Techmeme
June 18, 2021, 5:40 AM

Top News

Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai / VICE:
Researchers: encryption algorithm GEA-1, used in GPRS data in 2G networks, was deliberately weakened by its designers; ETSI blames export regulations  —  A new paper shows that two old encryption algorithms still used in mobile networks can be exploited to spy on phones' internet traffic.
Amanda Silberling / TechCrunch:
Spotify has acquired Podz, a podcast discovery startup whose tech helps podcasters promote their show using ML to select 60-second clips of key moments  —  Podcasts are all the rage, but podcast discovery is a challenge.  Today, Spotify announced its acquisition of Podz …
Bobby Allyn / NPR:
Snap eliminates Snapchat's speed filter, which let users show how fast they were moving, after a US court ruled that Snap could be sued for a fatal car crash  —  The maker of the Snapchat app is eliminating a feature known as the “speed filter” that lets users capture how fast they are moving and share it with friends, NPR has learned.
Sam Byford / The Verge:
OnePlus CEO Pete Lau says OnePlus and Oppo will have more integrations moving forward, further hinting at a possible merger  —  OnePlus says it will ‘further integrate’ its business with Oppo.  But what does that really mean?  —  OnePlus CEO Pete Lau has announced a “new journey” …
Laurel Deppen / GeekWire:
Seattle-based Leafly, which runs an online marketplace for cannabis, raises $23M from existing investors; Leafly has 120M annual visitors  —  Seattle-based online cannabis marketplace Leafly has closed $23 million in new funding, GeekWire confirmed with the company.
Salvador Rodriguez / CNBC:
Facebook says it will begin testing ads on Oculus headsets, starting with the shooter game Blaston, and won't use data stored on devices to target ads  —  - Facebook on Wednesday announced that it will begin testing advertisements that will appear within the company's Oculus virtual reality headsets.
Casey Newton / Platformer:
Johana Bhuiyan / Los Angeles Times:
Emails from 2016 show Ring provided ~100 LAPD officers with free devices or discount codes and encouraged them to promote its devices to fellow LAPD, the public  —  In a bid to bolster its claims as a crime-fighting tool, Ring deployed a tactic popular in the business world: influencer marketing.
Ryan Barwick / Morning Brew:
Study: 48% of ad traffic on “fake” news publishers and 32% of ad traffic on “low credibility sites” like Breitbart is served by Google  —  It's about a third for"low credibility" sites. … Fake news is a problem.  Yet the sites that publish it keep surviving …
Sanket Jain / The Verge:
Social health activists in India have been tasked with curbing COVID-19 misinformation, with many workers using WhatsApp to stop its spread  —  The backbone of India's rural healthcare system is now tasked with beating back COVID-19 myths, one message at a time
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Transform, which develops tools for businesses to query and build metrics from data troves, comes out of stealth with $20M Series A, after $4.5M seed in 2020  —  The biggest tech companies have put a lot of time and money into building tools and platforms for their data science teams …
More: FinSMEs
John Koblin / New York Times:
Nielsen announces a new metric, The Gauge, to measure streaming viewing in ~14,000 US homes via hardware that watches internet traffic passing through a router  —  The company known for measuring television ratings said Netflix and YouTube are far ahead of their digital competitors in time watched on TVs …
Joe Weisenthal / Bloomberg:
Mark Cuban calls for stablecoin regulation, after trading Iron Finance's algorithmic stablecoin DeFi Titanium, which then crashed from $60 to $0 in a day  —  Here's a chart you never want to see.  It's of the DeFi Titanium token, which in one day went from being valued around $60 to $0.
Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
PUBG Mobile returns to Google Play Store in India with new name Battlegrounds Mobile India, after being banned for nine months on national security grounds  —  Krafton, which filed for an IPO earlier this week, has built a gigantic gaming empire.  If the firm is able to raise the target $5 billion …
Stephen Shankland / CNET:
Google says it is funding a project to increase Linux security by writing parts of the operating system's core in Rust  —  Google said Thursday it's funding a project to increase Linux security by writing parts of the operating system's core in the Rust programming language …
More: Phoronix and TechRadar
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Earlier Picks

Jack Nicas / New York Times:
Mary Ann Azevedo / TechCrunch:
Bloomberg:
Elias Saba / AFTVnews:
Dieter Bohn / The Verge: