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Chinese tech giants including ByteDance, TikTok's parent company, and Huawei are helping Chinese government in censoring and surveilling of Uighur Muslims, a report said. Recently, a 17-year-old girl from US had accused China of suspending her TikTok account following her criticism of alleged Muslim detention camps in China. TikTok later reinstated her account and issued a public apology.

EU antitrust regulators have sought details of Google's data collection practices with a focus on local search services, online advertising, login services and others, Reuters reported. Authorities had sent out inquiries to several companies last week, asking them about Google's data practices. Regulators also inquired other firms about the kind of data Google collects and how it uses it.

Digital transformation solutions company UST Global has announced expansion of its Singapore office and plans to hire over 100 new employees over the next three years. This is a part of the company's ongoing initiatives to deliver technology solutions to Singapore and Asia-Pacific region. UST Global, which has Indian-origin Krishna Sudheendra as CEO, has offices in more than 25 countries.

Researchers at IIT Kharagpur and IIT Gandhinagar have joined hands with National Council of Science Museums (NCSM) to develop Gandhipedia, an AI-based online repository on Mahatma Gandhi. The portal will be developed for people to browse through Gandhian literature, life events and his social network. At first, his autobiography will be used for reconstructing the social network.

Indonesia President Joko Widodo ordered government agencies to remove two ranks of civil servants next year to cut red tape and replace them with artificial intelligence (AI). Discussing about improving business in Indonesia, he stressed on fixing dozens of overlapping rules and cutting red tape. Widodo also said Indonesia should transition to higher-end manufacturing such as electric vehicles.

After announcing the creation of one lakh 'Digital Villages' in India over the next five years, the government has reneged on its proposed plans, an RTI request revealed. Announced in the Interim Budget 2019-20, the plan was aimed at building digital infrastructure in villages. However, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology said, "There is no such 'Digital Village Mission'."

Apple's marker tool, commonly called the 'highlighter tool', which people often use to censor sensitive information in photos, isn't meant to be used for redaction, a Reddit user warned. In a video, the user blacked out some information using the tool, which by default is semi-transparent and using iOS photo editor, adjusted settings like exposure to reveal the text beneath.

Under the new rules governing video and audio content, Chinese regulators have announced a ban on publication or distribution of 'deepfakes' to produce fake news without proper disclosure. The rules require any such manipulated content, fabricated using artificial intelligence or virtual reality, to be marked in a "prominent manner". Violations of the same would be considered a criminal offence.

NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant took to Twitter to list out artificial intelligence-based startups focused on solving India's "problems of accessibility, affordability and availability". Under healthcare sector he mentioned SigTuple, Tricog and Forus for startups making substantial changes. For education, Embibe was his pick whereas agriculture sector saw SatSure and Vassar Labs' mention.

A 23-year-old design student in the US has developed an app to recreate the iPod Classic on his iPhone. Elvin Hu posted a video of the app which features a fullscreen iPod-like interface, including a functional click wheel like the original device. Hu, who had never owned an iPod Classic himself, said he has been building the app since October.

A research shows scientists using undersea fibre optic cables to detect earthquakes under the ocean through Distributed Acoustic Sensing technique. The cables carry data over long distances and use light to function which gets scattered when cable shifts or changes orientation. By observing this "backscatter" phenomenon and a cable's shift, scientists could locate source of the seismic activity.

Realme is looking to split from Oppo after it was launched in India last year as its sub-brand, according to a report by Digitimes. While Realme operates as an independent brand, it still shares resources with Oppo, including ecosystem and assembly lines. Meanwhile, Realme is also working on a 5G smartphone that could also be launched this year, reports say.

The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), alongside Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and IIM Ahmedabad's CIIE.CO, has launched a $50,000 challenge for startups and individuals to build secure payment solutions for feature phones. Unlike smartphones, feature or basic phones retain designs from older generation phones and do not support most UPI apps. The runners-up will also be rewarded.

Scientists from US and Brazil have developed glasses equipped with biosensor that claims to measure a person's blood sugar through their tears. The biosensor can detect an enzyme called glucose oxidase in tears that can also measure vitamin and alcohol levels. The device is installed on the glasses' nose pad which includes a circuit with a constant flow of electrons.

Starting Sunday, China is making it mandatory for telecom operators to collect face scans while registering new phone users at offline outlets. The rule, announced in September, states that operators can use artificial intelligence to verify identities when people register for new mobile numbers or services. Customers may have to record themselves turning their head to match against their ID.

As many as 48 websites of the Indian government departments were hacked this year till October, Minister of State for Electronics and IT Sanjay Dhotre said. He was quoting data from the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In). Dhotre added IP addresses retrieved from the attacks indicated that hackers may have belonged to nations like China, Pakistan, France and Russia.

Apple is considering bundling its wireless earphones 'AirPods' with its 2020 iPhone lineup, reports said. So far, Apple includes its basic wired EarPods in the box. The reported bundling of AirPods, which retail at a starting price of ₹14,900 in India, is expected to increase the price of the upcoming iPhone models like iPhone SE 2 and iPhone 12 range.

YouTuber Graslu00 has shared a video of a 1997 James Bond-themed game GoldenEye 007, which was modified to feature Tesla Co-founder and CEO Elon Musk and the newly-launched electric Cybertruck. The short clip includes a Musk-faced character who offers James Bond his Cybertruck. Bond then rides Cybertruck through the streets instead of the tank that's usually driven in that level.

Chinese smartphone maker Huawei is planning to sue the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) over the latest restrictions imposed by it, The Wall Street Journal reported. The FCC banned US telecom carriers from using their 'Universal Service Fund' to buy equipment from firms deemed "a national security threat", including Huawei. Huawei reportedly "slammed" this action as "unlawful".

Consumers in the US on Friday spent $7.4 billion buying goods online via computers, tablets and smartphones, according to analytics from Adobe. It added $2.9 billion of the sales took place through smartphones. The total figure was up by $1.2 billion on Black Friday 2018 but fell short of Adobe's prediction of $7.5 billion.

European Space Agency (ESA) announced that its astronaut Luca Parmitano "made robotics history", reaching out from the International Space Station (ISS) in orbit around Earth at 8 km per second to control an Earth-based rover. The rover's gripper was able to pick up and collect rock samples from the mock-lunar environment, ESA added. The test was conducted on November 25.

New research from an international team of scientists claimed that playing the sounds of healthy reefs could draw young fish to Australia's "recently devastated" Great Barrier Reef. The study found that broadcasting healthy reef sounds doubled the total number of fish. Scientists said this "acoustic enrichment" could be a valuable tool in helping to restore damaged coral reefs.