Techmeme
December 20, 2019, 7:50 AM

Top News

Drew Harwell / Washington Post:
Study of 189 facial recognition algorithms shows they misidentify people of color more often than white people, confirming facial recognition tech's racial bias  —  Facial-recognition systems misidentified people of color more often than white people, a landmark federal study released Thursday shows …
Kim Lyons / The Verge:
Convenience store chain Wawa discloses a data breach across its 700 stores over the past nine months that may have exposed customer and credit card details  —  The breach may have affected all 700 stores over the past nine months.  —  If you used your credit card or debit card to buy gas …
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Report: Facebook has tasked a co-author of Windows NT with building an OS from scratch, in order to stop relying on Android for products like Oculus and Portal  —  Facebook doesn't want its hardware like Oculus and Portal to be at the mercy of Google because they rely on its Android operating system.
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
Google acquires Montreal-based game development house Typhoon Studios as part of its plan to create exclusive content for Stadia  —  Google's Stadia cloud gaming division has acquired Typhoon Studio, a Montreal-based triple-A game development house.  —  The move is part of Stadia's plan …
Makena Kelly / The Verge:
Congress passes the TRACED Act, enabling fines of up to $10K per robocall and requiring carriers to deploy STIR/SHAKEN protocol to identify spoofed numbers  —  A holiday gift for anyone with a phone  —  After months of negotiations, Congress approved a landmark bill on Thursday to stop the flood of illegal robocalls.
Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet:
Apple opens its bug bounty program to security researchers, publishes eligibility criteria, bounty categories, and report and payout guidelines  —  Apple opens its previously-closed bug bounty program to all security researchers.  —  Apple has formally opened its bug bounty program today …
Jay Peters / The Verge:
OnePlus unveils a bug bounty program with rewards from $50-$7,000 open to any security expert and a bug bounty partnership with HackerOne for select researchers  —  You can earn up to $7,000 for submitting a bug  —  OnePlus announced its second data breach in two years back in November …
Taylor Soper / GeekWire:
F5 Networks says it will acquire AI-powered fraud prevention platform Shape Security for around $1B in cash  —  F5 Networks will pay approximately $1 billion to acquire Shape Security, a Santa Clara, Calif.-based company that sells a fraud prevention platform to banks, airlines, retailers, government agencies, and more.
Kim Lyons / The Verge:
According to a new report from Have I Been Pwned, 170M emails along with usernames and hashed passwords were stolen in the Zynga breach in September  —  If you're still playing Words with Friends or Draw Something, you should change your password  —  A September password breach …
Andrew O'Hara / AppleInsider:
Apple open sources parts of its HomeKit Accessory Development Kit allowing anyone to prototype HomeKit devices  —  Apple has published an open-source version of its HomeKit Accessory Development Kit, allowing more users to experiment with the development of HomeKit accessories.
Chris Eggertsen / Billboard:
Jury finds Cox Communications liable for its customers' piracy of 10,000+ musical works, awards $1B to Sony Music, EMI, Universal, and Warner Music  —  Cox Communications was found liable for piracy infringement of more than 10,000 musical works by a U.S. District Court jury in Virgina on Thursday …
Tony Romm / Washington Post:
Facebook bans misleading posts, photos, ads, and other content about the 2020 US Census, even if posted by a politician, on Facebook and Instagram  —  The new rules, announced Thursday, includes those placed by politicians  —  SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook will remove posts …
Song Jingli / KrASIA:
Hipac, a Chinese B2B e-commerce platform for mothers and babies, raises $100M Series D led by Anchor Equity Partners  —  Hangzhou-based B2B e-commerce platform Hipac has closed its USD 100 million Series D financing round led by Anchor Equity Partners, 36Kr reported on Friday.  —  Hipac was founded in 2015.

Sponsor Posts

Soxton:
Fast, affordable law for startups  —  Soxton automates startup legal so founders can move faster and sleep better.  We handle incorporation, advisor, employment and commercial contracts.  Join the waitlist for early access!
Equals:
Stop vibe coding analytics  —  Equals AI turns questions about your business into auditable spreadsheet models and dashboards.  Build once, iterate for years.
Zoho:
Zoho Mail MCP: Make your inbox work for you  —  Maya is the head of operations at a 500-person B2B software company.  She's sharp, she's busy, and she starts every morning the same way-with her coffee, laptop, inbox.Not to work.
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Salesforce data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Big Technology Podcast:
Anthropic's Mythos is Back, OpenAI Releases GPT 5.6, Apple's Price Increases
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.
Hard Fork:
'The Daily' and 'The Opinions': How A.I. Is Changing Loneliness and Taste
The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.
Subscribe to Hard Fork.
The Upstarts Podcast:
Writer's May Habib: Building AI Tools For Corporate 'Normal People' The Labs Leave Behind
Veteran tech reporter Alex Konrad sits down with breakout entrepreneurs taking on the status quo to shake up their fields in AI, design, nuclear energy, space, and more.
Subscribe to The Upstarts Podcast.
The Nick, Dick and Paul Show:
A Nick, Dick, and Paul Buffet!
Nick Bilton, Dick Costolo, and Paul Kedrosky pull back the curtain on AI, startups, and the future rushing toward us, all with healthy dose of irreverence.
Subscribe to The Nick, Dick and Paul Show.
Great Chat:
How much data do we actually want about our bodies?
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
Subscribe to Great Chat.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
AI's Mythos Moment: Rishi Sunak on preparing governments for AI
Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.
Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 7:50 AM ET, December 20, 2019.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.

More News

Katie Paul / Reuters:

Earlier Picks

Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:
Todd Spangler / Variety:
New York Times:
Faiz Siddiqui / Washington Post:
Lauren Feiner / CNBC: