10 things in tech you need to know today
Good morning! Here's the technology news you need to know this Friday.
1. France is reportedly demanding 10 times more tax from Google than the UK did. Both AFP and Reuters state that France is chasing €1.6 billion (£1.27 billion) in back taxes from the US search giant.
2. Microsoft, Facebook, and Google will all be filing court motions over the coming week in support of Apple in its ongoing battle with the FBI. The FBI wants Apple to help it unlock an iPhone belonging to one of the San Bernardino shooters. But Apple refuses, arguing that doing so would set a dangerous precedent and make all its users less safe.
3. Apple wants to make it impossible for the company to comply with law enforcement's demands for data. Apple is reportedly introducing new security measures that will make customers' data inaccessible, both on devices and in the cloud.
4. Google has announced a system called PlaNet that attempts to pinpoint the location of where a photograph was taken by analysing the pixels it contains. The new service, which is still in its early stages, is underpinned by artificial intelligence.
5. Entrepreneurial Googlers are quitting and launching their own companies out of the company's own startup space, known as Campus. The head of Campus said there are at least five ex-Googlers running startups out of Campus.
6. Google DeepMind, the search giant's artificial intelligence company in London, has officially announced its first big push into medical technology. The research-intensive startup launched a new division called DeepMind Health and acquired a university spinout company with a healthcare app called Hark.
7. ISIS has released a video targeting Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey over suspended accounts. The jihadist militant group has begun to respond with increasing urgency as Facebook and Twitter have attempted to block terrorist content on the network.
8. Most of Powa's 1,200 clients hadn't signed contracts. The majority of the clients that Powa claimed to have signed up to its mobile payment app had simply signed non-binding letters of interest in the technology.
9. Facebook's CEO Mark Zuckerberg is launching an internal investigation into employees who continue to cross out "black lives matter" slogans around campus and writing "all lives matter" instead. An internal memo from Zuckerberg, and obtained by Gizmodo, shows the CEO is clearly frustrated by the acts.
10. Didi Kuaidi, Uber's biggest rival in China, is reportedly raising $1 billion (£715 million) to battle the ride-hailing giant. The oversubscribed round values the company at more than $20 billion (£14.3 billion).