Kevin’s Week in Tech: Let’s Check In on the Other Social Networks, Shall We?

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Kevin’s Week in Tech: Let’s Check In on the Other Social Networks, Shall We? Photo Twitter reported a profit that was driven, in part, by its data licensing business — the part of Facebook’s business that got it into trouble. Credit Richard Drew/Associated Press Each week, Kevin Roose, technology columnist at The New York Times, discusses developments in the tech industry, offering analysis and maybe a joke or two. Want this newsletter in your inbox? Sign up here.
Hello again! I write to you this week from my underground bunker, deep below The New York Times’s headquarters, where I’ve gone to avoid all news about Kanye West’s political views.
As usual, there was some Facebook news during the week: The company reported strong first-quarter earnings and user growth, showing that not even a global privacy freakout can keep those sweet, sweet “likes” and shares coming. The company’s chief technology officer, Mike Schroepfer, pulled the short straw and got stuck on crisis cleanup duty this ..

Amazon’s Profit Swells to $1.6 Billion, Lifted by Its Cloud Business

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Amazon’s Profit Swells to $1.6 Billion, Lifted by Its Cloud Business Photo Amazon’s revenue for the first quarter jumped 43 percent from a year earlier, rising to $51 billion from $35.7 billion in the same period last year. Credit Scott Olson/Getty Images SEATTLE — Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s founder and chief executive, long ago figured out how to keep Amazon’s sales figures shooting skyward. Now he is doing the same with profit.
The company, which once seemed to have only a passing interest in turning a profit, said its net income for the first quarter more than doubled. Although Amazon is best known as an internet shopping destination, its cloud computing and advertising businesses were big contributors to the jump in profit.
Mr. Bezos singled out the performance of the company’s cloud computing business — known as Amazon Web Services, or A.W.S. — referring in a statement to a “remarkable acceleration” in growth in the segment for a second consecutive quarter.
Amazon often boasts of its co..

Microsoft’s Cloud Has Business Booming Again

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Microsoft’s Cloud Has Business Booming Again
Microsoft, more than any other traditional software company, has swiftly and profitably made the shift to delivering software as an internet service.
The technology giant reinforced how well is has made that transition on Thursday, when it reported strong gains in both profits and sales in its fiscal third quarter, led by the rapid growth of its cloud software business.
The company’s net income rose 35 percent from a year earlier, to $7.4 billion. Revenue rose 16 percent to $26.8 billion in the quarter, exceeding the Wall Street consensus forecast of nearly $25.8 billion.
Microsoft’s earnings per share increased 36 percent to 95 cents a share, well above the analysts’ average estimate of 85 cents a share, compiled by Thomson Reuters.

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Since Satya Nadella became chief executive in 2014, the cloud portion of Microsoft’s revenue has soared from 3 percent to more than 21 percent this year, accord..

Unlike in U.S., Facebook Faces Tough Questions in Britain

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Unlike in U.S., Facebook Faces Tough Questions in Britain

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Facebook’s Tech Chief Faces U.K. Lawmakers

Mike Schroepfer, Facebook’s chief technical officer, had an awkward moment on the subject of Russian disinformation in front of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee at the British House of Commons.

By PARLIAMENTARY RECORDING UNIT, VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS.

Photo by Peter Nicholls/Reuters.

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LONDON — Facebook’s chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, escaped tough questioning during congressional testimony this month in part because American lawmakers weren’t well versed about how the social network functions. On Thursday, one of his deputies faced a decidedly sharper inquisition from a panel in Britain.
The dueling experiences highlight the different approaches taken on both sides of the Atlantic toward oversight of personal data and the social media giants who hold it. While the United States has largely eschewed regulating companies li..

How Fake Mark Zuckerbergs Scam Facebook Users Out of Their Cash

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How Fake Mark Zuckerbergs Scam Facebook Users Out of Their Cash SAN FRANCISCO — A Facebook notification on Gary Bernhardt’s phone woke him up one night last November with incredible news: a message from Mark Zuckerberg himself, saying that he had won $750,000 in the Facebook lottery.
“I got all excited. Wouldn’t you?” said Mr. Bernhardt, 67, a retired forklift driver and Army veteran in Ham Lake, Minn. He stayed up until dawn trading messages with the person on the other end. To obtain his winnings, he was told, he first needed to send $200 in iTunes gift cards.
Hours later, Mr. Bernhardt bought the gift cards at a gas station and sent the redemption codes to the account that said it was Mr. Zuckerberg. But the requests for money didn’t stop. By January, Mr. Bernhardt had wired an additional $1,310 in cash, or about a third of his social-security checks over three months.
Mr. Bernhardt eventually realized that he had been the unwitting victim of a scam that has thrived on Facebook and ..