Tech Roundup: Apple's Netflix for News, Facebook BOLO List & More

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

1. Russia to disconnect from the internet as part of a planned experiment following the introduction of a proposed law late last year that mandates Russian internet service providers to ensure the independence of the Russian internet space (Runet) in the case of foreign aggression to disconnect the country from the rest of the internet.
2. Third-party hardware makers of smart home devices like Logitech and Hunter Fan Co. say they are pushing back against requests from Amazon and Google to "to send a continuous stream of information" about their users' daily activities (turning a light on/off, front door is bolted etc., irrespective of whether Alexa or Google Assistant is used to perform the action) citing privacy concerns; say "Oversharing for the sake of oversharing is probably never a good thing […] We should have a good reason, and our users should agree it’s a good reason" as tech giants' unquenchable thirst for user data to identify behavioural patterns using AI and machine learning models reach a new high. (Sharing the data is fine, as long as Amazon and Google make their data collection, sharing and retention practices available for one and all to see. But given their poor record with transparency, it's right to raise these concerns now than having to deal with a Cambridge Analytica like privacy crisis later.)
3. Facebook reportedly looking to settle Federal Trade Commission's investigation into the company's string of privacy lapses last year by negotiating a record multibillion-dollar fine, reports The Washington Post.
4. Indian government presses Facebook-owned WhatsApp to allow more official oversight of online discussions, by giving authorities access to protected, or encrypted, messages at the expense of weakening the privacy protections, following concerns the messaging app is used to incite violence and spread pornography; also demands Facebook, Google, Twitter, TikTok and others remove posts or videos that they deem libellous, invasive of privacy, hateful or deceptive, in addition to building automated screening tools to block Indians from seeing "unlawful information or content."
5. New investigation from TechCrunch shows that porn and gambling apps exploit Apple's enterprise developer program to distribute apps (both categories are banned by Apple on the platform), proving that Apple has failed in its responsibility to oversee the Enterprise Certificate program that have been found to be abused by a variety of companies (including Facebook and Google) to circumvent App Store restrictions.
6. Around 17,000 Android apps are found to be using devices' Wi-Fi Mac address, IMEI number and Android ID (all of which are unique to a device and cannot be changed) to link a user specific activity as a means to track users persistently as opposed to using the Advertising ID, a unique but resettable number that can be used for tailored ad targeting on Android smartphones and iPhones, thereby completely undermining privacy protections offered by ad ID. (This follows a similar research that came out in 2017 that demonstrated how ad companies can track users across browsers based on several hardware features to generate a unique fingerprint.)
7. Twitter is found to be retaining deleted users' directed messages, including from accounts that have been deleted or suspended, according to security researcher Karan Saini, who discovered years-old messages using a deprecated API to retrieve direct messages even after a message was deleted from both the sender and the recipient, once again proving nothing ever gets "truly" deleted from the web. (Takeaway? Be always cautious when sharing anything on the web. Even if you delete your account, the company can still retain the information it gathered about to you for various purposes. One more reason why reading Privacy Policy is very important before signing up for any service.)
8. Facebook reportedly tracks "individuals of interest" that it thinks could pose a threat to the company using the location data they provide through Facebook’s apps and websites, raising "Big Brother" concerns; people may end up on the "Be On LookOut" list for "saying something as simple as 'F--- you, Mark,' 'F--- Facebook' or 'I'm gonna go kick your a--,'" according to CNBC.
9. Brave browser, which positions itself as a privacy conscious alternative by blocking ads by default in exchange for putting its own ads (by analysing users' anonymised browsing history), is found to be allowing trackers from Facebook and Twitter.
10. Ad-serving scripts in websites slow down browsing speeds, suggests analysis of the most popular one million websites; JavaScript code that allows Google place ads on pages and analyse user activity found to cause the longest delays.
11. Netflix records viewers' every choice made while watching Black Mirror: Bandersnatch in order to help it "determine how to improve this model of storytelling in the context of a show or movie," reveals a GDPR request to the surprise of no one.
