Techmeme: Apple agrees to pay its CA store workers $29.9M, settling a 2013 lawsuit for time spent in required security bag checks; Apple dropped the policy in 2015 (Robert Burnson/Bloomberg)

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November 14, 2021, 6:40 PM

Top News

Ionut Ilascu / BleepingComputer:

FBI email servers were hacked to send spam warning of a “sophisticated chain attack”, with a likely goal to discredit security researcher Vinny Troia — The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) email servers were hacked to distribute spam email impersonating FBI warnings …

Brian Krebs / Krebs on Security:

The person claiming responsibility for the FBI email server hack says they were able to send spam messages by abusing insecure code in the FBI's LEEP portal — The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) confirmed today that its fbi.gov domain name and Internet address were used to blast …

More: Federal Bureau …, Washington Post, Reuters, PCMag, NBC News, Bloomberg, and Slashdot

Tweets: @briankrebs, @rvawonk, @gossithedog, @tylabs, @dinodaizovi, @cioontherun, @briankrebs, @grufftech, @spamhaus, @eyestray, @embryoresist, @gossithedog, @sonofuhgunn, @campuscodi, @fabio_viggiani, @jsrailton, and @rayredacted

Taylor Locke / CNBC:

An overview of Bitcoin's Taproot upgrade, which makes transactions more private, less expensive, and will let bitcoin users execute more complex smart contracts — Taproot, a highly anticipated upgrade to bitcoin, went into effect on Sunday at block 709,632.

More: CNBC, Neowin, ZyCrypto, and CoinDesk

Tweets: @itstaylorlocke, @steve_hanke, and @onrampinvest

Wolfie Zhao / The Block:

Taproot, the first major upgrade to Bitcoin's code since the introduction of Segregated Witness in 2017, goes live — Taproot, Bitcoin's long-anticipated code upgrade with a focus on enhancing the network's privacy and security, has been activated. — The upgrade went live …

More: Engadget, Decrypt, and CoinDesk

Tweets: @kenziesigalos, @brain2jene, @kennyflorian, @icodrops, and @thecryptoapp

CNBC:

Agreements between Apple and some states to offer digital IDs in Wallet show states covering the costs of issuing the IDs and Apple approving marketing efforts — - Apple requires states to maintain the systems needed to issue and service credentials at taxpayer expense, according to contracts signed by four states.

More: PCMag, Engadget, The Verge, 9to5Mac, and AppleInsider

Tweets: @herrmanndigital, @hugh_son, @jonfortt, @mattrosoff, @hypervisible, @amtvmedia, and @karlmarxhd

New York Times:

Apple, Spotify, and other companies that distribute podcasts have done little to rein in COVID-19 misinformation, escaping the scrutiny social media giants face — False statements about vaccines have spread on the “Wild West” of media, even as some hosts die of virus complications.

More: iThinkDifferent. Tweets: @carnage4life, @elijahschaffer, @ufjschool, @evan_greer, @derekwillis, @peterhamby, @celinegounder, @timobrien, @technollama, @jeffjarvis, @evelyndouek, @davewiner, @marcatracy, @tiffkhsu, and @shanoorseervai

See also Mediagazer

Will Oremus / Washington Post:

Internal documents show Facebook defends algorithmic ranking because its data suggests that its algorithm knows what users want better than they do themselves — In at least two experiments over the years, Facebook has explored what happens when it turns off its controversial news feed ranking system …

More: Tech Xplore and Scripting News

Tweets: @jeffjarvis, @marklittlenews, @kevinbankston, @willoremus, @justinhendrix, @evilgalprods, and @pleasesaveour

Robert Burnson / Bloomberg:

Apple agrees to pay its CA store workers $29.9M, settling a 2013 lawsuit for time spent in required security bag checks; Apple dropped the policy in 2015 — Apple Inc. agreed to pay $29.9 million to employees at its stores who were forced to submit to security bag checks — off the clock …

More: Daily Mail, iPhone in Canada Blog, Gizchina, Gizmodo, 9to5Mac, AppleInsider, Benzinga, and iMore. Tweets: @akbarth3great

Aisha Counts / Protocol:

Report finds that online child sexual abuse material is increasing in sheer volume, growing more complex, and capitalizing on tech's blind spots — Online child sex abuse material has grown exponentially during the pandemic, and tech's best defenses are no match against it …

Source: WeProtect Global Alliance. Tweets: @issielapowsky

Ted Alcorn / Bloomberg:

How Togo, a country where few possess a driver's license or national ID card, built a digital platform to rapidly disburse relief payments to millions of people — In two weeks, Togo designed and launched an all-digital system for delivering monthly payments to millions of people—and made the U.S. program look like a “dinosaur.”

