Jerod Harris/Getty Images for GUESS
A European data watchdog is looking into the systematic collection of Instagram users' personal data.
Good morning! This is the tech news you need to know this Friday.
- Uber on Thursday reported second-quarter earnings that widely missed Wall Street expectations. A big chunk of Uber's massive $5.24 billion loss was because of stock-based compensation from its initial public offering earlier this year.
- Facebook is facing a class action lawsuit over its use of facial recognition technology that could cost it billions of dollars if it loses. A federal appeals court on Thursday rejected Facebook's effort to undo a class action lawsuit claiming that it illegally collected and stored biometric data for millions of users without their consent.
- A top data protection regulator in the European Union is looking into the systematic collection of Instagram users' personal data, including posts that were designed to disappear after 24 hours, by a San Francisco startup. The Irish Data Protection Commission said on Wednesday that it is "working to establish" whether EU citizens have been affected by the data scraping, which was first revealed in a Business Insider investigation published Wednesday.
- Apple has locked the battery in its iPhone XR, iPhone XS, and iPhone XS Max, according to a report from iFixit. That means if you try to replace it yourself or at any repair shop that isn't authorized by Apple, you will see a message indicating that your battery needs to be serviced.
- WeWork is reportedly working on a weird corporate structure for its coming initial public offering that would give massive tax benefits to early insiders but not to those who buy in later. The new structure means CEO Adam Neumann and other insiders will pay an individual income-tax rate while anyone buying shares in the IPO will be taxed at a corporate and individual level.
- Lending startup Neyber, which has raised millions from Goldman Sachs, laid off 13% of staff in its marketing department to cut costs. The firm is in the process of raising new funding, and says it's on the path to sustainability.
- Mitch McConnell's campaign account was suspended from Twitter after it posted a video of protesters threatening the senator in Kentucky. Twitter removed a video posted to @Team_Mitch on Aug. 6 that showed a group of protesters opposing McConnell's campaign in his home state of Kentucky; the video was replaced with a link to Twitter's enforcement policies.
- Samsung has ditched the controversial Bixby button that summons the company's Bixby voice assistant on the Galaxy Note 10. Now, to summon Bixby on the Galaxy Note 10, users can press and hold the power button. Samsung is also giving the option for users to remap the long-press on the power button to open another app.
- Facebook is offering millions of dollars to news publishers to license their content and include it in a special section of the social network. Facebook executives have pitched the offer to publications including Bloomberg, The Washington Post, ABC News, and the Wall Street Journal's own parent company, Dow Jones.
- A rideshare driver hit a man on an e-scooter in Brooklyn, highlighting the potential risks as scooters and e-bikes expand nationwide. According to a police officer on the scene, a witness said the Revel scooter rider "ate the red light," proceeding through an intersection against the light.
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