Bobby Allyn
Bobby Allyn is a business reporter at NPR based in San Francisco. He covers technology and how Silicon Valley's largest companies are transforming how we live and reshaping society.
He came to San Francisco from Washington, where he focused on national breaking news and politics. Before that, he covered criminal justice at member station WHYY.
In that role, he focused on major corruption trials, law enforcement, and local criminal justice policy. He helped lead NPR's reporting of Bill Cosby's two criminal trials. He was a guest on Fresh Air after breaking a major story about the nation's first supervised injection site plan in Philadelphia. In between daily stories, he has worked on several investigative projects, including a story that exposed how the federal government was quietly hiring debt collection law firms to target the homes of student borrowers who had defaulted on their loans. Allyn also strayed from his beat to cover Philly parking disputes that divided in the city, the last meal at one of the city's last all-night diners, and a remembrance of the man who wrote the Mister Softee jingle on a xylophone in the basement of his Northeast Philly home.
At other points in life, Allyn has been a staff reporter at Nashville Public Radio and daily newspapers including The Oregonian in Portland and The Tennessean in Nashville. His work has also appeared in BuzzFeed News, The Washington Post, and The New York Times.
A native of Wilkes-Barre, a former mining town in Northeastern Pennsylvania, Allyn is the son of a machinist and a church organist. He's a dedicated bike commuter and long-distance runner. He is a graduate of American University in Washington.
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The once-hot Silicon Valley startup has seen its stock’s value decline 99% and is struggling to survive. That has put the spotlight on the genetic data it has on 15 million people. -
The measure, known as SB 1047, was one of the nation’s most far-reaching regulations on the booming AI industry. It would have held AI companies legally liable for harms caused by AI and enabled a "kill switch" if systems went rogue. -
Once a hot $6 billion biotech company, 23andMe is now on the verge of collapse. What could happen to the DNA data of its 14 million customers?
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Meta has announced sweeping changes to how kids and teens use Instagram. The company today unveiled “Teen Accounts,” a series of new features aimed at boosting child safety.
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The social media app unveiled a new product for young users of the app that is intended to make the service safer for teenagers. The tools include making all teen accounts private and allowing parents to supervise activity. -
TikTok is in federal court to argue the ban Congress passed against the company is unconstitutional. The new law, which takes effect in January, would ban TikTok nationwide unless it is sold to a non-Chinese buyer.
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TikTok’s survival in the U.S. is riding on the outcome of the hearing. Federal judges peppered both the Justice Department and TikTok with skeptical questions about the ban, which takes effect in January. -
The Justice Department and TikTok will be arguing before a Washington appeals court over the fate of the app in the U.S. A federal law that takes effect in January may ban TikTok in the U.S.
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The Russian-born tech billionaire was arrested by French authorities on Saturday. Prosecutors in Paris had been questioning him in connection with an investigation focused on drug trafficking -
France's move to arrest Telegram founder Pavel Durov -- after the app has been on the radar of governments for years -- is raising questions about whether the U.S. might follow suit.
