Techmeme: Leaked Facebook memo describes company's lobbying efforts in 2012 and 2013 against a proposed European data directive which later became GDPR, more (The Guardian)

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March 4, 2019, 12:10 AM

Top News

Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch:

Facebook has urged users to enable phone number-based 2FA, but the numbers are used in a user lookup feature with no opt out and to target ads, sparking outcry — Users are complaining that the phone number Facebook hassled them to use to secure their account with two-factor authentication …

Fast Company:

A list of 121 data brokers operating in the US, available due to a new Vermont law requiring companies who buy and sell third-party personal data to register — You've probably never heard of many of the data firms registered under a new law, but they've heard a lot about you. A list, and tips for opting out.

Tweets: @alexstamos, @antoniogm, @wolfiechristl, @tiffanycli, @joelwinston, @alexstamos, @carnage4life, @irinissima_, @neerajka, @alexstamos, @hoofnagle, @alexstamos, @antoniogm, @pasternack, @antoniogm, @alexstamos, and @wolfiechristl

Shwanika Narayan / San Francisco Chronicle:

Tristan O'Tierney, a Square co-founder who created the company's first mobile app, dies at age 35 from causes likely related to addiction — Tristan O'Tierney, a co-founder of San Francisco payments company Square, died Feb. 23 in Ocala, Fla., of causes related to addiction, his family said.

More: Bloomberg, CNBC, Business Insider, Fox News, TechCrunch, and Newser

Tweets: @owenthomas, @stevestreza, @buzz, and @mitsuhiko

The Guardian:

Leaked Facebook memo describes company's lobbying efforts in 2012 and 2013 against a proposed European data directive which later became GDPR, more — Social network targeted legislators around the world, promising or threatening to withhold investment — Facebook has targeted politicians around …

More: ComputerWeekly.com, Business Insider, FutureSin, Mashable, and Slashdot

Tweets: @carolecadwalla, @klillington, @klillington, @tara_deschamps, @carolecadwalla, @hhariri, @baekdal, @stalfel, @sarahfrier, @tom_watson, and @hshaban

Messari:

Coinbase exec says they felt compelled to buy Neutrino quickly to bring blockchain analytics in-house, because Coinbase's vendors were selling its clients' data — In an alarming interview on Cheddar, Coinbase Director of Institutional Sales, Christine Sandler, suggested …

More: Cheddar, CoinDesk, Ethereum World News, and FutureSin

Tweets: @jespow, @jeffjohnroberts, and @_jillruth

Alison Griswold / Oversharing:

An analysis of data between August and December 2018 from Louisville, KY estimates that the average lifespan of shared scooters in the city was 28 days — CXLIV — Hello and welcome to Oversharing, a newsletter about the proverbial sharing economy. If you're returning from last week, thanks!

More: Tech.eu, Quartz, Mashable, Boing Boing, ExtremeTech, The Overspill, and Mercury News

Tweets: @carnage4life, @benbajarin, @hoofnagle, @sohear, @davegershgorn, and @davegershgorn

Cade Metz / New York Times:

Sources: CEO of AI startup Clarifai says internal ethics officers do not suit small companies and that Clarifai would one day supply autonomous weapons — HALF MOON BAY, Calif. — When a news article revealed that Clarifai was working with the Pentagon and some employees questioned the ethics …

Tweets: @aimeevanrobot, @rhysblakely, @khalidhamdan0, @david_gunkel, @frankpasquale, @bankillerrobots, @denniscgarcia, @dorotheabaur, @matt_cagle, @kenroth, @mperiksen, @techworkersco, @nytimes, and @anabmap

Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:

Intel CEO Bob Swan and executives Sandra Rivera and Dan McNamara discuss Intel's strategy around 5G, its investments in modems, memory chips, GPUs, and more — Only the strong assets survive. That's what I said after Bob Swan, the newly appointed CEO of Intel, talked about his view …

Tweets: @techtalli

Bill Bostock / Business Insider:

Google rejects calls to remove Absher, an app from the Saudi government to help men in the country track and dictate where women can travel, from the Play store — - Google has rejected calls to remove a Saudi government app which offers a tool for men to control where women travel.

More: Newsweek, The Daily Dot, Boing Boing, Geek News Central, TechSpot, Gizmodo Australia, The Verge, Phandroid, Patently Apple, and Engadget

Tweets: @lieslhrw, @abirghattas, @tomeleonard, @re_sieber, @mcmillen, @maryamalkhawaja, @kenroth, @bryanlunduke, @rmac18, @techworkersco, @ldrogen, @nickhanauer, and @lbraccio

Will Oremus / Slate:

Picking a VPN to trust is a problem, but as demand grows, there's incentive for the industry to outgrow its Wild West phase and develop industry standards — Virtual private networks are now a must-have privacy tool. But good luck figuring out which ones will actually make you safer.

