Two senators demand an FTC probe into TikTok's data access practices in US

TikTok said that access to data is subject to "a series of robust controls and safeguards like encryption for certain data and authorization approval protocols overseen by our US-based leadership and security team." The company responded to the senators' letter by reiterating that "TikTok has never shared US user data with the Chinese government, nor would we if asked." https://ift.tt/bCDGPvT

Sources: Amazon will share more data with rivals and offer buyers a wider choice of products to assuage EU antitrust regulators, concluding a three-year probe (Javier Espinoza/Financial Times)

Javier Espinoza / Financial Times:
Sources: Amazon will share more data with rivals and offer buyers a wider choice of products to assuage EU antitrust regulators, concluding a three-year probe  —  Agreement set to give more information to online platform's third-party sellers and close two probes

Amazon partners with Just Eat Takeaway to offer a free annual Grubhub+ subscription to Prime members in the US; Amazon also receives equity in Grubhub (Ingrid Lunden/TechCrunch)

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Amazon partners with Just Eat Takeaway to offer a free annual Grubhub+ subscription to Prime members in the US; Amazon also receives equity in Grubhub  —  Amazon tried but then ultimately stepped away from building its own cost-intensive Grubhub and DoorDash competitor in the U.S. back in 2019.

Here's how Amazon is going to provide free deliveries to Prime members in US

Under the agreement, which automatically renews each year unless terminated by one of the parties, Amazon will receive warrants over 2 percent of Grubhub's fully-diluted common equity. https://ift.tt/o8aZj02

DOJ hires Microsoft's former chief economist Susan Athey as its top antitrust economist; sources say Athey will likely be recused from Apple and Google cases (Leah Nylen/Bloomberg)

Leah Nylen / Bloomberg:
DOJ hires Microsoft's former chief economist Susan Athey as its top antitrust economist; sources say Athey will likely be recused from Apple and Google cases  —  Susan Athey, a Stanford University professor and former chief economist at Microsoft Corp., is joining the Justice Department as its top antitrust economist.

Chinese company sued for copying data from Facebook, Instagram

It included data about their Facebook friends such as email address, phone number, gender, and date of birth, as well as Instagram followers and engagement information such as name, user profile URL, location, and number of likes and comments per post. https://ift.tt/5NT6lBC

China is rapidly censoring news of the alleged Shanghai police data breach that exposed over 1B records; "data leak" and other terms are banned on Weibo (Financial Times)

Financial Times:
China is rapidly censoring news of the alleged Shanghai police data breach that exposed over 1B records; “data leak” and other terms are banned on Weibo  —  Purported leak of personal information of more than 1bn people offered for sale for $200,000

FIFA will introduce semi-automated offside technology at the 2022 World Cup, using 12 cameras and a custom soccer ball to track players and make offside calls (Paul MacInnes/The Guardian)

Paul MacInnes / The Guardian:
FIFA will introduce semi-automated offside technology at the 2022 World Cup, using 12 cameras and a custom soccer ball to track players and make offside calls  —  - Sensor in ball will send out location data 500 times per second  — Fifa claim average decision time will fall from 70sec to 25sec

Source: Twitter is seeking to overturn some Indian government content takedown orders through a judicial review, alleging abuse of power by officials (Munsif Vengattil/Reuters)

Munsif Vengattil / Reuters:
Source: Twitter is seeking to overturn some Indian government content takedown orders through a judicial review, alleging abuse of power by officials  —  Twitter is seeking to overturn some Indian government orders to take down content, a source familiar with the matter said …

Tencent, Baidu, JD, and other Chinese tech giants agree to a "self-discipline initiative" for NFTs, including ID checks and avoiding secondary marketplaces (Coco Feng/South China Morning Post)

Coco Feng / South China Morning Post:
Tencent, Baidu, JD, and other Chinese tech giants agree to a “self-discipline initiative” for NFTs, including ID checks and avoiding secondary marketplaces  —  In a new ‘self-discipline initiative’, China's biggest tech firms agreed to enforce real-name authentication for NFT buyers …

Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra might outsell the last four generations of Galaxy Note smartphones, here’s why

Samsung’s Galaxy Note series has been hailed as one of the best Android phones out there, and its demise was one of the sad events in the industry. But, people got over their favourite Note and jumped ship with the Galaxy S22 Ultra, which is more of a flag bearer of the Galaxy Note series rather than a member of the Galaxy S series. https://ift.tt/vPWEc1h

Dubai-based digital bank YAP has raised $41M as part of a Series A, and says it plans to expand into Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Pakistan, and Ghana (Alexander Cornwell/Reuters)

Alexander Cornwell / Reuters:
Dubai-based digital bank YAP has raised $41M as part of a Series A, and says it plans to expand into Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Pakistan, and Ghana  —  YAP, a digital bank in the United Arab Emirates, said on Monday it had raised $41 million in funding and targeted raising another roughly $20 million to finance its expansion plans.

Why hackers posted videos of Elon Musk on British Army's Twitter and YouTube channels

Hackers infiltrated the British Army's Twitter and YouTube accounts to promote cryptocurrency scams and on YouTube, they replaced the British Army's videos with old livestreams featuring Tesla CEO Elon Musk and former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. https://ift.tt/Eucr0m5

The UK Army confirms its Twitter and YouTube accounts were compromised on July 3 and used to promote cryptocurrency giveaway scams before being restored (Jane Clinton/Guardian)

Jane Clinton / Guardian:
The UK Army confirms its Twitter and YouTube accounts were compromised on July 3 and used to promote cryptocurrency giveaway scams before being restored  —  Investigation under way after interview with Elon Musk uploaded to video channel and picture of cartoon monkey seen on Twitter

Iron Pillar to raise $400 million to empower Indian tech startups, claims report

Leading investment company Iron Pillar, which backs tech startups in India, is reportedly raising nearly $400 million to further help boost the country's startup ecosystem, the media reported on Monday. https://ift.tt/F2aOzBe