Techmeme
November 3, 2021, 1:00 PM

Top News

Catalin Cimpanu / The Record:
US sanctions four companies, including NSO Group, that sell spyware or hacking tools, adding them to a list of entities engaging in “malicious cyber activities”  —  The US government has sanctioned today four companies that develop and sell spyware and other hacking tools, the US Department of Commerce announced today.
Paulina Duran / Reuters:
Australia's largest bank Commonwealth Bank to become the country's first to offer customers crypto services, including cryptocurrency trading via its app  —  Commonwealth Bank of Australia will become the country's first to offer retail clients crypto services, Australia's largest bank said on Wednesday …
Catalin Cimpanu / The Record:
CISA creates a catalog of known exploited vulnerabilities, including from Apple and Google, and orders federal agencies to apply patches within timeframes  —  The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has established today a public catalog of vulnerabilities known to be exploited …
Mike Minotti / VentureBeat:
Activision Blizzard says Blizzard co-leader Jen Oneal is stepping down, leaving Mike Ybarra as sole leader; Oneal says she'll focus on diversity in the industry  —  Activision Blizzard announced today that Jen Oneal is stepping down from her role as Blizzard co-leader, which she started in August along with Mike Ybarra.
Taylor Soper / GeekWire:
Zillow says it is shutting down its home buying business, laying off ~2,000 employees, and taking a write down of $500M+; stock drops 10%+  —  Zillow Group's ambitious tech-fueled bid to shake up how people buy and sell homes is coming to a surprising end.  —  The Seattle online real estate giant …
James Vincent / The Verge:
Google News will return to Spain “early next year” following a change to Spain's copyright laws that will let Google negotiate fees with individual publishers  —  Spain has changed its copyright law in accordance with EU legislation  —  Who should get paid when big tech platforms aggregate news stories?
Campbell Kwan / ZDNet:
A joint probe by Australia and UK's Information Commissioners finds Clearview AI collected data on 3B+ people by indiscriminately scraping info from the web  —  Despite uncovering Clearview AI's intrusive practices, Australia's Information Commissioner conceded that the number of Australians …
Joseph Cox / VICE:
A look at the booming market for bots that steal 2FA codes, often using SMS services like Twilio, to break into Coinbase, Amazon, PayPal, and bank accounts  —  The bots convincingly and effortlessly help hackers break into Coinbase, Amazon, PayPal, and bank accounts.  —  Joseph Cox
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
GitHub CEO Nat Friedman is stepping down on November 15; Thomas Dohmke, who became chief product officer in August, will take over as CEO  —  GitHub CEO Nat Friedman is stepping down from his role on November 15 to become the Chairman Emeritus of the Microsoft-owned service.
New York Times:
Meta plans to shut down Facebook's decade-old facial recognition system this month, deleting the face scan data of 1B+ users following legal and regulatory woes  —  Saying it wants “to find the right balance” with the technology, the social network will delete the face scan data of more than one billion users.
Cameron Faulkner / The Verge:
Oculus rolls out v34, adding a Space Sense safety feature notifying users when objects, people, or animals intrude on a safe VR space, alongside other features  —  Version 34 is starting to roll out today  —  Fresh off of Meta's Connect 2021 keynote, where Grand Theft Auto …
Zheping Huang / Bloomberg:
Source: ByteDance co-founder Zhang Yiming, who stepped down as CEO in May, has left the board after stepping down as chairman; CEO Liang Rubo to become chairman  —  - Zhang announced in May he was giving up his CEO title  — Chinese tech giant this week announced a restructuring
Catalin Cimpanu / The Record:
The criminal group behind BlackMatter ransomware announces plans to shut down the operation, citing “pressure from the authorities”  —  The criminal group behind the BlackMatter ransomware have announced plans today to shut down their operation, citing pressure from local authorities.
Eleanor Olcott / Financial Times:
Salaries of data protection officers are soaring across China after laws were introduced to hold the officers personally responsible for any failures  —  Sweeping legislation has created huge demand but job risks have risen alongside salaries  —  Chinese data protection officers will wake …
Billy Perrigo / TIME:
Sources: Facebook has done little to act on the Islamophobic “Love Jihad” conspiracy theory on its platform in India due to “political sensitivities”  —  In a video posted to Facebook in November 2020, an extremist priest called for Hindus to rise up and begin killing Muslims in India.

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Tom Warren / The Verge:
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat: