Reuters

Apple security expert moves to ACLU as 'public interest tech' builds

A senior Apple security expert left for a much lower-paying job at the American Civil Liberties Union, the latest sign of increasing activity on policy issues by Silicon Valley privacy specialists and other engineers. Jon Callas, who led a team of hackers breaking into pre-release Apple products to test their security, started Dec 3 in a two-year role as technology fellow at the ACLU.

European consumer groups want regulators to act against Google tracking

Consumer agencies in the Netherlands, Poland and five other European Union countries asked privacy regulators to take action against Google for allegedly tracking the movements of millions of users in breach of the bloc’s new privacy law.  Google is already facing a lawsuit in the United States for allegedly tracking phone users regardless of privacy settings. The consumer groups, which included those in the Czech Republic, Greece, Norway, Slovenia and Sweden, filed complaints with their respective national data protection authorities, based on research by their Norwegian counterpart.

Twitter deletes over 10,000 accounts that sought to discourage US voting

Twitter deleted more than 10,000 automated accounts posting messages that discouraged people from voting in the 2018 midterm election and wrongly appeared to be from Democrats, after the party flagged the misleading tweets to the social media company.  “We took action on relevant accounts and activity on Twitter,” a Twitter spokesman said. The removals took place in late Sept and early Oct. Twitter removed more than 10,000 accounts, according to three sources familiar with the Democrats’ effort.

Elon Musk Fires 7 SpaceX Managers Over Slow Satellite Broadband Progress

Apparently, SpaceX Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk flew to the Seattle (WA) area in June for meetings with engineers leading a satellite launch project crucial to his space company’s growth. Within hours of landing, Musk had fired at least seven members of the program’s senior management team, the culmination of disagreements over the pace at which the team was developing and testing its Starlink satellites. Musk quickly brought in new managers from SpaceX headquarters in CA to replace a number of the managers he fired.

Nine state attorneys general back AT&T in Time Warner appeal

A group of nine state attorneys general backed AT&T as the Justice Department asks a federal appeals court to reverse approval of the company’s $85.4 billion acquisition of Time Warner. It “is rare for the federal government to pursue an antitrust case involving major, national companies without any state joining the effort,” the nine state officials said in a court filing, noting that no states have filed briefs supporting the Justice Department’s appeal.