THE NEWS WRAP: Expert-curated music streaming service Songza acquired by Google

Google has acquired music streaming service Songza.

Songza uses information about the user and context to determine the best playlists for its users at any given time, curated by music experts.

That human curation is Songza’s point of difference from other music services like Pandora and Spotify, which rely heavily on algorithms.

Google says it’s not planning to make any immediate changes to Songza, so it will continue to work like usual for existing users.

Virtually no governments off-limits for the NSA

Australia is one of only four countries the US National Security Agency has not been authorised to intercept information from, according to top-secret documents obtained by the Washington Post.

A 2010 classified legal certification and other documents indicate the NSA has been given the authority to intercept through US companies, not just the communications of its overseas targets, but any communications about its targets as well.

The certification, which was approved by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, was included among a set of documents leaked by Edward Snowden and includes a list of 193 countries that would be of valid interest for US intelligence.

Vine to add loop counter

Vine is adding a loop count feature to its web, iOS and Android apps, which will indicate how many times people have looped a video.

Overnight

The Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 129.47 to 16,956.07. The Australian dollar is currently trading at US95 cents.