This week, some retailers ban Apple Pay in favor of an upcoming service that’s already been hacked, YouTube to offer ad-free subscriptions?, AT&T misled millions and the feds are taking them to court, Fitbit joins the smartwatch race, Marvel plans out its next five years of superhero movies, and much more.

This week, The Drill Down crew looks back at the year in tech and the web for the year 2013. We’ll discuss our favorite tech events of the past year, and what we can expect in 2014.

Before that, however, we discuss a recent discovery that the NSA sought to spy on gamers, eight top tech companies ban together to reform surveillance laws, and is Apple‘s iBeacon just a marketing gimmick or are there bigger plans in store?

The holiday season is coming up and The Drill Down would like you to be ready for it. So as we do every year around this time, we’ve prepared a list of what we consider the perfect gifts to give… and get this holiday. So before you stand around for hours this Black Friday, spend some time with us.