Tech Roundup: Apple AirTags Update, Meta Cambridge Analytica Settlement & More

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

• Meta agrees to pay US$ 725 million to settle a class action lawsuit triggered by disclosures in 2018 that the company shared user data with consulting firm Cambridge Analytica for political advertising without their consent. (The revelations have since prompted a deeper scrutiny of Facebook's data practices and is one of the many scandals to hit the company through the years.)
• Twitter briefly removes a feature that promoted suicide prevention hotlines and other safety resources to users looking up certain content; rolls out eligibility requirements for contributing to Community Notes (formerly Birdwatch) and new perks for Blue subscribers to support prioritised rankings in conversations and upload videos up to 60 minutes long (capped at 2GB and 1080p resolution).
• Walmart-owned Flipkart completes separation from mobile wallet service PhonePe, which it acquired in 2016, ahead of upcoming IPO.
• Apple quietly rolls out new firmware update to AirTags that "enables Precision Finding to help locate an unknown AirTag detected moving with you" in a bid to combat concerns that such devices could be abused to stalk individuals.

• Apple's plans for a major update to iPhone 14 Pro's graphics capabilities were scrapped late in development after "unprecedented" missteps were discovered, a new report from The Information reveals; claims Apple engineers were "too ambitious" in adding new features to the graphics processor, including features like ray tracing, that had a significant impact on battery life.
• Google's lucrative ad business allows dubious piracy and porn websites to make money off its ads as well continue to allow ad companies like PapayAds to operate despite helping piracy sites earn money off its ads, according to new findings from ProPublica; comes close on the heels of another investigation that found ads from major brands on global websites that spread false claims on such topics as vaccines, COVID-19, climate change and elections.
• Twitter provided direct approval and internal protection to a network of social media accounts and online personas created by the U.S. military, allowlisting the batch of accounts at the request of the government, with the Pentagon using the network, alongside government-generated news portals and memes in an effort to shape opinion in Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Kuwait, and beyond at least since 2017. (The findings align with a report published by the Stanford Internet Observatory earlier this August about a government-backed information operation, many of which used photorealistic human faces generated by artificial intelligence to make the fabricated accounts look more authentic.)