Tech Roundup: Alibaba Singles' Day Sales Record, Amazon HQ2 & More

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

• Chinese multinational e-commerce conglomerate Alibaba sets new Singles' Day (11.11, celebrated in China as an antithesis to Valentine's Day) record with US$ 30.8 billion in sales, up 27 percent on last year, but the lowest annual increase in the history of Singles' Day since 2009.
• Facebook-owned WhatsApp funds US$ 1 million for misinformation research, awarding US$ 50,000 each to 20 research projects from 11 countries.
• Facebook fixes a bug that let any website pull information from a users' profile, including their 'likes' and interests, without their knowledge (even in cases where they were visible only to the user's friends), following findings from Ron Masas, a security researcher at Imperva, who discovered that personal information wasn't protected from cross-site request forgery (CSRF) attacks. (Like TechCrunch notes, a website could quietly siphon off certain bits of data from your logged-in Facebook profile in another tab); Facebook says that there was no evidence this method was used to siphon off user data.
• Microsoft backtracks on showing banner ads on Outlook email for web after backlash; European regulators rule that Microsoft Office software is violating GDPR by collecting huge amount of data, including telemetry and content of private emails (if using a spell-checker), from its users without getting their consent.
• Binny Bansal, 37-year-old CEO of Walmart-owned Flipkart, resigns after a probe into "serious personal misconduct".
• Couples are storing each others' biometric information (faces and fingerprints) to unlock their phones for ease of use, while largely ignoring concerns about security and data breaches.
• Facebook emerges the least trustworthy of all major tech companies when it comes to safeguarding user data, according to a new poll of 2,000 U.S. adults conducted by Fortune, with only 22 percent saying that they trust Facebook with their personal information, far less than Amazon (49 percent), Google (41 percent), Microsoft (40 percent), and Apple (39 percent).
• Ride-hailing startup Lyft to launch a rider loyalty program next month across the U.S. that lets riders earn points for each dollar spent, which can then be used for upgrades to nicer cars or savings on future rides, among other things; Uber responds by launching its own rewards program called Uber Rewards (for both Uber and Uber Eats) that will allow users access to new features like dedicated phone support, complimentary upgrades, access to the highest-rated drivers and free cancellations - members earn one point for every dollar spent on Uber Pool and Uber Eats, US$ 2 for UberX and US$ 3 for luxury Uber rides; 500 points take members from Blue to Gold (free cancellations), 2,500 points to Platinum (support fixed rates between two set locations), and 7,500 to Diamond.
• Video streaming subscription service Netflix is reportedly looking at reducing prices in select countries, including India, in an attempt to make further inroads into an already overcrowded streaming market. (In India, for example, Star/Fox's Hotstar Premium costs just Rs. 199/month as opposed to Netflix's Rs. 500/month.)
• Apple stock slides after four of company's suppliers, Qorvo, AMS AG, Japan Display and Lumentum, cut their quarterly outlook, citing reduced iPhone shipment request from the company; faces fresh sales concerns following news that iPhone XR may not sell that well in light of flagship models. (Both XR and XS/XS Max are prohibitively expensive, but Apple's strategy of squeezing more money from customers by intentionally launching products with missing features at a cheaper price is a classic ploy to force people to get the more expensive model and maintain its profit margins.)
• Seattle-based retail giant Amazon confirms Long Island City (NYC) and Crystal City (Virginia) as its east coast headquarters dubbed HQ2, ending a more than yearlong public spectacle contest that started with 238 candidate cities; to create 25,000 new tech jobs in each location. (Did Amazon just engage in a year-long selection process just to choose NYC and D.C.?)
• Google adds more "privacy" features to Google Fi cellular service; allows users to route their encrypted mobile and Wi-Fi data through the network's VPN service with a new "Enhanced Network" feature. (Mind you, the data still passes through Google servers, although it is not tied to your Google account or phone number.)
• Music streaming service Spotify goes live in Lebanon, Jordan, U.A.E., K.S.A., Oman, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, and Algeria even as it is expected to face tough competition from local peers like Deezer, Anghami (which boasts of over 60 million users) and Huawei Music Service; rival YouTube Premium expands to Chile, Colombia, Japan, Peru, Portugal, Switzerland and Ukraine, bringing the total to 25 countries since its launch in June.
• Uber follows Amazon's mantra of expanding its business at the cost of running into loses in hopes that it can turn it around in the future; net losses increases 32 percent quarter over quarter to US$ 939 million.
• Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff compares using Facebook to nicotine addiction, as employee morale at the social networking giant takes a hit; Bailey Richardson, one of Instagram's original 13 employees, deletes her account, saying "It feels like we're all addicted to a drug that doesn't get us high anymore."
• Google borrows a page from Facebook with new messaging features in Google Maps by allowing users contact local businesses without having to make phone calls (businesses, however, will have to install Google My Business app to accept and respond to messages); makes it possible to order food straight from search results (via Google Maps) without having to visit any app. 
• Google to shut down its bipedal robotics arm Schaft after failing to secure a buyer. (It may be noted that Google bought the company along with Boston Dynamics in 2013, only to sell the latter to SoftBank last year. Schaft, which was also initially part of the sale, was however dropped later.)
• Google integrates Google Assistant Routines (series of actions you may ask Google Assistant in a row) into Android clock/alarm app to trigger morning routines when you turn alarm off; adds around 100 ad-supported Hollywood movies, including titles like Rocky, The Terminator, to its YouTube video platform.
• Apple reportedly planning to give Siri offline capabilities, a new patent filing reveals; partners with A24, the movie studio behind several acclaimed films like Moonlight, Hereditary and First Reformed, to produce "independent, feature-length films" for its upcoming streaming service.
• Tinder becomes the latest app to embrace surge economics after Uber and Lyft; to alert users about surges in "dating" activity in a specific area through push notifications and boost their profiles to the front of the line (should you choose to participate in a Swipe Surge).
• Walmart emerges the third biggest online retailer in the U.S. (just behind Amazon and eBay) after it surpasses Apple accounting for 4.0 percent of total retail sales for the year 2018. (In comparison, Amazon has 48 percent share, eBay, 7.2 percent and Apple, 3.9 percent.)
• Samsung begins rolling out Android 9.0 Pie update for Galaxy S9/S9+ with refreshed TouchWiz One UI.
• Instagram takes on Pinterest with new shopping-focussed features; creates a new Shopping collection to let users save items for later purchase, adds shoppable tags in videos and redesigns shop tab for brand profiles.
• Canadian software maker BlackBerry to acquire artificial intelligence and cybersecurity company Cylance for US$ 1.4 billion in cash.
• Verily, Alphabet's health-focussed initiative, pauses further development of contact lenses that can monitor glucose levels in tears due to inherent challenges in getting accurate measurements.