10 things in tech you need to know today

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

1. Mark Zuckerberg reportedly told Facebook execs that the company is at “war,” and called recent media coverage “bulls—“. Zuckerberg told Facebook executives at a meeting in June that he was going to be a more aggressive CEO in light of a sequence of scandals, The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday night.
2. Apple CEO Tim Cook said in an interview “we have to admit when the free market is not working” on the issue of privacy. In an interview with Axios, Cook added that regulation was “inevitable.”
3. Facebook’s comms team is reportedly fuming at COO Sheryl Sandberg after they were thrown under the bus over a smear campaign. Sandberg’s response to the bombshell New York Times report last week angered many communications and policy team members, according to The Wall Street Journal.
4. Mark Zuckerberg reportedly blamed Sheryl Sandberg for the Cambridge Analytica fallout, making her worry for her job. Zuckerberg met with Sandberg in the spring and said he blamed her for the furore over the giant data breach, the Journal reports.
5. Former Facebook head of security Alex Stamos published an op-ed in The Washington Post confirming that Sheryl Sandberg yelled at him and felt “blindsided” when he briefed the board on Russian interference. Stamos was at the center of the New York Times exposé published last week on how Facebook’s leadership dealt with Russian election interference.
6. NASA will retire its new mega-rocket if SpaceX or Blue Origin can safely launch their own powerful rockets. NASA is building a super-heavy-lift rocket called the Space Launch System to send astronauts back to the moon.
7. A security bug on Instagram accidentally revealed some people’s passwords. The bug was connected to a feature that allows users to download all their data.
8. The “secret sister” gift exchange on Facebook is actually an illegal pyramid scheme. An illegal chain mail post circulating on Facebook promises that participants will receive up to 36 gifts while only giving one of their own.
9. A group of European lawmakers wrote to Jeff Bezos to ask that Amazon stop selling Soviet-themed merchandise. In an open letter, 27 MEPs said that the sale of items emblazoned with the hammer and sickle offends victims of the regime.
10. Swedish scooter company VOI Technology raised $50 million in series A funding. The funding was led by Balderton Capital, along with a handful of angel investors.

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