Techmeme: Russia Blocks Access to Major Independent News Sites (Electronic Frontier Foundation)

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March 14, 2014, 10:00 AM

Top News

Mark Zuckerberg / Facebook:

Zuckerberg called Obama over spying, says the US should champion, not threaten the internet — As the world becomes more complex and governments everywhere struggle, trust in the internet is more important today than ever. The internet is our shared space. It helps us connect. It spreads opportunity.

Alex Wilhelm / TechCrunch:

NSA calls reports that it spread malware and impersonated Facebook “inaccurate”

More: Wired, Ars Technica, ZDNet, DailyFinance.com, Darknet, Threatpost, The Next Web and NEWS.com.au

Jeff Goodell / Rolling Stone:

Bill Gates on technology, surveillance, the future of the planet and God — Bill Gates: The Rolling Stone Interview — The richest man in the world explains how to save the planet — At 58, Bill Gates is not only the richest man in the world, with a fortune that now exceeds $76 billion, but he may also be the most optimistic.

Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac:

iOS 8: Apple considers Notification Center + Messages tweaks, removing Game Center app — Besides adding new Maps, Healthbook, and iTunes Radio applications, Apple plans to enhance and refine the functionality of some of its current pre-bundled applications and features for iOS 8.

More: VentureBeat, TechCrunch, BGR and iDownloadBlog.com. Tweets: @viticci

Electronic Frontier Foundation:

Russia Blocks Access to Major Independent News Sites — Russia's government has escalated its use of its Internet censorship law to target news sites, bloggers, and politicians under the slimmest excuse of preventing unauthorized protests and enforcing house arrest regulations.

More: BuzzFeed, Gigaom, SiliconANGLE, Comment, CNET, TechCrunch, Global Voices, RT, Reuters, Softpedia News, The Voice of Russia, News, RIA Novosti, New York Times, memeburn and Reporters Without Borders

Tweets: @kasparov63, @kasparov63 and @freedomofpress

See also Mediagazer

Ryan Lawler / TechCrunch:

On-Demand Ride-Sharing Startup Lyft Adds Insurance Between Rides — In the modern transportation market, companies like Lyft, Uber, and Sidecar have emerged to help get users from point A to point B. But with current regulations, there are questions about who is protected against potential liabilities when something goes wrong.

More: PandoDaily, Re/code, San Francisco Chronicle, New York Times, The Next Web, GeekWire and SlashGear. Tweets: @joshconstine

Adam Tanner / Forbes:

mSpy sells iPhone 5s and Android smartphones pre-loaded with spyware, ostensibly for use by parents and employers — Starting Today, Jealous Lovers Can Buy NSA-Like Monitoring Powers — Imagine this happy occasion. On his girlfriend's birthday a man announces he has a special gift.

More: Gizmodo, Betabeat, SlashGear, VentureBeat and Computerworld

Alex Hern / Guardian:

Phone call metadata does betray sensitive details about your life - study — Identities of cannabis grower, woman seeking an abortion and MS sufferer inferred in study that confirms danger of widespread access to metadata — Warnings that phone call “metadata” can betray detailed information …

More: Web Policy, Stanford News, The Daily Caller, Ars Technica, Gizmodo, Network World and Threatpost

Tweets: @stanford, @jonathanmayer and @cdixon

Seth Rosenblatt / CNET:

Pwn2Own 2014: Firefox, IE, Safari, Chrome, Adobe Flash and Reader already hacked — All hacking eyes on the prize money at CanSecWest — VANCOUVER, Canada — When it comes to hacking, it turns out that greed really is good. — All four of the major desktop browsers …

More: Threatpost, MacRumors, 9to5Mac, ZDNet, The Loop, Naked Security, h30499.www3.hp.com, Google Chrome Developers, Ars Technica, eWeek, Help Net Security, Naked Security, PC Advisor, Softpedia News, SC Magazine and The Register. Tweets: @thezdi

Craig Grannell / Guardian:

How Apple's iOS 7.1 finally quelled users' motion sickness — Animations introduced in Apple's new look for its iPhone and iPad interface in September made some feel physically sick. Now, it's fixed them — Apple recently updated its iPhone and iPad software to version 7.1, adding and improving a number of features.

More: Macworld, SlashGear, iMore, Pocketnow, Gotta Be Mobile and MacStories. Tweets: @aral

MediaNama:

Rdio acquires shuttered Indian music streaming service Dhingana — Exclusive: Rdio buys Dhingana to Enter India — US-based music streaming website Rdio has acquired Indian music streaming website Dhingana, Dhingana has confirmed to MediaNama. MediaNama had heard about the development from multiple industry sources.

More: The Next Web, TechCrunch, Computerworld, VatorNews, NextBigWhat, Techcircle.in and Tech in Asia

Tweets: @nixxin, @nixxin, @soumitra_sharma and @jonsonbill

Thanks:@tsuvik

Eric Blattberg / VentureBeat:

PayPal mends fences with crowdfunders with revised policies — Image Credit: Illustration by Eric Blattberg / VentureBeat — PayPal and the crowdfunding community have had a rocky relationship — but the eBay-owned payments company has rebuilt that bridge with revamped crowdfunding policies …

More: The Official PayPal, Engadget, Ars Technica and The Next Web. Tweets: @davidmarcus

Chris Welch / The Verge:

FCC approves AT&T's purchase of Leap Wireless, says it's ‘in the public interest’ — The Federal Communications Commission has approved AT&T's acquisition of Leap Wireless, the company that operates the popular Cricket brand of prepaid wireless service. Acknowledging that an unchecked deal …

More: Re/code, Mobile Marketing Watch, The Switch, DSLreports, about.att.com, Tech Trader Daily, Cult of Mac, AppleInsider, iDownloadBlog.com, Electronista, App Advice, Gigaom, SlashGear, Phandroid, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, ZDNet and Engadget

Juli Clover / MacRumors:

iOS 7.1 Includes Warning Message About 15-Minute In-App Purchase Window — Along with several visual tweaks, CarPlay support, and Touch ID enhancements, iOS 7.1 also brought some changes to the way in-app purchases work. When making an in-app purchase for the first time after updating …

More: AppleInsider, Engadget, Cult of Mac, Trusted Reviews, Inquirer, Pulse 2.0, Mashable, iClarified, TechnoBuffalo, CNET and Guardian

Ashley Feinberg / Gizmodo:

Target turned off function to automatically delete malware, reacted only after DOJ notificaton — Target Knew About Its Massive Hack—It Just Didn't Do Anything to Stop It — Throughout the total absurdity that's been the aftermath of Target's massive data breach, one question has continued …

More: The Register, New York Times, Computerworld, ZDNet, NPR, DailyTech, Engadget, TechSpot and TIME

Tweets: @bud_caddell and @jptacek

Karl Bode / DSLreports:

Time Warner Cable Admits Few Have Shown Interest In Usage Caps — After Time Warner Cable took a public relations beating for pushing mandatory low caps (as low as 5 GB) and high per byte overages (as high as $5 per additional gigabyte) on consumers back in 2009, the company has been stepping …

More: Light Reading, Ars Technica, Business Insider and BGR

Robert Fenner / Bloomberg:

Satellite Crowdsourcing Adds 2 Million Searchers for Missing Jet — Tomnod.com, a crowdsourcing website run by DigitalGlobe Inc. (DGI), has tapped more than 2 million people to scan through satellite images searching for clues about missing Malaysian Airline Systems Bhd. (MAS) Flight 370.

More: SiliconANGLE, Examiner, Seeing a Better World™, Wall Street Journal and SiliconBeat

eMarketer and Newsroom Posts:

Desktop Search to Decline $1.4 Billion as Google Users Shift to Mobile — Overall desktop ad spending set to decline in 2014 while mobile grows 83.0% — Desktop search in the US is poised for a significant decline this year as paid clicks on Google shift toward mobile devices, according to new figures from eMarketer.

More: New York Times, InfoWorld, Beyond Search, Mashable, TheDomains.com, AdExchanger and VentureBeat. Tweets: @mukund

Mary Jo Foley / ZDNet:

Microsoft and Nook redo their agreement; no Microsoft e-reader in the works — Summary: It looks like the Nook Windows 8 app may be superseded by a Microsoft reading app. But the planned Nook Windows Phone app is seemingly tabled. — On March 10, Microsoft and Nook Media updated …

More: Wall Street Journal, Gizmodo, The Register, Computerworld, PC Magazine, CNET, 24/7 Wall St., Business Insider, LiveSide.net, SlashGear and Engadget. See also Mediagazer

Janko Roettgers / Gigaom:

Plex opens up Chromecast to everyone, adds automatic camera upload — Media center app maker Plex followed through on a promise Thursday to remove restrictions around its Chromecast implementations, opening up the feature to all of its users including non-subscribers.

More: Plex Blog, iPhone, Engadget, Android Community, AndroidHeadlines.com, TechCrunch, 9to5Mac, Droid Life, Android Police and SlashGear

Kevin Fitchard / Gigaom:

It's a mobile data world: In 2013 voice stopped being U.S. carriers' main revenue driver — Just like that, in the fourth quarter of 2013 mobile data usage ticked up to reach a crossover point, making data a bigger revenue source for carriers than voice services.

More: Chetan Sharma, Fortune, DSLreports, Mobile World Live, TelecomLead, Reuters and TechCrunch

Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:

Fundable Acquires LaunchRock To Combine Crowdfunding And User Acquisition — Fundable.com, an equity crowdfunding platform for businesses (including startups), just announced that it has acquired LaunchRock. — LaunchRock, as the name implies, was initially focused on helping startups create launch pages …

More: Columbus Business First, PE Hub Blog, Digital Journal, Crowdfund Insider, Small Business Trends and LaunchRock. Thanks:@grg

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Amid Bullying & Threats Of Violence, Anonymous Social App Yik Yak Shuts Off Access To U.S. Middle & High School Students — Anonymous communication platforms and the pre-teen-to-teenage brain are two things that don't mix all that well. Just look at Ask.fm, for example …

Mike Masnick / Techdirt:

YouTube Gives UK Gov't Broad Powers To Censor Videos It Doesn't Like, Even If They're Legal — A few years ago, then-Senator Joe Lieberman went on a bizarre anti-free speech crusade against YouTube, arguing that by allowing “terrorists” to post videos to YouTube, people were watching those videos and magically turning into terrorists.

More: BGR and Boing Boing. Tweets: @rsaeed. See also Mediagazer

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