Tech Roundup: Robinhood Savings Account Fiasco, Russian Propaganda & More

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

• Australia's competition watchdog Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) suggests strong measures to curb the power of U.S. tech giants like Facebook and Google; calls for establishing a watchdog dedicated to regulating how Google and Facebook publish news, and preventing Google Chrome from being installed as the go-to browser on Australian devices.
• A new report published by The Computational Propaganda Project finds that Russian troll farm Internet Research Agency (IRA) mounted extensive efforts to inflame sentiments on various platforms including Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter to polarise U.S. voters by targeting specific demographics like African-Americans, conservatives, LGBT community, Mexican-Americans and Muslims. (Mind you, these efforts were not propaganda disguised as ads, but rather regular social media posts from troll accounts BlackMattersUS.com (Facebook/Instagram/Twitter/Tumblr/SoundCloud), @blackstagram_ (Instagram). A separate independent report, in fact, found Instagram to be the most effective platform for Russian misinformation.)
• Google CEO Sundar Pichai says he is willing to abide by a E.U. GDPR-like privacy regulation in the U.S. in a testimony hearing examining the company’s data collection practices and its role in shaping filter bubbles; thinks Android users have a good understanding of the volume of data Google collects on them, when they agree to use the Android mobile operating system. (How many of them actually read the privacy policy before setting up their shiny new phone is the big question. While not choosing to read user agreements is no fault of Google, simplifying privacy policies can go a long way.)
• "123456" and "password" continue to be the worst password for the fifth year in a row, according to an analysis of 5 million leaked passwords on the internet held by users mostly from the U.S. and Western Europe; others include "123456789", "12345678", "12345", "111111", "1234567", "sunshine", "qwerty" and "iloveyou" (in that order).
• Facebook gets slammed by current and former fact-checkers it had hired to combat misinformation on the platform for using them as "crisis PR" than to genuinely address the problem; say "They're not taking anything seriously. They are more interested in making themselves look good and passing the buck… They clearly don't care."
• Twitter discloses a security flaw (identified on Nov 15 and fixed the next day) that allowed bad actors (from China and Saudi Arabia) to improperly access country codes of accounts' phone numbers and separate glitch that made it possible for several apps that use Twitter login to read users' direct messages even if explicitly told otherwise.
• Walmart patents a connected shopping cart with a biometric feedback handle that can measure a shopper's heart rate, temperature, their grip strength on the handle, their oxygen saturation, how long it has been since they last grabbed the cart's handle and even the cart's speed.
• Google releases a new KaiOS-based (which also powers JioPhone in India) feature phone called WizPhone WP006 targeting Indonesian market, with Google Assistant, Google Maps, Google Search and other apps like Facebook, WhatsApp and YouTube pre-installed; acquires Sigmoid Labs, developer of popular Indian app 'Where is my Train' as it continues to push aggressively into emerging markets.
• Microsoft shares more details about its Chromium-based web browser; says it plans to bring support for Chrome extensions (well, duh!); the company's enterprise chat service Teams reportedly on track to outpace rivals Slack and Hangouts (Chat) by 2020, according to a survey of 900 IT companies distributed across the U.S. and Europe conducted by Spiceworks.
• Project management app Trello, which was acquired by Atlassian for US$ 425 million early 2017, acquires Butler, an IFTTT-like rules-based tool for automating repeated tasks.
• Apple brings Apple Pay to Germany, Belgium and Kazakhstan. (Since its launch in the U.S. in 2014, the cashless payment service has expanded to the U.K., Canada, Australia, China, Singapore, Switzerland, France, Japan, Spain, Italy, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Russia, New Zealand, Brazil, Poland, Ireland, and Ukraine.)
• Instagram adds voice messaging in Direct Messages (a la Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp) that allows users to record a short voice message (up to one-minute length) that appears in the chat as an audio wave form that recipients can then listen to at their leisure. (The voice messages are permanently listenable forever.)
• Apple faces new lawsuit accusing the company of designing an advertising strategy with an intention to obscure the notch, leading the complainant to believe that the iPhone XS Max wouldn't actually come with a notch. (Let's not forget that Apple conveniently chose a completely black wallpaper that hides the notch!)

Can you see the notch on iPhone XS and XS Max?

