Techmeme: Private donors suppling law enforcement with spy tech like surveillance and tracking gear, bypassing public oversight (ProPublica)

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October 14, 2014, 6:45 AM

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Owen Williams / The Next Web:

Dropbox denies alleged 7M account hack, says expired logins were stolen from third-party services — [Update] Hundreds of Dropbox passwords leaked online but Dropbox denies it was hacked — A thread surfaced on Reddit today that contained links to files containing hundreds of usernames …

Anton Mityagin / The Dropbox Blog:

Dropbox wasn't hacked — Recent news articles claiming that Dropbox was hacked aren't true. Your stuff is safe. The usernames and passwords referenced in these articles were stolen from unrelated services, not Dropbox. Attackers then used these stolen credentials to try to log in to sites across the internet, including Dropbox.

More: BetaNews, Help Net Security, Gigaom, iMore, Cult of Mac, KitGuru, ZDNet, SecurityWeek, Geeky Gadgets, memeburn, iPhone Hacks, PC Pro, Engadget, BuzzFeed, 9to5Mac, Techly, App Advice and bit-tech.net

Tweets: @bobegan, @ourielohayon, @cultofmac and @drpizza

Re/code:

Google May Lead $500 Million Round in Magic Leap Virtual Reality Tech — Google and other investors are planning a huge investment in Magic Leap, a secretive but boastful company building hardware and software it says will deliver “cinematic reality.” — Sources say Google is leading …

More: VentureBeat, Business Insider and Reuters

Tweets: @caseynewton and @howardlindzon

See also Mediagazer

John Paczkowski / Re/code:

No Retina MacBook Air at Thursday Apple Event — // HAPPENING TODAY — Salesforce.com's Dreamforce conference kicks off in San Francisco. — The November issue of Vogue China hits newsstands with Apple's iWatch on its cover. — Retina MacBook Air Rumors to Continue for Foreseeable Future

More: InfoWorld, ITProPortal, Pocket-lint, Electronista, CNET, InvestorPlace, Valleywag, Gotta Be Mobile, App Advice, TechnoBuffalo, MacDailyNews, Ubergizmo, Cult of Mac, SlashGear, AppleInsider, MacRumors and 9to5Mac

Juli Clover / MacRumors:

More Second-Generation iPad Air Part Leaks Point to A8X Chip, 2GB RAM, 16GB Storage Option

More: Mac Blog, Apple/iPhone/iPad, MacRumors, AppleInsider, Geeky Gadgets, Ubergizmo, DailyTech, SlashGear, TechnoBuffalo, iDownloadBlog.com, Business Insider, 9to5Mac and App Advice

Andy Greenberg / Wired:

Anonabox, a $45 open-source device running Tor for your router, launches on Kickstarter — With This Tiny Box, You Can Anonymize Everything You Do Online — No tool in existence protects your anonymity on the Web better than the software Tor, which encrypts Internet traffic and bounces it through random computers around the world.

More: Geek.com, Computerworld, The Daily Dot, Geeky Gadgets, Inquirer and PandoDaily

The Official Google Blog:

Google Shopping Express adds merchants, expands to Chicago, Boston, and Washington D.C., rebrands as Google Express — Google Express: more cities, more stores and a new name — One year ago, the first Google Shopping Express order was delivered—a box of granola.

More: The Next Web, Wall Street Journal, Gizmodo, ZDNet, The Technology Chronicles, Geeky Gadgets, Android Police and Engadget

Joe Belfiore / Blogging Windows:

Microsoft touts 1M registrations for Windows Insider Program to test Windows 10, cites solid usage and 64% installations on PCs, not VMs — Checking in on the Windows Insider Program — It's been awesome to see so many of you joining the Windows Insider Program and letting us …

More: The Verge, VentureBeat, ITProPortal, memeburn, Computerworld, Engadget, Mashable, WinBeta, TechnoBuffalo, PC Magazine, DailyTech, SlashGear, BetaNews, BGR, MSDN Blogs, The Next Web, KitGuru, TechCrunch, The Fire Hose, GamePolitics blogs and LiveSide.net. Tweets: @andspo

Tricia Duryee / GeekWire:

Amazon slated to open pop-up retail store in upscale San Francisco mall — Amazon is set to open a retail store in San Francisco as early as next week, according to a source familiar with the deal. The store will be located at Westfield San Francisco Centre, a mall located in the heart …

More: Gizmodo and The Digital Reader. Thanks:@johnhcook

Chris Welch / The Verge:

Mailbox email app for Mac opens beta to all users — Anyone can now test out Mailbox for OS X. The Dropbox-owned email app has done away with its waitlist and is now letting all comers try Mailbox on the desktop. We took a first look at Mailbox's move to Mac in August and came away impressed.

More: 9to5Mac, SlashGear, iPhone Hacks, AppleInsider, Cult of Mac, MacRumors, Lifehacker, Gizmodo, Pocket-lint, BroadwayWorld.com, iPhone in Canada Blog, Engadget, iClarified and The Next Web. Tweets: @mailbox

Loek Essers / PC World:

Europe to get €2.5 billion big data boost from Commission, industry — Big data is going to get a big boost from the European Union, which will match an industry consortium's €2 billion investment with €500 million of public money over the next five years.

More: EU Press Room, EU Press Room and The Register

Greg Sterling / Search Engine Land:

Google's Eric Schmidt: “Really, Our Biggest Search Competitor Is Amazon” — The attitudes of European policy makers toward Google seem to have hardened of late. On various regulatory fronts, Google faces vocal critics and well-organized opposition. Google's Eric Schmidt gave …

More: BBC, Google Europe Blog, Inquirer, Computerworld, Android Central, Business Insider, Financial Times, CNET, GeekWire, Gigaom, 9to5Google, ZDNet, Agence France-Presse and Seeking Alpha

Eric Calouro / NEWSBTC:

Dorian Nakamoto seeking donations for legal fight against Newsweek, will accept bitcoins — Man Pegged By Newsweek as Satoshi Nakamoto Plans Legal Action — Story Highlights — Dorian Nakamoto planning lawsuit against Newsweek — Chicago Sun-Times Reportedly Aims to Test Bitcoin Paywall February 1st 14.Jan

More: The Verge, Newsweek Lied., TechCrunch, CNET, Gizmodo, PC World, CoinDesk, memeburn, Business Insider and Engadget. Tweets: @binarybits. Thanks:@_trendspotter. See also Mediagazer

CNET:

Oculus working on Oculus Cinema software that simulates a movie theater experience — Virtual reality and the silver screen: A match made in heaven — Oculus is developing software for watching movies, and it's one of the best VR experiences out there. — Oculus's cinema app …

ProPublica:

Private donors suppling law enforcement with spy tech like surveillance and tracking gear, bypassing public oversight — Private Donors Supply Spy Gear to Cops — by Ali Winston and Darwin Bond Graham, Special to ProPublica, — In 2007, as it pushed to build a state-of-the-art surveillance facility …

More: The Verge and Raw Story. Tweets: @marshallproj and @mattapuzzo

Alex Wilhelm / TechCrunch:

Microsoft And Salesforce Promise Windows, Office And OneDrive Integration — It turns out that Microsoft and Salesforce were serious when the two firms detailed a plan to integrate their products earlier this year. Today at the Dreamforce conference, the companies announced that a Salesforce1 app …

More: ZDNet, Wall Street Journal, The Register, Benzinga, StreetInsider.com, ZDNet, InfoWorld and VentureBeat

Janko Roettgers / Gigaom:

Peering deals speed up U.S. Netflix streams, but European ISPs still a lot faster — Want the best-possible Netflix streaming experience? Then get ready to move to Switzerland. U.S. ISPs still rank far behind their European counterparts, despite commercial peering agreements.

More: Netflix US & Canada Blog, Ars Technica, BetaNews, DSLreports, GamePolitics blogs, VentureBeat and BGR. Tweets: @dangillmor

Ben Popper / The Verge:

App developer: Snapchat's unofficial API is easy to reverse-engineer, still has numerous security flaws — Is Snapchat's unofficial API just too easy to hack? — Last Friday, tens of thousands of pictures pulled off a third-party Snapchat app began circulating on the internet …

Charles Arthur / Guardian:

Snapsaved confirms their site was breached, 500 MB of Snapchat images affected, no personal info leaked

More: Ars Technica, VentureBeat, Plagiarism Today, We Live Security, Tech Times, Business Insider, Electronista, PC Magazine, HOTforSecurity, USA Today, The Daily Dot, ReadWrite, RT and PandoDaily

Tiernan Ray / Tech Trader Daily:

Apple Rising as Estimates Go Higher on iPhone 6 Cycle; China Pre-Sales Reportedly 20M — Shares of Apple (AAPL) are up 80 cents, or 0.8%%, at $101.53, on another wave this morning of bullish Street views on iPhone 6 shipments. — In the news, DigiTimes's Amy Fan and Alex Wolfgram report …

More: BetaNews, ABC News, Fortune, MacRumors, Gizmodo, BGR, Business Wire, IntoMobile, iPhone in Canada Blog, MobileBurn.com, Cult of Mac and AppleInsider

Apple:

iPhone 6 & iPhone 6 Plus Arrive in 36 More Countries and Territories This Month

More: TechCrunch, TechnoBuffalo, Tech Times, Forbes, BGR, TechSpot, App Advice, The Technology Chronicles, Digital Trends, TUAW and TechHive

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