'Before the elections, fake news can create law and order hassles and that is the reason they want social media firms to follow the amended IT Act.'
The Bill allows stopping of transmission and intercepting messages in case of public emergency, in the interest of the public, to prevent incitement for committing offence.
Google on Wednesday launched its global 'Be Internet Awesome' programme for children in India in partnership with Indian comic book publisher Amar Chitra Katha to interweave critical internet safety lessons across eight Indian languages. The tech giant has also launched an enhanced Google Safety Centre in eight Indic languages as part of its efforts to step up safety of users on the internet. Google has significantly increased its resources dedicated to India's Trust Safety teams, including product policy analysts, security specialists, and user trust experts that support over 10 vernacular Indian languages, enabling its central teams to benefit from the local nuance and inputs.
The government on Thursday announced new rules to curb misuse of social media platforms, as it mandated firms to appoint grievance officer, disclose the first originator of the mischievous information and remove, within 24 hours, content depicting nudity or morphed pictures of women.
Chinese company Tencent Games on Friday said it was terminating all services and access for PUBG Mobile users in India to comply with the government's order of last month.
Sites like Facebook and Orkut may be great for connecting with others, but they also provide a sure-fire way for broadcasting intimate details about you.
A majority of respondents in a survey said they will not use WhatsApp payment features and may discontinue business chat if the app shares information with Facebook and third parties, according to a survey. The survey -- conducted around WhatsApp new proposed policy across the country covering over 17,000 respondents -- found that five per cent users have deleted the app, while 22 per cent claimed to have reduced using the mobile messaging platform.
For IT services companies, ESG (environmental, social, and corporate governance) metrics are becoming a crucial component in winning deals as clients are considering sustainability a top priority and are keen to work with partners who are on the same page. "Sustainability is becoming an important part of the client's evaluation. "There is a tremendous focus across the world on sustainability, and it is becoming one of the top five business priorities.
Artificial intelligence and augmented reality will reinforce the importance of the iPhone, says Tim Cook.
Facebook and Google officials in New Delhi on Tuesday deposed before the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology on the issue of misuse of social media platforms.
The government on Friday tweaked IT rules to pave the way for setting up of grievance appellate panels, which will settle issues that users may have against the way social media platforms initially addressed their complaints regarding content and other matters.
Almost 50% of young Internet users did not have any parental oversight over their online behaviour.
Google has termed as "tainted" the investigations done against it by CCI, contending that the two informants on whose complaint the fair trade regulator has initiated the enquiry were working at the same office that was investigating the tech major. This was "against the principles of natural justice", Google said in the petition filed before the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT), adding the Competition Commission of India (CCI) should have refrained from initiating an investigation based on a complaint filed by their own employees. "At the very least, the Commission could have debarred the Informants from working in the DG office while the investigation was ongoing, to ensure that the investigating officer was able to impartially assess the case without any influence, such that no concerns could arise on the independence of the investigation," said Google.
A new law that defines how companies should process users' data came into force with the President giving assent to the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act passed by Parliament in the just-concluded monsoon session. The law arms individuals with greater control over their data while allowing companies to transfer users' data abroad for processing, except to nations and territories restricted by the Centre through notification. It also gives the government power to seek information from firms and issue directions to block content.
A new mobile banking 'Trojan' virus -- SOVA -- which can stealthily encrypt an Android phone for ransom and is hard to uninstall is targeting Indian customers, the country's federal cyber security agency said in its latest advisory.
Actor Priyanka Chopra and her husband Nick Jonas have welcomed a baby via surrogacy.
This is the first time that the IT ministry has outlined its stance in a dispute between users and social media platforms.
WhatsApp India head Abhijit Bose and Meta's public policy head Rajiv Aggarwal have resigned from their positions, social media major Meta said on Tuesday. The development comes within a week of Meta announcing 11,000 lay-offs across the globe. The company has given charge of Meta India Public Policy to Shivnath Thukral who is currently serving as Director of WhatsApp Public Policy in India.
