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 cyber warrior in the battle of EU tech politics and policy.
— WHAT’S HAPPENING
AMSTERDAM CONNECTS: A new system that uses low-power, low-bandwidth LoWaWAN technology has covered Amsterdam with a wireless signal that allows objects throughout the city to become tools for developers. In what they’ve pronounced is a world first, the crowd-sourced Internet of Things Network can be used for a range of purposes. One example, from The Next Web: “A pilot project to demonstrate the Things Network’s potential will see boat owners in the city (there are many, thanks to its network of canals) able to place a small bowl in the base of their vessel. If the boat develops a leak and starts taking on water, the bowl will use the network to send an SMS alert to a boat maintenance company that will come along and fix the problem.” Here’s the story: http://bit.ly/1JipThB, and the project, which they now want to spread around the world. http://bit.ly/1NF5OpZ
BELGIUM STRIKES AGAIN: It seems Google’s storage systems are no match for Belgium’s wild weather. The company said it suffered a permanent data loss to a very small amount of its disk space at one of its data centers after it was struck by lightening four times. The announcement: http://bit.ly/1TVvQXT and the BBC’s take: http://bbc.in/1USSW3y
SWEDEN WANTS GAMES DEVELOPERS: Desperate to find and keep game developer talent in the country, Sweden funded an eight week, $200,000 lakeside-cabin retreat for 23 youngsters this year. http://on.wsj.com/1J4kHPi
ASHLEY MADISON: Get ready for some very awkward revelations. The Ashley Madison data leaked by hackers includes thousands of government email addresses. The Telegraph is running a live blog: http://bit.ly/1LkyQ0H. And it seems the huge privacy breach of the affair-fueling website shouldn’t have come as a surprise — employees had raised concerns about security before the attack http://bit.ly/1NF2X0e
GERMAN VIRUS ALERT: If you’re in Germany, you might have recently received an email from your telecoms provider warning you about a virus on your computer. The German office for IT security, BSI, sends roughly 60,000 to 65,000 such emails a month, and they are for real. The story, in German: http://bit.ly/1JqO7g8
CRYPTO-EMAIL SHUTDOWN: Speaking of German security, crypto-email service Lavaboom has fallen short of a crowdfunding target to pay for server costs, according to The Register. The service was supposed to be resistant to U.S. spying, something that has struck a chord in privacy-conscious Germany, but apparently not loud enough. http://bit.ly/1HUGlUt
WIKI WACKED: Wikipedia’s co-founder Jimmy Wales said the user-generated web-o-pedia is facing a long-term, slow decline in traffic from Google, but later clarified his comments, saying that Google was actually sending more direct traffic Wiki’s way, but that there was some “fuzziness around indirect referrals that cannot be resolved without the participation of Google.” http://selnd.com/1NubTrahttp://selnd.com/1NubTra
COMPANIES .SUCK: Companies have been snapping up the .sucks domains, released in March, to prevent embarrassing URLs like Vodafone.sucks and ManchesterUnited.sucks popping up. The preventative measures aren’t cheap, with trademarked names costing thousands of euros a year to purchase. But not everyone is using the domain for nefarious purposes. Some enterprising New York baseball fans in the U.S. have bought the boston.sucks domain name and an insurance broker purchased lifeinsurance.sucks. http://bloom.bg/1MCZvpG
LINUX SECURE CODING INITIATIVE: The nonprofit Linux Foundation wants to prevent future cyber-security breaches that infect open-source software. Bugs have been discovered in the OpenSSL library and the Bash shell over the last year. To that end, they’ve announced a new badging program for projects that use secure coding practices. The foundation is now setting up best practices rules. To be able to display the badge, coders will fill out self-questionnaires, but there’s also work on an algorithm that will automatically scan for compliance. More: http://bit.ly/1IKR99b
CHARGING AHEAD: Two British students have developed what they’re calling the world’s smallest phone charger, which can top up your phone using nothing more than two AA batteries and a magnet. They’re still looking for more funding on Kickstarter http://bit.ly/1K5RF66
TATA GREETS UBER: Indian firm Tata has entered into a partnership with Uber, investing over €90 million in the company, the FT reports. India is a major market for Uber, and the need to stamp its presence in the country could be linked to the company’s desire to show it lives up to its $50 billion-plus valuation http://on.ft.com/1NkTy0O
However, The Wall Street Journal writes: Regulators in California said they have evidence Uber has failed to screen out 25 drivers with criminal records, including convictions for kidnapping and murder. http://on.wsj.com/1JrWrvW
TWITTER LAWYER TALKS: Twitter lawyer Vijaya Gadde has spoken to Re/code about the social network’s plans when it comes to data protection (they won’t hand over data easily, she said) and censorship (unlikely to enter the Chinese market any time soon as a result of censorship there). The full interview: http://bit.ly/1foV57i
FACEBOOK FRACAS: Social media users have been posting hate-filled, anti-asylum-seeker posts on Facebook for months, and their opponents have found it difficult to get the posts removed, writes Sueddeutsche Zeitung. That’s because the site takes a hardline approach to free speech, erring on the side of caution when it comes to requests to remove content that might be offensive but not necessarily in violation of community standards. In German: http://bit.ly/1MxTv00
LINKEDIN LOOKS UP: LinkedIn announced it wants to become the internal phone list of the future. The company launched a new service, called LinkedIn Lookup, which allows users to search and message colleagues. The company reckons its directory is more up-to-date than companies’ internal ones. It is available for employees of companies with an employer page on the site. http://on.wsj.com/1HVZULZ
SOCIAL SLUMP: A study from the Pew Research Center has shown social networks are on a downward slump, particularly when it comes to adult members. Most sites recorded either a decline or a slowdown in growth. Mobile messaging apps, on the other hand, are seeing big jumps in users. http://on.recode.net/1hpexCR
RUSSIAN HACKERS HIT HOME: Russian hacking group Pawn Storm, which targets pro-Ukrainian groups, has expanded its attacks to include domestic critics, says Trend Micro. In the firing line: anti-Putin punk rock group Pussy Riot, peace activists, artists, media, diplomats and bloggers. More here: http://bit.ly/1K4C46N
GIG ECONOMY BLUES: Morning Tech has become accustomed to stories about the positive impact of the job-sharing and micro-job economy. But this counter-argument from The Guardian paints a picture of companies transferring risks onto individuals, ignoring labor laws and racing to the bottom on worker rights and benefits. An interesting opposing view, sponsored by AngloAmerican, a mining company. http://bit.ly/1WECO7J
APPLE MUSIC UPDATE: Apple launched their music-streaming service to much fanfare (and some controversy), but the question was whether enough customers would switch to their service. While almost half of the initial 11 million users who tried the service have now stopped using it, a survey found that two-thirds of 5,000 customers surveyed are either extremely or very likely to pay for the service once their three-month free trial ends. Apple disputes some of the figures. From The Guardian: http://bit.ly/1JilECM
IE EMERGENCY PATCH: Microsoft has issued an emergency Internet Explorer patch, which should fix a vulnerability that allows hackers to hijack the browser if a user visits a particular website. Get yours here: http://bit.ly/1J1KmKE
OPEN SOURCE CANDIDATE: U.S. Democratic presidential hopeful Larry Lessig, one of the brains behind the Creative Commons license, is sticking to his roots in his potential White House bid. He announced that all the software created by his campaign will be open-source and publicly available under a CC license. The campaign is posting source code on GitHub: http://bit.ly/1Pkyp4d
FAXES STICK AROUND: Despite the rise of digital communication, faxes still have an important role in modern businesses, writes the FT. Morning Tech is surprised, but it seems the proponents of the might-as-well-be-ancient technology still use it as a more secure alternative to email. http://on.ft.com/1NkDV9H
3D PRINTED DRONE: Engineers from the University of Southampton launched a 3D printed printed drone from the bow of a Royal Navy warship in a bid to demonstrate the potential use of lightweight drones at sea. Here’s a story with video: http://reut.rs/1NwcCs5
— WHAT’S COMING
AHOY, MATEY: It’s billed as Europe’s craziest startup conference and it takes place in a scrapyard in Cologne. September 2-3 is all about the Pirate Summit 2015. Don’t forget your floaties. http://bit.ly/1F0LDfZ
Elise Bédier contributed to this newsletter.
This news letter was updated to reflect more recent comments regarding Wikipedia’s traffic numbers.