Sep 15, 2018 - Technology

Tech news you may have missed this week

Mark Zuckerberg with thumbs-up pin.

Illustration: Rebecca Zisser / Axios

It was an exciting week on all things Apple and Jeff Bezos, but here are some tech stories that might have slipped under your radar.

Catch up quick: Zuckerberg: How Facebook is now better prepared to fight election interference; Google’s location privacy practices are under investigation in Arizona; Walmart relaunches Jet with three-hour deliveries; Uber axed its logo; Seven Google employees quit over secretive search project in China.

Zuckerberg: How Facebook is now better prepared to fight election interference

  • Why it matters: After initially denying Facebook's role in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Facebook's CEO outlined on Wednesday night how the company has learned from its mistakes, adding it's already stopped meddling attempts in a number of elections.

Google's search engine for China: Seven employees quit; Google built a prototype

  • Why it matters: The departures follow the controversial revelation of Google’s work on Project Dragonfly, a censored search engine that would let it serve China again. The former employees cite a lack of transparency from the company as the reason for leaving. Meanwhile, Google has reportedly built a prototype that links a user's searches to their phone number, which could make them a target of the government.

Walmart relaunches Jet with three-hour deliveries

  • Why it matters: Walmart continues to battle rival Amazon, this time with a new version of Jet.com, which it bought in 2016. The new Jet.com is aimed at shoppers in large urban cities, letting them order via voice commands with Siri and offering three-hour delivery. Walmart also announced this week its acquisition of Cornershop, an on-demand grocery delivery service in Mexico and Chile.

Uber gets a new logo

  • Why it matters: The rebranding, which includes new colors, typeface and app layout, is to better match the company's expanding transportation options, it says. Uber is also still working to redeem its public image.

Google’s location privacy practices are under investigation in Arizona

  • Why it matters: Google mobile services reportedly continue to track users when they think they've turned location tracking off, causing new privacy concerns about the company.

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