Techmeme: Adtech AI startup GumGum spins out Pearl, which will focus on using AI to analyze dental scans; GumGum CEO moves to Pearl, which has raised $11M Series A (Jonathan Shieber/TechCrunch)

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Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes says Mark Zuckerberg's influence is staggering and that it is time to break up Facebook — The last time I saw Mark Zuckerberg — was in the summer of 2017, several months before the Cambridge Analytica scandal broke. We met at Facebook's Menlo Park …

More: The Verge, CNN, Gizmodo, New York Times, TheStreet, The Ringer, The Seattle Times, NBC News, Business Insider, Telegraph, The Guardian, Vox, The Guardian, New York Post, Engadget, The Hill, Thurrott, USA Today, TechCrunch, Financial Times, Mercury News, TIME, Ars Technica, TechSpot, Boing Boing, ZDNet, Bloomberg, Vanity Fair, CNBC, 9to5Mac, Silicon Republic, Variety, The Daily Dot, CNET, Axios, BBC, Newser, Fortune, NBC Bay Area, Fast Company, and Seeking Alpha

Casey Newton / The Verge:

Instagram says it will begin hiding search results for hashtags that consistently return false vaccine information, plans a pop-up to link to high-quality info — The company says it will use machine learning to identify where misinformation shows up most — Instagram will begin hiding …

More: TechCrunch and Engadget

Tweets: @brandyzadrozny and @caseynewton

See also Mediagazer

Natasha Singer / New York Times:

Consumer advocacy groups file a complaint with the FTC accusing Amazon's Echo Dot Kids of collecting children's data without parental consent — Amazon barreled into the children's smart-speaker market last year with a brightly colored device called Echo Dot Kids Edition.

More: The Verge, Gizmodo, Washington Post, Campaign for a Commercial …, GeekWire, USA Today, Bloomberg, Reuters, Mashable, KnowTechie, Politico, Business Insider, Vice, TechCrunch, CNET, Forbes, The Intercept, and Seeking Alpha

Alfred Ng / CNET:

Internal doc: Amazon keeps text transcripts of Alexa-triggered voice recordings deleted by users; Amazon says it is working on deleting them from subsystems — Amazon doesn't need to hear your voice recordings to know what you've said. They can read it. — After Alexa hears its wake word …

More: Vox and Mashable. Tweets: @alfredwkng

Larry Dignan / ZDNet:

Verizon report: nation states and affiliated parties carried out 23% of data breaches in 2018, up from 12% in 2017 and 19% in 2016 — Verizon's 2019 Data Breach Investigations Report highlights how nation states and espionage are becoming a worry for businesses and their data.

More: Verizon, Verizon Fios & Custom TV, Recorded Future, Securelist, Channel Partners, Security Boulevard, DataBreaches.net, and Nextgov

Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch:

Coalition, which provides cybersecurity insurance, raises $40M Series B led by Ribbit Capital — Coalition, a cybersecurity insurance company, has raised $40 million in its latest round of funding. — Fintech investment giant Ribbit Capital led the investment with participation from Greenoaks Capital and Hillhouse Capital.

More: FinSMEs. Thanks:@thenicolenewby

Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:

Evident, which provides identity and credentials verification platform for enterprises, raises $20M Series B led by Aspect Ventures

More: FinSMEs, SiliconANGLE, Business Wire, and Atlanta Business Journal

NBC News:

Photo storage app Ever, launched in 2013, now focuses on selling facial recognition tech, trained using 13B+ stored user photos, to others — “The app developers were not clear about their intentions,” one Ever user said. “I believe it's a huge invasion of privacy.”

More: CNET, Graham Cluley, and The Mac Observer

Tom Warren / The Verge:

Inside Microsoft's Envisioning Center, which houses some of its prototype work including projection tech, AI for meetings, and desks that double as touchscreens — Every few years, Microsoft creates a video that looks at the future of productivity. This usually involves giant screens …

More: The Verge, HotHardware, How-To Geek, and TechSpot

Tweets: @tomwarren and @backlon

Cyrus Lee / ZDNet:

Report: Oracle is shutting down its R&D arm in China, laying off 900+ employees — Staff that were made redundant have gathered to protest the layoff plan, according to photos and video clips circulating on social media. — Oracle will shut down its research and development (R&D) …

Jonathan Browning / Bloomberg:

In a UK court filing, Amazon says hackers siphoned money from ~100 seller accounts over a period of six months last year — - Amazon asked U.K. court for bank details linked to hackers — Hackers break into about 100 accounts, according to documents

More: TechSpot, Digital Trends, Inquirer, ZDNet, Dazeinfo, BBC, Inc42 Media, Gizmodo, GritDaily, Business Insider, PYMNTS.com, and Engadget. Tweets: @mattmday

Sean Gallagher / Ars Technica:

Report: Fxmsp, a collective of Russian- and English-speaking hackers, is selling source code and network access to three US-based antivirus software vendors — Source code, network access being sold online by “Fxmsp” collective. — In a report published Thursday, researchers …

More: BleepingComputer

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Netflix acquires children's media brand StoryBots, its third-ever acquisition, from the founders of JibJab Media for an undisclosed sum — Netflix announced that it acquired StoryBots, the children's media brand created by brothers Gregg and Evan Spiridellis, the founders of JibJab Media.

