Techmeme: Seoul-based Riiid, which uses AI to offer personalized study plans to students in its test prep app Santa, raises $41.8M, bringing its total raised to $70.2M (Kyle Wiggers/VentureBeat)

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July 27, 2020, 3:30 AM

Top News

Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet:

Digital banking app and tech unicorn Dave confirms a security breach after a hacker published personal information on 7.5M+ of its users on a public forum — Dave user data is now available for download on a public hacking forum. — Digital banking app and tech unicorn Dave.com confirmed today …

More: A Banking Blog for Humans, BleepingComputer, and Slashdot

Tweets: @haveibeenpwned, @notsolpon, @campuscodi, @ungarino, @mdudas, and @ws

Ian Tucker / The Guardian:

Q&A with Yaël Eisenstat, who was briefly hired as Facebook's global head of elections integrity in 2018 and, she says, intentionally sidelined from the start — The ex-CIA officer on why she lasted only six months at the tech giant and her fears about its role in the forthcoming US election

More: Memex 1.1. Tweets: @0xcaffee, @ericgarland, @ideagov, @jankybrain, and @_brohrer_

Associated Press:

Trump is running Facebook ads accusing Twitter and Snapchat of election interference, while Biden's Facebook ads accuse Facebook of posing a threat to democracy — This photo combo of images shows, clockwise, from upper left: President Donald Trump speaking during a news conference …

More: Slashdot. Tweets: @fabiochiusi, @ap, @ashleymayer, @bruno_j_navarro, @benedictevans, @nickpacilio, and @jason_kint

Sergiu Gatlan / BleepingComputer:

A Garmin employee confirms that the company's servers were hit by WastedLocker, a ransomware variant developed by Russia-based cybercriminal group Evil Corp — 07/24/20 Update below. This article was originally published on July 23rd, 2020. It has been updated to reflect that BleepingComputer …

More: TechCrunch, ZDNet, TechRadar, Cointelegraph, Forbes, and TalkAndroid.com

Tweets: @avast_antivirus, @rdrv3, @campuscodi, @jjoque, @amirmizroch, @theharrymcc, @find_evil, @kimzetter, @jim_casey_, @tomlawrencetech, @quentynblog, @zackwhittaker, @zackwhittaker, @zackwhittaker, @bikehugger, @benthompson, and @benthompson

Kevin Roose / New York Times:

The debate over TikTok is a chance to come up with a thoughtful model to regulate big tech companies, whether they're based in China, Copenhagen, or California — There is plenty the U.S. government could do to ensure that TikTok acts responsibly without getting rid of it altogether.

More: CNBC and Margins

Tweets: @taylorlorenz, @rabois, @taylorlorenz, @slhamlet, @hunterwalk, @taylorlorenz, @taylorlorenz, @taylorlorenz, @andylalwani, @sherman4949, @taylorlorenz, @taylorlorenz, @taylorlorenz, @sherman4949, @mattzeitlin, @readmargins, @adamconner, @ruima, and @aaschapiro

Alex Konrad / Forbes:

SAP announces plans to spin out Qualtrics, a user experience management platform it acquired in 2018 for $8B, with an IPO in the US — Twenty months after SAP swooped in and announced its plan to acquire Qualtrics for $8 billion as it was on the cusp of an IPO, the experience management software company may be going public after all.

More: SAP, diginomica, Fortune, and Bloomberg

Tweets: @trengriffin, @alexrkonrad, @nongaap, @katie_roof, and @derekjandersen. Thanks:@alexrkonrad

Scott Galloway / No Mercy/No Malice:

Some ideas for questions and visual aids that House antitrust subcommittee members can use when questioning the CEOs of Apple, Amazon, Facebook, and Google — The CEOs of Apple, Amazon, Facebook, and Google are scheduled to testify in front of the US House Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee.

More: Philip Elmer‑DeWitt, The Verge, Reuters, Politico, Business Insider, CNET, Bloomberg, Windows Central, Protocol, Memex 1.1, Benedict Evans, and Axios

Tweets: @rishad, @profgalloway, @tedstew, @carnage4life, @profgalloway, @pythiar, @aleighmp, @profgalloway, @profgalloway, @peter_atwater, @jmrybnicek, @ashimehta23, and @justinhendrix

Robert McMillan / Wall Street Journal:

Audit finds six election boards in MI, MO, ME, NH using a buggy version of email software Exim, which the NSA says has been targeted in attacks by Russia's GRU — Six jurisdictions used software that Russian spies have targeted in cyberattacks — Many of the thousands of county …

More: Area 1 Security, Gizmodo, The Verge, and Engadget

Tweets: @wsj, @wsjpolitics, and @dabeard

Biz Carson / Protocol:

A look at the rise of “solo capitalists”, micro VC funds, and AngelList's Rolling Venture Fund product that lets users subscribe and invest on a quarterly basis — Hello and welcome to Pipeline. This week: The art of Twitter VC bios, hypocrisy at Carta, and how to raise a VC fund through Twitter.

