10 things in tech you need to know today

insider@insider.com (Isobel Asher Hamilton)
·3 min read
Amazon warehouse staff
New Amazon documents obtained by Reveal suggest Amazon warehouses are not as safe as the company says.

Ina Fassbender/AFP via Getty Images

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  1. Nearly two years since Google Health came together, it's still unclear how the group fits into Alphabet's bigger vision for healthcare or how it'll make money. The health division is still battling public distrust and has lost out on some major deals as it tries to hammer out its road map, insiders told Business Insider.

  2. Hedge funds and private equity are piling into late-stage startups ahead of hotly anticipated IPOs. Nontraditional investors have participated in more than $50 billion in deal value so far in 2020, according to PitchBook data.

  3. Amazon is letting customers pay for groceries by scanning their palm at its Go convenience stores.  Amazon is trialing its new Amazon One palm-scanning payment tech at two of its Seattle convenience stores.

  4. DuckDuckGo complained Android's choice screen in Europe is "rigged" after Google picked a bunch of alternative search engines. Google started letting competitors auction for space on Android phones after the EU slapped it with a $5 billion fine for anti-competitive behavior in 2018.

  5. A cache of Amazon company records show the company has misled the public about the frequency of injuries inside its warehouses, Reveal reports. Last year one the warehouse with the highest injury rate experienced 22 serious injuries for every 100 workers, per the documents seen by Reveal.

  6. Joe Biden's campaign declared war on Facebook, accusing it of failing to live up to its promises to rein in Trump. The Biden campaign said Facebook had not lived up to its own promises to clamp down on misinformation on topics like voting.

  7. Google's $2.1 billion Fitbit takeover is set for regulator approval after the tech giant made new concessions on user data. Google has promised it will not use Fitbit data to personalize adverts for 10 years.

  8. A number of people on Clubhouse, the audio-only chat app used by tech founders and investors, revealed a chatroom conversation erupted with anti-Semitic opinions on Monday evening. Users present in the chatroom said it spiralled into a tirade against Jewish people using anti-Semitic tropes.

  9. Uber's push to expand its food delivery empire just hit another roadblock as the DOJ scrutinizes its plan to buy Postmates. The DOJ put in a "second request," which signals it's "concerned about the deal" according to former DOJ antitrust lawyer Sam Weinstein.

  10. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstong drew both scorn and praise after forbidding employees to engage in activism at work. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong wrote in a blog post over the weekend that corporate activism was a "distraction" from his company's mission of increasing global access to cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.

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Read the original article on Business Insider