Techmeme
July 29, 2019, 7:05 PM

Top News

The Keyword:
Pixel 4 will come with face unlock and radar-powered Motion Sense features to let you skip songs, snooze alarms, and more by waving your hand over the device  —  As we shared last month, Pixel 4 is in the works1.  Today we're giving you an early look at the technology behind two new features coming …
Dieter Bohn / The Verge:
Google says it used field research that offered people $5 to scan their faces, to improve accuracy of face unlock; research data will be kept for 18 months  —  It's ensuring that the Pixel 4 will work on a wide range of faces  —  Google just announced a face unlock feature for the upcoming Pixel 4 …
Jack Nicas / New York Times:
As identity fraud schemes plague Facebook, the company seems unable or unwilling to address accounts that use others' photos as their own profile pictures  —  Renee Holland sent her Facebook friend thousands of dollars.  She became entwined in a global fraud that the social network …
Kate Conger / New York Times:
Uber says it laid off ~400 people across 75 offices from its 1,200-person marketing team, as the ride-hailing company tries to streamline its operations  —  SAN FRANCISCO — Uber said it laid off around 400 people from its marketing team on Monday, as the ride-hailing company tries to cut costs …
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
Microsoft acquires BlueTalon, a data privacy and governance startup; BlueTalon had raised about $27.4M, per Crunchbase  —  Microsoft today announced that it has acquired BlueTalon, a data privacy and governance service that helps enterprises set policies for how their employees can access their data.
Reuters:
ByteDance confirms it is working on its own smartphone after acquiring some patents and employees from Chinese smartphone maker Smartisan earlier this year  —  Chinese social media firm ByteDance Ltd said on Monday it is developing a smartphone, following a deal it made with device maker Smartisan Technology.
Juro Osawa / The Information:
Sources: Huawei and Google were working together on a Huawei-branded smart speaker slated for September release, but that work ended after Trump's ban in May  —  China's Huawei and Google were working together on a new Huawei-branded smart speaker right before President Donald Trump restricted Huawei's access …
Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:
EU's top court rules that sites with embedded Facebook Like buttons are responsible for data collected, must obtain user consent before data is sent to Facebook  —  Europe's top court has made a ruling that could affect scores of websites that embed the Facebook ‘Like’ button and receive visitors from the region.
TechCrunch:
GitHub confirms it is blocking developers in Iran, Syria, North Korea, Cuba, and Crimea from accessing private repositories and paid accounts due to sanctions  —  The impact of U.S. trade restrictions is trickling down to the developer community.  GitHub, the world's largest host of source code …
Karen Weise / New York Times:
Sources: Amazon is exploring an ambitious new grocery chain, probably separate from Whole Foods, built for pickup and delivery as well as in-store shopping  —  SEATTLE — In early 2017, a memo circulated inside Amazon that imagined an ambitious new grocery chain.
CNBC:
Source: Lyft COO Jon McNeill, who joined in February 2018, is leaving the company  —  KEY POINTS  — Lyft Chief Operating Officer Jon McNeill is leaving the company, a source familiar with the situation told CNBC.  —  Lyft COO Jon McNeill said to leave
More: CNET, Observer, Business Insider, and TechCrunchTweets: @yoda
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
Google announces expanded partnership with VMware, will support VMware Cloud Foundation, which helps enterprises deploy and run hybrid clouds, on Google Cloud  —  Google today announced a new partnership with VMware that will make it easier for enterprises to run their VMware workloads on Google Cloud.
More: Bloomberg and ZDNet
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:
Maryland-based Trinity Cyber raises $23M from Intel and others for its real-time threat mitigation services and hires ex-DHS Advisor Tom Bossert as CSO  —  Bowie, Maryland-based Trinity Cyber, a cybersecurity startup developing a platform that combines detection with “adversary inference” …
Caroline Haskins / VICE:
According to notes from an Amazon webinar, Ring has partnered with 200+ local police departments in US, which can directly ask Ring owners for camera footage  —  Ring's partnerships with law enforcement could be far more more widespread than previously reported.

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