Tech Roundup: E.U.-Wide Digital Wallet, Firefox Redesign & More

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

• The European Court of Human Rights rules the U.K. intelligency agency GCHQ's methods for bulk interception of online communications violated the right to privacy, deeming it as unlawful.
• Russia's communications watchdog, Roskomnadzor, threatens Google with a slow down of the company's traffic in the country after the search giant failed to delete what it called prohibited content; fines Google 6 million rubles (US$ 81,600) for failing to delete content that Moscow deems illegal, as governments around the world step up to challenge internet platforms' principles on online freedom.
• PayPal-owned mobile payments app Venmo finally lets users to change their privacy settings, allowing people to make their friend lists private or restrict who can see it; says it's "enhancing our in-app controls providing customers an option to select a public, friends-only, or private setting for their friends list."
• Amazon adds new feature that allows users in India to read articles, commentary and analysis on a wide-range of topics straight from its shopping app; comes days after it launched a free video streaming service within its e-commerce apps in a bid to persuade users to spend more time on the shopping service.
• Twitter launches Tomorrow, a local weather news service that includes newsletters, ticketed audio sessions, and Q&As, allowing members to ask unlimited questions during breaking news weather events to meteorologists and climate experts, as the social news service announces plans to invest in journalism collectives across every topic; to start adding full-screen ads to Fleets, supporting images and videos that can be up to 30 seconds long, initially in the U.S. on iOS and Android.

• Samsung and AMD team up to build Exynos mobile chips featuring RDNA 2 graphics with support for ray tracing and variable rate shading.
• Chinese handset maker Xiaomi demos fully charging a 4,000mAh battery in eight minutes over a 200W "HyperCharge" system or in 15 minutes with 120W wireless charging.
• Facebook-owned Instagram to tweak its algorithm to rank original and reposted content equally following concerns that pro-Palestinian voices were censored on the platform and that "moderating at scale is biased against any marginalised groups."
• Mozilla officially rolls out Firefox 89 with a complete visual overhaul dubbed "Proton" with a simplified browser chrome and toolbar, streamlined menus, updated prompts, and a floating tabs design.
• The European Union to announce plans for bloc-wide digital wallet that will allow citizens from 27 countries in the region to securely store payment details and passwords and access public and private services online; to also serve as a vault where users can store official documents such as a driver's licence and other IDs.
• Coinbase add new feature that allows users to use their Coinbase Card with Apple Pay and Google Pay and spend cryptocurrencies; company to "automatically convert all cryptocurrency to U.S. Dollars and transfer the funds to your Coinbase Card for use in purchases and ATM withdrawals" in return for a small conversion fee.
• Google's YouTube adds a loop option to currently playing videos on its mobile app; search giant attempts to assuage concerns that it will bypass the privacy-friendly rules it's introducing in place of third-party cookies in Chrome, adding "we'll be using these [Privacy Sandbox] APIs for our own ads and measurement products just like everyone else, and we will not build any backdoors for ourselves."