Techmeme: Judge rules that Huawei does not have grounds to sue the US government over a law banning federal agencies and their contractors from buying Huawei products (Steven Overly/Politico)

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Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:

EU issues proposals to drive digitization across industries and sectors, including rules for high risk AI systems and a regulatory framework for data governance — European Union lawmakers have set out a first bundle of proposals for a new digital strategy for the bloc …

More: New York Times, The Next Web, Yahoo Finance, ZDNet, European Commission, Reuters, VentureBeat, Bloomberg, Fortune, Patently Apple, DW.COM, Wall Street Journal, Wccftech, and CCIA

Tweets: @eu_commission, @eu_commission, @eu_commission, @eu_commission, and @dsmeu

See also Mediagazer

Dave Gershgorn / OneZero :

Profile of Japan-based NEC, which has been a longtime provider of facial recognition services globally and garners less scrutiny than new entrants in the space — July 2018, the mayor of Irving, Texas, signed a contract that would dramatically expand how the city's police department could investigate crimes using facial recognition.

More: Vox and VICE

Tweets: @ozm, @davegershgorn, and @mvzelenks

Tom Warren / The Verge:

Microsoft launches a unified Office app for iOS and Android, combining Word, Excel, and PowerPoint into a single app; standalone versions will remain available — Even more mobile features are on the way soon — Microsoft is releasing its new unified Office app for iOS and Android today …

More: Microsoft 365 Blog, Windows Central, MacRumors, AppleInsider, 9to5Mac, iMore, GeekWire, Thurrott, Thurrott, VentureBeat, Microsoft Design, and Mashable

Kurt Wagner / Bloomberg:

Twitter acquires Chroma Labs, which makes tools for video and photo creation, will split team across product, design, and engineering, shut down Chroma Stories — - Company builds photo, video-editing features for social media — Chroma will join Twitter to work on ‘conversations’ products

More: TechCrunch, Marketing Land, Engadget, Crunchbase News, Business Insider, Silicon Republic, Social Media Today, and Adweek

Tweets: @kayvz, @chroma_labs, @joshconstine, @kurtwagner8, @kurtwagner8, and @technology

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Facebook is internally testing a tabbed version of News Feed for mobile that includes the Most Relevant, Most Recent, and Already Seen feeds — Facebook may make it easier to escape its ranking algorithm and explore the News Feed in different formats. Facebook has internally prototyped …

More: XDA Developers, 9to5Mac, iDownloadBlog.com, Social Media Today, Input, and The Next Web

Tweets: @wongmjane, @alexvoica, @joshconstine, and @wongmjane

Richard Cooke / Wired:

A tribute to Wikipedia, which is one of the few remaining places that retains the faintly utopian glow of the early World Wide Web — People used to think the crowdsourced encyclopedia represented all that was wrong with the web. Now it's a beacon of so much that's right.

Tweets: @alexhinojo, @wikimedia, @rgcooke, @wired, @jonnoxrevanche, @timsmithrx, @mondaystory, and @johnbirmingham

Michael del Castillo / Forbes:

Coinbase becomes a Visa Principal Member, allowing it to issue bitcoin debit cards for other crypto companies and traditional firms — Credit card giant Visa has granted its principal membership to a cryptocurrency company for the first time. Officially awarded to cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase …

More: The Coinbase Blog, BetaNews, The Block, Crowdfund Insider, BitcoinExchangeGuide, CoinDesk, Cointelegraph, and Yahoo Finance

Tweets: @jesselund and @mdudas

Billy Steele / Engadget:

As Photoshop turns 30, Adobe begins rolling out new desktop and mobile features, including bringing the Object Selection tool to iPad — Photoshop turns 30 today, and Adobe is celebrating with some worthwhile updates to the photo-editing app on both the desktop and iPad.

More: Adobe Blog, Computerworld, Thurrott, Digital Trends, CNET, MacRumors, AppleInsider, The Next Web, 9to5Mac, Yahoo Finance, The Verge, iDownloadBlog.com, SlashGear, MacStories, and The Mac Observer

Corbin Davenport / Android Police:

Mozilla releases its VPN service Firefox Private Network on Android in a closed beta for $4.99/month — Mozilla, the organization behind the much-loved Firefox web browser, has experimented with creating a VPN service for some time. Unlike the VPNs packaged with browsers like Opera …

More: XDA Developers, CNET, 9to5Google, Yahoo Finance, Chrome Unboxed, Windows Central, The Next Web, Neowin, Technology Personalized, Pocket-lint, Softpedia News, Engadget, Input, SlashGear, Droid Life, and TechRadar.com. Tweets: @agilethumbs

Abner Li / 9to5Google:

Google begins rolling out two Google Docs features: autocorrect, enabled by default, and Smart Compose, for paying customers — Last November, Google Docs started testing autocorrect and Smart Compose as part of leveraging machine learning to improve user productivity.

