Techmeme
August 4, 2019, 1:40 AM

Top News

Maddy Myers / Kotaku:
E3 website leaks personal info, including addresses and phone numbers, of 2,000+ reporters and content providers; E3 has removed file but data still circulates  —  A spreadsheet containing the contact information and personal addresses of over 2,000 games journalists, editors …
Nick Statt / The Verge:
Goldman Sachs reveals Apple Card customer agreement, says jailbreaking as well as purchasing cryptocurrency, casino chips, and lottery tickets is forbidden  —  Apple has revealed more details about its upcoming credit card, and the Apple Card will come with one unique restriction and one not-so-unique restriction.
Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch:
Data breach seller provides evidence that sneaker marketplace StockX was hacked in May, says 6.8M records with contact info and hashed passwords were taken  —  It wasn't “system updates” as it claimed.  StockX was mopping up after a data breach, TechCrunch can confirm.
Matt Day / Bloomberg:
Amazon says it will let users opt out of human review of the voice recordings picked up by Alexa, following similar moves by Apple and Google  —  - Alexa reviewers transcribe, annotate some voice recordings  — Apple, Google suspended human voice review programs this week
Matthew Panzarino / TechCrunch:
Alex Heath / The Information:
Facebook to rebrand Instagram and WhatsApp to “Instagram from Facebook” and “WhatsApp from Facebook”, sources say causing surprise and confusion internally  —  In a big shift, Facebook plans to signal its control of Instagram and WhatsApp by adding its name to both apps …
Melanie Ehrenkranz / Gizmodo:
UK data science company DataSparQ has developed “AI Bar”, an AI-powered facial recognition system to help bartenders check IDs, fill orders faster and fairer  —  Facial recognition systems have, to date, proven to be biased, unjust, flawed, and deeply powerful.
Kif Leswing / CNBC:
Apple spent $4.2B, or 7.9% of its revenue, on R&D in Q3, the highest percentage of R&D spending since 2003, and is on track to spend $16B in 2019  —  KEY POINTS  — Apple CFO Luca Maestri hinted that R&D would continue to rise, and said that the company's $1 billion purchase …
Thomas Ricker / The Verge:
Google will let Android users in Europe choose their default search engine starting in 2020; inclusion on the choice screen will be determined via auction  —  Only the top-three bidders will appear alongside Google on the choice screen  —  Starting in early 2020, Google will present …
Ben Riley-Smith / Telegraph:
Sources: US officials warn the UK that a free trade deal would not happen if digital services tax on companies like Google and Amazon becomes UK law this fall  —  Donald Trump's administration is warning Britain that it will not get a free trade deal unless a new tax affecting US tech giants is dropped, The Telegraph can reveal.

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Earlier Picks

Mark Wilson / Fast Company:
Zen Soo / South China Morning Post: