Techmeme: The Pirate Bay says unique visitors doubled since 2011 despite blockades in several countries (Ernesto/TorrentFreak)

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July 20, 2014, 12:25 PM

Top News

Kim Zetter / Wired:

How Ladar Levison and a convicted hacker aim to encrypt emails, including to and from fields, with Dark Mail — A Convicted Hacker and an Internet Icon Join Forces to Thwart NSA Spying — The internet is littered with burgeoning email encryption schemes aimed at thwarting NSA spying.

Tweets: @gmillard, @anushka1s and @kgosztola

Brian Krebs / Krebs on Security:

New search engine indexes records from data breaches, mostly from sites young hackers frequent — Even Script Kids Have a Right to Be Forgotten — Indexeus, a new search engine that indexes user account information acquired from more than 100 recent data breaches, has caught many in the hacker underground off-guard.

More: TechCrunch. Tweets: @_n1k_nak, @cert_polska_en and @teamcymru

Cyrus Farivar / Ars Technica:

Sites like Travelocity pass full plaintext credit card numbers and IP addresses to DHS, which retains them for years — Ars editor learns feds have his old IP addresses, full credit card numbers — FOIA request turns up 9 years of records, including plaintext credit card numbers.

Tweets: @jwilkins, @ashk4n, @mikedoherty_ca and @mikedoherty_ca

Ashlee Vance / Businessweek:

Amazon's Cloud Is One of the Fastest-Growing Software Businesses in History — Five billion dollars. — That's how much Amazon.com (AMZN) will rake in from its cloud computing business this year, according to a new estimate from Pacific Crest Securities. If true, it's an incredible figure.

More: Re/code. Tweets: @efeng, @ahess247 and @bfrist

Chance Miller / 9to5Google:

Google and Samsung's relationship continues to worsen, this time over wearables — According to a new report out of The Information, the already tense relationship between Samsung and Google has begun to worsen thanks to both of their own lines of wearables.

John Napier Tye / Washington Post:

Meet Executive Order 12333: The Reagan rule that lets the NSA spy on Americans — In March I received a call from the White House counsel's office regarding a speech I had prepared for my boss at the State Department. The speech was about the impact that the disclosure …

More: Re/code, ACLU, Electronic Frontier Foundation and Guardian

Tweets: @csoghoian, @astepanovich, @csoghoian, @trevortimm and @kenroth

WhyCry / VideoCardz.com:

Report: Nvidia Shield Tablet ships July 29 in the US; $299 for 16GB Wi-Fi-only, $399 for 32GB with LTE, $59 for separate controller — NVIDIA extends SHIELD family with SHIELD tablet and wireless controller — Let's talk about SHIELD. — I'm a huge fan of SHIELD, it's such an amazing tv show.

More: The Digital Reader, Neowin, ZDNet, Softpedia News, IntoMobile, Phones Review, Forbes, Ubergizmo, Phandroid, Polygon, 9to5Google, TechnoBuffalo, Android Beat, ExtremeTech, Droid Life, Android Police, Liliputing and Digital Trends

Hayley Tsukayama / Washington Post:

Kindle Unlimited: worth it if you buy 12+ books/year and find the limited catalogue appealing — Is Kindle Unlimited worth it? — Some things to think about before you sign up for Amazon's latest service. (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images) — Amazon.com introduced a new subscription service, Kindle Unlimited, on Friday.

More: The Verge, TechCrunch, Tech Times and ReadWrite. See also Mediagazer

Katie Roof / Fox Business:

With huge rounds for Uber and Lyft, VCs invested $13B in Q2 2014, the most since Q1 2001 — Most Venture Funding Since 2001 — The second quarter of this year saw the most U.S. venture funding since the dotcom boom days, according to data from Thomson Reuters and the National Venture Capital Association.

More: Mercury News, Marketwired, The Fiscal Times, VentureBeat and Xconomy. Thanks:@techtipster1

Ernesto / TorrentFreak:

The Pirate Bay says unique visitors doubled since 2011 despite blockades in several countries — Pirate Bay Traffic Doubles Despite ISP Blockades — The Pirate Bay is without doubt one of the most censored websites on the Internet. — Courts all around the world have ordered Internet providers …

More: Ars Technica, Digital Trends and Softpedia News

Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:

With 1M Sold In The Last Quarter, Google's Chromebooks Are A Hit With Schools — During its earnings call this week, Google announced that it — and its partners — sold a million Chromebooks to schools in the last quarter. Overall PC sales worldwide were about 76 million in the last quarter …

More: Google Enterprise Blog, EdSurge, AndroidHeadlines.com, 9to5Google, Gigaom and Business Insider

Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac:

Even after denial, Bloomberg says Jay Carney in the running for Apple PR head — Last week, Re/code reported that former White House Press Secretary Jay Carney has been “bandied about” in connection to filling Katie Cotton's role as Apple's Corporate Communications and PR chief:

More: The Loop, Bloomberg, iPhone in Canada Blog, AppleInsider, Cult of Mac and App Advice. Tweets: @karaswisher

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