo: Bloomberg
Policy Travel
Airbnb Confronts Tighter Rules on Rentals as Pandemic Ebbs
By Cory Weinberg
As Airbnb works to reinvigorate its business after the pandemic all but extinguished travel to urban destinations, it is confronting a fresh threat from regulators intent on limiting the number of homes they allow to be rented out to tourists.
Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney, on the left, leaving the courthouse last week. Photo by Bloomberg.
News Analysis Apple
Midway Through Apple-Epic Trial, Apple Maintains Its Advantage
By Josh Sisco
App developers are rooting for Epic Games to win its court battle against Apple. Yet some prominent developers told The Information they have grown concerned that the ongoing antitrust trial between Apple and Epic could hurt their own efforts to take on Apple and redefine who controls the economics of consumer apps.
A ‘Welcome Back!’sign on a Google building in Mountain View, Calif. Photo: Bloomberg
Google Facebook
Under Pressure From Employees, Tech Companies Relax In-Office Policies
By Sarah Krouse and Sylvia Varnham O'Regan
An internal Google employee message board lit up last Wednesday morning as news of what many staff perceived as a more relaxed policy for working remotely circulated.
Kendall Collins, chief marketing officer of Okta. Photo provided by Okta
The Big Interview Enterprise Startups
Okta Exec: We Can Be Bigger Than Salesforce
By Kevin McLaughlin
Last week, the software maker Okta closed its $6.5 billion acquisition of Auth0, one of its main competitors in the market for identity and access management software.