Tweets: @boblord, @henrygrabar, @abenedikt, @helmsecure, @lousylinguist, @gadyepstein, @profcarroll, and @willoremus

Brian Heater / TechCrunch:

Light, which has been known for its 16-lens DSLR rival, unveiled partnerships with Nokia, Sony, and Xiaomi at MWC, with the 5-camera Nokia 9 featuring its tech — This year's MWC has been very much the beginning of a new phase for Light . Until now, the Palo Alto startup has been best …

Peter Kafka / Recode:

Warner Music's lawsuit against Spotify in India underscores music labels' worry over music streaming services doing more direct deals with artists in the future — Big Tech and Big Music are used to being frenemies. Now things are getting feistier. — The music business is booming, for real.

Tweets: @voxdotcom

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From Mediagazer

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Trump says Stephen Colbert is a “pathetic trainwreck” and “CBS should, ‘put him to sleep,’ NOW”; earlier CBS aired the Kennedy Center Honors, hosted by Trump

Zachary Leeman / Mediaite:

White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller calls for CBS staff who “revolted” over Bari Weiss' decision to postpone 60 Minutes' CECOT segment to be fired

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Comcast extends Mike Cavanagh's contract through January 1, 2029, and grants a ~$35M performance-based stock package; he's set to become co-CEO in January 2026

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More News

Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:

Super League Gaming, which hosts amateur esports competitions, priced its IPO at $11/share and raised $25M on Feb. 25, but its stock closed at $8.99 on Friday

More: Cheddar, Esports Wizard, Yahoo Finance, Los Angeles Business Journal, Variety, and The Esports Observer

Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch:

McAfee shares findings from a government-provided command server used by N. Korean-linked Lazarus hackers to run “Sharpshooter” malware campaign from Sept. 2017

More: Threatpost and Business Wire. Tweets: @zackwhittaker

Ari Levy / CNBC:

Sources: Rakuten, which owns a 13% stake in Lyft, made the investment in 2015 after data from its consumer purchase tracker Slice showed Lyft was undervalued

More: SEC. Tweets: @ranimolla, @mattrosoff, @jonorcutt, @r0unak, @mdudas, @joshelman, @stevendsolomon, @bizcarson, @darakerr, and @mattrosoff

Jeff Wise / OneZero:

Critics and parents question the ethics of using edutainment games like Prodigy, which has a freemium business model that relies on in-app purchases, in schools

Tweets: @medium and @dlberes

Janet Morrissey / New York Times:

A look at on-demand medical startups in the US like Heal and The I.V. Doc, which are helping users get treatment for nonemergency problems at home or work

Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:

Ordr, a network-level cybersecurity platform which uses AI to flag suspicious events in real time, comes out of stealth and says it has raised $16.5M Series A

More: FinSMEs

Earlier Picks

Jon Victor / The Information:

Source: Circle, which runs cryptocurrency exchange Poloniex and was reportedly valued at ~$3B last year after raising $246M, is raising another $250M

More: SiliconANGLE, CryptoGlobe, Cointelegraph, SludgeFeed, and The Block

Chad Bray / South China Morning Post:

Accenture: global fintech funding more than doubled YoY to $55.3B in 2018, with China accounting for $25.5B, boosted by $14B raised by Ant Financial

More: The Block, The Straits Times, The Business Times, and Nikkei. Tweets: @davemcclure

Alan Boyle / GeekWire:

Microsoft says it will start offering quantum computing via Azure, debuts Microsoft Quantum Network, a network of partners collaborating on quantum innovations

More: Microsoft Quantum, MSPoweruser, OnMSFT.com, Computerworld News …, and BetaNews

Tweets: @eggwhisk and @rwandarob

Caroline O'Donovan / BuzzFeed News:

Amazon removes at least three anti-vaccination documentaries from Prime Video hours after Rep. Schiff sent letter to Bezos regarding anti-vaccine misinformation

More: SlashGear, The Daily Dot, Congressman Adam Schiff, Gizmodo, Business Insider, The Hill, Axios, CNN, Engadget, and The Verge

Tweets: @jonsarlin, @ceodonovan, @ceodonovan, @ceodonovan, and @ceodonovan

Tom Warren / The Verge:

Microsoft now lets Microsoft 365 users on Android take a picture of a printed data table and automatically convert it into an editable Excel spreadsheet