Tech Roundup: E.U. Google-Android Split, WhatsApp Misinformation Troubles & More

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

• Saudi Arabia reportedly had a mole inside Twitter to "spy on the accounts of dissidents and others," according to a new report by The New York Times as fallout from The Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi's mysterious death continues, in addition to illustrating "how authoritarian governments can manipulate social media to silence or drown out critical voices while spreading their own version of reality."
• Denmark becomes the first country to require businesses to encrypt emails containing sensitive personal information end-to-end, starting January 1, 2019.
• The use of Google's YouTube as a destination to spread jihadi terrorist propaganda online is dramatically declining, according to latest report from Site Intelligence Group.
• DuckDuckGo's small study of 1,297 adult Americans finds that 50.4% aren't aware that WhatsApp is owned by Facebook, or that Waze is owned by Google (56.38%).
• WhatsApp suffers from yet another misinformation problem after an investigation finds local marketing firms in Brazil to be buying bundles of phone numbers and using them to mass-WhatsApp voters anti-leftist propaganda ahead of the elections, highlighting the abuse of end-to-end encryption on the messaging service.
• Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos says "Internet in its current incarnation is a confirmation bias machine ... I worry that some of these technologies will be very useful to autocratic regimes to enforce their will."
• "No one ever leaves a job because everything's awesome," says former Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom in his first comments post exit from the Facebook-owned company.
• Apple begins allowing users in U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand to download their data online through its Privacy portal, months after rolling out the feature to EU customers in order to comply with GDPR.
• Microsoft employees stand up against the company, calling for it to ditch a proposed U.S. military contract that would see the technology giant providing computer power for artificial intelligence to be used in warfare for the next ten years; accuse the company of betraying its principles "in exchange for short-term profits."
• Facebook fixes another bug that deleted users' live videos (refuses to say how many were affected), raising concerns about why anyone should trust in the platform merely days suffering from a massive data breach that affected 30 million users.
• Tumblr patches a security vulnerability in its desktop site (via Recommended Blogs) that allowed a hacker to steal login credentials and other private information for users' accounts; says it found "no evidence of this security bug being abused" by an attacker.
• Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen passes away at 65 after a battle with cancer.
• Google rumoured to re-launch Shopping tab as a gateway to purchases from online retailers like Flipkart, Paytm Mall and Snapdeal, according to latest report from The Economic Times.
• Facebook confirms users' activity on the social network is also a crucial factor that determines the order of posts in Instagram feeds.
• Facebook quietly reverses its stance on data collection practices in Portal video chat device; now says "Portal doesn't have ads, but data about who you call and data about which apps you use on Portal can be used to target you with ads on other Facebook-owned properties." (This is what it told before: "No data collected through Portal — even call log data or app usage data, like the fact that you listened to Spotify — will be used to target users with ads on Facebook.")
• Uber is reportedly looking at expanding into short-term staffing and hospitality services, reports The Financial Times, adding the new vertical, dubbed Uber Works, would provide waiters, security guards and other temporary staffers to business partners.
• Apple hires founders of San Francisco-based music analytics startup Asaii to work for Apple Music, reports TechCrunch. (Asaii announced its plans to shut down on October 14 last month.)
• Adobe announces full version of Photoshop for the iPad; unveils new cross-platform video editor Premiere Rush.
• Palm partners with TCL for a new 3.3-inch Android-powered ultra-mobile smartphone for US$ 349 that's meant to function as a smartphone accessory. (In other words, it's a tiny phone to keep you from using your big phone.)
• Former Google engineer Morgan Knutson who worked on Google+ washes dirty laundry on Twitter; says Vic Gundotra, the then-VP of Google+, ruled over the project with an iron fist, never bothered to talk to his team, and that he bribed other teams within Google to incorporate Google+'s social features into their products (that nobody asked) by promising them handsome financial rewards for doing so (remember the forced Google+ integration in YouTube?)
• Google says it's is splitting up Chrome, Search, and Android (only for the European Union) in response to hefty fines issued by European Commission for abusing its dominance to push its own products in Android and preventing forks like Amazon Fire OS and Meizu's Flyme OS; to start allowing manufacturers build smartphones and tablets running a forked version of Android while also selling devices with the Play Store, and ask them for a licensing fee (as much as US$ 40 per phone) to bundle Play Store and other Google apps starting October 29. (Android by itself is still free and open-source under AOSP, but Google has also reportedly signed agreements with device makers to agree to cover some or all of the licensing costs if they pre-install Chrome and Search.) 
• Netflix adds 7 million subscribers (1.09 million in the U.S., and 5.87 million elsewhere) for the three month period july-aug-sept (taking the the total number of subscribers to 137 million) as it continues to ramp up its original offerings; urges TV industry to just focus on news and sports. (Once Disney and WarnerMedia launch their own streaming services next year, it's likely that they are going to pull their content from Netflix in an attempt to lure new subscribers, in which it will be a huge blow for the streaming giant, with nothing really interesting to fill the content hole.)
• Google's YouTube suffers an inexplicable outage for more than hour, sending the video streaming service down along with YouTube TV and YouTube Music; partners with ticketing service Eventbrite to sell concert tickets below music videos on the platform (only in the U.S.)
• Facebook said to be working on a TV-streaming device codenamed Ripley (with access to Facebook Watch), reports Cheddar, days after reverse engineering mastermind Jane Manchun Wong tweeted about discovering the name in Facebook code; courts fresh trouble after a new lawsuit alleges that the company knew about inflated video metrics that it provided to advertisers and brands for more than a year (despite complaints coming in as early as 2015) and that it did everything to "obfuscate the fact that we screwed up."
• Facebook begins demoting news publishers and other websites in News Feed that "illicitly scrape and republish content from other sources with little or no modification"; to bring Instant Games to Facebook Groups and its Facebook Lite application.
• Apple goes over its way to apologise over hacking of some Chinese accounts in phishing scams (number of users affected not revealed), almost a week after it emerged that stolen Apple IDs had been used to swipe customer funds; says the victims of the hack failed to turn on two-factor authentication, making it easier for the hackers to gain access to their accounts. 
• Huawei unveils a trio of flagship Android smartphones Mate 20, Mate 20 Pro and Mate 20 X with facial and on-display fingerprint recognition.
• Google Maps adds star ratings to places right on the map; makes it possible to share live location with family and friends.
• Microsoft's voice assistant Cortana gets a major redesign for Android and iOS with improved conversational experiences; releases a new app called Spend to track expenses for work-related reimbursement purposes.
• "Essential decides a third of its staff isn't"; cuts a third of its staff from the company's hardware, marketing, and sales divisions, as it continues to focus on a new smartphone that operates on voice commands.
• Apple sends out invites for a new October 30 event to unveil new iPad and Mac models.