Top Stories

  • Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is leading a multistate antitrust investigation into Alphabet Inc.’s Google, sent the company a civil subpoena with more than 200 questions and demands for records largely aimed at proving that Google abused its dominant position in the digital advertising business. Among other matters,  the subpoena asks Google, which contends that the industry has plenty of competition, to justify its acquisition of several companies that helped build its ad business. (The Wall Street Journal)
  • The California Legislature passed a bill that would prohibit law enforcement from using facial recognition software in police body cameras for three years starting in 2020. The measure, which does not prevent the technology’s use in other ways or by federal agencies, now heads to the desk of Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has until Oct. 13 to sign the bill. (CNN)
  • The European Union’s competition chief, Margrethe Vestager, said in a speech that she wants more rules governing how companies use data “to draw conclusions about me or to undermine democracy” and ensure those methods don’t “harm the fundamental values of our society.” Vestager, who begins a second term as antitrust commissioner on Nov. 1, said the 2.4 billion euro ($2.7 billion) fine against Google for undercutting shopping search competitors “isn’t a one-off” and that regulators will continue to examine how platforms act “as both player and referee” when they host rivals. (Bloomberg)

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Events Calendar (All Times Local)

09/13/2019
The Information’s One-Day Media Business Bootcamp 9:00 am
09/16/2019
Oracle Code One
FCC Consumer Advisory Committee Meeting 9:00 am
09/17/2019
Oracle Code One
EmTech 2019
Politico AI Summit 10:00 am
Senate Judiciary’s rescheduled hearing on antitrust enforcement 2:30 pm
09/18/2019
Oracle Code One
EmTech 2019
Intel Event on Diversifying the Cyber and Tech Workforce Through JROTC Cyber Training Act 5:00 pm
View full calendar

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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.

Morning Consult