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August 15, 2019, 12:00 AM
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Jordan Davis / Facebook:
Facebook simplifies Groups' privacy settings, to public and private; “secret” Groups are now private and hidden, and “closed” Groups are now private and visible  —  As Mark Zuckerberg laid out earlier this year, social networks can serve as the digital equivalent of a town square or a living room.
Dan Primack / Axios:
WeWork files to raise $1B in an IPO, reports a $904M net loss on around $1.5B in revenue for first half of 2019  —  WeWork on Wednesday filed to raise $1 billion in an initial public offering, although the ultimate offering amount is expected to be at least three times larger.
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: technicians from Huawei have, in at least two cases, personally helped African governments spy on their political opponents  —  Employees embedded with cybersecurity forces in Uganda and Zambia intercepted encrypted communications and used cell data to track opponents, according to a Wall Street Journal investigation
Colin Lecher / The Verge:
About 200 Google employees sign a petition, saying they “refuse to be complicit” in potential cloud computing work for the US Customs & Border Protection agency  —  Workers are circulating a petition  —  Google employees are demanding that the company not bid …
Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet:
Court documents allege that the Capital One hacker took “terabytes of data” from over 30 companies, educational institutions, and other entities  —  New court documents reveal the government is investigating the Capital One hacker for 30+ other breaches.
Nilay Patel / The Verge:
Interview with Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg on how the Tumblr acquisition came about, what's next for Tumblr, adult content in apps, and more  —  Blogging is back, hopefully  —  It's been a long and winding road for Tumblr, the blogging site that launched a thousand writing careers.
The Verge:
Caviar employees want DoorDash and Square to renegotiate transition packages; they have complained about issues with compensation, insurance, visa status, more  —  As the two companies work to close the deal, Caviar employees are caught in the middle  —  A group of Caviar employees …
New York Times:
As the 10+ day internet shutdown in Kashmir continues, pharmacists run out of drugs, people can't get cash, and online related businesses close  —  Pharmacists can't restock medicines; workers aren't being paid.  But the government still loves to block the internet for “peace and tranquillity.”
Joseph Cox / VICE:
Leaked documents show that Microsoft pays $12 to $14 per hour to the contractors who transcribe up to 200 audio clips per hour to train Cortana  —  Leaked documents show that Microsoft's contractors are paid between $12 and $14 an hour and are asked to transcribe as many as 200 audio clips per hour …
Joseph Cox / VICE:
Microsoft updates privacy policy to say employees or contractors may listen to recordings from Cortana and Skype Translator, after reports revealed the practice
Jeran Wittenstein / Bloomberg:
Overstock.com shares fall ~36% over three days, after its CEO Patrick Byrne said he was part of “Deep State” federal investigations related to the 2016 election  —  Overstock.com Inc. shares fell for a third day Wednesday as investors reacted to statements by Chief Executive Officer Patrick Byrne …
Paul Sawers / VentureBeat:
Google says Course Kit, its toolkit for teachers launched last year, will now be called Assignments and be able to detect plagiarism  —  Google is introducing a handful of updates to its Google for Education program today — including a new tool that helps teachers check students' work for possible plagiarism.
CNBC:
VMware says it is in talks to acquire Pivotal Software for $15 per share in cash, an 80% premium on Pivotal's $8.30 closing price on Wednesday  —  This is breaking news.  Please check back for updates.  —  TRENDING NOW  —  Subscribe to CNBC PRO Licensing & Reprints Join …
Mariella Moon / Engadget:
AT&T and T-Mobile have started rolling out cross-network call authentication services to protect against spam and spoofed robocalls  —  AT&T and T-Mobile have started rolling out cross-network call authentication services for their subscribers.  That means the companies will now be able notify …
Josh Taylor / The Guardian:
Fingerprints of 1M+ people and biometric info from a system used by banks, London police, and defense contractors, discovered on a publicly accessible database  —  Fingerprints, facial recognition and other personal information from Biostar 2 discovered on publicly accessible database
Ron Miller / TechCrunch:
Rimeto raises $10M Series A for its corporate directory that integrates with systems like HR, CRM, and others for richer, easier to search employee profiles  —  The notion of the corporate directory has been around for many years, but in a time of more frequent turnover and shifting responsibilities …
More: FinSMEs
William Foxley / CoinDesk:
CipherTrace: $3.1B may have been stolen through cryptocurrency exit scams and another $874M in misappropriated funds in 2019  —  Cryptocurrency crime made good money last quarter, although less than in the first quarter of 2019.  —  Cybercrime against exchanges amounted to $125 million …

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From Mediagazer

David Ellison / @ellisonskydance:
David Ellison announces that the combined Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery will be called Skydance “to preserve what has made each of these studios iconic”

New York Times:
Sources: Trump personally told his budget director to use taxpayer money for TV ads praising his presidency; at least four spots have run at a cost of ~$5.5M

Kristen Hare / Poynter:
Q&A with a co-author of a study on independent US journalism: 40% of respondents got all their income from their sites and ~80% were nearly 100% reliant on ads

More News

Emily Birnbaum / The Hill:
The House Homeland Security Committee subpoenas 8chan owner Jim Watkins, demanding that he appear before the committee on September 5

Earlier Picks

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