Techmeme: The US Congress won't limit the NSA: individuals, courts, and other nations must step up (Glenn Greenwald/The Intercept)

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November 23, 2014, 9:35 PM

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Arik Hesseldahl / Re/code:

Symantec uncovers Regin, a trojan likely built by a nation-state, which has spied on businesses and governments since 2008 — Symantec Uncovers Sophisticated, Stealthy Computer Spying Tool — Computer security researchers at Symantec say they have discovered a sophisticated piece …

More: Symantec Security Response, Computerworld, Engadget, Fortune, Gizmodo, ZDNet, CNET, Ars Technica, The Verge, BBC and BetaNews. Tweets: @michaelreuter

Glenn Greenwald / The Intercept:

The US Congress won't limit the NSA: individuals, courts, and other nations must step up — Congress Is Irrelevant on Mass Surveillance. Here's What Matters Instead. — The “USA Freedom Act”—which its proponents were heralding as “NSA reform” despite its suffocatingly narrow scope …

More: Politico, Boing Boing and Gawker

Tweets: @jamesjoaquin, @restore_the4th and @ggreenwald

Alissa Walker / Gizmodo:

Google and Garmin altered directions to the Hollywood sign on behalf of nearby homeowners to keep tourists away — Why People Keep Trying to Erase the Hollywood Sign From Google Maps — The Hollywood Sign might be one of the most recognizable things on Earth. In Los Angeles, it's also one of the most visible.

More: PC Magazine. Tweets: @dsilverman, @alexbainbridge, @norton_tim and @dannysullivan

Mark Suster / Both Sides of the Table:

The one big potential Uber scandal concerns employee access to user data, not targeting journalists for opposition research — In Defense of Uber: An Objective Opinion — The story on Uber has been written about ad nauseam, which is why I've been reluctant to weigh in.

More: AVC, Re/code, New York Times, VentureBeat, NPR, The Register, PandoDaily, VatorNews, Mashable and Upstart Business Journal

Tweets: @danprimack, @msuster, @sarahcuda, @michaelpilla, @mathewi, @maringuy, @ferenstein, @hunterwalk, @thestalwart, @jason, @hblodget, @startupljackson and @mikeisaac

Lane Wood / Medium:

Pando founder Sarah Lacy's allusions to physical threats distort media narrative on Uber scandal

Rachel Feintzeig / Wall Street Journal:

Tech firms competing for talent spawn “workplace coordinators” to manage lavish employee perks — Lavish Perks Spawn New Job Category — At Tech Companies, Aim-to-Please Specialists Provide Yoga Classes, Jell-O Shots — From Muay Thai classes to Zen meditation rooms …

More: Business Insider, Inc.com, Fortune and SiliconBeat

Jerome Groopman / New Yorker:

How 3-D printing is revolutionizing medicine — In February of 2012, a medical team at the University of Michigan's C. S. Mott Children's Hospital, in Ann Arbor, carried out an unusual operation on a three-month-old boy. The baby had been born with a rare condition called tracheobronchomalacia …

Tweets: @mfordfuture and @sub8u

Wall Street Journal:

Samsung considers reorg placing mobile division under co-CEO B.K. Yoon, who oversees TV and home appliance business — Samsung Considering Shake-Up in Management — Co-CEO B.K. Yoon May Assume Leadership of Mobile Division

Felix Gillette / Businessweek:

Behind PayPal-owned mobile payments app Venmo, which processed $700M in payments in Q3 2014 — Mobile Payment Startup Venmo is Killing Cash — Kristen Geil, a writer for an Internet marketing firm in Chicago, heard about Venmo for the first time two summers ago.

Tweets: @avinash and @kaylatausche

Ben Huh / Backchannel:

How Cheezburger survived 3 years of turmoil to create a platform for remixing funny images — Rewriting Cheezburger Saved My Life — Please You Download It … I want to tell you the entire story of how this app came to be, with all the guts and gore.

More: Inc.com. Tweets: @mathewi, @caro, @lazerow, @cindygallop, @paulsingh, @backchnnl, @randyjhunt, @jasonlbaptiste, @eamonleonard and @jguynn. Thanks:@themadhacker. See also Mediagazer

Ian Urbina / New York Times:

Passwords don't just protect data, they reveal our hopes, dreams, secrets, fears, and memories — The Secret Life of Passwords … Play Videos — Howard Lutnick, the chief executive of Cantor Fitzgerald, one of the world's largest financial-services firms, still cries when he talks about it.

Tweets: @codinghorror, @swiftonsecurity, @aldaily, @nytimes, @ala_lita, @nicoleperlroth, @amiraaah, @megan, @nytmag, @stammy, @digiphile, @ethanz and @nickbilton

Greg Sterling / Search Engine Land:

Europeans Have Authority To Seek Google Break Up Though Unlikely To Do So — Break Google up. That's the thrust of a “non-binding” resolution the European Parliament is expected to adopt at some point in the near future, according to a report on Friday from Reuters.

More: PC Magazine and Slate

AnandTech:

Full disk encryption on Nexus 6 leads to 62.9% drop in random read performance — Encryption and Storage Performance in Android 5.0 Lollipop — As alluded to in our Nexus 6 review, our normal storage performance benchmark was no longer giving valid results as of Android 5.0.

More: PC Magazine, TechSpot, Android Beat, Electronista, Digital Trends, Droid Life, BetaNews, Ubergizmo, BGR and Android Authority

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