Techmeme
September 5, 2019, 11:00 AM

Top News

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Facebook Dating launches in the US as an opt-in feature integrated with Instagram, for users 18 and over, with a separate profile  —  Are Americans ready to trust Facebook with their dating life?  Barely more than a month has passed since the U.S. Federal Trade Commission fined Facebook …
Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple is developing in-screen fingerprint tech to work alongside Face ID for its 2020/2021 iPhones, working on a low-cost 4.7-inch iPhone for H1 2020  —  - Company previously replaced fingerprint sensing with Face ID  — New low-cost iPhone in the works for first half of next year
Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch:
Unsecured database with 419M+ phone numbers linked to Facebook accounts found; FB says data was obtained before it disabled searching for users via phone number  —  Hundreds of millions of phone numbers linked to Facebook accounts have been found online.  —  The exposed server contained …
Nick Statt / The Verge:
Google is open sourcing its differential privacy library, which it uses to securely draw insights from data sets containing sensitive user information  —  Google is making differential privacy available to anyone  —  Google today announced that it is open-sourcing its so-called differential privacy library …
Richard Lawler / Engadget:
Samsung says the 512GB 5G model of Galaxy Fold will be available in Europe starting September 18 for ~$2,000, US launch to happen “in the coming weeks”  —  After its first attempt at a launch fizzled out in the spring, the Samsung Galaxy Fold is ready to try again at making a first impression.
Bloomberg:
Sources: WeWork is considering seeking a valuation of ~$20B-$30B in its US IPO, marking a significant reduction from an earlier valuation of $47B  —  - Valuation would be a step down from earlier $47 billion  — IPO plans have received criticism for ‘obfuscating’ details
Taylor Soper / GeekWire:
Microsoft acquires Seattle-based cloud migration company Movere for an undisclosed amount; Movere is Microsoft's third Azure-related acquisition since July  —  Microsoft didn't have to go far for its latest acquisition.  The Redmond, Wash.-based tech giant today announced that it acquired Movere …
Reuters:
Prudential Financial to buy Assurance IQ, which uses data science and AI to sell insurance policies from 20+ providers online, for $2.35B  —  (Reuters) - U.S. insurer Prudential Financial Inc has agreed to acquire online insurance startup Assurance IQ Inc for $2.35 billion …
Jacob Kastrenakes / The Verge:
Twitter says it has “temporarily” turned off the SMS-to-tweet feature, after Jack Dorsey's account was compromised  —  Twitter has “temporarily” turned off the ability to tweet via text message just days after the feature was misused by hackers to tweet a racial slur, bomb threat …
Jordan Novet / CNBC:
Slack reports Q2 revenue of $145M, up 58% YoY, says it had over 100,000 paid customers, up 37% YoY; stock is down ~13%+  —  KEY POINTS  —  Stewart Butterfield, co-founder and CEO of Slack, at the 2018 WEF in Davos, Switzerland.  —  Shares of Slack, maker of the popular workplace chat app …
New York Times:
Source: Google, Facebook, Twitter, and Microsoft held a daylong meeting with US government officials over 2020 election security  —  SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook, Google, Twitter and Microsoft met with government officials in Silicon Valley on Wednesday to discuss and coordinate on how best …
CNBC:
Google will pay a $136M fine to the FTC and $34M to the New York Attorney General to settle claims that it violated child privacy laws on YouTube  —  - Google marketed itself as the “leader” for content for children ages 6 through 11, the allegations claim.
Peter Kafka / Vox:
Jack Stubbs / Reuters:
Sources: Chinese hackers compromised telecom operators in countries including Turkey, India, Thailand, and Malaysia to track Uighur travelers there  —  LONDON (Reuters) - Hackers working for the Chinese government have broken into telecoms networks to track Uighur travelers in Central and Southeast Asia …

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Earlier Picks

Cade Metz / New York Times:
Michael Zelenko / The Verge:
Madhumita Murgia / Financial Times: