General
The FBI is investigating a venture capital fund started by Peter Thiel for financial misconduct Theodore Schleifer, Recode
Federal investigators are probing the conduct and practices of Mithril Capital, a venture capital firm co-founded by Peter Thiel, Recode has learned. US officials — including the FBI — have in recent months questioned some people close to Mithril regarding concerns of possible financial misconduct at the firm, according to people familiar with the matter who insisted on anonymity given its sensitivity.
France Hardens Position Against Facebook’s Libra Currency Sam Schechner, The Wall Street Journal
Europe should block Facebook Inc.-backed digital currency Libra and create a public alternative, a senior French official said Thursday, staking out a hard line amid broader resistance to the idea from U.S. and international officials.
Goldman taps Amazon executive as new tech boss Laura Noonan, Financial Times
Goldman Sachs has hired a senior executive from Amazon Web Services (AWS) to replace departing technology boss Elisha Wiesel, in a move that could accelerate the bank’s migration to cloud services. Goldman announced the appointment of Marco Argenti, erstwhile vice-president of technology at cloud-technology provider AWS, in an internal memo on Thursday.
Amazon is hosting its big new hardware event on Sept. 25 Todd Haselton, CNBC
Amazon on Thursday said that it will host an event on Sept. 25 in Seattle where it will introduce new products and services. It’s a good one to pay attention to: during last year’s event, Amazon announced 15 Alexa-enabled products, including a microwave, new Amazon Echo products, a wall clock with Alexa built-in and more.
Three U.S. senators urge Amazon’s Bezos to check driver abuse Supantha Mukherjee and David Shepardson, Reuters
Three U.S. senators on Thursday said Amazon.com Inc should stop working with delivery contractors that violate labor laws by imposing unfair conditions on drivers delivering packages for the e-commerce company.
Amazon starts crowdsourcing Alexa responses from the public. What could possibly go wrong? Marie C. Baca, The Washington Post
“Alexa, are you trolling me?” Amazon made its Alexa Answer program available to the general public this week after several months of beta testing, opening up its artificial intelligence assistant to crowdsourced recommendations for unprogrammed questions.
Stocks Set for Weekly Gain as Bonds Extend Retreat: Markets Wrap Laura Curtis, Bloomberg
U.S. equity futures rose with Asian and European stocks as shares globally headed for a third weekly gain thanks to easing trade fears and a new round of central bank stimulus. Treasury yields climbed and the dollar slipped.
Intellectual Property and Antitrust
Google Says a Change in Its Algorithm Will Highlight ‘Original Reporting’ Marc Tracy, The New York Times
After weeks of reporting, a journalist breaks a story. Moments after it goes online, another media organization posts an imitative article recycling the scoop that often grabs as much web traffic as the original.
Telecom, Wireless and TV
Ren Zhengfei may sell Huawei’s 5G technology to a Western buyer The Economist
In an atrium designed to evoke ancient Greece—ringed by stone columns and six towering approximations of the Caryatids—it was fitting that Ren Zhengfei, chief executive of Huawei, should extend an olive branch to the West: a piece of his company.
U.S. flags Huawei 5G network security concerns to Gulf allies Alexander Cornwell, Reuters
The United States has raised its concerns with Gulf allies over a possible security risk in using Huawei’s technology for their 5G mobile infrastructure, U.S. officials said on Thursday.
Mobile Technology and Social Media
Facebook Suspends Netanyahu Campaign Bot for Hate Speech Isabel Kershner, The New York Times
Facebook suspended a chatbot operated by the official account of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday for violating hate speech rules after it sent a message saying that Israel’s Arab politicians “want to destroy us all.” The message, which went out in the name of a Netanyahu campaign volunteer, was trying to rally right-wing support for Mr. Netanyahu and his conservative Likud party in next Tuesday’s election.
Facebook removes fact check from anti-abortion video after criticism Harper Neidig, The Hill
Facebook has removed a fact check from a video posted by an anti-abortion group after Republican senators accused the platform of censorship. The moves comes after the group, Live Action, as well as Republican lawmakers, complained after Facebook’s third-party fact-checkers deemed that a video in which the group’s president, Lila Rose, claims that “abortion is never medically necessary” was inaccurate.
