Technology

The Verge reports: Just how uncool can Facebook make Instagram and WhatsApp? If exerting more influence over the direction of both apps by installing Facebook executives wasn’t enough, now the social network giant is going to add “Facebook” to their names. Instagram will soon become “Instagram from Facebook” and WhatsApp will turn into “WhatsApp from Facebook.” The company already follows …

The New York Times reports: A software engineer in Seattle hacked into a server holding customer information for Capital One and obtained the personal data of over 100 million people, federal prosecutors said on Monday, in one of the largest thefts of data from a bank. The suspect, Paige Thompson, 33, left a trail online for investigators to follow as …

Roll Call reports Lawmakers and their constituents are fed up with the bombardment of nuisance and scam calls plaguing their cell phones and on Wednesday the House passed a bipartisan measure to combat robocalls. The House voted 429-3 to pass a bill that would require phone companies to offer screening technology to customers at no cost that would identify and …

The Washington Post reports: A wave of fakes purporting to sell or represent Facebook’s not-yet-available Libra currency have swept onto the social-media giant’s platforms, highlighting how the tech firm is struggling to rebuild trust and fight the fraud likely to surround the new financial system. Roughly a dozen fake accounts, pages and groups scattered across Facebook and its photo-sharing app …

USA Today reports:  Credit-reporting company Equifax will pick up the tab in a deal with the Federal Trade Commission, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and 50 states and territories to settle allegations that it did not implement sufficient security measures to protect its network. The deal calls for Equifax to pay at least $575 million, including $300 million for free credit …

The New York Times reports: Silicon Valley’s biggest companies are always watching you — even when you’re browsing pornography websites in incognito mode. Trackers from tech companies like Google and Facebook are logging your most personal browsing details, according to a forthcoming New Media & Society paper, which scanned 22,484 pornography websites. Where that data ultimately goes is not always …

Broadcasting & Cable reports: The House Energy & Commerce Committee has voted unanimously to dramatically raise the per-violation fines for illegal robocalls. That was part of an omnibus bill, the “Stopping Bad Robocalls Act,” which also passed unanimously (48-0)* as part of a markup for a couple dozen bills. The bill, actually a combination of five bills, had passed unanimously …

Reuters reports: Amazon.com Inc has a promotion for U.S. shoppers on Prime Day, the 48-hour marketing blitz that started Monday: Earn $10 of credit if you let Amazon track the websites you visit. The deal is for new installations of the Amazon Assistant, a comparison-shopping tool that customers can add to their web browsers. It fetches Amazon’s price for products …

Wired reports: Late Thursday, President Donald Trump unleashed a three-tweet squall declaring himself “not a fan of Bitcoin and other Cryptocurrencies,” and referring to the use of “unregu­lated digital assets” for “drug trade and other illegal activities.” He included Libra in that category, saying the platform “will have little standing or dependability” and would fall prey to similar dependability issues. …

CNET reports: Twitter’s desktop site and its mobile app went offline on Thursday morning, with an error message reading that “something is technically wrong.” The phrase greeted users as they went to tweet or view other users’ tweets. “We are currently investigating issues people are having accessing Twitter,” a company spokesperson told TheWrap. The Twitter rep added the company will …

The New York Times reports: It says volumes about the challenges facing brick-and-mortar stores that the “single biggest initiative” out of Kohl’s this year, according to the national retailer’s chief executive, is that it will now accept and process unwanted orders from Amazon. Kohl’s said on Monday that it was now accepting Amazon returns at its more than 1,100 stores …

ABC News reports: A London-bound flight was forced to make an emergency landing in Boston on Thursday night when a fire broke out on board, authorities said. Flames and smoke appeared to be coming from a passenger seat on Virgin Atlantic Flight 138, after it took off from JFK. The flight crew extinguished the fire as the pilots made an …

Axios reports: Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg said the aircraft maker is having “ongoing conversations” with its airline customers about possible reimbursements following the grounding of its 737 MAX during an interview with Axios’ Mike Allen at the Aspen Ideas Festival on Wednesday. The 737 MAX was grounded worldwide after crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia killed 346 people, highlighting concerns about …

The Wall Street Journal reports: McDonald’s is testing voice-recognition software at a drive-through in suburban Chicago. Inside the restaurant, a robot also tosses chicken, fish and fries into vats of oil. Both technologies are meant to shorten customer wait times that executives acknowledge have grown in recent years. McDonald’s also has stopped serving some burgers and given franchisees more control …

The Daily Beast reports: In a software tweak first spotted by a developer forum, YouTube is toying with eliminating the comments section that accompanies videos on its mobile app. As it stands now, comments appear when a user scrolls below a video’s sharing buttons and “Up Next” recommended videos. The change would significantly downgrade the prominence of comments on the …

The BBC reports: Bank of England Governor Mark Carney gave Facebook’s proposed digital currency Libra a cautious welcome in a major speech on Thursday. He said it could substantially lower costs and increase financial inclusion, but needs regulation. Mr Carney also announced that non-banks will be able to hold Bank of England accounts. And he highlighted climate and sustainability concerns. …

Newsweek reports: A U.K. dating app is approaching the matchmaking process in a whole new way, one that has the potential to abolish someone’s ego. The app, called Once, has updated its service to include a ranking of the app user’s attractiveness. The number rating, which ranges from one to five seemingly based on a user’s physical appearance, is said …

The Washington Post reports: Mobile technology has transformed the way we live — how we read, work, communicate, shop and date. But we already know this. What we have not yet grasped is the way the tiny machines in front of us are remolding our skeletons, possibly altering not just the behaviors we exhibit but the bodies we inhabit. New …

Axios reports: After nearly a year of speculation, Facebook has finally unveiled its plans to create a cryptocurrency, which will be called Libra and debut in 2020. With more than two billion users, Facebook is arguably better positioned to roll out a global digital currency than any other company, government, or organization. That’s also a source of concern over how …

The Verge reports: Having admitted that its glossy “trash can” Mac Pro of 2013 was a mistake, Apple has long promised that the next update to its most professional computer line would be a return to more modular, less thermally constrained computing. That is being realized today at WWDC 2019 with the official debut of an all-new redesigned Apple Mac …