More: G Suite Updates Blog, G Suite Updates Blog, Android Police, Input, Android Headlines, and TechRadar.com. Tweets: @caseynewton

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Online learning marketplace Udemy, which offers over 150,000 courses, raises $50M from Japanese publisher Benesse Holdings at a $2B post-money valuation — The internet has, for better or worse, become the default platform for people seeking information, and today one of the companies leveraging …

More: FinSMEs. Tweets: @jasonlk

Nick Turner / Bloomberg:

Groupon says it will shutter Groupon Goods, its e-commerce platform for physical products, after reporting worse-than-expected results; stock drops 40%+ — - Company plans to abandon the business of selling goods — Groupon will focus on being marketplace for local experiences

More: Wall Street Journal, The Verge, CNBC, Yahoo Finance, The Business Journals, PYMNTS.com, and Business Wire

Hugh Son / CNBC:

LendingClub is acquiring Boston-based online bank Radius Bancorp in a deal valued at $185M, making it the first US fintech company to acquire a bank — - LendingClub, a fintech company that pioneered personal loans made online, is buying a U.S. bank to give it access to a stable and cheaper source of funding, CNBC has learned.

More: PR Newswire, Bloomberg, American Banker, LendingClub, PYMNTS.com, and PYMNTS.com

Tweets: @mengxilu, @jesselund, @howardlindzon, @shamir_k, @iankar_, @stephmacc, @cryptohodler16, @sarthakgh, and @iankar_

George P. Slefo / Ad Age:

Consumer insights provider Hitwise is shutting down after 24 years, following allegations that it purchased sensitive user data from Avast's Jumpshot — The move underscores the growing impact consumer privacy is having in areas such as ad tech — Consumer insights company Hitwise …

More: Marketing Land, AdExchanger, and TechRadar.com. Tweets: @searchmartin

Steven Overly / Politico:

Judge rules that Huawei does not have grounds to sue the US government over a law banning federal agencies and their contractors from buying Huawei products — A federal judge ruled today that Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei does not have grounds to sue the U.S. government …

More: Reuters, Tom's Hardware, Axios, Input, Telecoms.com, SiliconANGLE, and The Hill

Tweets: @frankpallone, @mattdrange, @lisahopeking, @jodixu, and @ericgeller

Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:

Colorado-based Outrider, which operates a SaaS platform for fully- and semi-autonomous truck fleets, emerges from stealth with $53M in seed and Series A — Driverless vehicle technology has the potential to transform industries — and indeed, it already has.

Manish Singh / TechCrunch:

Swiggy, India's largest food delivery startup, raises $113M Series I led by Prosus Ventures, source says at a $3.6B valuation; Swiggy has raised ~$1.57B to date — Weeks after Zomato acquired Uber's Eats business in India, its chief local rival is bulking up some ammunition of its own.

More: Entrackr

Manish Singh / TechCrunch:

Indian education platform Unacademy raises $110M Series E from General Atlantic, Sequoia Capital India, Facebook, and others — Unacademy, one of India's fastest growing education startups, has just received the backing of a major technology giant: Facebook.

Tweets: @gauravmunjal, @refsrc, and @aparanjape

Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica:

ISPs seek an injunction against a Maine law requiring opt-in consent before sharing customer info like browsing histories, saying it violates free-speech rights — Law says ISPs need opt-in consent before using or sharing Web-browsing history. — The broadband industry is suing Maine …

More: Techdirt, The Daily Dot, IT Management, and The Mac Observer

Tweets: @justinbrookman and @lam_barrett

Johana Bhuiyan / Los Angeles Times:

Sources: Uber shuts down its customer support office in LA, laying off ~80 employees and outsourcing their jobs to a support office in Manila — Uber has closed a customer support office in downtown Los Angeles, laying off about 80 employees, The Times has learned.

More: Business Insider and Seeking Alpha

Tweets: @jmbooyah and @margotroosevelt

Taiga Uranaka / Bloomberg:

Sources: Japan's Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group is investing $700M in ride hailing giant Grab, intends to market its financial services to Grab's users — - MUFG gains access to millions of users in Southeast Asia — Grab is trying to build a regional super-app like WeChat

More: Crunchbase News

Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:

Huntress, a SaaS cybersecurity provider, raises $18M Series A led by ForgePoint Capital as it expands into additional market segments and geographies — According to a recent study published by the University of Maryland, hackers attack every 39 seconds (or about 2,244 times a day), and they're often successful.

More: FinSMEs, Passle, and Huntress Labs

Paul Sawers / VentureBeat:

Whatfix, which helps companies onboard users and improve employee training, raises $32M Series C led by Sequoia Capital India — Whatfix, a “digital adoption platform” (DAP) that helps companies create on-screen product walk-throughs for their software, has raised $32 million in a series C round …

More: SiliconANGLE

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