Tech Roundup: ByteDance Wukong, Meta Accounts & More

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

• Twitter faces fresh setback after former head of security, Peiter "Mudge" Zatko, files an explosive whistleblower complaint about "extreme, egregious deficiencies" in its defences against threat actors, as well as its meagre efforts to fight spam; alleges "the Indian government had forced Twitter to put one of its agents on the payroll, with access to user data at a time of intense protests in the country," as the company says the claims paint a "false narrative that is riddled with inconsistencies and inaccuracies."
• Enterprise giant Oracle becomes the subject of a fresh privacy class-action lawsuit in the U.S., alleging the company's role as a "worldwide surveillance machine" has "created a network that tracks in real-time and records indefinitely the personal information of hundreds of millions of people."
• U.S. healthcare provider Novant Health discloses data breach impacting 1,362,296 individuals after inadvertently leaking their personal information, including email addresses, phone numbers, financial information and appointment details, to Meta from May 2020 to May 2022 through the latter's ad tracking script Meta Pixel; comes amid a class-action lawsuit filed against Meta for knowingly collecting patient information without requesting the user's consent via Meta Pixel.
• The lawsuit noted that "Facebook monetizes the information it receives through the Facebook Pixel deployed on medical providers' web properties by using it to generate highly-profitable targeted advertising on and off Facebook."
• A recent investigation by The Markup found Meta Pixel in 30% of the top 80,000 most popular websites.
• Meta, the parent company of Facebook, reaches a US$ 37.5 million settlement in a U.S. lawsuit accusing the company of violating the privacy of users by using IP addresses to determine users' locations through smartphones, despite turning off location services and without their explicit permission.
• Snap agrees to settle a class-action lawsuit filed in the U.S. state of Illinois for US$ 35 million over allegations that the company violated the state’s Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) by collecting and storing biometric data without users' consent through Snapchat’s filters and lenses.
• Google begins testing a dedicated landing page for video podcasts within YouTube at youtube.com/podcasts; launches a new feature for Google Meet Hardware that will disable the "Hey, Google" voice control during a meeting and 10 minutes before.
• TikTok owner ByteDance launches Wukong in China, a search engine offering that promises no advertisements, bringing it into closer competition with Baidu, the dominant search engine in the country; pilots a new "Nearby" feed with select users in Southeast Asia that displays local content to users, alongside a creator-focussed feature that makes it possible to add location tags to videos.
• Twitter tests a special "Verified phone number" tag for accounts as part of its civic integrity efforts.
• Transcription service Otter limits history to 25 most recent recording for free users, requiring a subscription to access the back catalogue; also reduces monthly transcription minutes from 600 to 300 but adds support for automated outlines and auto-join feature for Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Google Meet meetings.
• Apple to make the built-in iPhone Wallet app deletable starting in iOS 16.1, as the tech giant faces growing antitrust scrutiny for making Apple Pay the only available mobile wallet for tap-to-pay payments on iPhone; to roll out iPadOS as version 16.1 later this year, completely skipping iPadOS 16.0 release in a break from releasing iOS and iPadOS updates concurrently.
• Amazon unveils Alexa Game Control, a natural language voice tool for gamers to perform in-game actions; to formally launch in February 2023 on Xbox and PC.
• Game streaming service Twitch lifts its long-standing partner exclusivity requirement, letting partners stream on YouTube, Facebook Live, and other platforms.
• Meta-owned WhatsApp tests a new group chat feature in its iOS app that gives group admins the ability to delete messages from other participants; debuts Meta Accounts for VR devices confirms it's prototyping a feature called Candid Challenges in Instagram that takes a leaf out of social media app BeReal, continuing its trend of neutralising upstarts by imitating their killer features.
• Russian tech giant Yandex announces a deal to offload its controversial news aggregator service to social network VK in exchange for VK's food and grocery service Delivery Club.
• Sony faces a U.K. class-action lawsuit from nine million claimants, seeking up to £5 billion, over claims it breached competition laws by overcharging PlayStation customers a 30% commission fee on all digital purchases made through the UK PlayStation Store.
• eBay to acquire TCGplayer, an online marketplace for collectible trading card games, in a deal valued up to US$ 295 million.
• Apple expands its Self Service Repair offerings to cover the M1 MacBook Air and M1 MacBook Pros in the U.S., with the repair kit available to rent for US$ 49.
• Videoconferencing service Zoom reports Q2 2023 revenue of US$ 1.10 billion, up 8% YoY, as it hits 204,100 enterprise customers, up 3% from 198,900 three months earlier.
• Xiaomi reports Q2 2022 revenue of US$ 10.31 billion, down 20% YoY, and net income of US$ 305 million, down 67%, as smartphone sales, which generate 50%+ of its revenue, drops 29%.
• JD.com beats with Q2 2022 revenue rising 5.4% YoY to US$ 39.1 billion and US$ 700 million net income, following three consecutive quarters of losses.