Techmeme
October 24, 2018, 9:15 AM

Top News

Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:
Tim Cook attacks the “data industrial complex” and calls for comprehensive US privacy laws in speech at conference on data protection and privacy in Brussels  —  Apple's CEO Tim Cook has joined the chorus of voices warning that data itself is being weaponized again people and societies …
Nikhilesh De / CoinDesk:
Coinbase adds its first stablecoin, a Circle-issued coin called USDC tied to the US dollar, which US customers outside NY state can buy and sell  —  Crypto exchange Coinbase announced support for the Circle-issued stablecoin Tuesday.  —  In a blog post, the exchange said U.S. customers outside …
The Daily Beast:
Amazon pitched its facial recognition surveillance tech to ICE and continued its dialogue with the US immigration agency in the midst of critical media coverage  —  Amazon employees are up in arms about possible collaborations with law enforcement.  That hasn't stopped Amazon reps from pitching ICE on its face-scanning tech.
Jessica Toonkel / The Information:
Sources: Apple plans to offer TV subscription service in 100+ countries, debuting in US in first half of next year, will offer free shows to Apple device owners  —  Apple is planning to launch its upcoming TV subscription service in more than 100 countries, three people familiar with the company's plans told The Information.
Craig Silverman / BuzzFeed News:
Investigation reveals a network of 125+ Android apps and websites that are part of a massive ad fraud scheme; the apps were installed an estimated 115M+ times  —  Last April, Steven Schoen received an email from someone named Natalie Andrea who said she worked for a company called We Purchase Apps.
Casey Newton / The Verge:
Facebook rolls out a redesigned Messenger app with a focus on simplicity, using more white space and fewer tabs, and plans to add a dark mode in coming months  —  A powerful utility goes back to basics  —  Facebook is releasing a redesigned version of Messenger today that attempts to put the focus back on your chats.
Jacob Kastrenakes / The Verge:
Motorola and iFixit partner on DIY battery and screen repair kits that include official parts and cost $40 to $200; faulty repair of a phone may void warranty  —  Phone companies usually want to stop you from repairing your own devices, or even going to a third-party repair shop.
Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai / Motherboard:
FireEye says it has linked Triton malware that inadvertently shut down a Saudi petrochemical plant in 2017 to a Russian government-owned research institute  —  Cybersecurity firm FireEye points the finger at the Russian government and a government-linked facility for creating a destructive malware.
Dami Lee / The Verge:
Mozilla launches Firefox 63, introducing Enhanced Tracking Protection, which blocks third-party trackers to increase privacy but is off by default, and more  —  Mozilla has released Firefox 63, which introduces Enhanced Tracking Protection, a feature that blocks third-party trackers to increase your privacy online.
Joanna Stern / Wall Street Journal:
iPhone XR review: despite some drawbacks, the XR has a better price, battery, and more colorful design than the XS, making it hard to recommend the XS over XR  —  The iPhone XR has a few price-cutting compromises, but great battery life, Face ID and a colorful design make it the best iPhone to buy
Nilay Patel / The Verge:
Cecilia Kang / New York Times:
Snapchat says it helped more than 400K US users register to vote during a recent two-week period, following an in-app push to encourage registration  —  WASHINGTON — Taylor Swift has nothing on Snapchat — at least when it comes to persuading people to register to vote.
Jason Schreier / Kotaku:
Interviews with dozens of employees detail Rockstar Games' culture of “crunch”, after a studio co-founder's 100-hour weeks remark triggered industry discussion  —  In the final year of development on Red Dead Redemption 2, the upcoming Western game, the top directors decided …
Michael Liedtke / Associated Press:
Court filing: Verizon and Altaba agree to pay $50M in damages and up to $37.5M in legal fees to settle with Yahoo users affected by the 2013 breach  —  SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Yahoo has agreed to pay $50 million in damages and provide two years of free credit-monitoring services …
Wired:
Conflicting goals, mutual suspicion, and a view that AI and other advanced tech are a winner-take-all game are pushing the tech sectors of US and China apart  —  IN THE SPRING of 2016, an artificial intelligence system called AlphaGo defeated a world champion Go player in a match at the Four Seasons hotel in Seoul.
Kashmir Hill / The Root:
A look at the unregulated practice of undercover cops friending people on social media as part of dragnet surveillance operations  —  Your browser does not support HTML5 video tag.Click here to view original GIF  —  Terrance Everett has been on the wrong side of the law for most of his adult life.
Tweets: @kashhill
Arti Kulkarni / Facebook:
Facebook spent $12M+ on ads related to its election integrity efforts and getting out the vote, issues report on US groups that paid for political ads since May  —  Today we're introducing the Ad Archive Report for ads in the US related to politics and issues of national importance.

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Ashley Carman / The Verge:
Alex Konrad / Forbes:
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Julian E. Barnes / New York Times:
Shannon Liao / The Verge: