Techmeme
October 21, 2019, 2:25 PM

Top News

Facebook:
Facebook bans networks, three originating in Iran and one in Russia, running “inauthentic” accounts, Pages, and Groups misleading users in the US, Latin America  —  Today, we removed four separate networks of accounts, Pages and Groups for engaging in coordinated inauthentic behavior on Facebook and Instagram.
Facebook:
Facebook says it will more prominently label content that fact-checkers deem false on Facebook and Instagram, will ban ads suggesting voting is pointless  —  By Guy Rosen, VP of Integrity; Katie Harbath, Public Policy Director, Global Elections; Nathaniel Gleicher, Head of Cybersecurity Policy …
Tony Romm / Washington Post:
Facebook now requires some page owners to disclose the orgs running them and if they're tied to state-owned media, will add labels to pages run by state media  —  The new efforts are meant to bolster its defenses ahead of the upcoming 2020 presidential election but are unlikely to end the growing dispute over political ads.
Dieter Bohn / The Verge:
Google Pixel 4 and 4 XL review: fast face unlock, smooth display, and great still camera, but average video recording and battery life, and no ultrawide camera  —  There's a baseline for “fast enough” on Android phones, and the Pixel 4 more than hits it.  It might not be the fastest Android phone …
Dieter Bohn / The Verge:
Google says it will update the Pixel 4 “in the coming months” with an option that requires open eyes for the phone's face unlock to be successful  —  In the meanwhile, learn how to use the lockdown feature  —  One of the headline features for the Google Pixel 4 is that it adds a new …
Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch:
NordVPN confirms it found out a few months ago that one of its datacenters was hacked in March 2018, which could've potentially led to man-in-the-middle attacks  —  NordVPN, a virtual private network provider that promises to “protect your privacy online,” has confirmed it was hacked.
Bloomberg:
Mark Zuckerberg and his wife have privately recommended several potential hires to Pete Buttigieg's presidential campaign, two of whom were hired  —  - Facebook CEO, wife privately recommended hires to Democrat  — Zuckerberg facing barrage of criticism in DC for bias, privacy
Financial Times:
Joint UK and US probe finds that a Russian cyber espionage unit hacked the tools of a hacker group linked to Iran's government to lead attacks in 35+ countries  —  A Russian cyber espionage unit has hacked Iranian hackers to lead attacks in more than 35 countries, a joint UK and US investigation has revealed.
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:
Microsoft acquires Edmonton-based Mover to bolster its cloud migration solutions, just weeks after acquiring Movere, another cloud migration company  —  Microsoft today announced that it's acquired Mover, an Edmonton-based provider of admin-led and self-service cloud file migration offerings.
Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet:
Researchers show how malicious voice apps for Alexa or Google Home eavesdrop on users, as Amazon and Google take a lax approach to vetting the platforms  —  Exclusive: Amazon, Google fail to address security loopholes in Alexa and Home devices more than a year after first reports.
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft Surface Pro 7 review: great performance, is cool and quiet, resumes quickly, and has USB-C, but no Thunderbolt 3, design is dated, and lacks LTE  —  Minor improvements in a familiar package  —  Something weird has happened over the past year: I've kind of fallen in love with the Surface Pro.
Emil Protalinski / VentureBeat:
Microsoft announces Secured-core PCs, which will come from many vendors like Dell and adhere to security best practices for better firmware attack protection  —  Microsoft today announced a new initiative to combat threats specifically targeted at the firmware level and data stored in memory: Secured-core PCs.
Wall Street Journal:
The Indian government is trying to tempt cellphone manufacturers with lower taxes, incentives, and less red tape, to make the country a major source of exports  —  Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government is trying to tempt cellphone makers, manufacturers with lower taxes and less red tape as economy slows down
Annie Palmer / CNBC:
As Amazon regularly fails to prevent expired food from being sold by merchants, concerned brands are often compelled to police marketplace listings on their own  —  - Amazon's marketplace has grown to millions of sellers, making it hard for the company to adequately police the platform.

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