Techmeme: New documents show XKEYSCORE, NSA's Google-like tool, collects more data than previously reported including web searches and router configuration information (The Intercept)

Open Links In New Tab

Mobile Archives Advertise Site News Contact Editors

July 4, 2015, 11:15 PM

Top News

The Intercept:

New documents show XKEYSCORE, NSA's Google-like tool, collects more data than previously reported including web searches and router configuration information — XKEYSCORE: NSA's Google for the World's Private Communications — Illustrations by Blue Delliquanti and David Axe for The Intercept

More: CoinTelegraph.Com News, Business Insider, Engadget, CNET, Wired and ITworld.com

Tweets: @emptywheel, @ggreenwald, @the_intercept, @just_security, @rj_gallagher and @attackerman

The Intercept:

How the NSA's XKEYSCORE system for collecting and searching Internet data works — A Look at the Inner Workings of NSA's XKEYSCORE — Second in a series. Part 1 here. — The sheer quantity of communications that XKEYSCORE processes, filters and queries is stunning.

More: Schneier on Security. Tweets: @micahflee, @maassp and @eff

Mike Isaac / New York Times:

After moderators protested dismissal of a key employee by taking down popular subreddits, Reddit CEO Ellen Pao apologizes for how the transition was handled — Reddit Moderators Shut Down Parts of Site Over Employee's Dismissal — Hundreds of sections of Reddit, the popular online message board …

Dante D'Orazio / The Verge:

Nearly all major subreddits are set to public again after going private in protest — Nearly all major subreddits are back online following Reddit protests — Just a day after a massive revolt tore down parts of Reddit, the site now appears to be mostly back to normal.

More: NPR. See also Mediagazer

Nolan Lawson / Read the Tea Leaves:

Apple is falling behind other browser makers in implementing web standards in Safari — Safari is the new IE — Last weekend I attended EdgeConf, a conference populated by many of the leading lights in the web industry. It featured panel talks and breakout sessions with a focus …

More: Kenneth Auchenberg, iMore and Six Colors

Tweets: @jessewilson, @ryosukeniwa, @seldo, @kevinmarks, @zeldman, @cdixon and @carnage4life

Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac:

New iPhone 6S images show updated NFC, 16GB base storage, fewer chips + design tweaks — Our look at the upcoming “iPhone 6S” continues today with a discussion of new internal components that are expected to be inside Apple's latest smartphone. In addition to expected changes such as a Force Touch display …

Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac:

Apple Pay expected to go live in the U.K. on July 14th, £20+ transactions starting this fall — Apple appears to be planning to enable its Apple Pay iPhone mobile payments service in the United Kingdom on July 14th, according to sources at multiple retailers.

More: Redmond Pie, The Verge, Engadget and iMore

Stephen Hall / 9to5Google:

The next Google Glass is ‘Enterprise Edition,’ expanded testing later this year — We told you yesterday about a new device that passed through the FCC—codenamed GG1—and many have speculated that it's the next generation of the Google Glass hardware. While it's often suggested that the device …

More: Droid Life, Digital Trends, Forbes, Fone Arena and The Verge. Thanks:@apollozac

Tom Warren / The Verge:

Minecraft for Windows 10 beta launching July 29 for $10; Minecraft for PC owners get it for free — Minecraft for Windows 10 beta arrives on July 29th launch day — Microsoft is bringing a “whole new version” of Minecraft to Windows 10 later this month.

More: Mojang, CNET, Neowin, Windows Central, Polygon, PCWorld, Giant Bomb, Microsoft News and Touch Arcade

Ernesto / TorrentFreak:

Two Pirate Bay co-founders say FBI is seeking site logs to see whether Prenda law firm tried to lure copyright violators — FBI Wants Pirate Bay Logs to Expose Copyright Trolls — Over the past few years copyright troll law firm Prenda crossed the line on several occasions.

More: TechWorm and Ars Technica

Miguel Helft / Forbes:

How tech entrepreneurs are forging ahead in Cuba even without widespread Internet access — No Internet? No Problem. Inside Cuba's Tech Revolution — Robin Pedraja, a lanky 28-year-old former design student from Havana, walked into the Cuban government's office of periodicals …

Tweets: @digiphile. Thanks:@mhelft

Farhad Manjoo / New York Times:

What delayed IPOs and higher private valuations mean for tech startups and public investors — As More Tech Start-Ups Stay Private, So Does the Money — Not long ago, if you were a young, brash technologist with a world-conquering start-up idea, there was a good chance you spent …

More: AVC, Un Passaggio, Trends and Mattermark

Tweets: @valaafshar, @startupljackson, @startupljackson, @fmanjoo, @fmanjoo, @erikbryn and @skupor

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:

App Spotlight: Google Sheets Magic Lookup for Zoho CRM — Our App Spotlight brings you hand-picked apps to enhance the power of your Zoho apps and tools. Visit Zoho Marketplace to explore all apps, integrations …

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.

Sponsor Techmeme

Featured Podcasts

Big Technology Podcast:

Special Report: Will AI Wipe Out Humanity? (And Who Profits)

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:

The Atlantic's CEO on AI, Billionaire Owners, and Moonlighting as a Creator

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:

Mark Zuckerberg on Muse, Meta's biggest AI bet yet

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.

Lenny's Podcast:

How we built Grok Bot in a month | Roman Ugarte (SpaceXAI)

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.

Invest Like the Best:

Walter Russell Mead - How America Keeps Winning

The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.

Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.

Grit:

The AI Race Has a Leaderboard | Arena CEO Anastasios Angelopoulos

Grit explores what it takes to create, build and scale world-class organizations.

Subscribe to Grit.

Add your podcast here

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 11:15 PM ET, July 4, 2015.

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.