Koo -- the made-in-India rival of Twitter -- will not charge users for a verification badge, its co-founder and CEO Aprameya Radhakrishna said as he took on the larger rival for allegedly first creating bots and now charging users for verification. Koo, which allows users to express views in Indian languages, has already crossed 50 million downloads and is now flying into the rival's nest, starting a campaign on Twitter by making itself prominently visible on verified handles and offering them better deals on its platform at no cost. Since taking over Twitter, billionaire Elon Musk has set in motion massive changes, sacking employees and talking of levying a $8 charge for 'verified' handles.
Furious competition between social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace is compromising the protection of users' data, a Cambridge University study has concluded.
Facebook-owned messaging platform said Indian journalists and human right activists were among those globally spied upon by unnamed entities using an Israeli sypware Pegasus.
'We have to go through the process of obtaining informed consent.'
Google received 31,497 complaints from users and removed 94,173 pieces of content based on those complaints in December, the tech giant said in its monthly transparency report.
India has to put in place legislation and rules which seek more clarity and transparency from technology companies. Domestic and global companies that use consumer behaviour data to enhance addictive behaviour must be scrutinised and controlled. Currently the intermediary guidelines focus mostly on content management and grievance redressal. However, the underlying software engines that influence online consumer behaviour need oversight, too.
Google received 26,087 complaints from users and removed 61,114 pieces of content based on those complaints in November, the tech giant said in its monthly transparency report.
The highest number of URLs actioned pertained to Abuse/Harassment and IP-related Infringement (46 each), followed by Privacy Infringement (35), Impersonation (16) and Defamation (15). URLs actioned under Misinformation/Synthetic and Manipulated Media category stood at 7, and Sensitive Adult Content and Hateful Conduct (one each).
Google CEO Sundar Pichai on Thursday said the company continues to engage closely with partner Jio on the initiative of building an affordable smartphone and that work is underway on the project. Last year, Google had picked up a 7.7 per cent stake in Jio Platforms for Rs 33,737 crore. It had also entered into a commercial agreement with Jio Platforms to jointly develop an entry-level, affordable smartphone.
rediffGURU Chandu Nair advises entrepreneurs and enterprises about how to create and build their business.
In addition to reports from users, Google also removed 3,84,509 pieces of content in October as a result of automated detection.
Some US prominent lawmakers have urged the American government to follow suit as it is believed that the short video-sharing app is a major security risk to the country.
Technology can help keep us safe, but fear must not be used to track citizens without their consent, he said. The mobile application helps users identify whether they are at risk of the COVID-19 infection.
Zonel Sougaijam, a 22-year-old civil engineer discovered a WhatsApp bug that violated the privacy of a user.
A banking Trojan malware has been detected in the Indian cyberspace that is lurking to attack bank customers using Android phones and has already targeted those from more than 27 public and private sector banks, the country's federal cyber security agency said in a latest advisory.
Financial institutions are 300 times more vulnerable to cyberattacks than any other industry.
On Tuesday, a French hacker and cyber security expert Elliot Alderson had claimed that 'a security issue has been found' in the app and that 'privacy of 90 million Indians is at stake'. Dismissing the claims, the government said 'no personal information of any user has been proven to be at risk by this ethical hacker'.
According to sources, developers of many of the 59 banned apps had taken down their apps from Google Play Store voluntarily.
FB gave these companies access to information of users and even their friends.
These users span across four continents and included diplomats, political dissidents, journalists and senior government officials.
Twitter received 94 grievances and 'actioned' 133 URLs between May 26 and June 25, the microblogging platform said in its maiden monthly compliance report as mandated by the IT rules.
India's tweaking of IT rules allow formation of Centre-appointed panels, that will settle often-ignored user grievances against content decision of social media companies, Minister of State for IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar said, adding that this was necessitated due to the "casual" and "tokenism" approach of digital platforms towards user complaints so far.
