10 things in tech you need to know today, November 9

Google CEO Sundar
Pichai.
Stephen
Lam/Reuters

Good morning! This is the tech news you need to know this Friday.

1. 
   Google CEO Sundar Pichai sent a memo to employees about the
   changes to Google’s sexual harassment policy after the
   walkout. The announcement follows 20,000 employees
   walking out last week in protest at Google’s handling of sexual
   assault and harassment.
2. 
   Sundar Pichai is ending Google’s once famous partying culture
   by limiting drinking at work and threatening “more onerous
   actions” if things don’t change. Pichai released a
   list of new policies on Thursday in an all-staff memo.
3. 
   Tesla appointed a new chair to replace Elon Musk.
   Board director Robyn Denholm replaced the Tesla CEO after he
   was forced to step down as chair by the Securities and Exchange
   Commission.
4. 
   Lyft removed the option to split ride fares with other
   passengers, but says an “easier” option is coming
   soon. The ride-hailing company didn’t offer a
   reason for removing the feature, and Uber still offers fare
   splitting.
5. 
   Disney revealed new details about its Netflix competitor,
   Disney+, including ‘Star Wars’ and Marvel TV
   shows. Disney CEO Bob Iger confirmed on Thursday
   that a TV prequel series to “Rogue One” and a spinoff series
   about the Marvel villain Loki are in development.
6. 
   The founder of Vine announced the name of his next video app —
   and it’s set to launch in spring 2019. Vine
   founder Dom Hofmann revealed Thursday he would be releasing a
   new looping video app called Byte.
7. 
   Dropbox posted $360 million in revenue in the third quarter,
   beating Wall Street’s forecasts. Analysts
   expectations were low, however, and the company’s share price
   has been beaten up in recent months as growth has slowed.
8. 
   Google just hired a big name CEO in healthcare to coordinate
   all of its healthcare initiatives. Google hired
   Geisinger Health CEO David Feinberg, the Wall Street Journal
   reports.
9. 
   Facebook says its new Portal device is not a “data-gathering
   operation” despite previously acknowledging it might use your
   call info to target ads. Facebook’s vice president
   of consumer hardware Andrew Bosworth told Bloomberg that the
   data Portal collects is limited.
10. 
    Amazon’s cloud CEO pooh-poohed employee concerns about selling
    its facial-recognition software to ICE and law
    enforcement. At a company meeting Thursday, Andy
    Jassy, CEO of Amazon Web Services, addressed employees’
    concerns about the company of offering facial-recognition
    software to immigration and law-enforcement agencies, according
    to BuzzFeed News.

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