Tech News Today for August 25, 2016

Tech News for August 25, 2016

Facebook bought WhatsApp back in 2014 and one concern users had was when, not if, Facebook would begin to share data on its users between the two services. At the time WhatsApp founder Jan Koum wrote that personalized data on its users wasn’t collected or stored by the service, and that the company didn't intend to change. Now, in what proves that wasn’t such an ironclad guarantee, WhatsApp is telling its users via its privacy policy that it will start to share analytics data including user phone numbers with Facebook. Read more at nytimes.com.

Mark Gurman on Bloomberg reported that Apple is working on a video creation app that would supplement services like Snapchat, while bringing Apple some mindshare from younger users. Read more at bloomberg.com.

Uber isn’t yet public, but still holds financial performance calls every quarter, and on Friday, the company shared a number of eyebrow raising details: The first quarter of the year saw Uber lose around $520 million, and the second quarter saw that number shoot up past $750 million. The US in particular saw a shortfall of around $100 million which brings Uber’s total losses for 2016’s first half to around $1.27 billion. The company told investors that the cause of these losses was primarily the company’s subsidies for Uber drivers. But bookings were up to $5 billion in that time, from $3.8 billion, and net revenue grew 18 percent to around $1.1 billion in the second quarter. Read more at bloomberg.com.

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