Tech Roundup: Instagram Threads, Microsoft Surface Duo & More

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

1. Europe's highest court, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), rules that pre-checked cookie consent boxes do not provide the necessary legal consent needed for websites; says consent must be obtained prior to storing or accessing non-essential cookies, such as tracking cookies for targeted advertising.
2. London's Court of Appeal reinstates a lawsuit filed against Google — first brought in November 2017 and subsequently dismissed in October 2018 — that accuses the company of unlawfully gathering personal information by circumventing the iPhone's default privacy settings in Safari browser between June 2011 and February 2012; Google says "This case relates to events that took place nearly a decade ago and that we addressed at the time."
3. Malaysian anti-trust watchdog Malaysia Competition Commission (MyCC) imposes fines of over 86 million ringgit (US$ 20.5 million) on ride-hailing giant Grab for violating competition laws by imposing restrictive clauses on its drivers by preventing them from promoting and providing advertising services for its competitors. (Malaysia is also the third country to fine Grab after Singapore and the Philippines following the company's takeover of Uber's South Asian operations last year.)
4. Turkish data protection agency, Personal Data Protection Board, fines Facebook 1.6 million lira (US$ 282,000) for violating data protection laws stemming from Cambridge Analytica data breach that affected nearly 300,000 people; European Court of Justice rules that courts in the European Union can order Facebook to remove content worldwide — so long as the material is deemed 'illegal' — in fresh setback for the social media giant.
5. Over 20 million tax records belonging to Russian citizens have been found unprotected and exposed through a publicly available online database, including sensitive information full names, addresses, residency statuses, passport numbers, phone numbers, tax ID numbers, employer names, and tax amounts spanning from 2009 to 2016.
6. Google's Project Zero bug hunting team discloses new zero-day vulnerability in Android that attackers, including NSO Group, are actively exploiting, giving them control of approximately 18 phone models, via a malicious app.
7. Apple reverses its decision to ban HKmap.live, an app that lets people in Hong Kong keep track of protests and police activity, following concerns that it may be bowing to pressure from Chinese government.
8. LZPlay, a backdoor that allowed Huawei Mate 30 device owners to manual install Google's Android apps via elevated privileges, goes offline following security concerns. (It's worth noting that Huawei's new devices do not come with pre-installed Google applications in the wake of U.S.-China trade war.)
9. Instagram officially launches Threads for Android and iOS, a new messaging app to chat with close friends, letting users automatically share location, accelerometer (to indicate whether you're biking or driving), and battery level.
10. Microsoft unveils Surface Laptop 3 in 13.5-inch and AMD-powered 15-inch variants with USB-C, up to 1TB SSD, and new colours; new Surface Pro 7 with USB-C support, Surface Pro X ultra-thin 13" two-in-one laptop, dual-screened Surface Neo notebook running Windows 10X (a 'Lite' operating system, exclusively for dual-screens and foldable PCs), foldable Android phone Surface Duo with two inner-facing 5.6" displays, and Surface Buds with gesture controls, 24 hours battery life, two mics per ear, built-in translation, and integration with Microsoft Office (move through PowerPoint slides with a swipe of the touch area).
11. Shared workspace provider WeWork shelves its IPO, days after Adam Neumann stepped down from his role as CEO after it disclosed massive losses and a confusing corporate structure.
12. British digital banking service Revolut partners with Visa to expand into 24 new markets such as the U.S. and Japan by the end of 2019.
13. Facebook reportedly planning to pay only some of the 200 publishers that will be featured in its news tab, which is set to launch as soon as the end of October, reports The Wall Street Journal.
14. Google's paid TV streaming service, YouTube TV, lands on on Amazon's Fire TV platform; confirms car crash detection feature in Pixel 4 with new Personal Safety app, and a new Recorder app with automatic audio transcription, in addition to allowing users to search for a word within transcriptions and pinpoint where that word showed up in the recording.
15. Google suspends fields research program after it invites criticism for reportedly engaging in dubious practices, including targeting the homeless and tricking college students into handing over their face scans, to improve its Pixel 4 facial recognition feature; comes months after it admitted to luring people willing to sell their facial data in exchange for US$ 5 gift certificates to help improve the phone's face unlock system.
16. Popular encrypted chat app Signal fixes a bug in its Android app that could potentially allow attackers to eavesdrop on victims by placing and then immediately auto-answering a call, without the callee's permission; WhatsApp patches a flaw for Android that makes it possible for hackers to steal messages and files by just sending malicious GIFs.
17. Iran-linked hacker group, dubbed Phosphorus, made more than 2,700 attempts to hack 241 accounts belonging to a 2020 presidential campaign and others in the US between August and September, reports Microsoft.
18. Reyes Daniel Ruiz, 34-year-old California resident and former Yahoo! software engineer, pleads guilty to accessing the company's internal systems to compromise accounts belonging to younger women, including his personal friends and work colleagues, to hack into their iCloud, Gmail, Facebook, DropBox, and other online accounts in search of sexual material.
19. Google rolls out new privacy controls across its properties; builds a password checkup feature right into its password manager that checks if any passwords were compromised in a third-party breach (the password checkup is already available as a Chrome extension, but is also expected to be baked into Chrome browser in the near future), adds incognito mode to Google Maps, auto-delete options to delete YouTube history (after rolling out similar settings for Maps and search), and capabilities to wipe recent voice commands or questions to Google Assistant by just saying "Hey Google, delete the last thing I said to you" or "delete everything I said to you last week."
20. Reddit revises its anti-harassment policies to broaden the definition of threats, harassment, and bullying and now lets anyone report violations of its rules, not just victims.
21. Microsoft allows OneDrive users expand 1TB storage in 200GB increments and launches OneDrive Personal Vault, to protect folders using 2FA, worldwide.
22. Popular digital payments service PayPal enters China after the country's central bank approved the company's acquisition of a 70 percent stake in GoPay, making it the first foreign firm licensed to provide digital payment services in China; drops out of Facebook's controversial Libra cryptocurrency project, but says it's "supportive of Libra’s aspirations" and that it will continue to partner with Facebook in the future.
23. Google's redesigned shopping experience following its merger with Google Express, Google Shopping, goes live with options to shop from local stores, track prices and even find style inspiration through Google Lens à la Pinterest.
24. Uber launches new service called Uber Works that matches blue-collar workers such as clerks and chefs with business that are looking for professionals to join their workforce on a temporary and ad-hoc basis.
25. Apple acquires IKinema, a UK-based startup developing motion capture animation technology used in games and virtual reality applications; plans to update Siri that will enable third-party messaging apps like WhatsApp, Skype, and Facebook Messenger to work better with Siri, not just iMessage.
26. Facebook-owned WhatsApp is reportedly developing a new feature that would allow users to self-destruct messages after a set period of time, as Instagram begins testing feature that enables brands and creators to remind their followers about upcoming product launches and make it easier for people to purchase those products directly via Instagram as soon as they are available.
27. Spotify introduces new feature that lets users add podcasts to playlists, create their own custom playlists of their favourite podcasts, or even those that combine music and audio.
28. Microblogging and news platform Twitter rolls out new feature that lets users search direct messages by handle/name.
29. Electronics giant Samsung to no longer manufacture its phones in China as it struggles to compete in a market dominated by Apple, Huawei and Xiaomi; shifts production to India and Vietnam.
30. Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Chromium-powered Edge browsers account for 12 percent market share in September, an all time low, as Firefox hits 8.7 percent, and Google Chrome commands a sizeable lead with 68.5 percent. (Apple's Safari is at 4.4 percent and Opera Software's browser stayed at 1.4 percent.)