Techmeme
April 3, 2019, 4:35 PM

Top News

UpGuard:
A 3rd-party Facebook app by Cultura Colectiva left 540M+ records of users' FB info exposed on AWS; Amazon was notified in Jan., but data was online until today  —  The UpGuard Cyber Risk team can now report that two more third-party developed Facebook app datasets have been found exposed to the public internet.
Damien Wilde / 9to5Google:
Google rolling out Duplex AI restaurant booking assistant to non-Pixel Android devices and iOS in the US  —  Get ready, the ability to get your Google Assistant to call your local eateries to make reservations is now rolling out to non-Pixel devices and iOS in the United States.
Jeremy Horwitz / VentureBeat:
Verizon launches its mobile 5G network in parts of Chicago and Minneapolis, with a 5G-enabled Moto Z3  —  Though South Korea's government expected its three cellular carriers to be the world's first to offer commercial 5G services with smartphones based on the 3GPP's official 5G standard …
Emil Protalinski / VentureBeat:
Google debuts Android Q Beta 2 with multitasking overlay elements called Bubbles, foldables emulator, and precise audio recordings with zoomable microphone API  —  Google today launched the second Android Q beta with multitasking Bubbles, a foldables emulator, zoomable microphones, and more.
Ivan Mehta / The Next Web:
WhatsApp now allows users to control who can add them to group chats  —  WhatsApp's group conversations can be awfully annoying when you're dragged into them without your consent.  It's finally rolled out a fix for that, in the form of a new setting that lets you choose who can add you to group chats …
Chris Welch / The Verge:
Hands-on with Powerbeats Pro, Beats' new $250 wireless earbuds with Apple's H1 chip, 9 hours of battery life, “Hey Siri”, and physical controls, shipping in May  —  Coming in May for $250  —  A couple of weeks after Apple shipped its second-generation AirPods …
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
HR software startup Rippling, led by ex-Zenefits CEO Parker Conrad, raises $45M Series A led by Kleiner Perkins, source says at a valuation of $270M  —  Parker Conrad's last startup Zenefits drowned in busy work.  Now with Rippling, he wants to boil that ocean.
Ina Fried / Axios:
Facebook says it will stop asking for email passwords to verify new accounts; previously, it used them to verify accounts whose email addresses didn't use OAuth  —  Responding to criticism, Facebook says it will stop asking users for their email passwords as a means of verifying some new accounts.
Kate Clark / TechCrunch:
Clearbanc launches “The 20-Min Term Sheet”, a new campaign to fund 2,000 e-commerce startups with $1B in non-dilutive capital by the end of 2019  —  Raising venture capital isn't easy; for some, it's impossible.  —  Clearbanc offers startups a fundraising alternative …
More: Axios
BuzzFeed News:
Proto, Whatsapp's Indian partner, says the misinformation “tip line” announced on Tuesday is primarily for research, not to help users who find misinformation  —  One day after WhatsApp launched a tip line to combat misinformation ahead of a general election in India …
Issie Lapowsky / Wired:
Inside the DNC's plan to replace its aging data repository Vertica with the Data Warehouse, a more powerful BigQuery-based system, before the 2020 election  —  IN JULY OF 2017, as Raffi Krikorian settled into his new office at the Democratic National Committee, Hillary Clinton's words were still ringing in his ears.
Eugene Kim / CNBC:
Sources: in recent weeks Amazon has been quietly removing or relocating promotional spots on its site that gave special treatment to its private label products  —  - Amazon has significantly scaled down or relocated promotions of its private label products in recent weeks.
More: ClickZ and Seeking AlphaThanks:@mattrosoff
New York Times:
Singapore introduces draft bill that requires sites to take down fake news, raising concerns among human rights advocates over repression  —  HONG KONG — Singapore introduced draft legislation on Monday that it said would combat false or misleading information on the internet …
Elizabeth Dilts / Reuters:
Vestwell, which manages employer-sponsored retirement plans for SMBs, raises $30M Series B from Goldman Sachs and others  —  NEW YORK (Reuters) - Vestwell Holdings Inc, a tech platform for retirement plans, said on Tuesday it raised $30 million from Goldman Sachs Group Inc, Point72 Ventures and the Bank of New York Mellon Corp.
Jon Porter / The Verge:
In January, Huawei patched a bug in its PCManager software, discovered by Microsoft, which acted like NSA-style malware and affected some MateBook laptops  —  The bug was patched back in January  —  Huawei has patched a bug in some of its MateBook laptops that could have allowed an attacker to take control of the system.

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