Techmeme
January 27, 2020, 11:55 PM

Top News

Emil Protalinski / VentureBeat:
Google says it will shut down App Maker, G Suite's low-code environment for building custom business apps, on January 19, 2021  —  Google today announced it is killing off yet another service: App Maker, G Suite's low-code environment for building custom business apps.
Raymond Zhong / New York Times:
As China tries to contain the coronavirus, the sheer volume of criticism of the government overwhelms censors and tests China's ability to control the narrative  —  The sheer volume of criticism of the government, and the sometimes clever ways that critics dodge censors, are testing Beijing's ability to control the narrative.
Danny Palmer / ZDNet:
UK government proposes new IoT rules: firms must tell consumers how long security updates will be provided, ship individual devices with unique passwords, more  —  Proposed laws from the UK for Internet of Things security and suggests vendors will need to follow new rules to be considered secure.
Azeem Azhar / Exponential View:
As Alphabet and Microsoft clamor for regulation of tech like facial recognition, potential new rules and their obstacles pose existential threats to startups  —  You couldn't have missed it.  The world's largest tech companies have started to clamour for regulation in this hugely under-regulated sector.
Reuters:
Sources: Turkey-backed hackers have used DNS hijacking to obtain login credentials, targeting ~30 EU and Middle East governments and organizations since 2018  —  LONDON (Reuters) - Sweeping cyberattacks targeting governments and other organizations in Europe and the Middle East are believed …
Tara Duggan / San Francisco Chronicle:
Grubhub admits to adding restaurants without their permission, after restaurateur found her Thai restaurant had a page on Grubhub and its subsidiary Seamless  —  Pim Techamuanvivit was managing her Michelin-starred Thai restaurant in San Francisco, Kin Khao, around 8:30 p.m. on Saturday when she got an unexpected call.
Jean-Louis Gassée / Monday Note:
Consumer IoT is in trouble because normal people can't be expected to manage a house full of smart things or keep track of their bugs and looming obsolescence  —  The everything-computerized-and-always- connected smarthome is a work in progress.  This slow pace is a good thing because it gives us …
Lauren Kaori Gurley / VICE:
Experts say tech has made US labor laws obsolete and in need of a massive overhaul to benefit organizing workers, such as requiring safe digital meeting spaces  —  In the 1930s, at the time of the writing of the Wagner Act—the law which grants workers the right to form unions and collectively bargain …
Joseph Cox / VICE:
Documents reveal that Avast has sold its users' internet browsing data, through a subsidiary called Jumpshot, to clients like Pepsi, Google, and Microsoft  —  An antivirus program used by hundreds of millions of people around the world is selling highly sensitive web browsing data …

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Earlier Picks

Gary Marcus / The Gradient:
Angela Strange / Andreessen Horowitz:
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch: