Techmeme
August 21, 2019, 9:35 PM

Top News

Joseph Cox / VICE:
Google, Mozilla, Apple to block root certificate issued by Kazakhstan which could be used to monitor users; Microsoft says cert not in its Trusted Root Program  —  Browser makers announced they would block the Kazakhstan government's root certificate, which was designed to spy on citizens' internet usage.
Stephen Hall / 9to5Google:
Source: Google is planning an update to the Home Mini, called the Nest Mini, with a similar form factor, wall mount, improved sound, and 3.5mm jack  —  Google plans to launch a followup to 2017's Google Home Mini with a second-generation ‘Nest Mini,’ a reliable source tells 9to5Google.
Joseph Cox / VICE:
Microsoft contractors say they listened to recordings, including accidentally invoked ones, of Xbox users, many of them children, to improve voice command tech  —  Multiple contractors working for Microsoft explain how they listened to audio captured by Xbox consoles.
Reuters:
Sources: Alibaba has delayed its listing in Hong Kong, which had been slated for late August and aimed to raise $10B-$15B, amid growing political unrest  —  HONG KONG/NEW YORK (Reuters) - China's biggest e-commerce company Alibaba Group Holding Ltd has delayed its up to $15 billion listing …
Bloomberg:
Google DeepMind co-founder Mustafa Suleyman, who led a heavily criticized unit focusing on practical AI uses, has been placed on leave for unspecified reasons  —  - Mustafa Suleyman is head of applied artifical intelligence  — He led heavily critized unit focusing on AI and healthcare
Natalie Gagliordi / ZDNet:
Big data analytics service Splunk to acquire cloud monitoring company SignalFx for $1.05B  —  The company announced the deal along with its second quarter financial results, which topped estimates.  —  Splunk delivered better-than-expected second quarter financial results and announced …
Rose Eveleth / Slate:
A look at the weird and wacky patents filed by tech companies, some seemingly unrelated to the industry, and the reasons behind filing for them  —  Companies are constantly patenting strange things they have no intention of developing.  Here's why.  —  Amazon is putting humans in cages to protect them from machines!
Ryan Smith / AnandTech:
Intel unveils 10th-gen Comet Lake CPUs with up to 6 cores for thin and light laptops, based on its Skylake CPU architecture and 14nm process  —  Capping off a busy few weeks for processors for Intel, today the company is announcing the second half of their product stack for their low-power 10th generation Core processors.
Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet:
Researcher who was banned from Valve's HackerOne bug bounty program after submitting a Steam 0-day that Valve downplayed, reveals details of another Steam 0-day  —  Valve gets heavily criticized for mishandling a crucial bug report.  —  A Russian security researcher has published details about a zero-day in the Steam gaming client.
Sara Fischer / Axios:
Facebook debuts first findings from conservative bias audit led by former GOP senator, says it influenced policy changes like creating a content oversight board  —  Facebook will release the findings of a roughly year-long conservative bias audit Tuesday, along with changes to its advertising policies …
Cat Zakrzewski / Washington Post:
Washington Post:
Apple is delaying its plans to limit third-party tracking and ads in kids' apps, which it planned to implement in Sept., after some developers raised concerns  —  Apple plans to change the rules it has for kids apps, raising concerns among some app developers about the way the tech giant wields power unilaterally over its App Store.
Nat Levy / GeekWire:
LinkedIn says it blocked or removed 21.6M fake accounts in the first half 2019, of which 19.5M were blocked at the registration stage  —  LinkedIn blocked or removed 21.6 million fake accounts on its platform from January to June of this year, a sign that the Microsoft-owned social network …
Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:
IAC has acquired short-term nursing jobs marketplace NurseFly, source says for $15M  —  NurseFly, a startup that's created a job marketplace for short-term nursing positions, is announcing its acquisition by holding company IAC.  —  While the companies aren't disclosing the deal terms …

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