Tech Roundup: Alphabet's Health Bet, Telegram Telegraph & More

[A recurring feature on the latest in Science & Technology.]

• French data privacy watchdog Commission nationale de l'informatique (CNIL) cautions government against creating a centralized database of fingerprints, pictures and other personal information of virtually everyone in France in the wake of multiple terrorist attacks in the country.
• India's Supreme Court bans the sale of firecrackers in Delhi's National Capital Region after a thick smog engulfed the city for 10 days early this month, exposing its 20 million inhabitants to dangerous concentrations of polluted air.
• Four people die following a freak thunderstorm that triggered a wave of asthma attacks in Melbourne, Australia.
• DeepMind, British artificial intelligence firm owned by Google's parent company Alphabet, gains access to 1.6 million patient medical records to alert doctors when they are in danger of developing acute kidney injury.
• U.S. telecom giant Verizon plans to take on advertising behemoths Google and Facebook by combining offline information, such as postal address, email address and device type, with AOL browser cookies, Apple and Google advertising IDs, and their own unique identifier headers to track users online for targeted advertising.
• Social network Facebook finds more miscalculated metrics with regards to how users interact with content in what could cause further unease among web publishers and advertisers; says it over-counted the number of people exposed to a brand's organic post, undercounted how many people watched video ads to their completion, over-reported the time spent by people reading Instant Articles, among others.
• Facebook creates censorship tool that suppresses posts from appearing in News Feeds in certain geographic areas for possible China re-entry.
• Microsoft is not ready to give up on smartphones yet; en route to launching the "most ultimate mobile device".
• Amazon is reportedly in talks to acquire Dubai's online retailer Souq.com in US$ 1 billion deal to gain a larger Middle East footprint.
• Google Pixel and Pixel XL smartphones get double-tap to view lock screen notifications and lift-to-wake features in newest Android Nougat update.
• Researchers at University of Central Florida experiment with long lasting supercapacitor batteries that can charge in seconds and last for days without recharge.
• Chinese online travel company Ctrip acquires Skyscanner for US$ 1.7 billion as it eyes international expansion.
• Popular instant messaging service Telegram adds Facebook Messenger like Instant Articles integration in latest update; launches Telegraph, a new anonymous blogging platform.
• Google's branding confusion continues; renames Google Cast back to Chromecast.
• Facebook-owned Instagram rolls out live videos that disappear as soon as the broadcast is over.
• Ride hailing startup Uber adds new Compliments feature that allows riders compliment drivers for an enjoyable ride.
• Facebook solar powered drone Aquila comes under investigation from U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) for an accident that occurred during its first test flight back in June 28.
• Enterprise services company Oracle acquires domain naming system solution provider Dyn for over US$ 600 million.
• Amazon reportedly planning global expansion of its e-ticketing service Amazon Tickets (currently U.K. only), reports Recode.
• Newly discovered iOS bug caused by a five-second .MP4 video received via iMessage slows down iPhones until they crash; requires hard reset (by holding the power button and home button at the same time) to recover from the crash.