Techmeme
July 2, 2020, 7:15 PM

Top News

Joseph Cox / VICE:
Police infiltrated Encrochat, an encrypted phone network used by organized crime, and read millions of messages for months, leading to international arrests  —  Police monitored a hundred million encrypted messages sent through Encrochat, a network used by career criminals to discuss drug deals, murders, and extortion plots.
Nick Miroff / Washington Post:
CBP awards Anduril, founded by Palantir veterans and Palmer Luckey, a five-year contract to build a “virtual border wall” using mobile surveillance towers  —  The Trump administration has awarded a major border security contract to a California technology start …
Jason Koebler / VICE:
Angry over critical coverage, tech figures discuss hitting back against journalists, on Twitter and invite-only Clubhouse, leading to harassment of NYT's Lorenz  —  In leaked audio from an invite-only app, venture capitalists pondered everything they think is wrong with journalism.
Daniel Kuhn / CoinDesk:
Researchers expose a flaw in at least three major crypto wallets, Ledger Live, Edge, and Breadwallet, which could be exploited for double-spending users' funds  —  A standard way to transact Bitcoin could be vulnerable to double-spending, new research has found.
Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
Facebook says it is shutting down Lasso, its TikTok clone launched a year and a half ago, on July 10  —  Facebook is no longer betting on Lasso, an app it launched a year and a half ago, to take on TikTok .  The social juggernaut's TikTok clone is shutting down on July 10, Facebook said.
Benjamin Mayo / 9to5Mac:
Apple launches a new site for Apple Card users to manage their accounts online; previously, all Apple Card interactions took place through iPhone's Wallet app  —  Apple has today launched an online dashboard for Apple Card users to manage their account online.
Javier Espinoza / Financial Times:
EU is examining whether Google's proposed acquisition of Fitbit will give the company more data to help it entrench its search engine and advertising businesses  —  Lengthy questionnaires to rivals come as consumer groups warn the deal will extend Google's data empire
Reuters:
400+ advertisers suspend Facebook ads for a month, as sources say talks with some advertisers broke down; Zuckerberg has agreed to meet with boycott organizers  —  NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Advertisements for more than 400 brands including Coca-Cola and Starbucks are due to vanish …
Alex Heath / The Information:
CNN:
Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet:
Facebook says it continued sharing data of inactive users with around 5,000 developers even after their apps' 90-day cut-off date expired; issue is now fixed  —  A Facebook privacy mechanism blocks apps from receiving user data if users didn't use an app for 90 days.
Louise Matsakis / Wired:
A look at “Prison TikTok”, a subgenre where inmates use contraband cellphones to share dance videos, funny skits, and broadcast their living conditions  —  The lives of incarcerated people are usually hidden from society.  On prison TikTok, they're going viral.
Paul Ziobro / Wall Street Journal:
A mystery shopper who irked online merchants by abandoning thousands of shopping carts carrying only one item was a Google bot scraping pricing information  —  Merchants have seen a lot of browsing by John Smith, who picks up items, then leaves without buying; ‘it started getting out of hand’

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More News

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Earlier Picks

Sara Fischer / Axios:
David Ruddock / Android Police:
Jacob Kastrenakes / The Verge:
Stephen Nellis / Reuters:
Mikey Campbell / AppleInsider: