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 white hat in the murky underworld of tech politics and policy.
— WHAT’S HAPPENING
FAIRSEARCH’S GOOGLE RESPONSE: The largest group of complainants in the European Commission’s investigation of antitrust allegations against Google are disappointed that the search giant won’t be seeking an oral hearing. FairSearch, representing Microsoft, TripAdvisor, Expedia, and others, issued a statement in response to POLITICOS’s Thursday revelations. “We are disappointed but not surprised that Google decided to avoid a hearing, as it fares poorly when confronted directly by complainants’ arguments,” said Thomas Vinje, the group’s lawyer and spokesman.“Google prefers to pursue its arguments behind closed doors.” In case you missed the story last week: http://politi.co/1JVS3Ef
UK DRONES: Jeff Bezos, the founder and chief executive of Amazon, has hailed the U.K.’s regulatory plans for drones. His endorsement comes amid growing hope that Britain can become a center for non-military drones. Does this mean Amazon will launch its flying delivery vehicles in Britain first? The FT has the story http://on.ft.com/1Kpxv2M
US HAD A TELECOM SPY: The New York Times reported that the NSA’s ability to spy on vast quantities of Internet traffic passing through the United States had decades-long help from AT&T. Newly disclosed NSA documents show that the relationship with AT&T “highly collaborative,” and the company had an “extreme willingness to help.” AT&T installed surveillance equipment in at least 17 of its Internet hubs in the U.S. http://nyti.ms/1ITN7eR
SPANISH PUBLISHERS PAY: Last year, the Spanish government introduced an intellectual property law forcing news aggregators like Google News to pay for using snippets of articles or other copyrighted material in search results. Some aggregators (notably Google) pulled out of Spain as a result. Now, a study from the Spanish Association of Publishers of Periodicals has quantified the effects of the law, which was supposed to protect publishers and increase traffic. In the first months after the law was implemented, traffic fell on average more than 6 percent, and in some cases 14 percent. The authors of the study wrote: “there is no theoretical or empirical justification for the introducing a fee that is paid by news aggregators to publishers for linking to their content.” http://zd.net/1TACkka
UNFRIENDLY FIRE: One of the world’s highest-profile e-security companies, Moscow-based Kaspersky Lab, may have been undermining rivals’ antivirus programs for more than a decade. Kaspersky allegedly tricked Microsoft, AVG Technologies and Avast Software into falsely classifying harmless files as malicious, according to Reuters, citing two anonymous former employees. The employees alleged that co-founder Eugene Kaspersky ordered some of the attacks personally in retaliation for rivals copying his software. Kaspersky Lab strenuously denied the allegations. http://reut.rs/1MrQ6RS
SPACE LAUNCHER OK: The European Commission has approved the U.K. government’s proposed £50 million (about €71 million) grant to Reaction Engines Limited for designing a space launcher engine. The Commission decided the state aid should be allowed because it was proportionate and wouldn’t crowd out private investors. The company is trying to develop an engine that would “power a reusable airframe to launch satellites into low Earth orbit, significantly reducing the costs of such space missions,” the Commission said. http://bit.ly/1J46HnH
UK SIGNALS TRUTH: Still in the U.K., where the telecoms regulator has launched a tool to reveal the true strength of mobile phone signals around the country. Ofcom’s map includes information about 2G, 3G and 4G network speeds for the major providers Vodafone, O2, EE and Three. The regulator said the tool is more accurate than the companies’ websites because it has higher thresholds when analyzing reception. Most significantly, the tool tests speeds inside buildings. http://bit.ly/1LajI2Y
CHINA: “IT WASN’T ME”: Hua Chunying, a Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman, has done a [Scooby Doo] Shaggy, denying the country had anything to do with recent cyber-attacks targeting the U.S. She accused the media of “hyping up” China’s role, saying “the Chinese government staunchly upholds cyber security” and “firmly opposes and combats all forms of cyber attacks in accordance with law.” It’s likely she was referencing the recent hacking of over 21 million sensitive security clearance forms at the Office of Personnel Management. U.S. officials have pointed the finger at China for the attack in media reports. http://bit.ly/1PcRk0N
ANDROID STILL SCARED: Google released another fix for the Stagefright flaw that’s plaguing Android phones and tablets after mobile security firm Zimperium discovered the initial efforts at fixing the problem didn’t work. Whether it’s the real deal this time remains to be seen. Stagefright is a significant threat, with hundreds of millions of devices vulnerable if they receive a malicious multimedia message. http://bit.ly/1MorqIn
NHS STOP STARTS: The U.K.’s National Health Service is dampening the efforts of startups in the health sector, Bloomberg argues. Investors pumped billions of dollars into digital health startups in the U.S., but the European Private Equity and Venture Capital Association estimates that the total investment in Europe was less than €100 million. The reason? The NHS covers virtually all health spending in the U.K., and vendors must become approved — a time-consuming and confusing process — before they can hit the market. Many don’t or can’t wait that long. http://bloom.bg/1MnV2FE
BOKU’S ITALIAN ASPIRATIONS: U.S.-based mobile payment company Boku’s acquisition of Mobileview Italia is a big move in its expansion into Europe. Boku enables consumers to pay for goods via their phone bill or credit. In a country where credit card penetration is low (34 percent) and mobile phone penetration high, Italy could be the ideal market for Boku’s continental march. http://tcrn.ch/1JX2Cqz
CARBON FOOTPRINT APP: Swedes will soon be able to use “The Energy Tree,” an app designed to help households cut their carbon footprint and energy bills. Developer Greenely said that the app will be rolled out to over 200,000 households in the country. How does the energy tree work? Demonstrating what good data mining can do, the app automatically gathers information from smart grid systems, analyzes energy usage behavior, and then tailors its advice to each household. But there’s a catch. The app was developed in partnership with Swedish SBAB Bank, so you’ll need a mortgage with them to use it. http://bit.ly/1WpdbaQ
SAMSUNG DENIED: Samsung’s latest quest to reduce the amount of money it has to pay Apple for patent infringement has been dealt a blow. A U.S. court upheld a decision to force the South Korean manufacturer to cough up $400 million in damages. Samsung has one avenue of appeal left: the Supreme Court. Its previous appeals have had some success, with the original damages totaling more than $1 billion before being significantly reduced http://zd.net/1IQMOkS
CRIME FIGHTING CAPITAL: The U.S. city of Pittsburgh is emerging as the center of the global fight against cyber crime. Federal agencies working in the city helped coordinate the worldwide team that busted members of the hacking group Darkode in 20 countries. What are they doing right? Rather than go it alone, public agencies are collaborating with private industry. An important read considering that hacking and cyber crime are one of the west’s big concerns in ongoing tensions with Russia and China (though it definitely wasn’t them). http://on.wsj.com/1LauG8F
HTC CUTS 15%: Not wasting much time after its dire earnings report last week, Taiwanese company HTC announced it will cull 15 percent of its staff. The company is the latest in a string of phone manufacturers to announce it would cut jobs — Lenovo is laying off over three thousand staff for similar reasons. http://on.wsj.com/1PmIUoz. But could HTC’s salvation come in the form of a virtual reality headset? http://zd.net/1N7t0zV
KEYLESS CAR THEFT: Theft by hacking accounts for almost half of all stolen vehicles in London, but car manufacturers have spent two years trying to hide the fact that thousands of cars have been left vulnerable. Research that uncovered the flaws should have been published in 2012, but car makers have suppressed the information in the courts. The paper is finally out, with researchers presenting the findings over the weekend. Here’s the research http://bit.ly/1JgZFCm and the story http://bloom.bg/1Mob9TM
TECH INTERNS TELL TALE: Tech companies around the world have been struggling to deal with a lack of diversity in their workforces. To predict what the next generation of employees in Silicon Valley (and elsewhere) will look like, Bloomberg looked to the interns. Photo sharing site Pinterest reveals that 69 percent of engineering interns are Asian, 24 percent are white, 2 percent are black and 5 percent are Hispanic or Latino. On the up-side, thirty-six percent of its engineering interns are women, better than the industry average of 19 percent http://bloom.bg/1fbMDIg
AUSTRALIA GEES UP: The race to 5G is heating up. Australian telecoms company Telstra has pledged it will bring 5G technology to the country by the end of the decade, with speeds of up to 10GB per second expected. That’s to deal with the increasing needs of connected cars, homes and other devices: http://zd.net/1Lbk0t9. Europe is also committed to leading the way on 5G, though many in the EU tech ranks have bemoaned the way the continent lagged on 3G implementation. To that end, the European Commission has set aside €700 million for 5G projects through the Horizon 2020 program.
TOILET FINDER: Another day, another clever app launched to solve a serious problem. Pregnant women, the elderly, and anyone else who really needs to find a bathroom quickly, can breathe a sigh of relief if they live in Germany. The free “Toilet Finder German” app is now available for both iPhone and Android devices, and will soon list every one of the 160,000 public toilets in the country: http://bit.ly/1PcnjhE (in German)
— WHAT’S COMING
FASHIONABLE TECH: Here’s something a little different. The Interlaced conference, September 3 in London, is all about the intersection of engineering and fashion. Panels will cover topics including wearables and 3D printing in fashion. Très chic. http://bit.ly/1MtuVLH
CANTERBURY MEETUP: U.K. readers rejoice, the Digibury monthly meet-up for digital and creative types in Canterbury (get it?) is back after an August break. Next event is September 9, you can sign up for updates here: http://bit.ly/1NuMpb0
Antoine Sander and Kalina Oroschakoff contributed to this newsletter.