• Apple Inc. and manufacturing partner Foxconn Technology Group both acknowledged that they rely too heavily on contract labor in a Chinese iPhone factory after conducting reviews examining claims from nonprofit watchdog China Labor Watch that the companies violated the country’s labor laws. The watchdog’s report, which was written based on the experiences of undercover investigators posing as workers in Foxconn’s plant, found that 50 percent of the staff in August were temporary workers, when China’s laws cap it at 10 percent. (Bloomberg)

• Google confirmed in a securities filing and a blog post that it has received a records request from the Department of Justice as a part of a federal antitrust investigation. Kent Walker, Google’s senior vice president of global affairs, said in a blog post that the department requested more information about past antitrust investigations, adding that the company expects the state attorneys general who are coordinating their own investigation to ask similar questions. (The Washington Post)

• President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign is planning to launch its own social networking smartphone app this fall for supporters as the president continues to rail against alleged anti-conservative bias on major social media platforms. The app would enable users to sign up for a Make America Great Again rally, canvas a neighborhood and potentially register to vote — while also giving users access to prizes like VIP seats or photo opportunities with Trump, according to people familiar with the matter. (Politico)

Microsoft Says Trump Is Treating Huawei Unfairly
Dina Bass, Bloomberg Businessweek

Microsoft President and Chief Legal Officer Brad Smith says the way the U.S. government is treating Huawei is un-American. As far as he knows, China’s leading maker of networking equipment and mobile phones should be allowed to buy U.S. technology, including software from his company.

DNC blocks virtual caucuses in Iowa and Nevada
Bridget Bowman, Roll Call

The Democratic National Committee formally decided Friday not to move forward with virtual caucuses in Iowa and Nevada amid cybersecurity concerns. The DNC’s Rules and Bylaws Committee agreed by voice vote to adopt the recommendation from DNC Chairman Tom Perez that the virtual caucuses should not take place since they would not be secure or reliable.

Director of M.I.T.’s Media Lab Resigns After Taking Money From Jeffrey Epstein
Marc Tracy and Tiffany Hsu, The New York Times

Nearly a month after his death, Jeffrey Epstein continues to haunt some of America’s most prestigious institutions. On Saturday, a prominent figure at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology stepped down after the disclosure of his efforts to conceal his financial connections to Mr. Epstein, the disgraced financier who killed himself in a Manhattan jail cell last month while facing federal sex trafficking charges.

Amazon’s Effort to Recruit 30,000 Workers Collides With Saturated Job Market
Karen Weise, The New York Times

Engineers in the Bay Area. Advertising managers in Chicago. Freight specialists in Arizona. At Amazon, the job listings keep piling up, reflecting a company growing in many directions amid one of the tightest labor markets in memory.

How the Algorithms Running Your Life Are Biased
Allison Ingersoll, Bloomberg Businessweek

Every minute, machines are deciding your future. Software programs don’t just recommend books and movies you might like: they also determine the interest rate you’ll pay on a loan, whether you land a dream job and even the chance you might commit a crime.

U.S. Stock Futures Advance Amid Bets on Stimulus: Markets Wrap
Todd White, Bloomberg

U.S. stock-index futures climbed with equities in Asia as traders weighed a series of fresh stimulus moves expected from the world’s central banks. Shares fluctuated in Europe, where bonds slipped alongside Treasuries.

Facebook, Google face off against a formidable new foe: State attorneys general
Tony Romm, The Washington Post

The nation’s state attorneys general have tangled with mortgage lenders, tobacco giants and the makers of addictive drugs. Now, they’re setting their sights on another target: Big Tech.

How Each Big Tech Company May Be Targeted by Regulators
Jack Nicas et al., The New York Times

Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google have been the envy of corporate America, admired for their size, influence and remarkable growth. Now that success is attracting a different kind of spotlight.

In the Race to Dominate 5G, China Sprints Ahead
Stu Woo, The Wall Street Journal

On either side of the brown river running through this misty mountain village, residents live in wooden huts without window panes. Chickens and cats mingle on the road.

Qualcomm-Samsung axis brings 5G to the masses as Huawei struggles
Stephen Nellis and Douglas Busvine, Reuters

Qualcomm Inc promised on Friday to bring 5G mobile phones to the masses with a high-end modem and said its chips would also power mid-price devices hitting the market next year. Fifth-generation chipsets from Qualcomm, the world’s biggest supplier of mobile phone chips, now run on five devices from Samsung Electronics, including the $1,299 Galaxy S10 5G model and the new $2,000 Galaxy Fold.

New Google policy bars ads for unproven stem cell therapies
William Wan and Laurie McGinley, The Washington Post

Responding to ubiquitous online marketing by stem cell clinics selling unapproved treatments for everything from achy joints to Alzheimer’s, Google announced Friday it will no longer accept ads for “unproven or experimental medical techniques,” including most stem cell therapy, cellular therapy and gene therapy.

O’Rourke presses tech companies to crack down on disinformation
Harper Neidig, The Hill

Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke is demanding answers from major tech platforms following an unsubstantiated claim online that the gunman involved in last weekend’s mass shooting in Odessa, Texas, was driving a vehicle with an O’Rourke campaign sticker.

Senator ‘deeply disappointed’ Zuckerberg declined to testify on extremism
Margaret Harding McGill, Politico

The Republican chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee said he’s “deeply disappointed” that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg declined to take part in an upcoming hearing on violent and extremist content online and urged him to reconsider, according to a letter obtained by POLITICO.

Russia says Facebook, Google distributed political ads on election day
Andrey Kuzmin, Reuters

Russian state communications watchdog Roskomnadzor said tech giants Google and Facebook had allowed political advertising during Sunday’s regional elections despite being asked to ban such publicity.

Google Maps Is Still Directing Women Seeking Abortions to Pro-Life Clinics — and a Memorial for the ‘Unborn’
Carter Sherman and David Uberti, Motherboard

There’s just one abortion clinic left in North Dakota, and it’s in Fargo. But if you’re searching for a clinic around the state’s second-largest city, Google Maps won’t tell you about it.

Apple Bets More Cameras Can Keep iPhone Humming
Tripp Mickle, The Wall Street Journal

Apple Inc. ’s iPhone is expected to remain the star of the company’s annual publicity showcase this week, as it has been for the past dozen years. But the spotlight is turning toward a younger cast of products that Apple needs to galvanize growth.

Democrats make renewed push for election security
Maggie Miller, The Hill

Congressional Democrats are shining the spotlight back on election security as they struggle to push various bills across the finish line in the face of Republican opposition. Democrats in both the House and Senate are renewing efforts to force the GOP-controlled Senate to allow votes on election security measures that have been stalled due to Republican concerns about federalizing elections and re-litigating the 2016 election interference by Russia.

Businesses Across the Board Scramble to Comply With California Data-Privacy Law
Patience Haggin, The Wall Street Journal

For Gap Inc., January 2020 will bring a lot more than just after-Christmas sales. Starting next year, all California residents will have the right to ask retailers, restaurants, airlines, banks and many other companies to provide them with any personal information they may have, including individual contact information, purchases and loyalty-program history.

DMVs Are Selling Your Data to Private Investigators
Joseph Cox, Motherboard

Departments of Motor Vehicles in states around the country are taking drivers’ personal information and selling it to thousands of businesses, including private investigators who spy on people for a profit, Motherboard has learned. DMVs sell the data for an array of approved purposes, such as to insurance or tow companies, but some of them have sold to more nefarious businesses as well.

Regulator Weighs Disclosing Names of Utilities That Violate Grid Security Rules
Rebecca Smith, The Wall Street Journal

Regulators are weighing whether to disclose the identities of electric utilities that violate rules designed to protect the nation’s grid against cyber and physical attacks. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s current practice is to provide the public general information about federal rule violations and penalties levied—but not to name the companies that broke the rules.

Special report: The end of anonymity
Kaveh Waddell, Axios

Until now, the vast majority of information collected about us has remained untouched — there was just too much to make sense of it all.

Please Regulate Us
Brad Smith and Carol Ann Browne, The Atlantic

Information technology is having an immensely uneven economic impact on the world, creating huge wealth for some while leaving others behind, as it displaces jobs and fails to reach communities that lack broadband connectivity. It’s changing the face of war and peace, creating a new theater of warfare in cyberspace and new threats to democracy through state‑sponsored attacks and disinformation.

He Who Must Not Be Tolerated
Kara Swisher, The New York Times

Joi Ito’s fall from grace for his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein was much deserved. But his style of corner-cutting ethics is all too common in tech.

More governments are shutting down the Internet. The harm is far-reaching.
The Editorial Board, The Washington Post

What’s a repressive government to do when the Internet gives protesters new ways to speak up? That’s easy: shut the whole thing down.

It’s Time to Regulate Outer Space
Adam Minter, Bloomberg

Last week, the European Space Agency reached out to to warn Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp. that one of its satellites might collide with a SpaceX communications satellite. When ESA first raised such concerns in late August, the chances of a crash were 1 in 50,000; SpaceX had said then that it didn’t think the risk was high enough to justify action.

H.R. 360, Cyber Sense Act of 2019
Congressional Budget Office

H.R. 360 would direct the Department of Energy to establish a voluntary program to test the cybersecurity of products and technologies intended for use in the nation’s bulk power system. The bulk power system comprises the facilities and control systems necessary for operating an interconnected energy transmission network and the electric energy needed from generation facilities to maintain transmission system reliability.