Tech Roundup: Brave Today, Reddit's Dubsmash Purchase & More

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

• France's data protection agency, the CNIL, fines Google and Amazon (€100 million and €35 million) for including tracking cookies to French versions of their websites without user's explicit consent.
• Germany's competition regulator, the Federal Cartel Office (FCO), launches an antitrust probe into Facebook for forcing new requirements that mandates users of Oculus VR headsets to log in with a Facebook account; says "Linking virtual reality products and the group’s social network in this way could constitute a prohibited abuse of dominance by Facebook."
• Facebook, which owns Oculus, had previously reasoned that "using a VR profile that is backed by a Facebook account and authentic identity helps us protect our community and makes it possible to offer additional integrity tools."
• New report from The Information reveals Apple failed to keep its supplier partners in China accountable, and that it stood by while its suppliers periodically filled their factories with temporary workers or "dispatch labor," violating a Chinese labor law requiring no more than 10 percent of a factory's workers be temporary employees.
• Reddit acquires short-form video social platform and TikTok rival Dubsmash; to continue maintaining its own platform and brand, but will "integrate Dubsmash's innovative video creation tools into Reddit, which will empower Reddit's own creators to express themselves in original and authentic ways that are endemic to our communities."
• Google to begin requiring Chrome extensions to display privacy practices and enforce new restrictions that limit the kinds of data extensions can collect starting from January 18, 2021, ahead the release of Chrome 88; to also turn on the controversial Manifest V3 feature that places severe caps on how extensions can interact with a web page (spelling trouble for ad blockers) and update Chrome browser to allow users to save passwords locally on the device even with Chrome sync turned off.
• Google, Dell, Intel, Box, Cirtrix, Imprivata, Okta, RingCentral, Slack, VMWare, and Zoom form The Modern Computing Alliance to focus on performance; security and identity; remote work, productivity, and collaboration; and health care and developing new standards and interoperable technologies that can be used by companies that rely on one of the partners' platforms or products.
• Apple clarifies its mandatory app privacy nutrition labels program (that detail exactly what types of data third-party apps collect on users for improved transparency) will apply to all apps, including first-party apps, after Facebook's WhatsApp questions the lack of consistency in enforcing the rules, stating they are anti-competitive and don't apply to Apple's own apps that come pre-installed on iPhones and iPads.
• Spotify says it has reset an undisclosed number of user passwords after fixing a bug in its systems that exposed users' account data to its business partners.
• Apple outlines plans to build its own cellular modem for future devices in a "key strategic transition" that would push toward greater reliance on its own parts at the expense of Qualcomm, Intel and other suppliers.
• It's worth noting that Apple started shipping its own chips in 2010 with the A4 main processor in the iPhone 4 and original iPad, and has since expanded this work to build custom camera processors, chips to handle artificial intelligence tasks and collect motion data, along with chips for MacBooks, Apple Watches, Apple TVs and headphones.
• Disney to raise the cost of Disney+ to US$ 7.99 per month, up from US$ 6.99, in the U.S. starting in March 2021, as the company heavily invests in content offerings and the streaming service surpasses 86 million subscribers 13 months after launch (In comparison, Hulu and ESPN+ have 38.8 million and 11.5 million subscribers respectively); introduces a new bundle offering Disney+, ESPN+, and ad-free Hulu for US$ 18.99 a month, unveils Star, its Hulu replacement and a free tier within Disney Plus for subscribers in Europe (where the cost of Disney+ will jump from £5.99 to £8.99), Canada, and New Zealand. (It's worth noting that Star is already a big brand particularly in India, with its streaming service Disney+ Hotstar amassing 18 million subscribers as of September.)

• Facebook rolls out Shopping in Instagram Reels globally starting today, letting businesses and creators tag products when they create Reels, and making it easier for users to tap a "View Products" button to either buy, save or learn more about the featured products.
• Twitter gains native Instagram and Snapchat integration, allowing users to share tweets directly to Snapchat and Instagram stories; acquires and and shuts down screen-sharing social app Squad as parts of its efforts to "bring new ways for people to interact, express themselves, and join in the public conversation."
• Google to offer users more control over alcohol and gambling ads, starting with YouTube in the U.S.; debuts new features that lets users directly edit attached Office files in Gmail without having to import the documents into Google Drive in order to edit or modify them, and control Nest cameras, thermostats and doorbells with Samsung's SmartThings smart home automation hub.
• Cydia, a once-popular app store for jailbroken iOS devices, becomes the latest company to sue Apple for monopolising the app marketplace on iOS, alleging the company used anti-competitive tactics to force out competing app distribution platforms; accuses Apple of "coercing users to utilize no other iOS app distribution service but the App Store, coupling it closer and closer to the iPhone itself in order to crowd out all competition."
• Pinterest begins rolling out new notes, favourites, and toolbar features for boards, allowing users to add private notes to their Pins on either their public or private boards, sort Pins, and mark specific Pins as favourites.
• Brave browser updates its iOS app to remove Brave Rewards and tipping feature for violating App Store‌ guidelines 3.1.1 and 3.2.2 that prevent apps from giving a tip to an individual unless it's routed through Apple's in-app purchases system (thus allowing Apple to collect its 30% cut); debuts new Brave Today news reader service integrated into the browser that aims to aims preserve users' privacy by using a new private content delivery network to deliver RSS feeds anonymously in a way that disentangles IP addresses from the content that's requested.
• Microsoft waters down "Productivity Score" tool after the feature that allows managers to use Microsoft 365 to track their employees' activity at an individual level is criticised for enabling workplace surveillance; says it will entirely remove the "feature that showed end-user names and associated actions over a 28-day period."
• Surveillance vendors such as Rayzone and Bsightful are siphoning location data from smartphones with the help of tools used to serve mobile ads on third-party apps, according to a new report from Forbes; comes weeks after the company behind the X-Mode SDK was caught selling customer location data to government contractors. (In the wake of the revelations, Apple and Google banned data broker X-Mode from collecting any location information and urged developers to remove X-Mode's tracking software from thier apps or risk getting blocked out of Android and iOS.)
• Apple to retire its Music Memos, an app released in 2016 to let musicians record song ideas, on March 1, 2021; recommends users to export their recordings to Voice Memos.