Techmeme: UK banks in talks to launch Apple Pay in 2015, execs concerned about data collection by Apple (Christopher Williams/Telegraph)

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December 29, 2014, 11:05 AM

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Christopher Williams / Telegraph:

UK banks in talks to launch Apple Pay in 2015, execs concerned about data collection by Apple — UK banks in talks over Apple ‘wave and pay’ — Negotiations between the tech giant and at least one bank have proved tricky because of wrangling over the terms, including what data Apple will be able to access

More: The Verge, PC Magazine, AppleInsider, 9to5Mac, iMore, ITProPortal, MacDailyNews, MacRumors, iDownloadBlog.com, SlashGear, Electronista, Patently Apple, Cult of Mac, App Advice, iPhone Hacks and Ubergizmo

Tweets: @dgwbirch and @liarpoliticians

Spiegel Online:

Snowden documents reveal the NSA routinely intercepted SSL/TLS traffic, decrypted VPN connections, struggled with PGP, Truecrypt, Tor, CSpace, OTR, ZRTP in 2012 — Inside the NSA's War on Internet Security — US and British intelligence agencies undertake every effort imaginable to crack …

More: The Verge, The Hill, Gizmodo, Engadget, Slashdot, Paul Wouters …, Errata Security and Schneier on Security

Tweets: @yashalevine, @glynmoody, @dangillmor, @glynmoody, @mikko, @gwern, @benedictevans, @ggreenwald and @csoghoian

Re/code:

New King of Tech Startups: Smartphone Maker Xiaomi Raises $1.1 Billion at $45 Billion Valuation — Xiaomi has said it has closed a massive $1.1 billion round of funding that values the fast-growing Chinese phone maker at a jaw-dropping $45 billion, pre-money.

More: Facebook, Wall Street Journal, 9to5Google, TIME, CNET, Android Authority, New York Times, Reuters, PE Hub Blog, Mashable, Android Beat, VentureBeat, Bloomberg, Telegraph, SiliconANGLE, TechCrunch, Forbes and Tech in Asia

Tweets: @ajs and @jonrussell

Steve Kovach / Business Insider:

Sony says ‘The Interview’ was rented or purchased more than 2M times, generated over $15M in online sales; Apple starts offering the movie on iTunes — ‘The Interview’ Generated Over $15 Million In Online Sales — Sony announced Sunday night that “The Interview” …

Danny Sullivan / Search Engine Land:

Yahoo Directory Closes, Five Days Early — The Yahoo Directory, the core part of how Yahoo itself began in 1994, officially closed today, five days ahead of when Yahoo had said the end would come. — If you try to reach the Yahoo Directory at its long-standing address of http …

More: MarketingVox News & Trends, WebProNews, Business Insider and ResearchBuzz. Thanks:@nethistorypod

Steven Millward / Tech in Asia:

China's Great Firewall attacks Google once again, blocks any form of access to Gmail — Gmail users in China are now finding that Google's email service is totally inaccessible in the country. While Gmail's website has been blocked in China since June, along with every other Google service …

More: New York Times, Guardian, SiliconANGLE, 9to5Google, The Verge, Wall Street Journal, Mashable, The Register, TheDomains.com, The Next Web, TechCrunch, Gizmodo, Beyond Search, Engadget, ITProPortal, VentureBeat and TIME

Jeff Grubb / VentureBeat:

PlayStation Network back online after three-day outage due to DDoS attack; Sony says some users may still experience intermittent issues — PSN is still down for some as Sony gets service back online — Sony says that its online service is back up and running, but many people are still having issues playing games.

More: PlayStation Blog, ABC News, Wall Street Journal, Wall Street Journal, Tech Times, CNNMoney.com, The Verge, Inquirer, Business Insider, PlayStation LifeStyle, The Register, Polygon, VentureBeat and New York Times

Tweets: @askplaystation, @askplaystation and @jeffgerstmann

William Turton / The Daily Dot:

Meet Lizard Squad, the group whose DDoS attack crippled Xbox Live and PlayStation Network

More: SiliconANGLE, Engadget, PlayStation LifeStyle, Sky News, Gawker, Polygon, Business Insider, The Inquisitr News, PC Magazine, Kotaku, Gizmodo, Kotaku and PandoDaily

Tweets: @lizardmafia and @jaberman

Mark Gilbert / Bloomberg View:

Bitcoin was the worst-performing currency of 2014, dropping more than 56% to under $330 — And 2014's Worst Currency Was...Bitcoin — It's been a bad year for the Russian ruble and a terrible 12 months for the Ukrainian hryvnia. But it's been a catastrophic 2014 for Bitcoin, the virtual currency.

More: Re/code, adafruit industries blog, PC Magazine, NEWSBTC, sputniknews.com, Times of India and Vox

Tweets: @steve_hanke, @chrismaddern and @zackwhittaker

Matthew Braga / Fast Company:

Archivist Daniel Rehn of wwwtxt, a cache of Internet content from 1980-94, finds similarities in conversations from then and now — WWWTXT: The Oldest Internet Archive — Los Angeles archivist Daniel Rehn has found a cache of “web text” that dates back to 1980. What's amazing is how much hasn't changed.

More: Gizmodo

Fred B. Campbell Jr / New York Times:

W3C to recommend allowing companies with whom users show an “intention to interact”, like a Facebook login, to track them, weakening “Do Not Track” efforts — The Slow Death of ‘Do Not Track’ — HAYMARKET, Va. — FOUR years ago, the Federal Trade Commission announced …

More: Tommy Collison's blog. Tweets: @stevesi, @caseynewton and @darylsurat

Alyson Shontell / Business Insider:

As competition among VCs increases, some founders sell shares in early funding rounds — Investors Are ‘Fighting Like Drunken Sailors’ Over Hot Startups And Letting Founders Get Rich Too Early — Venture Capitalists used to invest in startups so founders could build businesses.

More: AVC, TechCrunch and Wall Street Journal

Tweets: @ajs, @abrams, @fazz and @alex

Reuters:

Court allows Aereo to auction TV streaming technology assets — A bankruptcy court has allowed defunct video streaming company Aereo Inc to auction its TV streaming technology assets, according to court papers published on Friday. — The U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan ruled on Wednesday …

More: Wall Street Journal, TechCrunch, Gizmodo, Ars Technica, TechSpot, Engadget, Electronista, mobiquityinc.com, Deadline and VatorNews. See also Mediagazer

Arik Hesseldahl / Re/code:

North Korean Internet experienced a 5+ hour outage after its only wireless carrier went down — Internet Crashes in North Korea as 3G Networks Fail — Three days after an apparent denial-of-service attack halted its Internet connections, North Korea suffered another Internet outage …

More: The Verge, ITworld.com, ABC News, CircleID, Ars Technica, USA Today, The Wrap, CNBC, NEWS.com.au, TechCrunch, NBC News, Mashable and CNET. Tweets: @dynresearch

Jack Kim / Reuters:

North Korea blames U.S. for Internet outages, calls Obama a ‘monkey’

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