10 things in tech you need to know today

USA

Hackers are taking over Ring cameras and harassing their owners.

Good morning! This is the tech news you need to know this Friday.

1. Federal regulators are considering blocking Facebook from combining WhatsApp, Instagram and its other apps. The move could seek to bar Facebook from further integrating its services and could prohibit it from enforcing its rules about how other companies' apps work with its services.
2. WeWork is shutting down Spacious, the restaurant-based coworking subsidiary it acquired just weeks after it filed its paperwork for an initial public offering, the company confirmed to Business Insider on Thursday. All of Spacious' approximately 50 employees were let go.
3. Facebook said it would fund its content oversight board to the tune of $130 million. But the company also said it would delay finding the members who would sit on that board.
4. Hackers are taking over Ring smart home cameras, harassing the owners via the cameras and speakers, and airing the whole episode live on air. The NulledCast podcast saw hackers shouting at a woman to wake up and speaking to children.
5. Oracle chairman Larry Ellison says that the firm has 'no plans' to hire a new co-CEO, meaning Safra Catz will be running the show solo. Questions have lingered over the post since Mark Hurd stepped away as co-CEO earlier this year for a medical leave, then passed away in October.
6. $200 million finance startup Curve is facing complaints from customers who were handed business cards rather than standard personal cards. Customers complained that they were issued corporate cards without being clearly informed and, in some cases, were charged additional fees while making payments.
7. Tesla has lost its top lawyer, Jonathan Chang, for the third time in the past year. The artificial-intelligence startup SambaNova Systems announced in a press release on Thursday that Chang has become the company's general counsel.
8. Google billionaire Larry Page has been quietly funnelling money into flu vaccination initiatives. According to TechCrunch, Page is funding an initiative called "Shoo the Flu," which offers free flu shots to schoolchildren in Oakland, California.
9. Researchers with an artificial-intelligence firm said they were able to fool facial-recognition software at an airport and mobile-payment kiosks using a printed mask, highlighting security vulnerabilities. The researchers said the tests, which were carried out across three continents, fooled two mobile-payment systems, a Chinese border checkpoint, and a passport-control gate at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport.
10. Android founder Andy Rubin has blocked almost everyone following him on Twitter, 1 year after explosive reports about alleged sexual misconduct. The mass blocking exercise means Rubin has blocked several big names in tech, including Google CEO Eric Schmidt, Libra chief David Marcus, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki and Twitter founder Jack Dorsey.

Have an Amazon Alexa device? Now you can hear 10 Things in Tech each morning. Just search for "Business Insider" in your Alexa's flash briefing settings.

You can also subscribe to this newsletter here - just tick "10 Things in Tech You Need to Know."

NOW WATCH: I tried cooking an entire Thanksgiving dinner using Google Home Hub and found there are 2 major flaws with it