Techmeme
November 7, 2019, 10:00 AM

Top News

Washington Post:
DOJ charges two ex-Twitter employees, arresting one, with spying for Saudi Arabia by snooping on kingdom critics; one allegedly accessed 6,000 accounts in 2015  —  The Justice Department has charged two former Twitter employees with spying for Saudi Arabia in a case that raises concerns …
Reuters:
Court filing demanding subpoenaed docs reveals California has been probing Facebook's disclosure of user data to Cambridge Analytica and others for 18 months  —  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - California is investigating Facebook Inc's disclosure of user data to Cambridge Analytica and other partners …
Reuters:
Jennifer Elias / CNBC:
Source: Alphabet is probing execs, including Chief Legal Officer David Drummond, over inappropriate relationships, hiring an outside law firm  —  - The board of Google parent company Alphabet is conducting an investigation into sexual misconduct by executives, and has hired a law firm to assist.
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Google says it is open sourcing the phone-based VR software of Cardboard, less than a month after the company discontinued its Daydream View VR headset  —  Maybe the last nail in the coffin for phone-based VR  —  In October, Google officially discontinued its Daydream View VR headset …
Emily Glazer / Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Google has been holding internal meetings on changing its political ad policy, and plans to share more information with employees soon  —  Discussions come after Twitter said it would bar most political ads amid spread of misinformation  —  Alphabet Inc. GOOG -.02% 's Google …
Taylor Lorenz / New York Times:
An investigation into I'm Shmacked, which exploited thousands of students by inducing them to provide viral videos of college parties to earn Instagram fame  —  The chief executive of I'm Shmacked promises students Instagram fame, then silences them with threats.
Lauren Feiner / CNBC:
After the deaths of five people at a “party house”, Airbnb unveils new safety policies: verifying 100% of listings, a 24/7 “neighbor hotline”, and more  —  Airbnb CEO: We intend to verify 100% of listings  —  Airbnb is pushing out several new safety features in the wake …
Lily Hay Newman / Wired:
Google debuts App Defense Alliance, a partnership with ESET, Lookout, Zimperium to catch Android malware early by streamlining and boosting data sharing efforts  —  The newly formed App Defense Alliance will try to solve a malware problem that has bedeviled the Play Store since inception.
The Correspondent:
Skeptics say the effectiveness of online advertising is overhyped since ad marketers optimize ever more for people who would have bought anyway  —  Mel Karmazin, the president of Viacom, one of the largest media conglomerates in the world, walked into the Google offices in Mountain View, California.
Nico Grant / Bloomberg:
Photoshop for iPad has met with a lackluster reception and a review rating of 2.3 out of 5 stars, prompting Adobe exec to defend this first version  —  Adobe Inc. debuted its most important mobile application ever this week when it finally released Photoshop for Apple Inc.'s iPad.
Alex Krivit / The Cloudflare Blog:
An inside account of Cloudflare's defeat of Blackbird's lawsuit by publishing “prior art” that could help others, and attacking the patent troll business model  —  Remember 2016?  Pokemon Go was all the rage, we lost Prince, and there were surprising election results in both the UK and US.
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Nightfall, which offers an AI-based platform to detect and prevent data leakage from cloud-based apps and services, comes out of stealth with $20.3M  —  Sensitive data leakage is one of the biggest negative side-effects of cloud-based apps and services.  Today, a startup that has built …
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
WhatsApp begins rolling out an update that lets users block specific individuals from adding them to Groups  —  WhatsApp, the popular messaging app owned by Facebook, has faced a lot of controversy over the role that Groups plays on the platform — both for Groups' role in spreading spam …
Kyle Bradshaw / 9to5Google:
Google adds developer guides for Google Assistant to support smart bathtubs and faucets, such as those by Kohler and Delta  —  Piece by piece, the Google Assistant has been working its way into new parts of our homes.  The latest additions to the Google Assistant's lineup are the bathtub and faucet.
Marcelo Rochabrun / Reuters:
Uber says it will allow passengers and drivers to record audio of their trips in Brazil and Mexico, in response to rising safety concerns in the region  —  SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Uber (UBER.N) said on Wednesday that it will allow passengers and drivers to record audio of their trips in Brazil …

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Earlier Picks

Dan Seifert / The Verge:
Conor Dougherty / New York Times:
Dave Gershgorn / OneZero:
New York Times:
Ben Dooley / New York Times:
Christina Farr / CNBC: