Techmeme
November 23, 2021, 9:25 PM

Top News

Apple:
Apple plans to notify targets of state-sponsored spyware attacks like NSO's ForcedEntry and commits $10M to cybersurveillance researchers and advocates  —  Apple also announced a $10 million contribution to support cybersurveillance researchers and advocates
Nicole Perlroth / New York Times:
Apple sues NSO Group in US federal court, seeking to ban NSO from using Apple products and alleging NSO illegally targeted Apple users with surveillance tools  —  Apple accused NSO Group, the Israeli surveillance company, of “flagrant” violations of its software, as well as federal and state laws.
Jennifer Elias / CNBC:
Internal email chain shows over 600 Google employees have signed a document opposing Google's vaccine mandate, which Google says it firmly stands behind  —  - Several hundred Google employees have signed and circulated a manifesto opposing its widened Covid vaccine mandate, according to internal communications viewed by CNBC.
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Spotify debuts Netflix Hub, collecting official soundtracks, playlists, and podcasts for top Netflix content, in seven countries including the US, UK, and India  —  Looking for the soundtrack from your favorite Netflix show?  Now, it will be easier to find thanks to an expanded partnership between Netflix and Spotify.
The Verge:
Samsung says it will build a ~$17B, 1,200+ acre chip factory in Taylor, Texas, operational in H2 2024 and roughly 30 miles away from its Austin facility  —  Creating 1,800 jobs in the city of Taylor  —  Samsung officially announced a new advanced chip-making plant in Texas …
Jordan Pearson / VICE:
ConstitutionDAO's organizers say the project has run its course and will shift its Discord channel into read-only mode in two weeks  —  The attempt by crypto fans to buy a copy of the Constitution has been defined by chaos since it failed.  Now, it's dead.  —  Jordan Pearson
Jillian Deutsch / Bloomberg:
EU approves Digital Markets Act measures: mandating social app interoperability, banning ad targeting to minors, and fines up to 20% of global annual sales  —  - Competing messaging apps may have to be interoperable  — Companies would have to stop targeting some ads to minors
Reuters:
Italy's antitrust regulator fines Amazon $77M and Apple $151M for alleged anti-competitive cooperation to sell Apple and Beats products  —  Italy's antitrust authority has fined U.S. tech giants Amazon.com (AMZN.O) and Apple Inc (AAPL.O) a total of more than 200 million euros ($225 million) …
Patrick Howell O'Neill / MIT Technology Review:
Sources: French officials were in the final stages of buying NSO's Pegasus spyware in July, but opted not to after claims that French politicians were targeted  —  French officials were close to buying controversial surveillance tool Pegasus from NSO earlier this year.
Joe Rossignol / MacRumors:
Apple delays the release of its digital ID feature in Wallet until early 2022  —  Apple recently updated its website to indicate that an upcoming iOS 15 and watchOS 8 feature that will let you add your driver's license or state ID to your iPhone and Apple Watch in participating U.S. states has been delayed until early 2022.
David Thiel / @elegant_wallaby:
[Thread] A former Facebook employee says Meta announced an “absurdly accelerated timeline” for e2ee messaging to preempt antitrust action and generate good PR  —  Please stop with this. Child safety is not FUD, nor disingenuous. Here is what happened with Facebook's haphazard E2EE plan, from someone who was there and familiar with the underlying systems. 1/
Mike Wheatley / SiliconANGLE:
Kore.ai, which helps companies make AI assistants with low-code tools, raises a $73.5M extended Series C after Nvidia joins as an investor  —  Conversational artificial intelligence startup Kore.ai Inc. said today it has extended its Series C funding round to $73.5 million following a further investment from Nvidia Corp.
Ronan Shields / Digiday:
Outbrain announces a $55M acquisition of Video Intelligence, an ad tech company that matches video with text content, as it aims to differentiate from Taboola  —  Ad tech's spate of public listings over the last 12 months has helped spur a further round of mergers and acquisitions in the space …
Kate Park / TechCrunch:
Verbit, which offers voice transcription services using AI and freelancers, raises a $250M Series E at a $2B valuation, after hitting a $1B+ valuation in June  —  Less than six months after raising a $157 million Series D round, AI-powered transcription and captioning platform Verbit announced today …

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Earlier Picks

Reuters:
Rich Woods / XDA Developers:
Niantic:
Daniel Cooper / Engadget: