Techmeme
May 28, 2019, 4:15 PM

Top News

Geoffrey A. Fowler / Washington Post:
Study: many iOS apps, including the Washington Post's, use “background app refresh” to send tracking info like location and IP address, even late at night  —  Apple says, “What happens on your iPhone stays on your iPhone.”  Our privacy experiment showed 5,400 hidden app trackers guzzled our data — in a single week.
Apple:
Apple launches new iPod touch with A10 Fusion chip, support for Group FaceTime, and a 256GB storage option, available to order now starting at $199  —  Featuring Support for Group FaceTime and AR Experiences  —  Cupertino, California — Apple today introduced the new iPod touch with enhancements to power …
Guilherme Rambo / 9to5Mac:
Leaked screenshots reveal iOS 13's Dark Mode, new “Find My” app icon, and a redesigned Reminders app that helps you quickly sort by Scheduled, Flagged, more  —  Not a mockup, some information redacted to protect our sources  —  We're less than a week away from WWDC …
Daisuke Wakabayashi / New York Times:
Leaked doc: Google has ~121K temporary and contract workers globally, compared with ~102K full-time staff, raising concerns about its growing reliance on them  —  SAN FRANCISCO — Mindy Cruz had an offer for a full-time position at another big tech company when she accepted a temporary job as a recruiter at Google in 2017.
Daniel Palmer / CoinDesk:
Chat app Kik launches a crowdfunding campaign to support a likely court fight with SEC over its 2017 ICO, says it's spent $5M so far and pledges $5M more in BTC  —  Canada-based messaging app firm Kik has launched a crypto crowdfunding campaign to support a likely court battle with the U.S. Securities …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
MacKenzie Bezos to give over half her $37B fortune to charity, joining the Giving Pledge with Brian Armstrong, Ben Delo, others; Jeff Bezos has not signed  —  MacKenzie Bezos, the world's third-richest woman following her divorce from Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, has signed the Giving Pledge …
Martin Bryant / The Next Web:
The tech community doesn't get as excited about tech as we used to, as enthusiasm about startups and embracing new things has been replaced by cynicism  —  WHO WOULD'VE THOUGHT GOOGLE WAVE WOULD BECOME THE GOOD OL' DAYS?  —  Today marks 10 years since Google stoked great excitement …
Gerrit De Vynck / Bloomberg:
The rise of Chrome and its open source Chromium sibling, often used in new browser projects, raises concerns about Google's effective power over the web  —  - Once underdog, browser now labeled ‘spyware,’ ‘monopolist’  — Company accused of stalling approvals for rival browsers
Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet:
After a long tug of war, W3C says it will not publish future HTML and DOM standards, instead letting the WHATWG, a group of browser vendors, do so  —  W3C hands over development of HTML and DOM standards to browser vendors (WHATWG).  —  An industry group made up the four major browser vendors …
Maciej Cegłowski / Idle Words:
A behind-the-scenes account on what it was like to provide basic cybersecurity training to 41 Democratic Congressional campaigns from late 2017 to 2018  —  You know how it happens.  You try to secure one Congressional campaign, and then another, and pretty soon you can't stop.
Paul Karp / The Guardian:
FOIA doc: Australian police can use new encryption legislation to compel social media giants, telcos, retailers, and Wi-Fi providers to provide info on users  —  Exclusive: Documents reveal rushed encryption legislation allows police to compel wifi providers to turn over information about users
Spencer Soper / Bloomberg:
Sources: Amazon to stop ordering from thousands of small suppliers in the next few months, focusing on wholesale purchases from big brands; Amazon denies report  —  - Thousands of mom-and-pops will lose bulk orders from company  — Big brands like P&G and Lego will be immune from the changes
Lauren Thomas / CNBC:
Walmart hires former Google, Microsoft, and Amazon executive Suresh Kumar as CTO and chief development officer  —  KEY POINTS  — Walmart has hired former Google, Microsoft and Amazon exec Suresh Kumar into a newly elevated chief technology officer and chief development officer role.
More: TechCrunch and Observer.  Thanks:@mattrosoff
Devindra Hardawar / Engadget:
Dell updates the XPS 13 2-in-1 with a new design, Intel's 10th Gen processors, webcam above the screen, new keyboard and larger touchpad, starting at $1,000  —  I don't throw the word “perfect” around a lot, but that was honestly the best way to describe the latest XPS 13.
Philip Nabben / Lexology:
In the year since GDPR took effect, a look at the first wave of decisions and fines issued by data protection authorities in EU countries  —  European Union, France, Germany  —  On Saturday 25 May 2019, the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which aims to protect personal data including …
More: 9to5Mac and Axios
Christine Fisher / Engadget:
A Deep Instinct-commissioned art piece of a laptop containing six pieces of malware that have caused an estimated $95B in damages sells for $1.3M+ at auction  —  Today, bidding on a laptop packed with some of the world's most dangerous malware closed at $1.345 million.

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More News

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Earlier Picks

Robin Wauters / Tech.eu:
Financial Times:
Andrew Griffin / The Independent:
Daniel Cooper / Engadget:
Ian Cutress / AnandTech: