SEC sues Ripple Labs, its CEO Brad Garlinghouse, and Chairman Chris Larsen, alleging they violated federal securities laws in selling XRP to retail consumers
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) believes Ripple Labs violated federal securities laws in selling the XRP cryptocurrency to retail consumers.
Biden transition team says Twitter told it current followers of @POTUS won't carry over to Biden, whose @POTUS account will start at zero, a reversal from 2017
- Followers were transfered to Trump from Obama in 2017 — First lady, press secretary accounts also reset to zero
The COVID-19 relief bill passed by Congress includes the Felony Streaming Bill, which makes illegal streaming for profit a felony, with up to 10 years jail time
Targeting illegal for-profit streaming providers, not individual users — The US Congress has passed a COVID-19 stimulus bill …
Ripple's XRP dropped around 25% on Wednesday morning to ~35¢, following the SEC investigation, after falling by as much as 17% on Tuesday
- Cryptocurrency XRP sank nearly 25% to around 35 cents Wednesday morning. — The SEC is suing Ripple and two of its executives over the alleged sale of unregistered securities.
NY Governor signs a bill to suspend the use of facial recognition and other biometric ID tech in schools until July 2022, the first such regulation in the US
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a bill Tuesday temporarily banning the use of facial recognition in schools, making it the first state to take such a step.
Telegram debuts group voice chat as CEO Pavel Durov says it is nearing 500M MAUs and will launch an ad platform for public one-to-many channels next year
Instant messaging app Telegram is “approaching” 500 million users and plans to start generating revenue starting next year to keep the business afloat …
Certificate authority Let's Encrypt says it has found a workaround that will extend older Android phones' compatibility with its certificates by three years
When you haven't been updated since 2016, expiring certificates are a problem. — Things were touch-and-go for a while …
DHS has issued an advisory to US businesses, warning of data security risks with using communication equipment and services from China-linked companies
- Homeland Security warns of trade secret, competition risks — Advisory comes after hack that Trump advisers blame on Russia
DeepMind details MuZero, revealed in 2019 and following AlphaZero, which can master games without knowing the rules and is working on YouTube video compression
DeepMind's latest AI program can attain “superhuman performance” in tasks without needing to be given the rules.
Explaining its content moderation policy, Substack says it will “resist public pressure to suppress voices that loud objectors deem unacceptable”
Building a system that puts readers and writers in charge — As Substack grows, there is increasing interest in the stance we take on content moderation.
Q&A with an anonymous AWS cybersecurity engineer on why AWS is easy to migrate to but difficult to leave, how the pandemic compounded AWS' advantages, and more
Amazon is on a mission to own the infrastructure of our lives. The second-largest private employer in the United States after Walmart … Tweets: @ivadixit , @moiragweigel , @abebab , @kunktation , @le...
Sources: Zoom has begun developing a web email service for businesses, and may trial it next year, and is also considering building a calendar app
Zoom Video Communications has had an astonishing rise in 2020, emerging as the go-to service for work meetings and family get-togethers during the pandemic.
Profile of YouTube's top creator of 2020, 22-year-old MrBeast, who has 48M+ subscribers, 4B views a year, ~50 employees, and spends $300K per video on average
Jimmy Donaldson, aka MrBeast, was the top creator on YouTube this year. Now he wants to sell you hamburgers. Tweets: @mwanikih and @glenngabe See also Mediagazer Tweets: Philip Mwaniki / @mwanikih : ...
Memo: Apple gave developers of paid games and those with IAP a deadline of Dec. 31 to submit proof of a license or risk removal from the App Store in China
Thousands of games face removal in state as Beijing steps up policing of content — Apple Inc. is booting thousands of videogame apps …
After 11 years, Australia declares its national broadband network is “built and fully operational” with 11.86M premises wired, leaving 35K not yet connected
Those 35,000 connections that aren't built? Celebrate the 11.86 million that were, says Minister
Sources: Apple is planning to manufacture a car by 2024 which may include self-driving tech, internally developed lidar sensors, and “breakthrough” battery tech
FCC's ongoing 5G wireless licenses auction has fetched over $66.4B after three weeks, beating the $44.9B sale of 4G licenses in 2015, and will resume January 4
FCC sale of wireless licenses has already hit new spending highs and the total could climb after a holiday break
Documents: Google's AI unit tightened control over its scientists' papers on “sensitive topics” and asked at least three to portray its tech in a positive light
OAKLAND, Calif. (Reuters) - Alphabet Inc's Google this year moved to tighten control over its scientists' papers by launching a … Tweets: @jldastin , @jldastin , @jldastin , @oliviasolon , @jldastin ,...
Testing suggests Verizon's dynamic spectrum sharing tech, which reuses parts of 4G channels for 5G, often produces slower speeds on 5G than its LTE network
Sascha Segan / PCMag :
Google CEO Sundar Pichai says GDPR shows that “regulation can get it wrong” and “we are still a small part of the overall information ecosystem”
For Google, the Techlash arrived with a vengeance last week. After years of mounting angst about the power of Big Tech … Tweets: @rikefranke , @financialtimes , @rachelcoldicutt , @mikebutcher , and ...