Facebook is settling one of its lawsuits over fake likes Adi Roberston, The Verge
Facebook agreed to settle a lawsuit with a New Zealand company that was allegedly selling social media bots. The notice, filed yesterday, announces a truce between Facebook and Social Media Series Limited.
Facebook expands new tool aiming to shrink ‘news deserts’ Barbara Ortutay, The Associated Press
Facebook is trying to coax “news deserts” into bloom with the second major expansion of a tool that exposes people to more local news and information. But the social network confesses that it still has a lot to learn.
Twitter blocks accounts of Raul Castro and Cuban state-run media Sarah Marsh, Reuters
U.S. social media company Twitter Inc has blocked the accounts of Cuban Communist Party Leader Raul Castro, his daughter Mariela Castro and Cuba’s top state-run media outlets, a move the Cuban Union of Journalists denounced as “massive censorship”.
Twitter’s SF sidewalk stencils ruffle feathers at city hall Steven Musil, CNET
Twitter appears to be in hot water with its hometown. The source of the friction has shown up all over downtown San Francisco in the form of tweets stenciled on streets as part of a guerilla advertising campaign.
Cybersecurity and Privacy
With Bolton gone, White House cybersecurity strategy may change Joe Uchill, Axios
With the ouster of national security adviser John Bolton this week, the White House loses a key cog in its cybersecurity and cyber warfare machine.
Ukrainian man pleads guilty to hacking, wire fraud charges Martha Bellisle, The Associated Press
A member of a sophisticated international hacking group that authorities say targeted businesses in 47 states to steal credit and debit card records pleaded guilty to hacking and wire fraud charges in Seattle.
Encrypted messaging is becoming more popular, and child advocates are worried Casey Newton, The Verge
Around the world, countries and corporations are rethinking their relationship with encryption. In the wake of terrorist attacks, legislation in India and Australia has sought to give law enforcement access to encrypted communications, in moves that could threaten the security of encryption around the world.
Apple tweaks App store rule changes for children’s apps and sign-in services Matthew Panzarino, TechCrunch
Originally announced in June, changes to Apple’s App Store policies on its Sign in with Apple service and the rules around children’s app categories are being tweaked. New apps must comply right away with the tweaked terms, but existing apps will have until early 2020 to comply with the new rules.
Opinions, Editorials and Perspectives
We still don’t know what happened in the 2016 election Editorial Board, The Washington Post
It took three years for Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D-Fla.) to find out that Russian actors had hacked into her state’s voting systems ahead of the 2016 presidential election. First she was unaware the Kremlin had penetrated any counties, then she heard it was two, and now new intelligence suggests four jurisdictions might have been breached.
Trump’s Plan to Stop Violence Via Smartphone Tracking Isn’t Just a Massive Privacy Violation Jane C. Hu, Slate
In the wake of the Dayton and El Paso shootings, President Donald Trump has been quick to blame mental illness as the culprit. There is no evidence that either of these shooters have mental illness, nor that mental illness is to blame for their violent outbursts.
Tech’s IPO class of 2019 gets schooled by Wall St Richard Waters, Financial Times
Tech’s unicorn era is finally having its Wall Street moment — and it is not pretty. WeWork’s biggest backer, SoftBank, wants to call a halt to a planned listing, while Uber’s shares stumbled to a new low last week, about a third below their IPO price.
California Just Made Uber’s Survival Odds Even Longer Noah Smith, Bloomberg
California’s State Assembly has just passed a bill aimed at forcing Uber, Lyft and other so-called gig-economy companies to treat their workers as employees rather than as independent contractors. Uber, for example, has long argued that its drivers weren’t actually employees, labeling them “driver-partners.”
Research Reports
Risk Assessment of Internet-Facing Infrastructure Finds Areas for Improvement Include Out-of-Date Operating Systems and Email Phishing Protections NormShield
NormShield conducted two risk assessments (July and August) of 56 election commission or Secretary of State (SoS) to identify the publicly available information that hackers could exploit to conduct an attack. After the July assessment, NormShield privately provided its findings to the Secretaries of State (SOS) and election commissions in July in order to empower them with the information needed to remediate vulnerabilities.
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