Techmeme
October 15, 2021, 2:30 PM

Top News

James Clayton / BBC:
A Koran app developer says Apple took down their app in China over “content that is illegal”; another developer removed their Bible app in China this week  —  Apple has taken down one of the world's most popular Koran apps in China, after a request from officials, the company has confirmed to the BBC.
Bloomberg:
Sources: the SEC is poised to let the first Bitcoin futures ETFs, from Proshares and Invesco, trade in the US as early as next week  —  - Cutoff for action on ProShares, Invesco filings is next week  — Tacit approval is seen after an almost decade-long push
Zoe Schiffer / The Verge:
Janneke Parrish, one of the leaders of the #AppleToo movement, says she was fired for deleting files off her work devices during an internal investigation  —  Janneke Parrish was terminated for deleting files off her work phone, including the apps Robinhood, Pokémon GO, and Google Drive
Reed Albergotti / Washington Post:
Sergiu Gatlan / BleepingComputer:
Twitch downplays last week's hack, says it had minimal impact and user login credentials, full credit card numbers, or bank information were not exposed  —  In an update regarding this month's security incident, Twitch downplayed the breach saying that it had minimal impact and only affected a small number of users.
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple hired Afrooz Family, its former employee and a co-founder of speaker startup Syng, to lead HomePod software efforts  —  - Apple's smart-speaker efforts have struggled since 2018 debut  — Afrooz Family takes job after co-founding Syng speaker startup
Fred Lambert / Electrek:
Tesla starts offering insurance in Texas using drivers' “real-time driving behavior” and a “safety score”  —  Tesla has now officially launched its insurance product using “real-time driving behavior.”  —  The product is only available in Texas for now.
Catalin Cimpanu / The Record:
Google Threat Analysis Group says it tracks 270+ state-backed threat actors, and sent 50K+ alerts for email phishing attacks to Gmail users in 2021, up ~33% YoY  —  The Google Threat Analysis Group said today that its security researchers are currently tracking more than 270 different …
David Uberti / Wall Street Journal:
At the White House's ransomware summit, 32 countries pledged to share cyberattack info, push firms to improve security, and disrupt hackers' financial tools  —  Officials from 31 countries and the EU say uneven enforcement allows hackers to cash in  —  Officials from 32 governments …
Joseph Cox / VICE:
White House details its plan for the federal government to adopt phishing-resistant multi-factor authentication methods, such as using hardware security keys  —  An Office of Management and Budget official explained the large scale plan to move the federal government to phishing-resistant multi-factor authentication.
Kellen Browning / New York Times:
Security researchers say Apple and EU plans to monitor phones for illicit material are ineffective and could embolden government surveillance  —  A group of researchers said the “dangerous technology” was invasive and not effective at detecting images of child sexual abuse.
Wall Street Journal:
Microsoft is shuttering the Chinese version of LinkedIn and replacing it with a job board; sources say China told LinkedIn in March to better regulate content  —  LinkedIn cites challenging operating environment, as retreat marks the biggest departure from China by a major tech company in years
Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
WhatsApp starts rolling out e2e encryption for chat history backups in iCloud and Google Drive  —  WhatsApp is beginning to roll out a new feature that will provide its two billion users the option to encrypt their chat history backup in iCloud or Google Drive, patching a major loophole …
Aislinn Keely / The Block:
CFTC files and settles charges against Tether and Bitfinex, ordering them to pay a total of $42.5M for making “untrue or misleading statements” about USDT  —  The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) simultaneously filed and settled charges against Tether and Bitfinex today …

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Earlier Picks

Wilson Walker / CBS San Francisco:
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Joseph Cox / VICE:
James Vincent / The Verge:
John D. McKinnon / Wall Street Journal:
Tage Kene-Okafor / TechCrunch:
Jay Peters / The Verge: