Techmeme
December 18, 2019, 4:20 PM

Top News

Todd Haselton / CNBC:
Apple, Amazon, Google, and the Zigbee Alliance form “Project Connected Home over IP”, a partnership to create a new smart home networking standard  —  - Amazon, Apple, Google and the Zigbee Alliance announced a new partnership.  — It's called Project Connected Home over IP …
New York Times:
An examination of poorly secured police and private databases reveals how China is ramping up its ability to spy on its citizens to new and disturbing levels  —  The authorities can scan your phones, track your face and find out when you leave your home.  One of the world's biggest spying networks …
New York Times:
The defining moments of tech in the 2010s, including the Arab Spring and unveiling of the iPad, as recalled by Zuckerberg, Snowden, Phil Schiller, and others  —  An oral history of the 2010s  —  When the decade began, tech meant promise — cars that could drive themselves, social networks that could take down dictators.
Bloomberg:
Current and ex-employees of SoftBank's Vision Fund describe an environment of sycophancy towards Son, harassment, rivalries, and a culture of recklessness  —  Masayoshi Son's venture capital firm is famous for making outsize bets on tech startups.  It has also been described as an environment of sycophancy and harassment.
Timothy B. Lee / Ars Technica:
Author details how he created a deepfake video over two weeks at a cost of $552 using Faceswap, with an explanation of the tech and some of its limitations  —  I learned a lot from creating my own deepfake video.  —  Deepfake technology uses deep neural networks to convincingly replace one face with another in a video.
Andrew J. Hawkins / The Verge:
Share Now, a car sharing service collaboration between Daimler and BMW formerly known as Car2Go, says it is leaving North America to focus on Europe  —  Daimler and BMW, which jointly own Share Now, say they are focused on European markets  —  Share Now, the car-sharing service formerly known as Car2Go, is leaving North America.
More: Engadget and GeekWire
Joseph Bernstein / BuzzFeed News:
A meditation on digital life during the 2010s, which has become fractured, alienating, and contentious, falling short of the lofty ideals articulated in the 90s  —  In April 1997, Wired magazine published a feature with the grand and regrettable title “Birth of a Digital Nation.”
First Round:
State of startups survey: 33%+ of founders worry about the end of a tech bubble, diversity and mental health are key, and 65% say 2020 fundraising will be hard  —  Welcome to the fifth edition of State of Startups.  What started as an experiment in 2015 has since become a treasured tradition here at First Round.
Lauren Feiner / CNBC:
Lawmakers balk after Facebook explains how it collects and monetizes location data of users who have denied location services in their smartphone OS for its app  —  - In response to a letter from Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., and Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., Facebook explained why it tracks users' locations …
CNN:
The Epilepsy Foundation files criminal complaint against 30+ unidentified Twitter users for coordinated attack of seizure-inducing videos to its feed last month  —  (CNN)Attackers sent videos of flashing and strobing lights to people on Twitter last month as part of a cyberattack which deliberately targeted people with epilepsy.
Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet:
After a cyber attack, Canadian medical lab LifeLabs paid a ransom to recover the stolen data of 15M+ customers, which included login info and test results  —  Data breach took place in early November, and hackers also gained access to 85,000 laboratory test results.
Gavin Bridge / Variety:
Analysis: Netflix has released 371 original TV shows and movies in the US in 2019, a 54.6% increase over 2018 and more than the entire US TV industry in 2005  —  371 series, movies represents over 50% increase in streaming service's content volume vs. 2018  —  Netflix averaged …
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Andrew Higgins / New York Times:
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Sara Fischer / Axios:
Daniel Cooper / Engadget:
iFixit News:
Danny Palmer / ZDNet: