Carl Icahn really wants Apple to redistribute its wealth, so, naturally, the famed investor is appealing directly to shareholders. “To push Apple, he now wants stockholders to vote on whether the company should spend more of its billions to buy back its own shares on the public market,” according to Time.com. “A buyback would almost certainly drive up the price of Apple’s stock -- and increase the value of Icahn’s holdings along with those of all Apple investors.” 

Microsoft is pledging to go toe-to-toe in court with U.S. intelligence agencies over any attempt to seize its foreign customers’ data under American surveillance laws. Reuters call the move “one of a series of steps aimed at reassuring nervous users abroad.” Microsoft, Reuters writes, “said it had never turned over any such data under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and did not believe that authorities are entitled to the information if it is stored abroad.” 

It looks like Twitter has finally found its first female board member in Marjorie Scardino, former CEO of media company Pearson. “The move puts to rest a long-running debate (and controversy) around Twitter’s complete lack of female board members,” TechCrunch writes. “Scardino is a smart choice: she has deep connections into the media industry, as well as into Europe.” 

Twitter reportedly came close to buying Topsy -- the social analytics startup that Apple just scooped up for more than $200 million. In fact, “Twitter considered buying Topsy a number of times throughout the company’s six-year history,” AllThingsD reports, citing sources. “Topsy was attractive to Twitter … because in some cases, Topsy’s search technology and tools were even more effective than Twitter’s own in-house search tools, which have been a weak point for Twitter for years.” 

Adding to online privacy and security fears, a Netherlands-based Web server has been found to have in its possession the login and password information of some 2 million service accounts, including Facebook, Twitter, Google and Yahoo. “Facebook had the most stolen credentials, at 318,121, followed by Yahoo at 59,549 and Google at 54,437,” PC World reports, citing a security researcher with Trustwave’s SpiderLabs. 

Not to be outdone by Amazon and its proposed drone-delivery service, Google is opening up about its grand robot ambitions. “Over the last half-year, Google has quietly acquired seven technology companies in an effort to create a new generation of robots,” The New York Times reports. “The engineer heading the effort is Andy Rubin, the man who built Google’s Android software into the world’s dominant force in smartphones.” 

Talk about adding insult to injury. After rejecting a giant acquisition offer from Facebook, Snapchat has gone and poached one of its top sales technology execs. As AllThingsD reports, Emily White, “the Facebook executive in charge of bringing advertising to its Instagram photo-sharing unit,” is leaving to become COO of Snapchat. “The move is a major talent grab by the ephemeral photo and video mobile service.” 

The Next Web considers the bright life and premature death of social music startup Turntable.fm, which will stream its last dance this week. “Fans have used Turntable to create 1 million virtual DJ rooms and play more than 400 million songs -- but it hasn’t made for much of a business,” TNW reports. In a blog post, its founders lament: “The cost of running a music service has been too expensive … and we can’t outpace it with our efforts to monetize it and cut costs.”

Forbes thinks some Princeton researchers have proven that ad tracking and Web “personalization” efforts are contributing to discrimination on a grand scale. “As algorithms make predictions about people based on their web behavior, they can inadvertently deepen existing disparities on aspects like culture, race or gender,” Forbes writes. “In a few years you could ... be looking at a richer or poorer version of the Internet depending on … your credit score or where you live, and not even know it.”

Less than a year old, how is a “news” site by the name of ViralNova eclipsing publishers like Gizmodo, the New York Post, NPR, and People (at least according to  Alexa)? By aggressively pumping out “a collection of image-heavy, emotionally manipulating posts unabashedly in the style of BuzzFeed and Upworthy,” The Wire reports. “And whereas Upworthy says it aims to bring about social change … ViralNova's specialty is strictly whatever will get you to click and share.”