Tweets: @cbodewig, @tori_crandall, @christiegetman, @bw, @snolen, @tedalcorn, @tedalcorn, @tedalcorn, @tfadell, @julienicmcc, @tedalcorn, @karenpeachey100, @tedalcorn, @amandakhurley, and @unkyoka

Chris Prentice / Reuters:

US states led by Texas file an amended Google lawsuit, providing more details about “Project Bernanke”, which allegedly gave Google's own ad-buying an advantage — A group of U.S. states led by Texas have filed an amended complaint against Alphabet Inc's (GOOGL.O) …

More: Engadget

Simon Sharwood / The Register:

AMD reveals 50 security flaws in its EPYC processors and its Windows 10 graphics driver; Intel discloses 25 vulnerabilities in its products including CPUs — Think of an attack - DoS, arbitrary code execution, memory corruption - and one of these vulns allows it

More: Neowin, PC Gamer, TechSpot, BleepingComputer, TechRadar, TechRadar, Tom's Hardware, and Digital Trends. Tweets: @issaintl

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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

Angus Loten / Wall Street Journal:

WSO2, which offers low-code tools to help businesses, hospitals, schools, and public sector organizations build apps, raises $90M from Goldman Sachs

Source: WSO2. More: ReadMe, ZDNet, PE Hub, and SD Times. Tweets: @steve_rosenbush

Agam Shah / The Register:

Mercury Research: ARM's market share in PC chips was about 8% in Q3 2021, up from 2% in Q3 2020 when Apple's ARM-based M1 Macs weren't on sale

Tweets: @haerwu, @blu51899890, and @nixcraft

Christopher Mims / Wall Street Journal:

How US cities are deploying drones, robots, and AI to more affordably inspect, diagnose, and repair the country's aging sewer infrastructure

Tweets: @robenfarzad, @fmbutt, @wsj, @mims, @briannawu, @mims, @neorsd, @baiju_r_shah, and @wsj

Zaheer Merchant / The Economic Times:

App Annie: India saw 4.8B mobile game downloads in H1 2021, or one in every five downloads globally, making it the world's top market for mobile games

Source: App Annie. More: Business Today and Livemint. Tweets: @appannie

New York Times:

Telegram could become a powerful vector for lies and vitriol before the 2022 presidential elections in Brazil, where it is installed on 53% of smartphones

Tweets: @nadjaskaljic, @nytimesworld, @mantzarlis, @robertasbraga, and @nytimes

Chris Stokel-Walker / Wired UK:

Substack touts itself as an alternative to toxic, ad-driven social media, but many of its top earners are polarizing figures who were deplatformed elsewhere

Tweets: @caseynewton, @counternotions, @kantrowitz, @aishagani, @carnage4life, @wired, @wired, @glennf, @rasmus_kleis, @jessesingal, and @ggreenwald

Earlier Picks

Amrith Ramkumar / Wall Street Journal:

Gett, which helps companies organize their ride-hailing, taxi, and limousine booking options, is going public via a SPAC merger at a ~$1.1B valuation

Source: Gett. More: PYMNTS.com, Dow Jones Newswires, and Reuters

Amrith Ramkumar / Wall Street Journal:

Presto, which provides restaurants with food ordering hardware and analytics, is going public via a SPAC merger at a ~$1B valuation

Source: Presto. More: Restaurant Technology News, Benzinga, Dow Jones Newswires, Restaurant Business, Silicon Valley Business …, and PYMNTS.com

Tweets: @wsjmarkets and @ycombinator

Bloomberg:

Sources: Intel scrapped plans to make silicon wafers at a Chinese factory to ease US chip shortages, after the Biden admin strongly discouraged the proposal

More: Slashdot, The Verge, PCMag, AppleInsider, and Engadget

Tweets: @nomos46, @ettelecom, @hancocktom, @stevenrodgersgc, @byron_wan, and @jendeben

Jordan Novet / CNBC:

Cloud backup service Backblaze climbed 24% in its Nasdaq debut on Thursday and 12% on Friday, after raising $100M in its IPO, giving it a market cap of ~$650M

More: CryptoGlobe and San Francisco Business Journal

Hartley Charlton / MacRumors:

The latest iOS 15.2 beta adds a manual Macro mode toggle to the Camera app on the iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max

More: 9to5Mac, Laptop Mag, iPhone in Canada Blog, Redmond Pie, Tom's Guide, CNET, iThinkDifferent, Ubergizmo, iMore, Gizmodo, and The Verge

Tweets: @dylanmcd8, @imore, and @halidecamera