Tech Roundup: Facebook Neural Wristband, Google Threadit & More

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

• A scientific group in Israel grow mice in an artificial womb for as long as 11 or 12 days, about half the animal's natural gestation period, setting a record for development of a mammal outside the womb.
• New research finds that anonymised X-ray datasets can be used to reveal patient identities, exposing sensitive information to reidentification attacks.
• France's competition authority declines to block Apple's App Tracking Transparency (ATT) framework following complaints from advertisers in the country to derail incoming pro-privacy changes in iOS that will require third-party apps to obtain users' consent before they can track them; says ATT "does not appear to reflect an abuse of a dominant position on the part of Apple," but adds it will continue to investigate the company to ensure that "Apple has not applied less restrictive rules" for its own apps (aka "self-preferencing"), signalling how the push to protecting user privacy can be at odds with safeguarding online competition.
• French regulator CNIL opens privacy investigation into invite only social audio app Clubhouse to verify its compliance with the E.U. GDPR data protection framework.
• Facebook outlines its plans for a neural wristband that employs electromyography (EMG) to decode signals sent by the brain to a person's hands, and translate them into digital commands to achieve specific actions, as part of its efforts to develop natural ways to interact with the company's AR glasses; expands support for hardware security keys to iOS and Android apps, allowing users to sign in by connecting to the key either via Bluetooth, NFC, or USB.
• Russia threatens to block Twitter in one month unless the U.S. social media giant complies with a demand to remove banned content, a week after it began slowing down the speed of the service inside the country in retaliation for failing to address concerns regarding problematic material such as child pornography, drugs, and suicide.
• Samsung warns it's grappling with the fallout from a "serious imbalance" in semiconductors globally, as it considers skipping launching a new Galaxy Note phone in 2021, citing difficulties in launching two flagship phones in one year amid a global chip crunch.

• Amazon announces plans to expand Amazon Care, a telehealth service piloted on its employees in Seattle, to other companies and the rest of its U.S. employees this year.
• Video on-demand streaming service Netflix details its carbon footprint using DIMPACT tool for the first time, claiming thar one hour of streaming equates to a 75W ceiling fan running for four hours.
• Snap acquires Berlin-based Fit Analytics, which helps shoppers find the right-sized apparel and footwear online, as it doubles down on e-commerce and fashion in its platform.
• Mozilla's AI ethics advocacy group proposes algorithmic bias detection program modeled on bug bounty programs as part of an initiative called Community Reporting of Algorithmic System Harms (CRASH).
• Google-owned YouTube rolls out Checks, a creator tool that relies on its Content ID system to scan videos ahead of uploading for copyrighted material, in a bid to curb piracy on the video sharing service; ports its real-time caption feature called Live Captions, which uses machine learning to spontaneously create captions for videos or audio, from Pixel phones to the Chrome browser as part of a new accessibility setting.
• Facebook cracks down on groups worldwide to slow the spread of political disinformation; says it will no longer recommend civic and political pages or new groups to all users globally, and that it will remove groups that cause severe harm outright, and show up groups that violate Facebook's rules lower in recommendations, in addition to displaying a warning to users when they are about to join a group that has been found to have had community violations.
• Reddit tweaks the online status feature it recently introduced following criticism, adding an option for Redditors to disable the feature through any platform by going to their profile and clicking the Online Status button under their avatar.
• Chinese government China says it found objectionable posts on Microsoft's LinkedIn, asking it to perform a self-evaluation and suspend new sign-ups for 30 days, highlighting the tricky minefield companies in the west have to navigate to remain in the vast but difficult market.
• Google's Area 120 in-house incubator launches Threadit, a short-form video app for team collaborations (aka a TikTok for work), in beta, as a website and a Chrome plug-in.