Small business owner shares conversation with an Instagram media expert, who told her the algorithm favors Reels, consistency, and using all post types
Rachel Reichenbach / rainylune : Tweets: @matdryhurst , @samrolfes , @octogear , @anumationart , @mahoukarp , @pryynn , @azzistardust , @josephrooks , @peculiarart1st , @cutiesaurusart , @miss_s_crea...
Sources: Israeli content recommendation company Taboola is in talks to merge with ION group's SPAC that raised $259M in October
Israeli online content-recommendation company Taboola may be the perfect match for ION, that raised $260m to merge with private firm valued at over a billion dollars
Two bills Congress has approved would limit the powers of USAGM's Michael Pack, including giving the Open Technology Fund more time to defend its budget
Jessica Jerreat / Voice of America : See also Mediagazer
Hong Kong-based on-demand delivery startup Lalamove raises $515M Series E led by Sequoia Capital China, bringing its total raised to $976.5M
Lalamove will extend its network to cover more small Chinese cities after raising $515 million in Series E funding, the on-demand logistics company announced on its site.
Internally, Facebook staff have voiced skepticism over the company's campaign to portray itself as a defender of small businesses in its fight against Apple
FB employees who think they don't *yet* work for a self-serving corporation — actually exist. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/ ... @rmac18 : FB VP Dan Levy said on an internal forum that the company's sm...
SEC approves NYSE's plan to let companies raise capital and issue new shares via direct listings, potentially helping startups save on bank fees
and thus inevitable. https://www.ft.com/... Alexander Osipovich / @aosipovich : NYSE wins green light to let companies raise capital via direct listings, in win for Silicon Valley VCs who have long cr...
Honeywell says it is buying Sparta Systems, which makes regulatory and quality management software for the life sciences industry, for $1.3B
Mike Wheatley / SiliconANGLE :
Three VPNs popular with criminals and active for over a decade have had their servers and web domains seized by law enforcement from US, Germany, France, others
Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet :
Group of 19 security firms and tech companies including Microsoft and McAfee form Ransomware Task Force to develop a standard framework to deal with ransomware
Chinese autonomous driving startup WeRide raises $200M from Chinese bus manufacturer Yutong; WeRide says the raise is first tranche of its Series B
Rita Liao / TechCrunch :
Xiaomi's market value tops $100B, the valuation that sources said it had originally eyed for its 2018 IPO
- Stock surge follows strong sales, Hang Seng Index inclusion — Shares have nearly tripled in 2020 after post-IPO struggles — Xiaomi Corp. founder Lei Jun can finally rejoice … Tweets: @bsindia T...
Qualia, which offers a digital closings service for real estate and mortgage companies, has raised $65M Series D led by Tiger Global at an over $1B valuation
Tim Glaze / HousingWire :
US intelligence officials have struggled to respond to China's hacking efforts over the past decade, finding themselves one step behind China
Zach Dorfman / Foreign Policy : Tweets: @hkanji , @gmochannel , and @kabirtaneja Tweets: Hussein Kanji / @hkanji : The twin disasters of the OPM hack, which helped identify undercover U.S. intelligen...
Investigation details Amazon's campaigns over the years to steamroll rivals and partners, including those on its marketplace, sometimes with Bezos' involvement
Profile of Koh Soo Boon, Singapore's first female VC who has focused on Silicon Valley tech investments since 1987 and is currently raising a $100M fund
Yoolim Lee / Bloomberg : Tweets: @ericbahn Tweets: Eric / @ericbahn : All my heroes these days are women. Like @shiyankoh's mom. https://twitter.com/...
An explainer on digital advertising's header bids, third-party brand safety vendors, and “evercookies”, illustrated by a ubiquitous pajama onesie ad
Shoshana Wodinsky / Gizmodo :
Amazon says it will delay a planned raise in merchant fees for storing and shipping items until June 2021 in the US, EU, and Japan
Matt Day / Bloomberg :
Superpedestrian, maker of e-scooters which has been awarded rental service contracts in 12 US cities, raises $60M from Citigroup, OurCrowd, and others
Paul Berger / Wall Street Journal :
A look at India's booming dark data economy: stalkerware and spyware apps, databases about parents, cable customers, pregnant women, mutual fund investors, more
and monetized. @snigdhapoonam & Samarth Bansal report for @restofworld. https://restofworld.org/... Anup Kaphle / @anupkaphle : In India, lax privacy laws and high consumer demand are driving a thrivi...
Google gets regulatory clearance to set up a “cloud region” for GCP in Saudi Arabia via a partnership with oil producer Aramco, risking a backlash from staff
Logistics startup project44, which helps companies track shipments and spot issues, raises $100M Series D led by Insight Partners
Mobile app marketing optimization service Liftoff says Blackstone Group has made a majority investment in the company; source: the amount is close to $400M
Laura Kreutzer / Wall Street Journal :
Shopify's new AI commerce stack
Their VP of Product digs into just-launched products to help entrepreneurs and developers build with the latest AI and tech.
Email fatigue is real: Here's how smart email tools help you regain control
Picture this: It's Monday morning. You walk into the office feeling energized and ready to take on the week.
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data
Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.