Techmeme: In a formerly undisclosed memo from March, a top FTC enforcement official said Facebook wasn't at fault for Cambridge Analytica's abuses; FTC says probe ongoing (New York Times)

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December 31, 2018, 2:45 AM

Top News

Los Angeles Times:

Malware attack on Tribune Publishing's network disrupts the printing and distribution of Saturday editions of LA Times, WSJ, NYT, and other papers — A cyberattack that appears to have originated from outside the United States caused major printing and delivery disruptions at several newspapers across …

Wall Street Journal:

Sources: Amazon is planning to build and expand Whole Foods stores across the US to put more customers within range of its Prime Now two-hour delivery service — Expansion would widen tech giant's delivery reach — Amazon.com Inc. AMZN 1.12% is planning to build and expand Whole Foods stores across …

More: Firstpost, The Verge, PYMNTS.com, GeekWire, Gizmodo, Engadget, and CNET

Tweets: @cristinagberta, @devindra, @alexisohanian, @upstreamism, @drorpoleg, @retailprophet, and @laurastevens

Amy Nordrum / IEEE Spectrum:

How Facebook engineers keep Messenger from crashing on New Year's Eve, when more messages are sent than on any other day, through “graceful degradation” — Messenger's 1.3 billion users send more messages on New Year's Eve than on any other day of the year

Tweets: @ieeespectrum and @ieeespectrum

Madhumita Murgia / Financial Times:

Privacy International: popular Android apps like TripAdvisor, Kayak, Indeed, MyFitnessPal share data with Facebook without user consent, possibly violating GDPR — Some of the most popular apps for Android smartphones, including Skyscanner, TripAdvisor and MyFitnessPal …

More: Engadget. Tweets: @johnwilander and @carnage4life. Thanks:@cremnob

New York Times:

In a formerly undisclosed memo from March, a top FTC enforcement official said Facebook wasn't at fault for Cambridge Analytica's abuses; FTC says probe ongoing — Last spring, soon after Facebook acknowledged that the data of tens of millions of its users had improperly been obtained …

Tweets: @nickconfessore, @themoko, @justinhendrix, @nytimes, @nickconfessore, @matthewstoller, and @nickconfessore

Eric Bellman / Wall Street Journal:

How Amazon is opening tiny stores, adding local language descriptors, and accepting cash payments to target the 800M people living outside India's big cities — The retailer is targeting hundreds of millions of new online shoppers in India's countryside by adding Hindi and videos …

Tweets: @bethblackshire, @wsj, @oraunak, @wsj, @ericbellmanwsj, and @sajithpai

Timothy B. Lee / Ars Technica:

Big players in autonomous driving like Uber, Tesla, and Waymo had a disappointing 2018, but several startups with a “minimum viable product” made good progress — Big companies struggled but small ones moved forward. — As 2018 dawned, expectations for self-driving vehicles were sky-high:

More: Mashable

Andrew Tarantola / Engadget:

AI image processing for computer vision, facial recognition, image generation, and other applications saw marked improvements in 2018 — Computer scientists have spent more than two decades teaching, training and developing machines to see the world around them.

Julia Reda:

European Commission to start offering bug bounties in January on 14 Free Software projects like Notepad++ and VLC that the EU institutions rely on — It's been a while since I last wrote about the Free and Open Source Software Audit project, FOSSA, so let me start with a quick recap …

More: ZDNet, Softpedia News, Engadget, TechSpot, Digital Trends, Forbes, BetaNews, AskWoody, and Slashdot

Tweets: @senficon, @themadhacker, @phpc, @vessonsecurity, @vessonsecurity, and @campuscodi

Stella Yifan Xie / Wall Street Journal:

How Booking Holdings, formerly Priceline, is betting on China's online travel market with partnerships and more than $2B in investments in Chinese companies — Booking, formerly Priceline, is investing heavily in Chinese travel startups — Nearly two decades ago, Priceline.com …

Abhimanyu Ghoshal / The Next Web:

