Tech Roundup: Facebook's Data Sharing Agreements, Kache.ai & More

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

• Facebook acquires Bloomsbury AI, a London-based firm that develops tools to combat fake news; details data-sharing agreements with 52 companies, including Amazon, Apple, Qualcomm, and AT&T among others, in addition to 66 other companies with access to user information through its Graph API.
• Facebook says it fixed a programming bug that affected about 800,000 users by unblocking at least one person on that user's block list for about a week.
• Google, Mozilla and Opera pull Stylish, a browser extension for customising websites, after it was caught tracking users' browsing activity (at least since January 2017) and sending the data to a remote server called userstyles.org (a website owned by Stylish).
• A BurgerFi restaurant in Dallas uses facial recognition software to remember users orders (by associating their faces with their orders), according to a report by Dallas Observer.
• Apple releases Siri Shortcuts beta app for iOS 12 developers; surpasses Spotify in paid subscriber count in the United States for the first time.
• Music streaming service Spotify releases Lite version of its app for Android; premium users seek refund after decrying the platform's over-the-top promotion of Drake's new album Scorpion.
• Netflix ditches user reviews; begins testing an expensive "Ultra" subscription tier for US$ 16.99 with access to Ultra HD and HDR features.
• Vivo, the first company to demonstrate in-display fingerprint scanner technology early last year, teases new face unlock method at Mobile World Congress Shanghai.
• Troubled handset maker HTC to lay off 1,500 employees from its Taiwan division in an effort to save money and amid reports that the company's June sales declined a whopping 68%.
• Yandex, Russia's Google, expands to online shopping as it aspires to be the country's Amazon.
• Twitter reportedly suspends 70 million accounts over the past two months as part of its crackdown on accounts that spread malicious activity on the platform.
• Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg tops Warren Buffett to become the world's third richest person after Amazon's Jeff Bezos and Microsoft's former boss Bill Gates.
• Ride sharing service Lyft acquires Motivate, one of the largest bike share companies in the United States; will rename a portion of Motivate's operations to Lyft Bikes.
• Anthony Levandowski, the former Google/Uber executive accused of stealing Waymo's trade secrets, starts a new self-driving startup Kache.ai.
• Instagram begins alerting users when they've seen all posts from the last two days (with a message that says "You're All Caught Up" on their timelines).
• OnePlus' Android variant OxygenOS adds support for Google's Project Treble in latest beta.
• Samsung forecasts slowing sales of its marquee Galaxy S9 smartphone (just like Apple iPhone X), adding to proof that we don't need a new phone every year.
• Movie subscription service MoviePass begins implementing "Peak Pricing" for movies that are in demand based on showtimes.
• Samsung investigating reports that its default messaging app is spontaneously texting users' photos to random contacts without their permission.