Techmeme
June 17, 2013, 8:15 AM

Top News

Apple:
Apple's Commitment to Customer Privacy  —  Two weeks ago, when technology companies were accused of indiscriminately sharing customer data with government agencies, Apple issued a clear response: We first heard of the government's “Prism” program when news organizations asked us about it on June 6.
USA Today:
3 NSA veterans speak out on whistle-blower: We told you so  —  In a roundtable discussion, a trio of former National Security Agency whistle-blowers tell USA TODAY that Edward Snowden succeeded where they failed.  —  When a National Security Agency contractor revealed top-secret details …
Jon Russell / The Next Web:
Apple says it received 4,000-5,000 data requests from US officials in the last 6 months  —  Apple has spoken up about the US government's PRISM program and revealed that between December 2012 and May 2013 the firm received 4,000-5,000 requests for user data from the government .
Miyoung Kim / Reuters:
Samsung to launch faster Galaxy S4 smartphone  —  (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics Co plans to sell a variation of its flagship Galaxy S4 smartphone that will transmit data at nearly twice the normal speed, the head of its mobile business said on Monday.  —  J.K. Shin, also co-chief executive …
Guardian:
GCHQ intercepted foreign politicians' communications at G20 summits  —  Exclusive: phones were monitored and fake internet cafes set up to gather information from allies in London in 2009  —  Foreign politicians and officials who took part in two G20 summit meetings in London in 2009 …
David Barrett / Telegraph:
Google builds new system to eradicate child porn images from the web  —  Google, the internet giant, is to create a global database of child abuse images - which it will share with its rival companies - in a bid to eradicate child pornography from the web.  —  Google engineers are working …
Simon Sharwood / The Register:
SCO vs. IBM battle resumes over ownership of Unix  —  Zombie lawsuit back and wants to suck the brains out of Linux  —  IBM's lawsuit with SCO over just who owns Unix has crawled out of the grave and seems set to shuffle back into US courts.  —  For the uninitiated, or those who've successfully tried …
More: Groklaw and AllThingsD
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Source: Instagram Will Get Video On June 20  —  We've been working on getting more details on a press event that Facebook is having this week.  Earlier, we wrote it could launch a news-reading app, but we have since heard more details that point to something else entirely.
Kadhim Shubber / Wired.co.uk:
ISPs to include porn filters as standard in UK by 2014  —  Parental filters for pornographic content will come as a default setting for all homes in the UK by the end of 2013, says David Cameron's special advisor on preventing the sexualisation and commercialisation of childhood, Claire Perry MP.
Steven Musil / CNET:
Saudi Arabia may block WhatsApp within weeks  —  Popular mobile chat app warned of possible blockage after voice and messaging app Viber was blocked last week.  —  Saudi Arabia plans to block WhatsApp in coming weeks if the makers of the mobile chat app don't comply with local regulations.
Washington Post:
State photo-ID databases become troves for police  —  The faces of more than 120 million people are in searchable photo databases that state officials assembled to prevent driver's-license fraud but that increasingly are used by police to identify suspects, accomplices and even innocent bystanders …

Sponsor Posts

Google:
Try Gemini 3 Pro  —  Google's newest and most intelligent AI model that helps you bring any idea to life
Shopify:
Shopify: Revolutionizing Commerce with Winter Edition '26  —  Over 150+ new features transform how merchants build, design, and grow—with technology that amplifies creative vision.
Zoho:
The best time to become a Zoho Partner  —  The business world is not only changing but it is being rebuilt.  Customers want connected ecosystems that will help them automate, unify their data, and do more with less.
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Hard Fork:
Australia Kicks Kids Off Social Media + Is the A.I. Water Issue Fake? + Hard Fork Wrapped
The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.
Subscribe to Hard Fork.
Access:
Why the next AI frontier is phone calls, with Beside CEO Maxime Germain
A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.
Subscribe to Access.
Great Chat:
So what happens after AGI?
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
Subscribe to Great Chat.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Ted Sarandos: Netflix and how tech changed storytelling
Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.
Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.
Big Technology Podcast:
AI Is Upending Law. Is That A Sign For The Rest Of Us? — With Melia Russell
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.
[trading places]:
Ben Black Akkadian Ventures🏆 | Secondaries Secrets 💎 | RAISE Conf 🎯 | Vercel $9B 🚀
a very bad podcast about broken unicorns & busted carry hosted by dave mcclure and aman verjee
Subscribe to [trading places].
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 8:15 AM ET, June 17, 2013.

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.