Techmeme
December 19, 2013, 8:10 AM

Top News

New York Times:
Obama Panel Recommends New Limits on N.S.A. Spying  —  WASHINGTON — A panel of presidential advisers who reviewed the National Security Agency's surveillance practices urged President Obama on Wednesday to end the government's systematic collection of logs of all Americans' phone calls …
San Francisco Chronicle:
Obama won't give tech firms assurances on snooping  —  Technology company executives left a meeting with President Obama this week with no commitment to limit government snooping on Internet traffic, according to an industry official briefed on the session.  Warning of backlashMayer …
The Switch:
Research shows how MacBook Webcams can spy on their users without warning  —  The woman was shocked when she received two nude photos of herself by e-mail.  The photos had been taken over a period of several months — without her knowledge — by the built-in camera on her laptop.
Brian Krebs / Krebs on Security:
Sources: Target Investigating Data Breach  —  Nationwide retail giant Target is investigating a data breach potentially involving millions of customer credit and debit card records, multiple reliable sources tell KrebsOnSecurity.  The sources said the breach appears to have begun …
Larry Dignan / ZDNet:
Target confirms breach: 40 million accounts affected  —  Summary: Customer name, credit or debit card number, and the card's expiration date and CVV (the three-digit security code) were breached, the retailer said.  —  Target on Thursday confirmed that its payment card data was compromised …
Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:
No One Buys Music on the Web Anymore.  Except When They Buy a Million Beyonce Albums in Five Days.  —  Sales of music downloads, which were supposed to rescue the music business from the decline of the CD, have been flattening for a few years.  Then things got worse: This year, digital sales were down 4 percent through Thanksgiving.
Paul Thurrott / SuperSite for Windows:
Windows Phone Turned the Corner in 2013  —  We're number three.  And no, that doesn't suck  —  2013 was nothing less than a blockbuster success for Windows Phone, which went from industry also-ran to the undisputed third mobile ecosystem, and is poised to challenge iPhone for the number two spot.
More: TechCrunch, BGR and PhoneArenaTweets: @greenskull
Mike Deri Smith / BBC:
Porn filters block sex education websites  —  The new filters are designed to block sites unsuitable for children  —  Pornography filters used by major internet service providers are blocking websites offering sex education and advice on sexual health and porn addiction, the BBC has learned.
More: BGR, Gigaom and Pocket-lintTweets: @jackschofield
Ken Yeung / The Next Web:
Twitter's Vine gets vanity URLs: sign-up starts Dec. 20 for verified accounts and Dec. 23 for all others  —  As a holiday treat, Twitter has announced that it will begin allowing Vine users to register for vanity URLs for their profiles.  The race begins on Friday, December 20 at 9am PST …
Kim-Mai Cutler / TechCrunch:
Lyft tells TechCrunch its revenues are growing 6% per week  —  Hey Uber, Lyft Is Growing Faster Than You  —  Uber's revenue numbers, which were leaked to Gawker just a few weeks ago, look bold at roughly $20 million per week.  —  But there isn't necessarily a definitive market winner yet …
Andy Greenberg / Forbes:
Google Glass Face Recognition App Coming This Month, Whether Google Likes It Or Not  —  Since Google Glass first appeared, its potential for facial recognition has been seen either as a privacy nightmare or as one of the headset's first truly intriguing uses.  Google has declared itself in the first camp.
Jordan Novet / VentureBeat:
Datameer picks up $19M to help companies do analytics along with Hadoop  —  In simplifying Hadoop — which takes an elephant as it mascot — Datameer is helping more people process and analyze data.  —  Hadoop, the leading framework used by companies to process huge amounts of data, has become all the rage right now.
Liz Gannes / AllThingsD:
oDesk and Elance Merge to Create One Big Freelancer Company (But Still With Two Brands)  —  Elance and oDesk said today that they would merge.  The companies have a lot in common — they both connect freelancers and gigs online — and they say they have a combined 10 million workers in 180 countries, with $750 million in 2013 billings.

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Matthew Panzarino / TechCrunch:
Jon Fingas / Engadget:
Clare Jim / Reuters: