10 things in tech you need to know today

Good morning! This is the tech news you need to know this Tuesday. Sign up here to get this email in your inbox every morning.

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1. The UK blocked Julian Assange’s extradition to the US. A district judge ruled that Assange, who faces a litany of hacking and espionage charges in the US, was a suicide and self-harm risk.
2. Jack Ma may have vanished. The Alibaba and Ant Group founder has not been seen publicly in more than two months, and he was abruptly replaced as a judge on the African talent show he founded.
3. Googlers plan to form a union. More than 200 staff at Google’s parent company Alphabet have formed the Alphabet Workers Union, which is open to all employees across the US and Canada.
4. Slack had an outage on the first workday of 2021. The company is heavily relied on thanks to the pandemic, and some 15,000 users reported issues.
5. A 12-year-old may sue TikTok over data privacy. The girl, who on Wednesday won the right to remain anonymous should she bring a case against the short form-video company, is being supported by England’s children’s commissioner, Anne Longfield.
6. Samsung will launch brand new Galaxy phones. The firm is holding a launch on January 14, about a month earlier than usual, and  sources have indicated that the early launch is designed to grab market share from Huawei and fend off competition from Apple.
7. Singapore’s police can use its contact-tracing app data. Singapore is under renewed scrutiny after updating the privacy policy of its national contact tracing app TraceTogether, and now says that police can access user data if someone is under criminal investigation. 
8. Bitcoin fell 17%. It fell back on Monday below $30,000 at intraday lows after hitting a record high of $34,792.47 on Sunday.
9. Google and Snap may invest in an Indian startup. According to TechCrunch, the pair may invest in ShareChat, a video messaging service.
10. Exclusive: Instagram offers advice on how often to share. Three creators told Business Insider that Instagram had privately shared specific guidance with them about how frequently to post on the platform and what types of posts would help them boost their follower counts and engagement rates.