Techmeme: After rolling out a flawed automated system in 2014, Michigan falsely charged thousands with unemployment fraud and collected millions in fines (Stephanie Wykstra/Undark Magazine)

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June 8, 2020, 9:55 AM

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Robert Stevens / Decrypt:

Brave browser is caught revising typed-in domains to companies like Binance with URLs including affiliate referral codes; Brave says it will stop the practice — Brave, the crypto-friendly, privacy-first browser has been earning affiliate commissions by redirecting certain search queries to crypto companies via affiliate links.

Olivia Carville / Bloomberg:

Airbnb had more US bookings from May 17 to June 3 than during the same period in 2019, as vacation-rental sites see domestic reservations increase globally — - Weekend getaways are turning into work-from-home respites — Airbnb hasn't ruled out an IPO this year, CEO Chesky says

More: The Verge, SiliconANGLE, and PYMNTS.com

Tweets: @rossdawson, @jessiwrites, @mdudas, @et_rise, @luxury, @aunkurarya, @adrianweckler, @greekanalyst, @sub8u, @miriamgottfried, and @economics

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Study of kids aged 4 to 15 in the US, UK, and Spain finds they spent an average of 85 min/day on YouTube and 80 min/day on TikTok from February 2019-April 2020 — A new study on kids' app usage and habits indicates a major threat to YouTube's dominance, as kids now split …

More: 9to5Mac and Social Media Today

Tweets: @briansolis, @firstadopter, @helienne, and @tysonlw

See also Mediagazer

Rana Foroohar / Financial Times:

To remain this big and unregulated, Facebook aligns itself with powers that be, as its actions in Myanmar and now in the US show — To stay this big and unregulated, the social media platform can't afford to upset rulers — Oligarchs are immoral business leaders who …

More: Monday Note. Tweets: @johnreedwrites, @somospostpc, @nickcohen4, @francesca_bria, @jessefelder, and @schuldensuehner

Stephanie Wykstra / Undark Magazine:

After rolling out a flawed automated system in 2014, Michigan falsely charged thousands with unemployment fraud and collected millions in fines — REPUBLISH … I N 2014, Carmelita Colvin was living just north of Detroit and taking classes at a local college, when she received a letter …

Tweets: @undarkmag, @undarkmag, @undarkmag, @undarkmag, @undarkmag, @undarkmag, @undarkmag, @undarkmag, @lil_aphasia, and @undarkmag

Om Malik / On my Om:

The struggle between real information and fake information is not too different from the fight against spam email, which took a long time but was worth it — To put it mildly, the last ten days have been tough to watch. Following the news triggers anger, and it makes me feel ashamed.

More: Memex 1.1 and OneZero

Brian Krebs / Krebs on Security:

Israeli court sentences the co-owners of vDOS, a now defunct DDoS-for-hire service, to six months of community service — The co-owners of vDOS, a now-defunct service that for four years helped paying customers launch more than two million distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) …

More: Graham Cluley. Tweets: @briankrebs

Karen Hao / MIT Technology Review:

As many Chinese manufacturers face low overseas demand due to the coronavirus, companies like Pinduoduo and JD have helped many launch their own domestic brands — Ask Zhu Kaiyu about his factory, and he can rattle off a series of statistics meant to impress: 15,000 square meters …

Tweets: @_karenhao

New York Times:

As the coronavirus speeds up efforts to expand voting from home either through mail-in ballots or online voting, an analysis of the associated security risks — Fear of the coronavirus is speeding up efforts to allow voting from home, but some of them pose security risks and may make it easier …

More: MIT and internetpolicy.mit.edu

Tweets: @brendannyhan and @nicoleperlroth

Chen Du / PingWest:

Sources: ByteDance has recently implemented a restriction on employees in China from accessing code bases for overseas products like TikTok — ByteDance has been erecting technical firewalls between its China and global operations for more than a year, PingWest has learned …

More: The Overspill. Tweets: @benthompson, @niubi, @elliottzaagman, @lichtspektrum, and @lichtspektrum

Chris O'Brien / VentureBeat:

NYU report criticizes Facebook for outsourcing content moderation, arguing it is a “grossly inadequate” way of dealing with a core task of social platforms — In a scathing examination of Facebook's content moderation strategy, a new study identifies the company's decision …

More: NYU Stern Center, Fbcontentmods, Washington Post, and Digital Trends

Fahmida Y Rashid / IEEE Spectrum:

Q&A: web cryptography pioneers Martin Hellman, Taher Elgamal, and Tom Jermoluk on recent advances in authentication tech, and what the future could look like — Martin Hellman, Taher Elgamal, and Tom Jermoluk were instrumental in shaping how the Internet works. Now they're looking at what's next for web security.

