Author: Tech Support

    • FTC settles with supplement maker in first case involving allegedly fake paid Amazon reviews to gain a five-star rating, will suspend most of $12.8M judgment (Federal Trade Commission)

    Federal Trade Commission: FTC settles with supplement maker in first case involving allegedly fake paid Amazon reviews to gain a five-star rating, will suspend most of $12.8M judgment  —  Commission also alleges weight-loss supplement claims were deceptive  —  The Federal Trade Commission today announced … FTC settles with supplement maker in first case involving allegedly

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    Twitter suspends far-right activist Jacob Wohl for creating accounts to manipulate the U.S. presidential election

    Twitter has permanently suspended Jacob Wohl, a far-right activist who previously tried to fabricate evidence about Special Counsel Robert Mueller, for creating fake accounts in an attempt to try to manipulate the 2020 presidential election. Twitter suspends far-right activist Jacob Wohl for creating accounts to manipulate the U.S. presidential election Source: Washington Post Tech

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    • Documents show that Peter Thiel's Founders Fund has returns that are at least 3X better than the industry average, despite significant turnover in leadership (Katie Roof/Wall Street Journal)

    Katie Roof / Wall Street Journal: Documents show that Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund has returns that are at least 3X better than the industry average, despite significant turnover in leadership  —  Silicon Valley investment firm co-founded by Peter Thiel, looks to rebuild team with a high-profile hire Documents show that Peter Thiel's Founders Fund has

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    • Cloudflare expands its government warrant canaries, claiming it's never handed over its SSL keys or customers' SSL keys, as many firms abandon their canaries (Zack Whittaker/TechCrunch)

    Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch: Cloudflare expands its government warrant canaries, claiming it’s never handed over its SSL keys or customers’ SSL keys, as many firms abandon their canaries  —  When the government comes for your data, tech companies can’t always tell you.  But thanks to a legal loophole, companies can say if they haven’t had

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    • Spotify goes live for some in India, even as its licensing fight continues with Warner Music; after free trial, premium service is 119 rupees, or about $1.67/mo (Janko Roettgers/Variety)

    Janko Roettgers / Variety: Spotify goes live for some in India, even as its licensing fight continues with Warner Music; after free trial, premium service is 119 rupees, or about $1.67/mo  —  Spotify’s India launch is well underway, with some local users reporting that they can already access the music service on their devices. Spotify

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    • Twitter has permanently suspended Jacob Wohl for creating and operating fake accounts, after he shared plans to make deceptive accounts before the 2020 election (Gus Garcia-Roberts/USA Today)

    Gus Garcia-Roberts / USA Today: Twitter has permanently suspended Jacob Wohl for creating and operating fake accounts, after he shared plans to make deceptive accounts before the 2020 election  —  Twitter announced that it is permanently suspending Jacob Wohl, a 21-year-old Internet hoaxer and supporter of President Donald Trump … Twitter has permanently suspended Jacob

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    • Report: Microsoft and VMware are working on software to ease porting apps built on VMware's virtualization tech to Azure as part of a broader partnership (Tom Krazit/GeekWire)

    Tom Krazit / GeekWire: Report: Microsoft and VMware are working on software to ease porting apps built on VMware’s virtualization tech to Azure as part of a broader partnership  —  One of the biggest obstacles to the growth of cloud computing is inertia, as companies that spent tens of millions of dollars … Report: Microsoft

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    Democrats vow Congress will ‘assert itself’ against tech — starting with Silicon Valley’s privacy practices

    Congressional Democrats embarked Tuesday on a wide-ranging campaign to probe Facebook, Google and their peers in the tech industry, a new burst of oversight that could bring heightened attention to some of Silicon Valley’s controversial business practices. Democrats vow Congress will ‘assert itself’ against tech — starting with Silicon Valley’s privacy practices Source: Washington Post

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    • Facebook policy doc shows it wants up to a 30% cut of Fan Subscriptions, vs Patreon's 5%, and to reserve right to offer free trials with no creator compensation (Josh Constine/TechCrunch)

    Josh Constine / TechCrunch: Facebook policy doc shows it wants up to a 30% cut of Fan Subscriptions, vs Patreon’s 5%, and to reserve right to offer free trials with no creator compensation  —  Facebook will drive a hard bargain with influencers and artists judging by the terms of service for the social network’s Patreon

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