Tech Roundup: Facebook's Mea Culpa, Gmail Redesign & More

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

• Singapore government stokes surveillance concerns after it unveils plans to install cameras equipped with facial recognition technology to all 110,000 lamp posts around the city, making it easier than ever for the country to keep tabs on its citizens and visitors.
• Facebook reveals data of up to 87 million users - 37 million more than previously revealed - may have been improperly accessed by Cambridge Analytica; releases a tool to allow users check if they have been affected by the breach that it is now believed to have included messages too, tightens its grip over third-party app developer platform, says it plans to extend GDPR data protections worldwide, reveals phone numbers and email addresses of almost all users could have been scraped through Facebook search (a feature it has now disabled), and announces a new US$ 40,000 user data abuse bounty program that will see it rewarding Facebook users who discover instances of companies using unauthorised data.
• Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's CEO, doesn't rule out a paid version of the social network in the future, denies knowledge of shadow profiles (data about users who don't have a Facebook account) and refuses to comment on how the company handles users' data on browsing habits.
• Facebook confirms that it scans the links and images that users send each other on Messenger, and reads chats when they are flagged to moderators, faces criticism after CNBC outs that the company sent a doctor on a secret mission to hospitals to share patient data and help them figure when a patient might need medical help, and that the company retroactively deleted Mark Zuckerberg and other executives' messages from recipients' inboxes for security reasons; says it plans to add "unsend" and expiration timer features over the coming months.
• Social news networks Reddit unveils its first redesign for the web in over 10 years.
• Chinese handset maker Xiaomi becomes the latest to join the smart assistant bandwagon; demonstrates Xiao AI with support for WeChat integration.
• Snapchat rolls out group video calls and Mentions feature that allows users to tag friends in snaps uploaded onto Stories.
• Research firm Security Research Labs finds that many Android manufacturers lie to users about security patches issued by Google, with the phone's software claiming to be up to date with latest fixes, "while in reality missing as many as a dozen patches from that period."

Facebook's new tool to check if your data was accessed by Cambridge Analytica

• Foxconn, Taiwan-based maker of Apple products, acquires Belkin, Wemo, and Linksys for US$ 866 million in a move that would make it a larger player in consumer electronics market.
• Spotify, the world's largest music streaming service with over 71 million paid subscribers, makes its debut on the New York Stock Exchange on April 3 for US$ 132 a share, putting the company's value at US$ 23.5 billion, even as rival Apple Music hits 40 million paid subscribers.
• Grab's acquisition of Uber's south-east Asia business invites regulatory scrutiny from Singapore, the Philippines and Malaysia over monopoly concerns.
• Instagram to allow users download a copy of their data ahead of General Data Protection Regulation rollout next month in the European Union following criticism that the platform lacked data portability.
• Apple may face sanctions in South Korea over its practice of making local carriers pay for advertising and repair costs, according to The Korea Herald.
• Google all set to give Gmail a fresh coat of paint, complete with Tasks, Keep and Calendar integration and capabilities to send self-destructive emails.
• Ride-hailing service Uber acquires bike-share startup JUMP for an undisclosed amount confirming earlier rumours of a sale, as CEO Dara Khosrowshahi sees "the Uber app as moving from just being about car sharing and car hailing to really helping the consumer get from A to B in the most affordable, most dependable, most convenient way."
• VirnetX gets awarded US$ 502.6 million in a fresh judgement against Apple (separate from the US$ 439 million awarded to VirnetX last October) for infringing on its patents related to secure communications even as the legal dispute enters its eighth year.
• On-demand services Spotify and Hulu launch a discounted entertainment bundle for US$ 12.99 per month in an attempt to take on rivals Netflix and Apple.
• Telegram instant messenger gets blocked in Russia after the company refuses to hand over its encryption keys for government monitoring of potential terrorists; faces criticism for failing to remove pirated content on its platform.
• Apple urges its employees to stop leaking confidential information on future plans in a *leaked* internal memo obtained by Bloomberg; says it "caught 29 leakers" last year and had 12 of those arrested, adding "these people not only lose their jobs, they can face extreme difficulty finding employment elsewhere."
• Google releases a new AI-based tool called Talk to Books that lets users type a sentence or ask a question in order to find sentences/books that contain appropriate responses.
• Orkut, the defunct social network shuttered by Google in 2014 which made a comeback as Hello in Brazil in July 2016, announces its re-entry into India, once a leading social networking site in the country.