Inside digital music piracy and sharing in the 2000s via P2P networks like Napster, LimeWire, Gnutella, as well as IRC and internet music service Audiogalaxy — A couple of decades ago - well before a $10 monthly fee would unlock access to virtually every song ever recorded through streaming services …

Katie Hafner / New York Times:

Lawrence Roberts, who helped design the Arpanet and oversaw its implementation in 1969, dies at 81 — In late 1966, a 29-year-old computer scientist drew a series of abstract figures on tracing paper and a quadrille pad. Some resembled a game of cat's cradle; others looked like heavenly constellations …

Tweets: @vgcerf, @nytimes, @katiehafner, and @stevenlevy

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About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 2:45 AM ET, December 31, 2018.

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From Mediagazer

Washington Post:

Internal email: 60 Minutes correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi told staffers Bari Weiss pulled the CECOT segment after the Trump administration refused an interview

Ali Watkins / New York Times:

Channel 4 says Jimmy Kimmel will share a message on Christmas Day as part of its Alternative Christmas Message show, emphasizing the importance of free speech

Reuters:

Israel's cabinet votes to shut down popular national radio station Army Radio, saying it has become a platform for views that “attack” its armed forces

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More News

Aria Thaker / Quartz:

In an year of breaches, data leaks, and reports of starvation deaths due to faulty implementation, India's Aadhaar had its constitutional status upheld in 2018

Shannon Bond / Financial Times:

Inside Uber's serious incident team for US where ~130 investigators deal with reports of crashes, physical altercations, sexual misconduct, theft, and stalking

Tweets: @tonywest

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

RBC Capital Markets: 41% of US consumers now own a smart speaker, compared to 21.5% in 2017; the growth was mostly driven by Alexa and Google Home devices

More: Business Insider

Susan Fowler / New York Times:

The biggest challenges for US tech firms in 2019: GDPR-like privacy protections, large security breaches becoming routine, and anti-government employee protests

Tweets: @susanthesquark, @moiragweigel, @nytopinion, @mer__edith, @nytopinion, @wslack, @bradfordcross, and @alexstamos

Mike Cherney / Wall Street Journal:

As Alphabet tests Wing drone deliveries in a suburb of Canberra, some enjoy the convenience of orders arriving in minutes while others complain about noise

More: [H]ardOCP. Tweets: @wsj, @wsj, and @wsj

Al Jazeera:

Bangladesh orders mobile operators to shut down high-speed mobile internet services to “prevent rumours and propaganda” ahead of national elections on Sunday

More: Engadget, Gizmodo, CNN, and Reuters

Earlier Picks

Andrew Galbraith / Reuters:

China approves the release of 80 video games, none of which are from Tencent, a week after lifting a nine-month freeze on approvals

More: TechSpot, SlashGear, TechCrunch, Engadget, and The Verge

Shan Li / Wall Street Journal:

JD.com to restructure JD Mall, the company's main revenue source, into three units after announcing $1B share buyback amid plunging stock price and CEO worries

More: The Drum, Benzinga, MarketWatch, South China Morning Post, and TechNode

Tweets: @wsj and @chinarealtime

Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch:

CenturyLink says all consumer services impacted by a ~32-hour outage that started on Thursday, including its 911 emergency services, have been restored

Kellen / Droid Life:

Essential says it won't restock Essential Phone anymore, will still sell accessories and provide software updates and is focusing on its “next mobile product”

Peter Rubin / Wired:

Netflix debuts its first choose-your-own-storyline movie, Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, developed over 18 months using Twine, a game writing tool

More: Howard Lindzon, euronews, Mashable, IndieWire, The Verge, WIRED UK, Vulture, CNET, Engadget, The Verge, Tubefilter, Gizmodo, Insanely Great Mac, 9to5Mac, Ars Technica, Gamasutra, and Polygon

Tweets: @moranmarc13, @pkafka, @kxyonn, @mayaveni_, @variety, @schlafman, @stroughtonsmith, @stroughtonsmith, @independent, @shakespearegame, @waukeslosh, @wireduk, @chrishewitt, @rbrome, @brianjayjones, and @scottygb