Techmeme
December 20, 2019, 4:20 PM

Top News

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple has a secret team of ~12 engineers working on satellites and related wireless tech to beam data directly to its devices  —  Apple Inc. has a secret team working on satellites and related wireless technology, striving to find new ways to beam data such as internet connectivity directly …
Makena Kelly / The Verge:
Facebook and Twitter shut down a network of fake accounts using AI-generated faces to “masquerade” as Americans; Facebook links the network to Epoch Media Group  —  Its accounts used AI-generated faces to ‘masquerade’ as Americans  —  On Friday, Facebook and Twitter shut …
Fortune:
Ripple raises $200M Series C led by global investment firm Tetragon at a $10B valuation  —  Ripple, a San Francisco-based company that uses cryptocurrency to move money across borders, announced a massive funding round on Thursday that values the company at $10 billion.
New York Times:
Using the location data company's leaked dataset, reporters identified a Secret Service agent, his home address, family details, and tracked Trump's movements  —  IF YOU OWN A MOBILE PHONE, its every move is logged and tracked by dozens of companies.  No one is beyond the reach of this constant digital surveillance.
New York Times:
Kim Lyons / The Verge:
Convenience store chain Wawa discloses a data breach across its 700 stores over the past nine months that may have exposed customer and credit card details  —  The breach may have affected all 700 stores over the past nine months.  —  If you used your credit card or debit card to buy gas …
Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet:
Apple opens its bug bounty program to security researchers, publishes eligibility criteria, bounty categories, and report and payout guidelines  —  Apple opens its previously-closed bug bounty program to all security researchers.  —  Apple has formally opened its bug bounty program today …
Alex Sherman / CNBC:
Sources: NBC's Peacock to integrate NBC News Now, have a free, limited-content tier, a limited-ads tier for $5/month, and an ad-free tier for $10/month  —  - NBCUniversal is looking to differentiate its streaming service Peacock from rivals through its pricing structure and user interface.
Sam Schechner / Wall Street Journal:
France's competition authority fines Google €150M for mistreating advertisers by suspending them on its search engine in a random and unjustified fashion  —  Google has been accused of suspending keyword advertisers on its search engine in a random and unjustified fashion
The Economic Times:
SoftBank Vision Fund 2 invests $231M in India-based eyewear ecommerce startup Lenskart's Series G, sources say at a valuation of $1.5B  —  The transaction values company at about $1.5 billion post the investment  —  SoftBank has invested about $231 million (Rs 1,645 crore) …
Elly Cosgrove / CNBC:
IAC to buy online caregiver marketplace Care.com in a deal valued at nearly $500M; Care.com stock is up 13+%  —  - IAC's deal to buy Care.com comes one day after it detailed plans to spin off all of its shares of online dating company Match Group.  — Care.com soars more than 13% on the news …
Kana Inagaki / Financial Times:
Mitsubishi and NTT to buy 30% stake in digital map provider HERE Technologies; BMW, Audi, and Daimler bought Nokia's HERE unit for ~€2.8bn in 2015  —  Japan's biggest trading house Mitsubishi and telecoms company NTT are to acquire a 30 per cent stake in Here Technologies …

Sponsor Posts

Meta:
Open Source AI: Available to all, not just the few  —  Meta's open source AI enables small businesses, start-ups, students, researchers and more to download and build with our models at no cost.
Zoho:
The crossroads of AI and SaaS  —  Enabling businesses of all sizes to build products in-house and disqualifying SaaS tools that are not AI-powered.  In a span of just two years, AI has made a name for itself as the key driver for innovation.
Genesys:
Executive Insights: The Era of Contact Center AI Copilots  —  How AI copilots are transforming customer experience and agent performance.
Tribe AI:
Build AI products that matter  —  Tribe AI helps organizations rapidly deploy AI solutions that have real business impact.  We bring together world class AI talent and tooling to drive differentiated results.
Techmeme Ride Home:
Fri. 12/20 - Gemini Flash Thinking
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or RSS.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 4:20 PM ET, December 20, 2019.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.

More News

Earlier Picks

Drew Harwell / Washington Post:
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Tony Romm / Washington Post: