10 things in tech you need to know today

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10 things in tech you need to know today
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifying social-distance style before a House Judiciary subcommittee in July 2020Photo by Graeme JENNINGS / POOL / AFP via Getty Images

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  1. Amazon's smart home security division Ring has unveiled a camera drone that launches if sensors detect a potential home break-in. The new Always Home Cam is an autonomous drone that can fly around inside your home to give you a perspective of any room you want when you're not in, per The Verge.
  2. Amazon announced Luna, a free video game streaming service that lets you play hit games on your phone, computer, and other streaming devices, on Thursday. For $5.99 per month, players can subscribe to the Luna+ channel, which will grant them access to dozens of games, including hit titles like "Control," and "Resident Evil 7."
  3. The Senate plans to subpoena the CEOs of Facebook, Google, and Twitter to testify before Congress next month. The committee is holding a hearing on Oct. 1 that's meant to address Section 230, a law that shields social media companies from being held liable for the content of users' posts.
  4. Facebook issued a warning about Russian 'hack-and-leak' operations ahead of the 2020 election. In the last presidential election, Russian government operatives working to elect Donald Trump created fake news outlets to disseminate emails stolen from the Hillary Clinton campaign.
  5. Spotify, Epic Games, and Match Group have allied to take on Apple in the raging App Store war. The app developers have banded together to create a non-profit called the Coalition for App Fairness over claims Apple's practices are anti-competitive.
  6. Facebook's former director of monetization says Facebook intentionally made its product as addictive as cigarettes — and now he fears it could cause 'civil war.' Former Facebook director Tim Kendall lashed out at the company's business model during testimony before Congress, saying Facebook's focus on driving engagement outweighs its consideration of potential harms.
  7. Facebook's policy chief said Europe is too fragmented to produce a Facebook or Google to rival the US and China. Former UK deputy prime minister Nick Clegg said the reason there hasn't been a European tech success to rival Facebook or Google is because the EU has failed to create a "digital single market."
  8. Palantir could be valued at as much as $22 billion in its trading debut. The data-mining-software company is eschewing the traditional IPO route and going public through a direct listing which could value shares at around $10 a-piece, per the WSJ.
  9. Spotify founder Daniel Ek is investing over $1 billion of his own money into European startups to push Silicon Valley from the center of the tech world. Ek plans to invest in risky early stage companies working in health care, education, machine learning, biotechnology, material sciences and energy.
  10. How $10 billion Tencent-backed Brazilian challenger bank Nubank grew its customers from 5 million to 30 million in 18 months. Nubank, founded in 2013, has raised $1.4 billion to-date and is one of the most valuable and well funded private tech startups in South America

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