12. Apple rumoured to be holding a March 25 event to unveil a Netflix-like paid news subscription service in Apple News amid reports that it's negotiating financial terms with news publishers, under which Apple would get half of the revenue, and the other half split among publishers "according to the amount of time users spend engaged with their articles." (How about expanding Apple News beyond U.S., U.K. and Australia first?)
13. Google overhauls Gmail desktop web client with a slew of new right-click context menu popup actions; adds capabilities to reply, forward, label, move, mute, and snooze emails as it readies for Inbox shutdown at the end of next month; realigns Android Things (previously called Brillo), its Android-based platform for smart devices, to focus exclusively on smart speakers and smart displays as it continues to fight Amazon in the IoT space.
14. Popular social aggregator site Reddit receives a US$ 150 million investment from Tencent, the Chinese tech giant behind WeChat and League of Legends, sparking fears of censorship among Reddit users.
15. Apple's iPhone shipments fell 19.9 percent during the fourth quarter in China, according to research firm IDC, stating, the phone's high price "led to the decline of Apple's domestic market"; to get around iPhone 7 and 8 sales ban in Germany over its ongoing patent dispute with chipmaker Qualcomm; says it has “no choice” but to replace Intel chips in the iPhone models with chips from Qualcomm in order to allow them to be sold again in the country.
16. Bumble, Tinder's biggest rival in the online dating market, launches its own version of Tinder Boost called Spotlight that allows users to pay to boost their profile to the front of the queue in order to be seen by more people than they would otherwise.
17. Microsoft owned LinkedIn debuts LinkedIn Live, a new live broadcast service that allows people and organisations to stream real-time video to select groups, or to everyone on LinkedIn.
18. Popular Indian food delivery startup Swiggy expands to include product deliveries from local stories, including groceries and other items.
19. Photo-sharing website 500px announces that personal information of 14.8 million of its users was impacted by a security breach that occurred in July 2018; says the unknown party accessed users’ first and last names, usernames, email address, hashed version of their passwords as well as birthdate, gender, and location, and that it is in the process of notifying all of its users and resetting their login credentials.
20. Facebook-owned Instagram begins testing direct messages, a feature restricted to its Android and  iOS apps, on desktop and mobile web; cedes to Indonesian government's request and shuts down an account (named Alpantuni) after it posts a comic strip depicting the struggles of a gay Muslim man living in a religiously conservative society.
21. Amazon scraps plans for a second headquarters in New York City after stiff resistance over proposed US$ 3 billion in subsidies and tax breaks and concerns about higher taxes, rents and traffic-congestion (Amazon HQ2 would have added an estimated 25,000 new jobs); says it "will proceed as planned in Northern Virginia and Nashville, and we will continue to hire and grow across our 17 corporate offices and tech hubs in the U.S. and Canada."
22. SoundCloud says 200 million tracks have been uploaded to the music streaming platform, up from 125 million back in 2016. (In comparison, Spotify has about 35 million songs, and Apple Music has over 45 million.)
23. Apple goes on an acquisition spree; buys PullString, an AI voice startup that helps companies build Alexa and Google Assistant apps, and Data Tiger, a U.K.-based startup focused on digital marketing that "takes advantage of customer data to send relevant materials and advertisements to them."
24. Mozilla adds persistent private browsing mode to Firefox in iOS, allowing users to browse the web in Private Browsing mode at all times.
25. Tudder, Tinder for cows (and portmanteau of Tinder and Udder), launches in England to help farmers find potential partners for their cattle, making it the first ever matchmaking app for livestock.
26. Ride-hailing startup Uber, which is gearing up to go public, reports gross bookings (the amount collected before it pays drivers) worth US$ 14.2 billion (up 11 percent QoQ), and revenues of US$ 3 billion (up 2 percent QoQ) for the period October-December, 2018.