Image: Thays Malcher / Protocol
How not to talk about privacy

Good morning! This Tuesday, what WhatsApp got wrong about privacy, a look at the Compass S-1, and Sergey Brin wants to build a giant battery.
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For a privacy policy change that wasn't all that major, WhatsApp sure blew the execution. It's now almost two months since the company's first attempt to tell users that it was changing its policy, and there's still a lot of confusion out there.
Some quick background: WhatsApp changed its policy so that when users decide to message with businesses, those businesses can collect and store a bit of data on customers. As I wrote for Protocol today, business chat is a key part of the company's future — 175 million people already use it every day — and so it needed a subtle tweak.
Nothing actually changed here, Facebook's head of WhatsApp Will Cathcart told me. "What we're trying to do here is add new, optional business features — people don't need to use them — and explain it for everyone in our terms and privacy policy," he said.
I see two takeaways here for any business. One, that your privacy policy should be written as narrowly and humanly as possible — because if you lawyer-speak yourself into doing whatever you want, you'll scare people off. And two, that people actually care about privacy now.
I guess not everybody's going the SPAC route this year: Real-estate startup Compass published its S-1 last night. And the last 12 months have been good for its business:
The Compass pitch is very "Uber for real estate," in that it takes a relatively everyday thing — selling houses to people who want to buy them — and sprinkles some tech on top. (Here's a good history of the company's complicated reputation in the space.)
But what could go wrong? Let's look at some risk factors:
Compass was last valued at $6.4 billion, but if Opendoor's SPAC and the recent market performance of companies like Zillow and Redfin are any indication, it's likely to see a jump from that when it goes public.
(By the way, longtime Source Code readers might remember that because Compass is going public now, Protocol's Biz Carson loses our bet. But she's on leave, so I'll let it slide.)
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In an interview with Tom Lantzsch, Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Internet of Things Group (IoT) at Intel Corp., Lantzach shares his take on edge computing: There are more innovations to come — and technology leaders should think equally about data and the algorithms as critical differentiators.
Apple's walled garden is also a safe space for hackers, Citizen Lab's Bill Marczak said:
Amy Klobuchar made clear that she's going to keep pushing for legislation to fight back against Big Tech:
Some things about work can move online, Sherry Turkle said, but don't let mentoring get lost:
Altice USA CEO Dexter Goei predicted big shake-ups in the ISP market, and said there's one surprising reason cable isn't dead yet:
Sergey Brin would like to hire someone — maybe you! — for his airship company, LTA Research and Exploration. The job: to build an absurdly huge hydrogen fuel cell.
Goldman Sachs is getting its crypto trading desk going again. Last time it did that, Bitcoin promptly crashed. Just saying.
T-Mobile has laid off 5,000 people since its merger with Sprint, per a recent court filing. This comes from the combined company that promised new jobs "from day one."
Boingo is going private, in a deal that values the company at $854 million. For obvious reasons, it's been a tough year for in-flight Wi-Fi.
Yang Hou is the new chairman and CEO for Microsoft Greater China. He joins from Qualcomm, and replaces Alain Crozier.
Elizabeth Nieto is Spotify's new head of equity and impact, leading the diversity, sustainability and social impact teams. She previously led Amazon's DEI team.
Amazon recently made one of those little design tweaks that I'm guessing it hoped you wouldn't notice. Its app icon now looks like a box with a piece of tape coming over the top, and not … a mouth with a very specific kind of tiny mustache on top. It's a definite improvement! Going from "looks like Hitler" to "looks like Avatar Aang" is a pretty huge upgrade.
In an interview with Tom Lantzsch, Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Internet of Things Group (IoT) at Intel Corp., Lantzach shares his take on edge computing: There are more innovations to come – and technology leaders should think equally about data and the algorithms as critical differentiators.
Today's Source Code was written by David Pierce, with help from Anna Kramer and Shakeel Hashim. Thoughts, questions, tips? Send them to david@protocol.com, or our tips line, tips@protocol.com. Enjoy your day; see you tomorrow.
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