Why government wanting to regulate Facebook and WhatsApp may not be a bad thing: Citing the fact that there are no regulatory norms to address privacy concerns of users of Over The Top (OTT) messaging services such as WhatsApp, Skype, Facebook etc, the government has informed the Supreme Court on Wednesday, April 5, that it would soon…
The right to privacy: a digital disconnect: The question of a right to digital privacy never seems far from the news headlines. In the last month, for example, FBI director James Comey told the press that the American people have no right to what he called ‘absolute privacy’. Read More
Are mobile transactions secure? Study says apps of 7 banks vulnerable to theft: Even as banks continue to discourage cash transactions, a study has revealed that mobile apps of seven Indian banks are vulnerable to theft of sensitive financial information, according to a report in Business Line. Vishal Raman, the India head of cyber security firm…
‘Spike in number of RTI applications rejected by authorities’: The number of RTI applications rejected by public authorities increased to 64,666 in 2015-16 as compared to 60,127 such applications in 2013-14, the Centre said. Read More
Will regulate WhatsApp and other messaging services: Centre tells SC: The government was responding to a PIL filed in the SC questioning Whatsapp’s privacy policy. The petition filed by Karmanya Singh Sareen claimed “Over The Top (OTT) services are governed in some respect by the provisions of Information Technology Act, 2000 and are not subject to the…
No change in rules for filing RTI: Government: New Delhi, April 5: A factually incorrect and misleading news report appeared in a section of the media that a new set of RTI Rules have been formulated which creates difficulties and hurdles in the right of the citizens to get information from the Government. It has…
11,592 cases of cyber crime registered in India in 2015: NCRB: New Delhi: On 12 February, the home ministry website was reportedly hacked, prompting authorities to temporarily take it down. While officials denied claims of hacking, ministry data shows that in January and February 2017 alone, 39 government websites were hacked, which led the government…
Why the ‘right to Internet’ is a bad idea: As the share of states in government expenditure is inching towards 60%, the budgets of different state governments are more important than ever before. Those budget statements also contain some interesting ideas. One such idea came from Kerala this year. Read More
WhatsApp explores UPI for digital payments in India: BENGALURU/DELHI: Popular instant messaging app WhatsApp is exploring the unified payments interface (UPI) among other payment modes to launch its payment solution in India. The development comes about a month after WhatsApp cofounder Brian Acton had told ET’s sister publication The Times of India that the Facebook-owned…
Don’t make GPS mandatory for handsets, ICA tells TRAI; Our Take: A government that has a propensity to make things mandatory, did just that last year: the DoT had said in April 2016 that all handsets should mandatorily have GPS by January 2018, apart from having a physical panic button on each device. Read More