Marriott reveals a massive data breach, Instagram lets you share with Close Friends and we have a Startup Battlefield winner at Disrupt Berlin.

1. Marriott says 500 million Starwood guest records stolen in massive data breach

The hotel and resorts giant said in a statement filed with U.S. regulators that the "unauthorized access" to its guest database was detected on or before September 10 — but may date back as far as 2014.

"Marriott learned during the investigation that there had been unauthorized access to the Starwood network since 2014," said the statement. "Marriott recently discovered that an unauthorized party had copied and encrypted information, and took steps towards removing it."

2. Instagram now lets you share Stories to a Close Friends list

The new feature lets you build a single private list of your best buddies on Instagram through suggestions or search, and then share Stories just to them.

3. And the winner of Startup Battlefield at Disrupt Berlin 2018 is… Legacy

At the very beginning, there were 13 startups. After two days of incredibly fierce competition, we now have a winner.

4. Floyd Mayweather and DJ Khaled to pay SEC fines for flogging garbage ICOs

Mayweather received $100,000 from Centra Tech while Khaled got $50,000 from the failed ICO. The SEC cited Khaled and Mayweather's social media feeds, noting they touted securities for pay without disclosing their affiliation with the companies.

5. Sheryl Sandberg knew more of Facebook's work with Definers than she let on

The latest revelation: Sandberg herself directed Facebook's communications team to probe the financial ties of George Soros, left-leaning billionaire and frequent political target of the right. The new reporting cites an email between Sandberg and a Facebook senior executive that was circulated more broadly to senior comms and policy staff.

6. Lawmakers say Amazon's facial recognition software may be racially biased and harm free expression

The letter, signed by eight lawmakers — including Sen. Edward Markey and Reps. John Lewis and Judy Chu — called on Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos to explain how the company's technology works, and where it will be used.

7. DoJ charges Autonomy founder with fraud over $11BN sale to HP

Lynch sold Autonomy, the big data company he founded back in 1996, to computer giant HP for around $11 billion some seven years ago. But within a year, around three-quarters of the value of the business had been written off, with HP accusing Autonomy's management of accounting misrepresentations and disclosure failures.

Apple says iPhone XR sales are actually doing well, old Facebook moneymaking ideas get revealed and Amazon announces blockchain services. Here's your Daily Crunch for November 29, 2018.

1. Following report on sluggish demand, Apple VP says iPhone XR is its most popular model

In the wake of a report from the WSJ last week that detailed how low demand for Apple's latest iPhones was prompting the company to cut orders for the devices, particularly the iPhone XR, an Apple VP said that the XR is actually the company's best-selling model right now.

The disclosure comes from Apple VP Greg Joswiak in an interview with CNET. It's not a particularly juicy quote, only detailing that the device has "been our most popular iPhone each and every day since the day it became available."

2. Facebook staff discussed selling API access to apps in 2012-2014

Following a flopped IPO in 2012, Facebook desperately brainstormed new ways to earn money. An employee of unknown rank sent an internal email suggesting Facebook charge developers $250,000 per year for access to its platform APIs to make apps that can ask users for access to their data.

3. Amazon gets into the blockchain with Quantum Ledger Database & Managed Blockchain

Last year, Amazon dismissed the idea of getting into the blockchain with AWS — but yesterday, that changed.

4. Asana, a work management platform, nabs $50M growth round at a $1.5B valuation

Asana, a service that teams and individuals use to plan and track the progress of work projects, is doubling down on its own project: to shape "the future of work," in the words of co-founder and CEO Dustin Moskovitz.

5. Microsoft wins $480M military contract to outfit soldiers with HoloLens AR tech

The two-year contract may result in follow-on orders of more than 100,000 headsets, according to documentation describing the bidding process. One of the contract's tag lines for the AR tech seems to be its ability to enable "25 bloodless battles before the 1st battle," suggesting that actual combat training is going to be an essential aspect of the headset capabilities.

6. Instagram is using object recognition tech to describe photos for visually impaired users

The accessibility-focused update offers two options to give visually impaired users alternative text descriptions of what's happening in posts. One leverages user text input, while the other uses Facebook's object recognition tech to do the heavy lifting.

7. Lucas Di Grassi says human drivers are the real competitors for Roborace

One of the world's best Formula One racecar drivers came to Disrupt Berlin to discuss his plans to build a racing league for autonomous vehicles.