10 things in tech you need to know today

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1. Hackers scraped data from 500 million LinkedIn users and posted it for sale online. In the wake of Facebook’s major data leak, LinkedIn is investigating a leak that affected two-thirds of its users. Here’s what kind of data was scraped.
2. Amazon union workers in Bessemer, Alabama, are on track to reject plans to unionize. The National Labor Relations Board paused its public counting of Amazon employees’ ballots shortly after 7 p.m. Eastern Time on Thursday with the anti-union votes leading 1,100 to 463.
3. Leaked Amazon documents detail a controversial employee-review system that ranks employees in tiers. Insiders say the opaque tier system requires that a certain percentage of employees rank at the bottom — even if they’re performing well. We took a deep dive into the contentious review system. 
4. Amazon Prime Day will reportedly be held in June instead of July this year. Bumping up the shopping event could be to give the company a second-quarter boost, Recode reports. More on that here.
5. Billionaire Peter Thiel said bitcoin could be a “Chinese financial weapon.” During a virtual seminar held by the Richard Nixon Foundation this week, the tech investor also warned the cryptocurrency threatens the US dollar. Here’s what else he said.
6. Boston Dynamics’ Spot robot was thrown into an army field test — but it ran out of battery mid-combat. The French military is testing Spot, the famous robot dog, in combat scenarios. See photos of Spot in combat.
7. Facebook is testing an app that’s similar to Clubhouse, but with video. The app, called Hotline, has a Q&A feature. Here’s what the app would — and wouldn’t — do.
8. Apple has reportedly delayed iPad and MacBook production due to the global chip shortage. Nikkei reported that Apple pushed back some component orders to the second half of this year — but iPhone production has not been affected. Here’s what else you should know.
9. The founders of Clubhouse had a revealing conversation on their unstoppable rise. In a recent interview, Paul Davison and Rohan Seth discussed how they built the ever-popular audio-only app. Read the nine key takeaways from the interview.
10. Fintech darlings Robinhood and SoFi want to democratize IPOs. The companies are looking to encroach on what’s typically been wealthier investors’ territory — opening up the IPO market to much smaller investors. Here’s how they’re trying to beat Wall Street at its own game.

Correction: Yesterday we misstated the cost of Best Buy’s new membership program, Best Buy Beta. It will cost $199.99 per year. More details on the program here.

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Compiled by Jordan Erb. Tips/comments? Email jerb@insider.com or tweet @JordanParkerErb.
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