More: Reuters

See also Mediagazer

Zoë Bernard / The Information:

Sources: at least six Intercom employees have left the company in the last few years over sexual harassment allegations against its CEO Eoghan McCabe — Eight years ago, a group of Irish entrepreneurs led by an ambitious leader, Eoghan McCabe, relocated their software startup, Intercom …

Tweets: @zoesaintbernard, @amir, and @jessicalessin

Sam Byford / The Verge:

Samsung announces the ISOCELL Bright GW1, a 64-megapixel image sensor for mobile phones, expects it to go into mass production in the second half of this year — Samsung fires new salvo in megapixel wars — Samsung has announced a new image sensor for mobile phones with a higher resolution than anything comparable on the market.

More: Samsung Global Newsroom, Liliputing, TechSpot, Engadget, Digital Photography Review, Inquirer, XDA Developers, Gizchina, Android Authority, SlashGear, and Neowin

Edgar Alvarez / Engadget:

Nike's new app, Nike Fit, will use AR to help find the right sneaker fit, expected to launch in the US in July — Nike has been experimenting heavily with augmented reality for a few years now, and the company is continuing to work on new experiences powered by the technology.

More: TechCrunch, Wired, VentureBeat, Bloomberg, 9to5Toys, The Verge, CNBC, Quartz, and MacStories

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Google to add “pending transactions” payment option to the Play Store, letting users pay for apps at a retail store by showing a payment code on their device — Today, the Android platform sees more app downloads than iOS, but Apple's App Store continually dominates in terms of revenue.

More: Android Police, Gizmodo, Android Central, 9to5Google, Firstpost Tech, BuzzFeed News, PYMNTS.com, Engadget, and CNET. Tweets: @jillianiles

Dan Seifert / The Verge:

Google replacing “Works with Nest” with “Works with Google Assistant” for privacy reasons could lead to a future with fewer compatible smart home devices — But in addition to the rebranding, Google announced that it will be discontinuing the Works with Nest program …

More: Stacey on IoT, Android Authority, and ProgrammableWeb.com

Tweets: @dcseifert and @dcseifert

Jonathan Shieber / TechCrunch:

Adtech AI startup GumGum spins out Pearl, which will focus on using AI to analyze dental scans; GumGum CEO moves to Pearl, which has raised $11M Series A — GumGum, the Los Angeles-based startup that's spent the past decade applying machine learning technologies to advertising and sports …

More: VentureBeat and socalTECH.com. Tweets: @agnotology42

Axios:

FCC votes unanimously to deny China Mobile's application to provide telecommunications services in the US due to concerns about national security — The FCC has voted unanimously to deny China Mobile's application to provide telecommunications services in the U.S. due to concerns about national security and law enforcement risks.

More: Washington Post and Engadget

Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:

Google unveils Mini-apps, a “new capability” for Google Search and Assistant that delivers interactive and dynamically updated content in search results — During the Tuesday keynote that kicked off Google's I/O 2019 developer conference, the Mountain View company unveiled a slew …

More: VentureBeat

Adi Robertson / The Verge:

The lead of Oculus VR, Hugo Barra, says he is taking a new role at Facebook “building a global AR/VR partner ecosystem”; Erick Tseng to take over Oculus — Hugo Barra, the former Xiaomi executive who has run Facebook's Oculus VR team since 2017, is changing roles in what looks like a larger shake-up in VR at Facebook.

More: TechCrunch

Natt Garun / The Verge:

An year after its intro, Google Duplex is still limited in availability, with minimal impact on service workers, some of whom say it is more polite than humans — Myriah Q. hasn't stopped moving since the moment I entered the bar. She's got patrons seated on the sidewalk and the backyard areas …

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Fact-checking startup Factmata gets investment from Eyeo, creator of Adblock Plus, will take over Trusted News, Eyeo's Chrome plugin that identifies false news — “Fake news” — news content that either misleads people with half-truths, or outright lies — has become a permanent fixture of the internet.

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