• Google Maps continues to ramp up its social experience; brings "For You" personalised suggestions that offers users a feed of updates and news from places and stores they like (you can also follow specific brands and stores just like Facebook Pages) as well as recommendations for new things to try and begins integrating Lime bikes and scooters as a new transit option (along with Uber and Lyft) in select cities across the world.
• Apple avoids iPhone ban in India after it accepts an Indian government–sponsored anti-spam app into the App Store after protracted negotiation; but gets most of its iPhones banned in China (iPhone 6s through X) following a Chinese court ruling as part of its ongoing feud with Qualcomm, with the latter accusing Apple of violating software patents held by the company related to resizing pictures and managing applications, implying the ban can be circumvented by a software update, which is indeed what Apple intends to do. (It may be noted that Apple has previously sued Qualcomm for abusing its dominance as a smartphone modem supplier to charge "disproportionately high" fees for use of its patents necessary to make a smartphone. Qualcomm has retaliated by stating that Apple has been stealing its wireless technology for several years in an attempt to rid itself of Qualcomm, and instead switch to rival Intel by giving its underlying software code to the company in order to boost Intel's modem speeds, which are known to be slower.)
• Microsoft's Windows 10 operating system sends activity history of users back to the company even if the setting is explicitly turned off; only clears if users also turn off the option to send full telemetry information for diagnostic purposes. (Another reason why Data is the new oil.)
• Google reveals that India is the only country in the world where YouTube has more unique visitors per month than Google Search. (#WhyYouTubeShouldGiveNetflixSleeplessNights)
• Samsung unveils its latest smartphone, the Galaxy A8s, company's first smartphone with edge-to-edge Infinity-O display (except for a small hole for the front-facing camera) and no headphone jack; Huawei follows up with Nova 4 and Honor View 20 smartphones boasting of a hole-punch cut-out for 25 MP selfie camera and 48-megapixel rear camera. (The punch-hole setup, in my opinion, appears to be a better solution than a notch, as is Xiaomi Mi Mix 3 or Honor Magic 2's sliding mechanism, but Vivo Nex's popup selfie camera is a bit too much.)
• DuckDuckGo, the privacy focused search engine, acquires the domain Duck.com from Google for an undisclosed amount.
• Facebook found to be using sneaky software methods to escape ad blockers; makes it difficult for such extensions to identify ad embeds in the HTML page (which rely on locating specific patterns that are consistent across the site) by breaking the word "sponsored" into several chunks or insert extra letters ("SpSonSsoSredS") and adding the word to all regular posts on the news feed, even ones that are not ads, and then using another piece of code to hide it on the non-ads.
• Google-led Accelerated Mobile Pages, which recently embraced an open governance model to counter criticisms that the search giant is using AMP as an ammunition to force publishers to adopt the format in order to rank highly in Google search results, goes into effect with members from Microsoft, Twitter, The New York Times, The Washington Post, AliExpress, Vox Media and more.
• Ride-hailing service Uber gets sued by once-rival Sidecar (it shuttered its business in 2015), calling it a monopolist that drove the company out of business; alleges that Uber employed predatory pricing and other anticompetitive practices to undermine Sidecar and other rivals.
• Google's YouTube says it took down more than 58 million videos and 224 million comments during the third quarter for violations of its content policies (spam, extremist content, nudity, violent extremism and child safety); brings its image/text-recognition product Lens to Google Search's iOS app.
• Apple announces that it's shutting down Apple Music Connect (just like Ping, proving no one needs social features inside a streaming app), a platform that allowed artists to connect with listeners effective May 24, 2019; Apple Music gets an unofficial web player, courtesy Naveed Golafshani, that lets subscribers access their full library and other Apple Music features on the web.
• New unauthorised reports from The New York Times and Reuters fuel speculations that China may be behind the recent Marriott hotel data breach.
• Microsoft launches a fresh news app called Hummingbird (Android only, and available only in the U.S. for now) that employs artificial intelligence to curate news based on users' likes and dislikes.
• Opera web browser for Android gets a built-in cryptocurrency wallet (only support for Ethereum, other coins coming later), months after checks to prevent cryptojacking (a form of cyber attack in which a hacker hijacks a target's processing power in order to mine cryptocurrency on the hacker's behalf).
• Tumblr app makes a return to iOS App Store after it takes steps to ban pornographic content starting December 17.
• Facebook expands its streaming service Watch globally to China (Hong Kong), India, Bangladesh, South Africa, Taiwan, Italy, Saudi Arabia, even as it slashes some of the funding for its original news shows made in partnership with CNN, Buzzfeed, and ABC News.
• Grocery delivery service Instacart to no longer deliver items from Whole Foods (which was acquired by Amazon last year for US$ 13.7 billion) starting February 10 next year as the latter's AmazonFresh emerges a direct threat.
• Free stock trading service Robinhood ventures into financial services with new zero-fee checking and savings account features in the U.S., offering 3 percent interest, access to over 75,000 free ATMs, 24/7 customer support, and a personalised debit card; later backtracks, saying that it plans "to work closely with regulators as we prepare to launch our cash management program" after its plan draws criticism and potential regulatory scrutiny.
• Amazon begins selling its Echo-supported wall clock for US$ 30; allows users of Echo devices to sync the clock to the device in order to display timers, alarms, and reminders through voice commands.
• Google follows Microsoft's footsteps, promising stricter policies around selling facial recognition software, citing the potential for abuse and calling for tighter regulation.
• Apple unveils plans to open a new campus in Austin, Texas, a city from which it already operates, in exchange for various incentives, grants, and big tax breaks, months after calling Amazon's hunt for a second headquarters (dubbed HQ2) a "beauty" contest.
• Highest grossing iPhone and iPad apps of the year worldwide show that subscription-based video streaming is what makes money; Hulu, QQ (Tencent's instant messaging app), Youku (Alibaba-owned SVoD), Pandora, YouTube, Kwai (Kuaishou's social video-sharing network), iQiyi (Baidu-run SVoD), Tinder, Tencent Video (Tencent-owned SVoD) and Netflix dominate the top 10 (in order of increasing revenues).
• Ola, Uber's India rival, invests US$ 100M million in scooter rental startup Vogo, which currently operates in Bengaluru and Hyderabad.