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    • Blind, an anonymous community chat app used by staff at Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and more, left one database server exposed from Nov. 1 to Dec. 19 (Zack Whittaker/TechCrunch)

    Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch: Blind, an anonymous community chat app used by staff at Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and more, left one database server exposed from Nov. 1 to Dec. 19  —  One of the company’s servers was exposed without a password for weeks.  —  Thousands of people trusted Blind, an app-based … Blind, an

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    • Sources: Reid Hoffman funded $100K project that secretly tested disinformation tactics against Roy Moore on Facebook and Twitter during the Alabama Senate race (New York Times)

    New York Times: Sources: Reid Hoffman funded $100K project that secretly tested disinformation tactics against Roy Moore on Facebook and Twitter during the Alabama Senate race  —  As Russia’s online election machinations came to light last year, a group of Democratic tech experts decided to try … Sources: Reid Hoffman funded 0K project that secretly

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    • Sources: Facebook is developing a stablecoin for money transfers on WhatsApp, focusing first on the remittances market in India (Bloomberg)

    Bloomberg: Sources: Facebook is developing a stablecoin for money transfers on WhatsApp, focusing first on the remittances market in India  —  – First focus will be on remittance market in India, people say  — Social network is still working out its blockchain strategy Sources: Facebook is developing a stablecoin for money transfers on WhatsApp, focusing

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    • Square says it has leased all of the office space in Oakland's Uptown Station, which Uber sold to developer CIM Group in 2017, with room for up to 2,000 staff (Roland Li/San Francisco Chronicle)

    Roland Li / San Francisco Chronicle: Square says it has leased all of the office space in Oakland’s Uptown Station, which Uber sold to developer CIM Group in 2017, with room for up to 2,000 staff  —  Payments processor Square signed an office lease Thursday for Oakland’s Uptown Station in one of the city’s biggest

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    • Apple says AI chief John Giannandrea, who joined from Google in April, has been promoted to its executive team as SVP of Machine Learning and AI Strategy (Juli Clover/MacRumors)

    Juli Clover / MacRumors: Apple says AI chief John Giannandrea, who joined from Google in April, has been promoted to its executive team as SVP of Machine Learning and AI Strategy  —  Apple today announced John Giannandrea, who handles machine learning and AI for the company, has been promoted to the Apple’s executive team …

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    A Scratch Instrument For Ants

    If you think that this scratch instrument looks as though it should be at least… three times larger in order to be useful, you’d be wrong. This mighty pocket-sized instrument can really get the club hopping despite its diminuitive size. Despite that, the quality of the build as well as its use of off-the-shelf components

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    Sen. Jones calls for probe into alleged disinformation plot in Alabama Senate race

    The allegations stem from news reports, first in The Washington Post on Tuesday, in which researcher Jonathon Morgan acknowledged creating a misleading Facebook page targeting conservative voters in Alabama and also buying retweets to test his ability to provide “lift” for social media messages. Sen. Jones calls for probe into alleged disinformation plot in Alabama

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    • NGO report finds WhatsApp groups spreading child pornography; WhatsApp says it recently banned 130K accounts for violating policies against child exploitation (Josh Constine/TechCrunch)

    Josh Constine / TechCrunch: NGO report finds WhatsApp groups spreading child pornography; WhatsApp says it recently banned 130K accounts for violating policies against child exploitation  —  Facebook fails to provide enough moderators  —  WhatsApp chat groups are being used to spread illegal child pornography, cloaked by the app’s end-to-end encryption. NGO report finds WhatsApp groups

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    • Zynga says it will buy 80% of Helsinki-based Small Giant Games for $560M in a deal expected to close Jan. 1 and will buy remaining 20% over the next three years (Dean Takahashi/VentureBeat)

    Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat: Zynga says it will buy 80% of Helsinki-based Small Giant Games for $560M in a deal expected to close Jan. 1 and will buy remaining 20% over the next three years  —  Zynga has agreed to acquire the Helsinki-based mobile game maker Small Giant Games, the creator of the hit title

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    • The Blackmagic eGPU Pro, introduced in October for a November release, can now be purchased on the online Apple Store for $1,199, delivers in mid-January (Juli Clover/MacRumors)

    Juli Clover / MacRumors: The Blackmagic eGPU Pro, introduced in October for a November release, can now be purchased on the online Apple Store for $1,199, delivers in mid-January  —  Apple’s new Blackmagic eGPU Pro, first introduced alongside the Mac mini and MacBook Air in late October, can now be purchased from the online Apple

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    • Navy Inspector General report says the US military used two Android apps containing severe vulnerabilities that could have given hackers access to troops' info (Catalin Cimpanu/ZDNet)

    Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet: Navy Inspector General report says the US military used two Android apps containing severe vulnerabilities that could have given hackers access to troops’ info  —  Apps were meant for training, never approved for combat.  Whistleblower’s efforts helped shed light on vulnerabilities, despite leadership reprisals. Navy Inspector General report says the US

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    • Voice assistant test involving 800 commands shows Google Assistant answered 88% correctly, Siri got 75% right, Alexa got 73%, and Cortana got 63% (Loup Ventures)

    Loup Ventures: Voice assistant test involving 800 commands shows Google Assistant answered 88% correctly, Siri got 75% right, Alexa got 73%, and Cortana got 63%  —  We recently tested four smart speakers by asking Alexa, Siri, Google Assistant, and Cortana 800 questions each. Voice assistant test involving 800 commands shows Google Assistant answered 88% correctly,

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