Techmeme
June 17, 2013, 8:10 AM

Top News

Apple:
Apple's Commitment to Customer Privacy  —  Two weeks ago, when technology companies were accused of indiscriminately sharing customer data with government agencies, Apple issued a clear response: We first heard of the government's “Prism” program when news organizations asked us about it on June 6.
USA Today:
3 NSA veterans speak out on whistle-blower: We told you so  —  In a roundtable discussion, a trio of former National Security Agency whistle-blowers tell USA TODAY that Edward Snowden succeeded where they failed.  —  When a National Security Agency contractor revealed top-secret details …
Jon Russell / The Next Web:
Apple says it received 4,000-5,000 data requests from US officials in the last 6 months  —  Apple has spoken up about the US government's PRISM program and revealed that between December 2012 and May 2013 the firm received 4,000-5,000 requests for user data from the government .
Miyoung Kim / Reuters:
Samsung to launch faster Galaxy S4 smartphone  —  (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics Co plans to sell a variation of its flagship Galaxy S4 smartphone that will transmit data at nearly twice the normal speed, the head of its mobile business said on Monday.  —  J.K. Shin, also co-chief executive …
Guardian:
GCHQ intercepted foreign politicians' communications at G20 summits  —  Exclusive: phones were monitored and fake internet cafes set up to gather information from allies in London in 2009  —  Foreign politicians and officials who took part in two G20 summit meetings in London in 2009 …
David Barrett / Telegraph:
Google builds new system to eradicate child porn images from the web  —  Google, the internet giant, is to create a global database of child abuse images - which it will share with its rival companies - in a bid to eradicate child pornography from the web.  —  Google engineers are working …
Simon Sharwood / The Register:
SCO vs. IBM battle resumes over ownership of Unix  —  Zombie lawsuit back and wants to suck the brains out of Linux  —  IBM's lawsuit with SCO over just who owns Unix has crawled out of the grave and seems set to shuffle back into US courts.  —  For the uninitiated, or those who've successfully tried …
More: Groklaw and AllThingsD
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Source: Instagram Will Get Video On June 20  —  We've been working on getting more details on a press event that Facebook is having this week.  Earlier, we wrote it could launch a news-reading app, but we have since heard more details that point to something else entirely.
Kadhim Shubber / Wired.co.uk:
ISPs to include porn filters as standard in UK by 2014  —  Parental filters for pornographic content will come as a default setting for all homes in the UK by the end of 2013, says David Cameron's special advisor on preventing the sexualisation and commercialisation of childhood, Claire Perry MP.
Steven Musil / CNET:
Saudi Arabia may block WhatsApp within weeks  —  Popular mobile chat app warned of possible blockage after voice and messaging app Viber was blocked last week.  —  Saudi Arabia plans to block WhatsApp in coming weeks if the makers of the mobile chat app don't comply with local regulations.
Washington Post:
State photo-ID databases become troves for police  —  The faces of more than 120 million people are in searchable photo databases that state officials assembled to prevent driver's-license fraud but that increasingly are used by police to identify suspects, accomplices and even innocent bystanders …

Sponsor Posts

Subquadratic:
Subquadratic: the LLM built for 12M-token reasoning  —  SubQ can reason across entire codebases and document sets in one pass with no RAG workarounds.  Read how SubQ 1.1 Small holds near-perfect retrieval out to 12M tokens.
Cloudflare:
Cloudflare Connect 2026: The Agentic Conference  —  Stop preparing for agents.  Start running them.  100+ sessions, workshops, and speakers from OpenAI, Arm, and Cloudflare across AI, security, and performance.
Zoho:
The 90-day recognition cliff: Why praise programs fade, and what keeps them alive  —  Recognition programs often start with enthusiasm.  Employees participate, managers share shoutouts, and teams have a new way to celebrate achievements.
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Salesforce data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Big Technology Podcast:
SAP CEO: AI Won't Kill Software, But It Will Change Your Job — With Christian Klein
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
David Ellison's Paramount-Warner Empire & The Fight That Comes Next
Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.
Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.
Sources:
Factory CEO on why AGI is already here
Candid conversations with the leaders shaping what's next in AI and the broader tech industry. Hosted by Alex Heath, who has covered Silicon Valley for more than a decade.
Subscribe to Sources.
Invest Like the Best:
Noah Shinn - Building Instinct: The Personal Agent
The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.
Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.
Lenny's Podcast:
The grief, loneliness, and burnout sweeping through the tech industry right now | Molly Graham
Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.
Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.
Great Chat:
Doomers at Dreamforce
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
Subscribe to Great Chat.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 8:10 AM ET, June 17, 2013.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.