Techmeme
December 19, 2019, 9:45 PM

Top News

New York Times:
Leaked dataset from a location data company with a log of the movements of 12M+ Americans shows how “anonymous” location data can be used to track people  —  EVERY MINUTE OF EVERY DAY, everywhere on the planet, dozens of companies — largely unregulated, little scrutinized …
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Report: Facebook has tasked a co-author of Windows NT with building an OS from scratch, in order to stop relying on Android for products like Oculus and Portal  —  Facebook doesn't want its hardware like Oculus and Portal to be at the mercy of Google because they rely on its Android operating system.
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
Google acquires Montreal-based game development house Typhoon Studios as part of its plan to create exclusive content for Stadia  —  Google's Stadia cloud gaming division has acquired Typhoon Studio, a Montreal-based triple-A game development house.  —  The move is part of Stadia's plan …
Makena Kelly / The Verge:
Congress passes the TRACED Act, enabling fines of up to $10K per robocall and requiring carriers to deploy STIR/SHAKEN protocol to identify spoofed numbers  —  A holiday gift for anyone with a phone  —  After months of negotiations, Congress approved a landmark bill on Thursday to stop the flood of illegal robocalls.
Tony Romm / Washington Post:
Facebook bans misleading posts, photos, ads, and other content about the 2020 US Census, even if posted by a politician, on Facebook and Instagram  —  The new rules, announced Thursday, includes those placed by politicians  —  SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook will remove posts …
Drew Harwell / Washington Post:
Study of 189 facial recognition algorithms shows they misidentify people of color more often than white people, confirming facial recognition tech's racial bias  —  Facial-recognition systems misidentified people of color more often than white people, a landmark federal study released Thursday shows …
Kim Lyons / The Verge:
According to a new report from Have I Been Pwned, 170M emails along with usernames and hashed passwords were stolen in the Zynga breach in September  —  If you're still playing Words with Friends or Draw Something, you should change your password  —  A September password breach …
Andrew O'Hara / AppleInsider:
Apple open sources parts of its HomeKit Accessory Development Kit allowing anyone to prototype HomeKit devices  —  Apple has published an open-source version of its HomeKit Accessory Development Kit, allowing more users to experiment with the development of HomeKit accessories.
Taylor Soper / GeekWire:
F5 Networks says it will acquire AI-powered fraud prevention platform Shape Security for around $1B in cash  —  F5 Networks will pay approximately $1 billion to acquire Shape Security, a Santa Clara, Calif.-based company that sells a fraud prevention platform to banks, airlines, retailers, government agencies, and more.
Todd Spangler / Variety:
TiVo to merge with technology licensing company Xperi; the combined company will have a fully diluted equity value of $2.4B, with TiVo owning ~53.5% of it  —  TiVo has scrapped plans to split itself into two separate companies, and instead announced a $3 billion merger with Xperi …
Katie Paul / Reuters:
Facebook says it will no longer use phone numbers provided for 2FA for friend suggestions, after stopping their use for ad targeting in June  —  SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Facebook Inc will no longer feed user phone numbers provided to it for two-factor authentication into its “people you may know” …

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Los Angeles Times:
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Faiz Siddiqui / Washington Post:
Lauren Feiner / CNBC:
Todd Haselton / CNBC: