Top Stories

  • In a letter to Congress, National Intelligence Director Dan Coats asked lawmakers to give the National Security Agency permanent authority to access Americans’ domestic communications, as outlined in the USA Freedom Act, which is set to expire in December. Coats also acknowledged for the first time publicly that the NSA’s program for collecting calls and text messages had been indefinitely shut down after technical difficulties resulted in the collection of more information than the law allowed. (The New York Times)
  • Even before Capital One Financial Corp.’s huge data breach last month became public, employees had been raising concerns about high turnover on the company’s cybersecurity team, including constant shifts among senior leadership, and improperly installed security software, according to people familiar with the matter. A Capital One spokesperson said the company has “invested heavily” in cybersecurity and “will continue to do so,” adding that the head count of its cybersecurity team has risen in the past several years. (The Wall Street Journal
  • District Judge Amy Totenberg ruled that Georgia cannot use its current electronic election voting machines, management software or servers after this year. Georgia has been one of the last states still using paperless voting machines, and the ruling means the state can no longer use its old machines as a backup if the new system is not ready in time for 2020 presidential primary votes. (CNET)

Chart Review

Events Calendar (All Times Local)

08/16/2019
TDI’s 23rd Biennial Conference at Galluadet University
08/17/2019
TDI’s 23rd Biennial Conference at Galluadet University
08/18/2019
Technology Policy Institute’s 10th Annual Aspen Forum
08/19/2019
Technology Policy Institute’s 10th Annual Aspen Forum
CIO 100 Symposium 12:30 pm
08/20/2019
Technology Policy Institute’s 10th Annual Aspen Forum
CIO 100 Symposium 7:30 am
FCC’s Tribal Communications Workshop in Billings, Montana 8:30 am
American Consumer Institute’s “Consumer Protections Wins and Fails: Tech 1.0” webinar focused on Congressional moves on bipartisan consumer privacy protections 2:00 pm
08/21/2019
CIO 100 Symposium 7:30 am
FCC’s Tribal Communications Workshop in Billings, Montana 9:00 am
View full calendar

Understanding Gen Z: The Definitive Guide to the Next Generation

Based on nearly 1,000 survey interviews with 18-21 year-olds, Morning Consult’s ‘Understanding Gen Z’ report digs into the values, habits, aspirations, politics, and concerns that are shaping Gen Z adults and the ways they differ from the generations that came before them.

Download the full report →

General

All the tech moguls who have been connected to Jeffrey Epstein, the elite wealth manager who died in jail while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges
Rebecca Aydin, Business Insider

Jeffrey Epstein, the financier arrested in July on charges of sex trafficking of underage girls, died by apparent suicide in a Manhattan jail on Saturday. Throughout his life, he hobnobbed with world leaders and elite executives, including tech moguls.

Cloudflare Files for IPO Citing Publicity Over 8chan as Risk
Michael Hytha, Bloomberg

Cloudflare Inc., a firm that helps websites protect and distribute content, warned potential investors in its initial public offering that risks to its business go beyond the boilerplate Silicon Valley advisory that it may never become profitable.

The Pentagon’s Research Arm Wants AI to Help Design More Secure Tech
Jack Corrigan, Nextgov

The Pentagon is exploring how artificial intelligence can help build more digitally secure vehicles, weapons systems and other network-connected platforms in a fraction of the time it takes today. For years, cyber experts have urged agencies to make security a priority when building new systems, but that’s easier said than done, at least when it comes to military tech, according to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

Apple, EU Set for September Showdown Over Record Tax Bill
Stephanie Bodoni, Bloomberg

Apple Inc.’s 13 billion-euro ($14.4 billion) battle with the European Union reaches the bloc’s courts next month in a hearing set to throw the spotlight on antitrust commissioner Margrethe Vestager’s crackdown on tax deals doled out to big companies.

Donald Trump And Bernie Sanders Love Bashing — And Shopping At — Amazon
Dave Levinthal and Chris Zubak-Skees, Center for Public Integrity

Campaigns of both presidential candidates also receive significant cash from Amazon employees.

The NSA Uses Slack. Why?
Derek Mead, Motherboard

The United States’ top digital surveillance agency is using an off-the-shelf version of Slack. For what? They should tell us!

U.S. Futures Rise to End Volatile Week; Bonds Fall: Markets Wrap
Yakob Peterseil, Bloomberg

U.S. equity futures climbed with European stocks and most Asian shares posted modest gains, as a tumultuous week of trade uncertainty and fears over global growth nears its end. Treasuries pared some of Thursday’s advance.

Intellectual Property and Antitrust

Warren: DOJ should pay ‘close attention’ to media mergers
Zack Budryk, The Hill

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who is running for president, is calling for federal regulators to look more closely at a wave of mergers involving entertainment giants.

YouTube is changing how some copyright claims work, and it could result in ‘more blocked content’
Jacob Kastrenakes, The Verge

YouTube is changing how it handles copyright claims around brief or unintentional clips of music in an attempt to make the system fairer to video creators. In the short term, however, YouTube warns that the changes could lead to more videos being blocked entirely.

AOL held talks to buy YouTube, Facebook in 2006, ex-CEO reveals
Alex Sherman, CNBC

Add another chapter to your internet revisionist history books: AOL held talks to buy both Facebook and YouTube in 2006 and considered taking a large minority stake in Tencent in 2004. Obviously none of this happened — and the board of Time Warner is to blame, said ex-AOL CEO Jon Miller in an exclusive CNBC interview.

