10 things in tech you need to know today

Good morning! This is the tech news you need to know this Thursday.

1. A combination of configuration errors and lax oversight by Instagram allowed one of the social network's vetted advertising partners to misappropriate vast amounts of public user data. The marketing firm Hyp3r has been scraping huge quantities of data off the Facebook-owned app and using it to build up detailed profiles of people's movements and interests.
2. Samsung announced its new Galaxy Note 10 smartphones on Wednesday. Samsung is offering the Galaxy Note 10 in two sizes, whereas the company's Galaxy Note line has typically been available in only one size: massive.
3. The White House is reportedly floating several drafts of an executive order geared toward social-media companies like Facebook and Twitter. President Donald Trump has repeatedly accused tech giants and social-media companies of anti-Trump and anti-conservative bias.
4. Microsoft contractors listen in to some Skype calls that are made using the app's translation function, according to Motherboard. Contractors have reportedly heard sensitive conversations about weight loss and relationship problems.
5. Google employees have flocked to internal message boards to demand fair treatment and full-time status for the company's sizable population of temporary and contract workers, two current employees have told Business Insider. Employees say that internal discussions were sparked by a recent letter sent to its CEO Sundar Pichai by ten US Senators, which urged Google to transition temporary workers to full-time status.
6. The San Francisco police on Wednesday were investigating a threat at the headquarters of the Amazon-owned streaming platform Twitch. Twitch didn't specify the nature of the threat, nor did the San Francisco Police Department, but multiple employees on private social-media accounts suggested that someone had threatened a shooting.
7. FedEx is ending its ground-delivery contract with Amazon when it expires at the end of August, the shipping company said in a statement Wednesday. The news comes months after FedEx announced that it would no longer move Amazon's air cargo packages, and as Amazon works to scale up its own logistics and delivery services.
8. Broadcom could announce a $10 billion deal to acquire Symantec's enterprise business by Thursday. It's possible that a deal is reached by the time Symantec announces earnings on Thursday, but negotiations could last longer, the sources said.
9. A recently filed class-action lawsuit accuses Apple of violating user privacy by allegedly recording consumers and minors with its Siri digital assistant without consent. The lawsuit comes after The Guardian reported that the contractors Apple hires to evaluate Siri's performance regularly hear confidential interactions.
10. SoftBank's Masayoshi Son says he wants to keep working with the Saudi government, despite the Jamal Khashoggi killing, in order to continue to bring the benefits AI 'to the people.' The Saudi government is widely believed to have directed the killing of Khashoggi, forcing many investment firms and companies to distance themselves from the regime.
     

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Contributer : Tech Insider https://ift.tt/2M9brpE

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