Tech Roundup: Google Blockchain, Twitter Flock & More

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

• The European Union passes Digital Services Act, including provisions banning targeted ads based on highly sensitive personal data, and limiting dark patterns.
• The Dutch Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) rules that Apple's plan to allow dating apps on the App Store to use third-party payment methods for in-app purchases does not sufficiently meet the requirements of a prior ruling that called out that the company's anti-competitive business practices; fines Apple €5 million, a number that's expected to climb to €50 million until it complies, adding "Apple has raised several barriers for dating-app providers to the use of third-party payment systems."
• Although Apple's concession is one of a kind, one major question — should it go ahead with the proposal — is its intent to continue to receive a commission for in-app purchases made with dating apps, even if the developer uses a third-party payment method. Apple has yet to reveal what the commission will be or how it plans to implement it.
• U.S. lawmakers sue Google for purportedly deceiving users to gain access to their location data from at least 2014 by using a "complex web" of settings and that it pushed Android users with "repeated nudging, misleading pressure tactics, and evasive and deceptive descriptions" to share more information either "inadvertently or out of frustration."
• IBM to sell part of Watson Health, including image software offerings and extensive data sets, to private equity firm Francisco Partners, in a deal valued at over US$ 1 billion.
• Online stock trading platform Robinhood begins rolling out support for cryptocurrency wallets, with initial users having a daily limit of US$ 2,999 in total withdrawals and 10 transactions.

Image: CB Insights

• Google is reportedly forming a blockchain division to focus on "next-gen distributed computing and data storage technologies"; to shut down Cameos, an invitation-only app that allows celebrities to "record and post video answers to the most asked questions on Google," on February 17.
• Google files to dismiss new antitrust lawsuit accusing the company of ad auction collusion with Facebook to give it an unfair leg up in Google's programmatic ad auctions; disputes the allegations are "more heat than light"; faces new complaint from German publishers for allegedly breaking E.U. competition law by phasing out third-party cookies from Chrome browser by 2023.
• Meta unveils AI Research SuperCluster, a supercomputer to help train the company’s content-moderation systems, develop new augmented reality tools, and build the technology necessary to power the metaverse, claiming it will have 16,000 GPUs and be the world's fastest upon completion in mid-2022.
• Meta's "free" low-data service for developing countries that allows users in Pakistan and the Philippines to use a free version of Facebook without paying for data (via deals brokered with local cell phone carriers) suffers from an unresolved software glitch, leading to unexpected charges for users, totaling an estimated US$ 7.8 million as of July 2021.
• Twitter pilots new called Flock (similar to Instagram's Close Friends) that allows users to share tweets with a specific group of up to 150 accounts.