By Zoya Sheftalovich | @zoyashef | send tips to zsheftalovich@politico.eu | subscribe for this daily column: http://politico.eu/registration/ | if you prefer to read this on your desktop click here
GOOD MORNING and welcome to Morning Tech, your advocate in the court of EU tech politics and policy.
— WHAT’S HAPPENING
GOOGLE GETS TIME: Google has secured two extra weeks to respond to the European Commission’s antitrust charge-sheet, which accused the tech giant of anti-competitive behavior in the way it treats rivals using its Google Shopping service. The company’s response is now due August 31. POLITICO has also learned that Google will not be seeking an oral hearing when it sends its response to the Commission. The full details: http://politi.co/1JVS3Ef
Separately, the company unveiled a new Chrome operating system for businesses, aimed at helping them run most of their legacy software: http://nyti.ms/1faUTbB
UBER’S WINS: The ride-sharing company is celebrating two victories. Win 1: The European Commission has sent Spanish authorities please-explain letters in response to Uber’s complaint that the country’s Uber ban was contrary to EU law. Win 2: France has informed the Commission that it plans to create a taxi availability registry. For those wondering what that could possibly be, imagine an Uber app, but for taxis, made by the French government. An homage, if you will, that might also invalidate the so-called Thévenoud law, which was rushed through to stop Uber. Win 3: A dismissal of a racketeering lawsuit by 15 taxi and limousine companies in the U.S. state of Connecticut. http://politi.co/1JVRni7
BUNDESTAG DELAYS IT FIX: Germany’s Parliament was meant to shut down its IT system for several days of maintenance starting today in an effort to bolster security after hackers infiltrated the government’s network. But the Bundestag will delay the work until next month because they’re voting Tuesday on the Greek relief package, writes Der Spiegel (in German) http://bit.ly/1Mm3DJ4
TELECOMS FRAUD: U.S. authorities are asking European counterparts to seize about $1 billion in assets related to a wide-ranging criminal probe of alleged corruption by three global telecom companies and intermediaries close to the daughter of Uzbekistan’s president, according to court documents and people with direct knowledge of the criminal investigation. The Wall Street Journal reports U.S. prosecutors believe Amsterdam-based Vimpelcom, Mobile TeleSystems of Russia and Sweden’s TeliaSonera funneled hundreds of millions of dollars to businesses controlled by Gulnara Karimova. http://on.wsj.com/1TzodGg
NEW SMARTPHONES: Samsung unveiled a pair of new devices, including a large-screen variation on its Galaxy S6 Edge flagship handset. Competition in the sector is so fierce that Samsung moved up its event by several weeks to avoid a direct confrontation with Apple, which typically plans a September event to introduce its latest iPhone. And Samsung also formally launched its mobile payment service, Samsung Pay, an attempt to compete with Apple and Google. http://on.wsj.com/1JWgXDB
MORE UNITED: Germany’s United Internet wants to expand the national grid of Versatel, which it acquired last year, and it plans to buy more urban fiber-optic networks to do it. CEO Ralph Dommermuth told Reuters the company is on the hunt for acquisitions, and is specifically looking for deals under €100 million after its recent spending spree. http://reut.rs/1Ntloom
ISP SPEED TEST: Netflix has released results from its July monitoring of ISP speeds around the world. The stats are illuminating. In Belgium, Proximus/Belgacom came out on top with an average speed of 4.27 megabits per second, followed by Voo on 4.1, Telenet on 4.04 and Numericable on 3.86. That’s almost universally better than in France, where Numericable came top on 3.9Mbps and Free bottomed with 3.16. Germany’s Unitymedia KabelBW came top on 4.15; in last place Versatel on 3.07. U.K.: Virgin was No. 1 on 3.96, EE last with 3.18. You can see the full index and compare month-by-month results going back to November 2012 here: http://nflx.it/1jHhB8p
IN YOUR FACE: Police in the U.S. are increasingly using facial recognition to identify suspects, saying it is much faster than fingerprinting. But without clear guidelines and a world of gray around the privacy implications, there are concerns of misuse — police officers aren’t necessarily showing reasonable cause or asking for consent before photographing people to run facial recognition software. The technology is spreading worldwide, so there will be implications in privacy-sensitive European countries. http://nyti.ms/1DM1K7m
