Tech Roundup: Bitcoin Surge, Twitter Fleets & More

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

• Turkey fines Google US$ 26 million for violating fair competition rules and abusing market dominance by placing text ads above organic search results; competition authority Turkish Competition Board gives the company six months to fix the issue and terminate its "unfair" advertisement strategy.
• Huawei sells its budget smartphone unit Honor to Shenzhen Zhixin New Information Technology Co., a consortium of over 30 partners and government-backed businesses, for an undisclosed sum in a bid "to ensure its own survival."
• Google begins rolling new privacy settings to turn off smart features across Gmail, Chat, and Meet for automatic email filtering, Smart Compose and Smart Reply in Gmail, and extracting event details in emails to create Calendar entries; also makes it possible for users to opt out of personalisation of other Google products such as Assistant, Google Pay, Maps and Travel with information gathered from Gmail, Chat and Meet.
• Privacy campaign group NOYB (None Of Your Business) files fresh complaint with German and Spanish data protection authorities against Apple alleging that the company breaks E.U. e-Privacy directive law by letting advertisers track users via IDFA; says the unique tracking code generated by each iPhone, called IDFA (Identifier for Advertisers), lets Apple and other third parties identify users across applications and even connect online and mobile behaviour without their knowledge or agreement. (It's worth noting that with iOS 14, Apple has tweaked this behaviour such that third-party apps would have to ask for user's explicit permission before accessing a phone's IDFA. The rollout of this feature has been delayed till 2021.)
• Mozilla releases Firefox 83 with new HTTPS-only mode and faster performance; Google rolls out Chrome 87 with what it claims "represents the largest gain in Chrome performance in years" with native support for Apple Silicon Macs and under-the-hood improvements such as tab throttling, new PDF viewer, launch quick actions (edit passwords, delete history, etc.) straight from the address bar, and Cards in Chrome that surface recently-visited and related content based users' browsing histories.
• Microsoft's GitHub reinstates YouTube downloader tool YouTube-dl after initially taking it down following allegations from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) that the tool "was designed and is marketed" for illegally saving copyrighted music; says "we understand that just because code can be used to access copyrighted works doesn't mean it can't also be used to access works in non-infringing ways."
• Facebook-owned Instagram adds keyword search related to general interest topics for users in the UK, US, Ireland, and Canada; formally debuts Guides, a feature letting creators share long-form content in a dedicated tab on their profiles; debuts an updated version of its Messenger Kids app with the goal of making it easier for children to interact with their friends and family, navigate the app, and personalise their experience with features like custom chat bubble colours.
• Google gives Google Pay a makeover with an intent to "to help you improve your relationship with money," as it expands the service to 10 new European countries Austria, Bulgaria, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Portugal, and Romania.

• Google updates Google Fit with improved sleep tracking and new features designed to bring all information across different connected apps and devices into one easy-to-view hub; refreshes Google Maps with pandemic-oriented features like takeout tracking, public transport crowd information, and additions to COVID-19 overlay layer like local case counts.
• China's Didi Chuxing and BYD partner together to design, develop, and build an electric car for the express purpose of ride-hailing, a green hatchback called the D1.
• Google lands in fresh legal quagmire after it gets accused of allegedly stealing Android users' cellular data allowances through unapproved, undisclosed transmissions to the web giant's servers; contends that "the device, stationary, with all apps closed, transferred data to Google about 16 times an hour, or about 389 times in 24 hours," and that "assuming even half of that data is outgoing, Google would receive about 4.4MB per day or 130MB per month in this manner per device subject to the same test conditions."
• Bandcamp launches its own ticketed livestreaming service, Bandcamp Live, allowing artists set ticket prices starting at US$ 1; platform to waive fees until the end of March, after which it will collect 10%.
• Bitcoin's market cap hits US$ 329.91 billion, a new all-time high, breaking December 2017's record, after the cryptocurrency's price crosses US$ 17,000 for the first time since January 7, 2018.
• YouTube introduces audio-only ads for users who listen to music or podcasts in the background; lets advertisers buy ads targeted by mood.
• Twitter offically rolls out Fleets, its take on ephemeral Stories, globally, but says it's working on adding a notification feature when another person shares an account holder's tweet into a fleet and that it's fixing an issue that allows users to tag Twitter accounts who have blocked them; announces plans to test an audio-based social networking feature similar to Clubhouse.
• Shazam, the music recognition app Apple purchased in 2018, surpasses 200 million monthly active users worldwide.
• ByteDance-owned TikTok expands Family Pairing controls to give parents with children age 13 or older additional tools to manage various aspects of their kids' accounts as well as their privacy on the social video platform, including the ability to switch the account from public to private, access the search bar, and options to turn on/off comments.
• Retail behemoth Amazon expands on PillPack, a monthly medication delivery service it acquired in 2018, to launch Amazon Pharmacy, letting customers in the U.S. order prescription medications for home delivery, including two-day delivery for Prime members for no extra fee.