Techmeme
April 3, 2019, 6:50 PM

Top News

UpGuard:
A 3rd-party Facebook app by Cultura Colectiva left 540M+ records of users' FB info exposed on AWS; Amazon was notified in Jan., but data was online until today  —  The UpGuard Cyber Risk team can now report that two more third-party developed Facebook app datasets have been found exposed to the public internet.
Damien Wilde / 9to5Google:
Google rolling out Duplex AI restaurant booking assistant to non-Pixel Android devices and iOS in the US  —  Get ready, the ability to get your Google Assistant to call your local eateries to make reservations is now rolling out to non-Pixel devices and iOS in the United States.
Jeremy Horwitz / VentureBeat:
Verizon launches its mobile 5G network in parts of Chicago and Minneapolis, with a 5G-enabled Moto Z3  —  Though South Korea's government expected its three cellular carriers to be the world's first to offer commercial 5G services with smartphones based on the 3GPP's official 5G standard …
Emil Protalinski / VentureBeat:
Google debuts Android Q Beta 2 with multitasking overlay elements called Bubbles, foldables emulator, and precise audio recordings with zoomable microphone API  —  Google today launched the second Android Q beta with multitasking Bubbles, a foldables emulator, zoomable microphones, and more.
Ivan Mehta / The Next Web:
WhatsApp now allows users to control who can add them to group chats  —  WhatsApp's group conversations can be awfully annoying when you're dragged into them without your consent.  It's finally rolled out a fix for that, in the form of a new setting that lets you choose who can add you to group chats …
Chris Welch / The Verge:
Hands-on with Powerbeats Pro, Beats' new $250 wireless earbuds with Apple's H1 chip, 9 hours of battery life, “Hey Siri”, and physical controls, shipping in May  —  Coming in May for $250  —  A couple of weeks after Apple shipped its second-generation AirPods …
Brady Dale / CoinDesk:
SEC issues a “no-action” letter to TurnKey Jet, saying that tokens used by the business-travel startup are not securities, a first that clears token sales in US  —  The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has issued a “no-action” letter to TurnKey Jet, Inc. …
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
HR software startup Rippling, led by ex-Zenefits CEO Parker Conrad, raises $45M Series A led by Kleiner Perkins, source says at a valuation of $270M  —  Parker Conrad's last startup Zenefits drowned in busy work.  Now with Rippling, he wants to boil that ocean.
Ina Fried / Axios:
Facebook says it will stop asking for email passwords to verify new accounts; previously, it used them to verify accounts whose email addresses didn't use OAuth  —  Responding to criticism, Facebook says it will stop asking users for their email passwords as a means of verifying some new accounts.
Jon Porter / The Verge:
In January, Huawei patched a bug in its PCManager software, discovered by Microsoft, which acted like NSA-style malware and affected some MateBook laptops  —  The bug was patched back in January  —  Huawei has patched a bug in some of its MateBook laptops that could have allowed an attacker to take control of the system.
Bloomberg:
Sources: SoftBank is in talks with investors to add as much as $15B to its Vision Fund, which has invested more than $70B in tech companies in about two years  —  - Vision Fund is considering a variety of ways to raise capital  — It's also in preliminary talks for a second Vision Fund
Kate Clark / TechCrunch:
Clearbanc launches “The 20-Min Term Sheet”, a new campaign to fund 2,000 e-commerce startups with $1B in non-dilutive capital by the end of 2019  —  Raising venture capital isn't easy; for some, it's impossible.  —  Clearbanc offers startups a fundraising alternative …
More: Axios
BuzzFeed News:
PROTO, WhatsApp's Indian partner, says the misinformation “tip line” announced on Tuesday is primarily for research, not to help users who find misinformation  —  One day after WhatsApp launched a tip line to combat misinformation ahead of a general election in India …
Elizabeth Warren / Washington Post:
Sen. Warren debuts bill expanding criminal liability to large firms' negligent execs for incidents affecting personal data of 1% of US or any state's population  —  Elizabeth Warren represents Massachusetts in the U.S. Senate and is running for the Democratic presidential nomination.

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Earlier Picks

Issie Lapowsky / Wired:
New York Times:
Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch:
Chris Welch / The Verge:
Ian Cutress / AnandTech:
Manish Singh / VentureBeat:
Matthew Boyle / Bloomberg: