The Government Communications Headquarters in the UK wants a way to give law enforcement access to end-to-end encrypted digital information from individuals without compromising privacy, but a group of 47 companies including Apple, Google, Microsoft and WhatsApp have signed a petition to abandon its plans for a so-called “ghost protocol.” In the open letter published on Lawfare, the companies say the plan would undermine security, threaten trust in encrypted messaging services, and compromise citizens’ right to privacy and free expression.

Google plans to retire the Target Search Page Location and Target Outranking Share automated bidding strategies in late June, and users are being prompted to use Target Impression Share, which the company introduced in November. Campaigns using Target Search Page Location and Target Outranking Share at the end of the year will automatically be migrated to the Target Impression Share strategy based on previous target locations and historical impression share. 

Suresh Kumar, a former Google, Microsoft, and Amazon employee, stepped into the role of chief technology officer at Walmart. At Google, Kumar worked as vice president and general manager of display, video, app ads and analytics. He will oversee technology globally at Walmart, including the retailer’s warehouse club chain Sam’s Club.

Google continually tweaks its search results on desktop and on the mobile web. Last week I found topic recommendations based on previous searches just below the search bar on desktop. In the latest test identified by 9to5Google, there has been a minor redesign of the search field found on the main home page and at the top of the result page. The left-hand side of the bar gained a magnifying glass icon in Google’s four colors of red, green, blue, and yellow. Abner Li explains.