ROGUE DRONE ALERT: The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration is worried about a surge in drones spotted by airplane and helicopter pilots. It said that pilot drone sightings have already more than doubled, from 238 last year, to more than 650 through July of this year. That’s despite rules that prohibit flying drones near aircraft. Rogue drones are proving a real problem for emergency services too — last month, one of the unmanned vehicles flew over wildfires in California, forcing firefighters to ground their aircraft for security reasons. The EU is currently preparing to implement fit-for-purpose drone rules, and stories like this one are likely to increase the sense of urgency. http://bit.ly/1Ep6zhB
STAGEFRIGHT: The scale of Android’s Stagefright exploit is yet to be determined, but it’s not going to be good. This how-to can help Android users figure out if their phones or tablets are vulnerable, and what to do about it. http://bit.ly/1PmfVB0
INTEL DIVERSIFYING: At the Consumer Electronics Show in January, chip designer Intel promised to reach full representation of women and minorities in their U.S. workforce by 2020, pumping $300 million into the effort. Six months in, and the company has already reached its full-year hiring goal. Some interesting stats from their report on the initiative. At the end of 2014, the representation of women was 23.5 percent, with 15.4 percent in leadership. By July 2015, it was 24.1 percent overall and 17.1 percent at the top level. http://intel.ly/1J1jmbc
Apple, meanwhile, said it had hired over 11,000 women globally in the past year, 65 percent more than the previous year, to boost employee diversity. http://reut.rs/1DOmknq
TV DELAY: Apple had said it wanted to introduce this year a live TV service delivered via the Internet, but is now aiming for 2016, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the plans. Talks to license programming from U.S. television networks are progressing slowly. Apple also doesn’t have the computer network capacity in place to ensure a good viewing experience. http://bloom.bg/1MmYAbm
TECH BY NUMBERS: Speaking of women in tech, did you know that there are only 12 percent of them in the Austrian start-up community? This stat is courtesy of new Austrian e-mag 12percent, which profiles them. http://bit.ly/1Nr8588
FOODPORN -> JAIL? Posting pictures of your food online could be a breach of copyright law in some countries of the EU and an overzealous chef could sue a diner for Instagramming their meal, Die Welt argues. Debates on the varied approaches to copyright around the 28 EU countries have been rumbling for months, particularly in the lead-up to the European Commission’s copyright review, due towards the end of the year. http://bit.ly/1h5MEzx
WIFI KILL SWITCH: The Electronic Privacy Information Center has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review a judgment that allows the Department of Homeland Security to keep secret a protocol governing the shutdown of WiFi networks in emergencies. The EU dealt with similar questions during negotiations over net neutrality in the telecoms single market package, with heated argument in Parliament still likely when the measures go to a vote this fall. Forbes details the case: http://onforb.es/1UDbe93
FACEBOOK PARADOX: While Facebook has awarded the $100,000 Internet Defense Prize to two PhD students for detecting security lapses in C++ programs, it has also canceled a Harvard student’s internship after he highlighted a major privacy security flaw in the social network’s messaging service. Facebook said the student was barred because he violated its terms and conditions by creating a Chrome extension that allowed users to track their contacts. http://zd.net/1HIANwd for report on the prize and http://bit.ly/1HIAP74 for the cancelled internship.
— WHAT’S COMING
INFOSEC & DATA: The Information Security and Data Storage conference (headlined by Kristalina Georgieva) is hitting Sofia on September 17. My pick: a panel about security in the Internet of things. And for those playing along at home, there will actually be binders full of women on stage, including our tipster (h/t Krassimira Bogdanova). http://bit.ly/1TwaWOT
BETA MEET: Belgium’s BetaGroup community, host to over 8,000 tech entrepreneurs, is having its next monthly meet-up on September 24. Seven early-stage startups will demo new apps. http://bit.ly/1J5MAtK
STARTUP FEST: If one evening of startups just isn’t enough, you can attend the Uprise startup festival in Amsterdam on September 25-26, featuring 200 European startups, 10,000 visitors and lots of workshops. http://bit.ly/1FaiDY2
Antoine Sander contributed to this newsletter.