Technology

Bloomberg The UK’s contact-tracing mobile phone app includes code that could allow authorities access to a user’s detailed location data and to send information to Microsoft Corp. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google, according to an initial technical analysis carried out by Privacy International. Like governments around the world, the UK is developing a voluntary mobile app that uses Bluetooth technology to …

Bloomberg For Toru Kawakatsu, winning a 70-second spot on Nintendo Co.’s popular Direct showcase last month was the culmination of an unusual strategy many dismissed as quixotic. His four-person game studio, dubbed Petit Depotto, started work on an adventure game called Gnosia for the PlayStation Vita portable console back in 2015. The Vita was already ailing back then, and Sony …

Bloomberg Twitter Inc. has more users than ever, but its advertising business was hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic at the end of the first quarter. The social-media company reported revenue of $808 million in the period, ahead of Wall Street estimates of $773 million, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The shares surged about 10% in early trading. From …

Bloomberg Facebook Inc.’s revenue held up better than expected in the early months of the Covid-19 pandemic. But the company warned that the worst of the slowdown in ad spending isn’t over, raising the prospect of a bigger hit across the digital-advertising market. Chief Financial Officer Dave Wehner noted the “potential for an even more severe advertising industry contraction.” His …

Bloomberg Alphabet Inc. is defying political taboos with record stock buybacks as mass unemployment and economic uncertainty boosts scrutiny for the long-controversial practice. S&P 500 companies are set to reduce buybacks by an estimated 50% this year, according to Goldman Sachs. Yet, the Google parent company bought $8.5 billion of its own shares in the first quarter alone. That’s the …

Bloomberg Facebook Inc. is launching a new group video chat product meant to capitalise on a world now stuck indoors and offer an alternative to services that have exploded in popularity in recent months, like Zoom. Messenger Rooms, a feature that will be available on Facebook’s core social network and its Messenger app, will allow video chats among as many …

Bloomberg Apple Inc. and Google said they are putting stronger privacy protections in their upcoming contact-tracing tool for Covid-19 and that an early version will launch for developers next week. The companies said the system’s tracking keys — a string of characters linked to a user’s device — will be generated in more random ways, and that Bluetooth data will …

Bloomberg The pandemic has many of us acting in unusual ways, and the world’s largest e-commerce company is no exception. In a stunning reprieve from the prerogatives of capitalism, Amazon.com Inc. has begun discouraging users from buying things they don’t need. Amazon is suppressing extraneous consumption in various ways, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. It isn’t …

Bloomberg By mid-March, John Lyotier’s travel software business Left Technologies Inc. was cratering with the spread of the pandemic. Seeking to cut costs, he reached out to his office landlord, who offered rent relief. Then he contacted Amazon.com Inc., asking to “explore creative financing opportunities” for his monthly cloud-computing bill. The response was succinct. “’Nope, that’s the way it is,’” …

Bloomberg Twitter Inc. lost its six-year legal battle to let the public know exactly how many requests it received from the FBI to snoop on private user accounts. A federal judge said the government convinced her that granting the request “would be likely to lead to grave or imminent harm to the national security.” Twitter broke ranks with other large …