Tech Roundup: Waymo vs. Uber Settlement, YouTube Red Expansion & More

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

• Facebook makes it possible to post Stories via web, tests downvotes in comments, adds capabilities to create lists in status updates, launches a new News section in Watch to feature breaking news, and gets ordered by a Belgian court to to stop tracking users online through cookies and social plug-ins or face daily fines of €250,000 a day, or up to €100m.
• Facebook lands itself in a soup after German court finds fault with the social network's lack of informed consent and its privacy-unfriendly settings, including its enforced real name policy; begins promoting spyware VPN service Onavo Protect (that it acquired in 2013) in its flagship app for no apparent reason, other than to collect more data, and gets blamed for sending notifications via the SMS number used for sending one-time passwords and also inadvertently (ahem!) posting users' replies to those text messages as status updates.
• Ride hailing startup Uber now requires drivers in the United States take a 6-hour break after a 12-hour shift, weeks after rolling out similar rest breaks in the U.K., where drivers can only go for 10-hours at a time before going for a 6-hour break; launches Express POOL service that makes walking to a nearby corner and waiting part of the trip request process in exchange for reduced fare (in other words, Uber's own version of carpool).
• Self-driving car tech rivals Waymo (owned by Alphabet) and Uber reach a surprise settlement in trade secret theft case, with the former receiving a minority stake (0.34%) in the ride-hailing company.
• Google rolls out YouTube Red to over 100 countries, announces plans to buy Xively from LogMeIn for US$ 50 million, giving it an established IoT platform to add to their product portfolio; removes 'view image' button from Google Images to make pictures harder to steal following a licensing settlement with Getty Images.
• Google says it removed 700,000 apps from the Play Store in 2017, up 70% from 2016, as it continues to step up its efforts to curb malicious apps from being downloaded by Android users; completes its acquisition of HTC smartphone division for US$ 1.1 billion and brings back Nest under its umbrella once again to better compete with Amazon and Apple in the IoT arena.
• Nokia-branded Android smartphones manufactured by HMD Global outsold HTC, Google Pixel and OnePlus during the year-end holiday season, according to a report by Counterpoint.
• Amazon brings voice control to Alexa app for Android, makes Echo and other Alexa speakers officially available in India; drops lockscreen ads from discounted Prime Exclusive phones following new Google Play rules banning third-party apps that use lock screen ads and makes it possible for Prime subscribers to get their groceries delivered from Whole Foods in two hours and gain access to 1000's of books and magazines at no extra cost (called Prime Reading).
• Apple will also hold encryption keys of Chinese users' iCloud accounts in China itself, weeks after announcing its plan to hand over iCloud data of Chinese users to a local firm called GCBD in order to comply with new laws, potentially raising privacy and human rights concerns.

Facebook's growing roster of options in its iOS app

• Apple reports 36 million monthly Apple Music subscribers and overhauls App Store web interface with an iOS-like look; reportedly sold more Apple Watches than the entire Swiss watch industry combined in 2017 and faces scrutiny from European competition commission over its decision to acquire song recognition service Shazam.
• Google gets fined US$ 21 million by Indian antitrust watchdog Competition Commission of India for abusing its dominance in search and advertising and indulging in "search bias" following a 2012 complaint made by matchmaking website Bharat Matrimony and a not-for-profit organisation, Consumer Unity and Trust Society; gets hit with a class-action lawsuit over claims that the firm knowingly sold Pixel phones (the ones it sold in 2016) with microphone issues, which prevented calls and voice assistant functionality.
• Microsoft teases progressive web apps for Windows and pulls support for push notifications in Windows phones running Windows Phone 7.5 or 8; releases new Windows 10 preview with better privacy settings, including options to delete diagnostic data, and others.
• AirAsia begins using facial recognition to replace boarding passes at airports.
• Social cataloging platform Pinterest lets users rearrange pins and archive boards.
• Facebook tests resharing of others' posts in Instagram Stories, to alert users when their public Instagram Stories are captured as screenshots and launches person-to-person payments via WhatsApp in India even as Google updates Tez payment service in the country to allow users pay their utilities and other bills straight from the app.
• Russian search and internet service giant Yandex becomes the latest company to trial self-driving car tech.
• Snap Inc. details its plan to improve Snapchat in response a Change.org petition that was signed by more than 1.2 million people, calling for the company to roll back the new redesign; wakes up to an uncomfortable reality that Instagram may indeed erase its presence after American reality television personality and social-media star Kylie Jenner questions its relevance on Twitter.
• Pierre Omidyar, eBay founder and owner of First Look Media, pledges US$ 300,000 in support of Center for Humane Technology, run by former Googler Tristan Harris, that aims to battle tech addiction.