Tech regulators put to the test
David McCabe, Axios

The backlash against giant tech companies is stressing the public institutions tasked with examining their power, as participants, observers and critics question whether regulators have the skill, will and authority to check corporate forces.

Telecom, Wireless and TV

Democrat calls for public review of T-Mobile-Sprint merger agreement
Harper Neidig, The Hill

Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.) is pushing for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to open its proposal approving the T-Mobile-Sprint merger to public input over concerns about the effect the deal will have on consumers.

Huawei boss: ‘UK won’t say no to us’ in the roll-out of 5G
Tom Cheshire, Sky News

The founder and chief executive of Huawei has said “the UK won’t say no to us” when it comes to including Huawei in its critical infrastructure. Speaking exclusively to Sky News, Ren Zhengfei also praised Prime Minister Boris Johnson as “very decisive” and a “very capable person”.

Jimmy Kimmel, Walking Dead part of $600,000 penalties for false emergency alerts
Makena Kelly, The Verge

On Thursday, the Federal Communications Commission reached a handful of settlements with media outlets following investigations into whether they misused the emergency alert system tone. The agency found that ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live!, AMC’s The Walking Dead, Animal Planet’s Lone Star Law, and Meruelo Radio Holdings all misused the emergency alert system (EAS) tone, a sound that is blasted out to television and smartphones to warn people of emergencies like tornadoes, floods, and missing children.

Mobile Technology and Social Media

Amazon Uses a Twitter Army of Employees to Fight Criticism of Warehouses
Jonah Engel Bromwich, The New York Times

On Wednesday evening, a phalanx of Amazon employees known as “FC ambassadors” began tweeting again about how great it is to work at Amazon. When the ambassadors see others on social media discussing the brutal working conditions at Amazon fulfillment centers, its anti-union actions or anything else unflattering about the company, they step in to offer an on-the-ground perspective.

Instagram adds tools for users to flag misinformation
Sara Fischer, Axios

Instagram is adding new tools for users to be able to report when they see something false posted, according to a company spokesperson.

The algorithms that detect hate speech online are biased against black people
Shirin Ghaffary, Recode

Platforms like Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter are banking on developing artificial intelligence technology to help stop the spread of hateful speech on their networks. The idea is that complex algorithms that use natural language processing will flag racist or violent speech faster and better than human beings possibly can.

Facebook Marketplace: The Wild West of E-Commerce
Khadeeja Safdar, The Wall Street Journal

Facebook Inc. created an online flea market where users not only see all the bicycles, bird houses and BMWs for sale nearby, but also the names, profile photos and general locations of buyers and sellers. It is so popular that more than one in three people in the U.S. use it monthly, according to Facebook.

Cybersecurity and Privacy

Facebook Tells Chat Users Nothing About Human Listeners
Sarah Frier, Bloomberg

Facebook Inc. this week confirmed that it ran a program to allow contractors to listen to and transcribe some users’ audio clips. The social network said that the only people who were affected were those who agreed to have their audio messages transcribed.

Election Security in 2020 Comes Down to Money, and States Aren’t Ready
Kartikay Mehrota and Alyza Sebenius, Bloomberg Businessweek

The front line to protect the integrity of the U.S. presidential election is in a Springfield strip mall, next to a Chuck E. Cheese’s restaurant. There, inside the Illinois Board of Elections headquarters, a couple dozen bureaucrats, programmers, and security experts are furiously working to prevent a replay of 2016, when Russian hackers breached the state’s voter registration rolls.

Facebook failed to warn users of known risks before 2018 breach: court filing
Katie Paul, Reuters

Facebook users suing the world’s largest social media network over a 2018 data breach say it failed to warn them about risks tied to its single sign-on tool, even though it protected its employees, a court filing on Thursday showed. Single sign-on connects users to third-party social apps and services using their Facebook credentials.

Candidates for spy chief in short supply
Martin Matishak, Politico

Dan Coats reported for his last day as the country’s spy chief on Thursday. His experienced deputy is out the door too, leaving an acting director with only limited intelligence background set to take the reins.

US Cyber Command has publicly posted malware linked to a North Korea hacking group
Zack Whittaker, TechCrunch

U.S. Cyber Command, the sister division of the National Security Agency focused on offensive hacking and security operations, has released a set of new samples of malware linked to North Korean hackers. The military unit tweeted Wednesday that it had uploaded the malware to VirusTotal, a widely used database for malware and security research.

Opinions, Editorials and Perspectives

When the Internet Chases You From Your Home
Sarah Jeong, The New York Times

On the night of Aug. 15, 2014, Zoë Quinn was out having a drink with some friends in San Francisco when her phone began to blow up with messages. Something was exploding on the internet — a strange, incoherent maelstrom of outrage that would take over her life. 

You Should Definitely Track Your Loved Ones’ Phones. Actually Maybe Not.
Joanna Stern, The Wall Street Journal

Apple’s Find My Friends, Google Maps and Life360 let you stay on top of your family and friends’ locations; they can be incredibly creepy and incredibly helpful.

YouTube’s LGBTQ Problem Is a Business-Model Problem
Will Oremus, OneZero

YouTube wants to be a platform for self-expression for all kinds of people. It also wants to make piles of money selling and placing ads via automated systems with minimal human review.

Research Reports

TikTok Scams: How Social Currency Fuels the Economy for Impersonation Accounts and Free-Followers-and-Likes Services
Satnam Narang, Tenable

The economic engine on social media platforms are the followers (or fans) and likes. Scammers take advantage of this economy, while others seek out ways to grow their following inorganically by impersonating popular creators and celebrities.

Morning Consult