The Tech Weekender: Apple vs Facebook, Cyberpunk 2077 issues, PUBG Mobile India launch, and more

Earlier this week, Facebook ran a couple of newspaper ads criticising Apple's new privacy policy in iOS 14. The Facebook ad stated that Apple’s new privacy policy limits a business’ ability to run personalised ads and reach their customers effectively. The Mark Zuckerberg-led company posted a blog accusing Apple of creating a policy for profiteering under the guise of privacy. Apple CEO Tim Cook responded by tweeting that users should have the choice over the data collected about them and how it is used. Click here for more details.

Things haven’t been great for Cyberpunk 2077. The much-anticipated gaming title has been surrounded by controversy even before it was launched. After receiving backlash for the buggy user experience, the Cyberpunk 2077 listing on Microsoft Digital Store now features a warning label. Microsoft’s warning label for Cyberpunk 2077 comes after Sony delisted the game from the PlayStation Store following several complaints. More details here.

On December 19, Apple announced that it has put Taiwanese contractor Wistron Corp on probation while it investigates the issues which occurred at the supplier’s Narasapura facility. The iPhone-maker, in its statement, said that it has hired independent auditors, who along with Apple employees, are working around the clock to investigate the issue. Wistron, meanwhile, will not receive new business till corrective measures are implemented. More details here.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), while responding to an RTI query, stated that the Centre has not given developers to relaunch PUBG Mobile India. GEM Esports posted the MeitY’s response on Instagram. The eSport entity shared an RTI query that was filed to get details on the PUBG Mobile India launch amid several reports on the internet. More details here.

Earlier this week, several Google services, including Google search, Gmail, YouTube, were down for approximately 45 minutes due to an internal storage quota issue. The outage was reported on the Google status page at 05:25 PM (IST) and the services came back online at 06:01 PM (IST). More details here.

Twitter has announced that it will relaunch its account verification process in early 2021. The company has released a set of guidelines that will be used in determining whether the user is eligible to get verified on Twitter with a blue tick-mark. The verification policy, Twitter said, will lay the foundation for future improvements by defining what verification means, who is eligible for verification, and why some accounts might lose verification to ensure the process is more equitable. More details here.

Facebook India's head Ajit Mohan deposed before a parliamentary panel on December 16. Facebook's fact-checking team has not found any content that necessitated a ban on the Bajrang Dal, Mohan told a parliamentary panel on December 16. Mohan was questioned about a recent WSJ report that alleged that the social media giant was reluctant to ban Bajrang Dal due to concerns over the security of its staff. The WSJ report suggested that, despite an internal assessment calling for a ban on the Bajrang Dal, Facebook had not cracked down on the Hindu nationalist group due to these reasons. More details here.

Apple recently released the iOS 14.3 software version, which fixed major issues, while bringing new features to the platform. The latest version of iOS brings the new ProRAW feature for the iPhone 12 Pro and 12 Pro Max as well as introduces privacy information on the App Store. Apple also released WatchOS 7.2 for Apple Watch users. More details here.