Tweets: @helen_min, @protocol, @bizcarson, @bizcarson, @bizcarson, @bizcarson, @rednieves, and @bizcarson

Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:

EU watchdogs warn that there is no grace period after Schrems II ruling and transfers of personal data from EU to US relying on Privacy Shield are now illegal — European data watchdogs have issued updated guidance in the wake of last week's landmark ruling striking down a flagship transatlantic …

Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:

Seoul-based Riiid, which uses AI to offer personalized study plans to students in its test prep app Santa, raises $41.8M, bringing its total raised to $70.2M — Riiid, a Seoul, South Korea-based startup developing AI test prep solutions, today closed a $41.8 million pre-series D financing round …

Chase / StreamElements:

Arsenal.gg: in Q2 Facebook Gaming grew 75% QoQ and reached 334M hours watched in June 2020, up from 111M YoY; Twitch dominated with 5B+ hours watched in Q2 — Livestreaming has been on the rise for years, but the pandemic definitely supersized the amount of streamers and content being watched.

Tweets: @streamelements

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From Mediagazer

Natalie Korach / Status:

Sources: journalists attending WHCD plan to wear 1A-themed accessories, in a RCFP-coordinated campaign to express solidarity amid Trump's press restrictions

Wall Street Journal:

Sources: three Gulf sovereign-wealth funds have agreed to commit a total of ~$24B to back Paramount's $81B WBD deal; Saudi Arabia's PIF agreed to provide ~$10B

Marisa Kabas / The Handbasket:

An independent journalist argues against using AI to help journalists write, saying “the process is the purpose” even if you don't always enjoy it

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More News

Anton Troianovski / New York Times:

Facebook hired StopFake in Ukraine to flag Russian disinformation, but critics accuse the fact-checking group of ties to the far right and of bias in its work

Tweets: @dpol_un, @arictoler, and @maximeristavi

Brian Merchant / OneZero :

Q&A with Tim Maughan, the sci-fi writer whose dystopian visions of AR-powered surveillance capitalism now seem to be turning into reality with uncanny accuracy

More: The Prepared. Tweets: @cherylmorgan, @jathansadowski, @hpredko, @ricksearle1, and @techwontsaveus

Brian Krebs / Krebs on Security:

A survey of 500+ cybersecurity pros sheds light on which skills they find most useful in cybersecurity job candidates, and which are most frequently lacking

Tweets: @infosecsherpa, @briankrebs, @bettersafetynet, and @foresightcyber

Mengmeng Zhang / Counterpoint Research:

Despite smartphone sales in China declining 17% YoY in Q2, Huawei grew 14%, capturing 46% of the market, as Apple grew 32%, becoming the fastest growing OEM

More: equalocean.com and Huawei Central

Tweets: @trengriffin and @neiltwitz

Earlier Picks

Ian King / Bloomberg:

Intel's decision to consider outsourcing manufacturing heralds the end of an era in which the company, and the US, dominated the semiconductor industry

More: Globes Online. Tweets: @gavinsbaker, @chrismattmann, @mcuban, @newtbyrd, @tpetruno, @kausmickey, @iancutress, @amirmizroch, @ralpheezy, @bilalfarooqui, @esaagar, @scottlincicome, and @business

Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet:

A vigilante hacker has been sabotaging the Emotet malware botnet, replacing a quarter of daily payloads with animated GIFs, stopping victims from being infected

More: Explica, iTnews, DataBreaches.net, and Wired

Tweets: @z_edian and @campuscodi

Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:

Sea Machines Robotics, a provider of software and equipment for autonomous boats and ships, raises $15M Series B led by Accomplice

More: Sea Machines and The Robot Report

Tweets: @technexus and @thisisdynamo

Kim Lyons / The Verge:

After user reports, Instagram says it is “fixing a bug in iOS 14 Beta that mistakenly indicates that some people are using the camera when they aren't”