More: Decrypt. Tweets: @ieeespectrum

Annie Palmer / CNBC:

Three Amazon workers file lawsuit alleging that Amazon has failed to adequately protect workers from COVID-19 by not following CDC's contact tracing guidelines — - A lawsuit filed by three Amazon workers calls into question the company's contact tracing efforts.

More: Engadget, CBS News, KUOW, New York Post, Inquirer Business, and CNN

Tweets: @shawnpmcd, @aaronsojourner, @josheidelson, @josheidelson, @willwilkinson, @teamstersjc16, @josheidelson, and @josheidelson

Matt Day / Bloomberg:

Some Amazon workers say they're struggling to get paid sick leave as the deluge of requests swamps the company's heavily automated HR system during the pandemic

Tweets: @mattmday, @technology, @fmbutt, @mattmday, @annierpalmer, @margaretomara, and @hypervisible

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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

Sai Krishna Kothapalli / InfoSec Write-ups:

Researcher describes how hundreds of medical imaging servers in India were left unsecured months ago and are still leaving 1M+ medical records exposed

Tweets: @kingslyj, @kmskrishna, @zackwhittaker, and @zackwhittaker

Dan Strumpf / Wall Street Journal:

Interviews with Huawei staff and a review of internal documents shed light on Huawei's efforts to reorganize and aggressively respond to the growing US pressure

More: BBC. Tweets: @zichenwanghere, @zichenwanghere, @thorstenbenner, @sasapetricic, @cbcwatcher, @adrianweckler, @bobdavis187, and @docolumide

Manish Singh / TechCrunch:

Reliance Jio Platforms says Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) will invest $750M for a 1.16% stake in the company

More: Bloomberg, Reuters, Moneycontrol, The Financial Express, cnbctv18.com, and Livemint

Tweets: @alex, @aparanjape, and @jmelaskyriazi

Renee Dudley / ProPublica:

Review finds Amazon is using the top-left slot of its search results pages, a premier bid slot for brands, to promote its private labels during the pandemic

Tweets: @propublica, @cobrapost, @ctmirror, @patrick_hruby, @mdudas, and @propublica

Jared Council / Wall Street Journal:

Black tech execs hope the current attention on racial disparities will help diversify tech workers, as black people account for only 7.8% of core US IT workers

Tweets: @federallamm, @grattongirl, @shatter242, and @wsj

Earlier Picks

Wall Street Journal:

Overall, remote learning this spring didn't work: schools disagree on fair student assessment, students lack equal access to technology, teaching got harder

Tweets: @codepo8, @jrichlive, @joboaler, @afrankhistory, @trumwill, @econ_marshall, @mdudas, @baddogs4343, @erin_bartram, @motheroftheses, @ichheissemikey, @beijingpalmer, @biblioracle, @orrchris, @cszabla, @jrosenworcel, @mattrosoff, @karstenw, and @hoofnagle

Tanya Basu / MIT Technology Review:

Google Docs is a key tool for organizing protests, as activists anonymously edit public lists of funds, charities, books on racism, and letter-writing templates

More: The Next Web and Protocol

Tweets: @lizzadwoskin, @hautepop, @dariorodighiero, @aakarpost, @halleberry, @tanyabasu, @tanyabasu, and @niallfirth

Dan Goodin / Ars Technica:

Zoom consultant Alex Stamos and experts say offering end-to-end encryption, which needs user authentication, only to paying customers is a reasonable compromise

Tweets: @ncweaver, @pvineetha, @alexstamos, @alexstamos, and @alexstamos

Nitasha Tiku / Washington Post:

More than 140 scientists funded by Chan Zuckerberg Initiative urge Mark Zuckerberg to reconsider Facebook's policies on misinformation and incendiary language

More: The Guardian, CNN, CNBC, The Guardian, Mashable, Jason Shepherd, Digital Trends, Gizmodo, The Verge, CNET, and Newser

Facebook: Priscilla Chan. Tweets: @erictopol, @garymarcus, @robmay, @futureshift, @reneritchie, @om, @gutjahr, @celestekatznyc, @nitashatiku, @jason_kint, @counternotions, @polotek, @jason_kint, @kristenkfromga, @crisprjournal, @_jack_poulson, @teddyschleifer, and @nitashatiku