Techmeme
December 6, 2018, 12:55 AM

Top News

Nate Lanxon / Bloomberg:
UK Parliament publishes 250+ redacted pages of sensitive, internal Facebook documents seized last month from founder of Six4Three, a company suing Facebook  —  - Documents were released by U.K. parliamentary committee  — Lawmaker Collins says publication was lawful in U.K.
Facebook:
Facebook responds to UK Parliament document dump, giving an explanation for API whitelisting, scraping Android call and SMS records, how it uses Onavo, and more  —  As we've said many times, Six4Three — creators of the Pikinis app — cherrypicked these documents from years ago as part …
Russell Brandom / The Verge:
Months after Facebook was shown to surreptitiously collect Android call and SMS records, emails show Facebook's growth team added the feature amid “PR” fears  —  Internal emails show Facebook weighing the privacy risks of collecting call records — then going ahead anyway
Colin Lecher / The Verge:
Internal Facebook docs show how Facebook worked out data sharing agreements with companies and how Zuckerberg personally approved shutting off access for Vine  —  The UK Parliament today released a 250-page cache of previously sealed Facebook documents, revealing internal deliberations …
Globe and Mail:
Canada has arrested Huawei's global CFO, who now faces extradition to the US on the warrant from NY state claiming she violated US trade sanctions against Iran  —  Canada has arrested the chief financial officer of China's Huawei Technologies who is facing extradition to the United States …
Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge:
Google says it will stop working on Allo and instead focus on Messages; Allo will stop working March 2019  —  Google has officially announced that it's shutting down Allo, ending the run of yet another failed Google chat app experiment.  The news isn't entirely unsurprising …
BuzzFeed News:
Sources and chat logs show Facebook's internal tensions are reaching a boiling point, as one ex-employee says staff are “hoping for a Sundar or Dara moment”  —  “It's the bunker mentality.  These people have been under siege for 600 days now.  They're getting tired, getting cranky …
Andrew J. Hawkins / The Verge:
Impressions from a test ride in Waymo One, the first commercial self-driving taxi service, launching next week in Phoenix for Waymo's Early Rider members  —  Going on a coffee run with Waymo One  —  It is late afternoon in Chandler, a suburb of Phoenix, Arizona, and I'm getting jittery waiting …
Gerrit De Vynck / Bloomberg:
In an open letter, a group of Google employees demands more equitable conditions for part-time and contract workers, after last month's changes for full-timers  —  - ‘TVC’ workers describe second-class status at Google  — Some workers say they weren't told of vital safety information
Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch:
Australia set to pass sweeping anti-encryption bill giving police the power to implant malware and insert backdoors, despite massive opposition  —  Australia's controversial anti-encryption bill is one step closer to becoming law, after the two leading but sparring party political giants struck a deal to pass the legislation.
The Verge:
Qualcomm gives details on Snapdragon 855, its smartphone chipset: X24 modem, which isn't 5G compatible, 7 nanometer for 20% better graphics, and AI improvements  —  Qualcomm calls it an AI powerhouse  —  Qualcomm officially took the wraps off the Snapdragon 855, its next generation processor, yesterday at the SnapDragon Tech Summit.
Brent Wistrom / AustinInno:
Austin-based Aceable, which offers online training courses in driver's ed, real estate, and more, raises $47M Series B, bringing total raised to $55.7M  —  Aceable is graduating to the next level.  The edtech startup's roots are in Austin, and it secured a big chunk of its initial funding from Austin-based venture capital firms.
Deepa Seetharaman / Wall Street Journal:
Facebook's board says it was “entirely appropriate” for Sheryl Sandberg to investigate if George Soros shorted Facebook after he made negative comments  —  A letter from the board said Sandberg was being truthful about her knowledge of a public-relations firm's work into the investor
New York Times:
Sources: as Uber prepares to resume testing cars in autonomous mode in Pittsburgh, the cars still face issues, raising safety concerns  —  SAN FRANCISCO — Eight months after one of Uber's self-driving cars struck and killed a pedestrian, the ride-hailing company is close to putting …
More: Reuters.  Tweets: @erokeric, @daiwaka, @daiwaka, and @daiwaka

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