The National Labor Relations Board concluded last month that Google's firing of engineer James Damore over his infamous memo didn't violate labor laws, according to Bloomberg.
Why it matters: Damore's firing after he published a document arguing that biological gender difference could account for the lack of women in tech has been hailed as proof of Silicon Valley's intolerance for conservative viewpoints.
Apple says it is prepping a fix for an issue that can cause its messaging app to crash when it receives a certain character in Telugu, a language used in parts of India.
Why it matters: It's the latest in a string of software quality issues for Apple. Another bug, now fixed, caused the letter "I" to appear as the letter "a" and a question mark symbol. As first reported by Axios, Apple is delaying some features planned for the next version of iOS in an effort to make quality a bigger focus.
Uber is reportedly preparing to sell its Southeast Asian operations to Grab, its rival in the region that's also backed by investor Softbank, in exchange for a stake in the company, according to CNBC.
Why it makes sense: The deal would be similar to what Uber did with its Chinese operations in 2016, which put an end to the $1 billion it was spending per year there. Earlier this week, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi called the company's spending to compete in regions like Asia "optional," adding that its ride-hailing business in developed markets like North America and Europe is financially sustainable.
Grab declined to comment and Uber has not returned a request for comment.
A court in Brussels told Facebook to halt its collection of data generated when its users are on the internet but away from the social network, according to multiplereports.
Why it matters: The court is threatening the company with a fine as high as 100 million Euros — with daily fines of a quarter-of-a-million Euros — if it doesn't comply with the ruling. Facebook is taking a beating on privacy issues in Europe, with a German court contesting the company's data practices earlier this week.
It's been two years since the FBI and Apple got into a giant fight over encryption following the San Bernardino shooting, when the government had the shooter's iPhone, but not the password needed to unlock it, so it asked Apple to create a way inside.
What's most surprising is how little has changed since then. The encryption debate remains unsettled, with tech companies largely opposed and some law enforcement agencies still making the case to have a backdoor.
Snapchat's parent company could make its app cheaper to use and may boost user growth in certain markets through mobile carrier partnerships, CEO Evan Spiegel said on Thursday at Goldman Sachs' tech conference in San Francisco.
The intrigue: Until recently, the ephemeral messaging app company focused on users in North America and Europe, but it'll now have to shift its efforts to other regions. In some of these markets, mobile data is still expensive, which is an obstacle to acquiring users and increasing their use of the app.
YouTube vlogger Ben Bennight contacted the FBI in September after a user named Nikolas Cruz commented, "I'm going to be a professional school shooter," on one of his videos, according to BuzzFeed News. The FBI interviewed Bennight the following day to ask if he knew anything about Cruz, and contacted him again Wednesday after the 19-year old allegedly killed at least 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.
Why it matters: Details about Cruz's background and disturbing social media presence continue to emerge, painting a picture of a troubled teenager who struggled with mental health and disciplinary problems.
Public fights over tech defections are rare, but not unheard of. That said, a dispute over a chief diversity officer is a new one.
Microsoft announced Sunday it hired IBM chief diversity officer Lindsay-Rae McIntyre to fill the same role at the software maker. IBM quickly followed up with a lawsuit, alleging McIntyre was in violation of a non-compete agreement.
According to new data from Chartbeat, the vast majority of traffic growth publishers are seeing from platforms is now coming from Google AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) — or fast-loading mobile article pages on Google Search and Google News.
Why it matters: As Facebook pulls back from publisher traffic referrals in the News Feed, Google General Counsel Kent Walker tells Axios that Google is "doubling down" on news, specifically using Google AMP. The data from Chartbeat shows it's working.
Today, profits from Uber's ride-hailing business in developed markets (N. America, Europe, Australia, New Zeland) can pay for the whole company's centralized business expenses like engineering, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said at Goldman Sachs' tech conference in San Francisco.
Why it matters: Khosrowshahi's comments come a day after the company released its financials for 2017, which showed its business grew despite a year of turmoil. The company has also long faced questions about whether its business model is even viable.
Two of Uber's recent deals — an investment from Softbank and settling its lawsuit with Waymo — were about keeping "peace in the kingdom," said new CEO Dara Khosrowshahi on Wednesday at Goldman Sach's tech conference in San Francisco.
Big picture: Khosrowshahi's job so far has been clear: eliminate as much drama from the company as possible. The Softbank investment in particular, was about providing liquidity to early shareholders and paving way for important governance changes that have been overdue.
