10 things in tech you need to know today

Good morning! This is the tech news you need to know this Wednesday.

1. Google's chief executive Sundar Pichai made his first appearance before US Congress on Tuesday, with lawmakers grilling him about the firm's plans to relaunch in China, alleged bias in its search results, and misinformation on YouTube. The hearing last three-and-a-half hours, though politicians failed to address the most worrying aspect about Google: its massive data collection.
2. The arrested Huawei CFO offered to pay for her own 24-hour surveillance and wear a tracking device if she's granted bail. Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Huawei, appeared in court on Monday to ask to be released on bail while it's decided whether she'll be extradited to the US.
3. Verizon expects to write down the value of Oath in the fourth quarter of this year by $4.6 billion. The company blamed competitive pressures in the ads business.
4. Uber's public float will be led by Morgan Stanley, according to Bloomberg. The listing could value Uber at as much as $120 billion.
5. Hardware maker Super Micro has said an external review of its motherboards found no malicious chips, further contradicting a Bloomberg story claiming China had infiltrated the company's products. Super Micro has consistently denied the allegations.
6. Facebook employees remain loyal to COO Sheryl Sandberg despite her involvement in scandals rocking the company. Workplace chat app Blind, a hotbed for tech workers, surveyed thousands of its users about whether Sandberg should keep her job, and the bulk of Facebook respondents said she should.
7. University College London's spinout fund is raising up to £100 million ($126 million) to commercialise research and technology coming out of its departments. The idea is to create future success stories such as DeepMind, whose founders met at UCL and went on to sell the artificial intelligence company to Google.
8. Edward Snowden has joined human rights groups in calling for Sundar Pichai to kill Google's plans in China. In an open letter addressed to Google CEO Sundar Pichai, signed by Snowden and various human rights groups including Amnesty International, the signatories asked Google to kill its plans to re-enter the Chinese market, codenamed "Project Dragonfly."
9. Sidecar, a defunct Startup owned by General Motors, has sued Uber for predatory pricing and anticompetitive practices. "Uber became hell-bent on stifling competition from ride-hailing apps," the lawsuit, filed Tuesday, reads.
10. Google CEO Sundar Pichai had to explain to lawmakers why an image of Donald Trump comes up when you Google "idiot." Pichai said Google doesn't "manually intervene on any particular search result."

Have an Amazon Alexa device? Now you can hear 10 Things in Tech each morning. Just search for "Business Insider" in your Alexa's flash briefing settings.

NOW WATCH: We tested out $30 tiny spy cameras from Amazon by spying on our co-workers