So users can hide their search histories, YouTube is rolling out “Incognito mode,” 9To5Google reports. “When enabled, the Sign out button at the bottom of the Account page is replaced with ‘Turn on Incognito,’” it writes. “As your avatar in the top-right corner is accessible from anywhere in the YouTube app, it’s very fast and convenient to enter this mode.”

Netflix is adding what it calls “Smart Downloads,” BuzzFeed reports. “Imagine downloading an episode or two of Stranger Things at home and watching it on the subway to work,” it writes. “Once you connect to your office Wi-Fi, Netflix will delete the episodes you've already watched and seamlessly download the next one in the background.”

Google Pay is adding support for mobile ticketing and peer-to-peer payments, among new offerings. “Users were able to send and request money from friends and family through the Google Pay Send app, but now, that service is migrating over to be supported inside of Google Pay,” The Verge notes.

Apple is rolling up its machine learning, artificial intelligence, and Siri teams into one unit, which will be led by John Giannandrea, TechCrunch reports. “The internal structures of the Siri and Core ML teams will remain the same, but they will now answer to Giannandrea,” it writes.  

n letters sent to Apple CEO Tim Cook and Alphabet CEO Larry Page, U.S. lawmakers are asking the companies to more clearly explain their handling of smartphone user data. “One of the concerns is how location data could be collected and misused by firms, which could potentially be used to track users without their consent,” AppleInsider notes. “The letter to Page includes references to reports claiming Android collects user location data and sends it back to Alphabet's Google, even if users disabled the device's location services beforehand.”  

The New York Times details how, across industries, algorithms are increasingly replacing skilled white-collar works. “Companies now routinely use artificial intelligence to decide which clothes to stock and what to recommend to customers,” it writes. It’s “especially true of jobs that place a premium on spotting patterns, from picking stocks to diagnosing cancer.”

Stateside, Apple’s music-streaming service is slowly catching up to Spotify, The Financial Times reports. “As of last week, Apple had between 21 million and 21.5 million US subscribers, while Spotify had 22 million to 22.5 million,” it writes, citing sources. “A year ago, Spotify had about 17 million US subscribers to Apple’s 13 million.

Snapchat is apparently building a visual product search feature, which will delivers users to Amazon listings. That’s according to TechCrunch, citing some code inside of Snapchat’s Android app. “Visual product search could make Snapchat’s camera a more general purpose tool for seeing and navigating the world, rather than just a social media maker,” TechCrunch suggests.

IBM just landed a $740 million deal to become a key tech partner of the Australian government over the next five years. “The contract will see services such as automation and blockchain provided to federal departments including defense and home affairs,” Bloomberg reports. “IBM, which is combating falling revenues, will also create renewed platforms to protect citizens’ data while providing [millions] in savings to taxpayers.”

This year, Reddit expects to take in more than $100 million in revenue, sources tell CNBC. Not content with its ad business, however, the digital company is now aggressively appealing to potential marketing partners. Among other new ad products, Reddit is showing off a “top post takeover,” which allows brand content to appear directly on its front page.