Heena Sharma Blog

  India announced new rules on Thursday to regulate content on social media, making Facebook, WhatsApp and others more accountable to legal requests for swift removal of posts and sharing details on the originators of messages. The rules -- part of an effort by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's nationalist government to tighten the leash on Big Tech -- come after Twitter recently ignored government orders to drop content related to farmers' protests. India is the largest market by users for both Facebook and its messenger service WhatsApp. The new rules issued by the government, called the Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code, will be legally enforceable. They will require big social media companies to set up a grievance redressal mechanism and within three months appoint new executives to coordinate with law enforcement. Social media firms should be "more responsible and accountable," Ravi Shankar Prasad, the minister for information technolo...

  The CBI has booked UK-based Cambridge Analytica and Global Science Research Ltd for illegally harvesting data of Facebook users in India for commercial purposes, officials said on Friday. The action came after a preliminary enquiry into the matter which showed that Global Science Research had created an app "thisisyourdigitallife" which was authorised by Facebook to collect specific datasets of its users for research and academic purposes in 2014, they said. The company then entered into a criminal conspiracy with Cambridge Analytica, allowing it to use the data harvested by it for commercial purposes, the officials said. Facebook had collected certificates from both the firms in 2016-17 that data collected by them using "thisisyourdigitallife" was accounted for and destroyed. However, the CBI enquiry did not find any evidence of any such destruction, according to the officials. Read More

  As the debate rages over new WhatsApp data sharing policy , another Facebook family product called Messenger does not offer any end-to-end protection and is more prone to data breach, a security expert has claimed, adding that Messenger users should opt for safer apps first. According to cybersecurity specialist Zak Doffman, we should stop using Facebook Messenger as there is no proper protection of our messages, reports Forbes. WhatsApp emphasises that it cannot see your private messages, nor listen to your calls, and neither can Facebook. However, according to Doffman, if you are a Messenger user, you do not have the same data encryption. "In reality, the WhatsApp debacle has distracted attention away from just how bad Messenger's invasion of your privacy is. There is no justification for it," he wrote in the article. Read More  

WhatsApp on Tuesday said its latest policy update does not affect the privacy of messages as the Facebook-owned company sought to address concerns around security of user data on the platform. In a blogpost, WhatsApp emphasised that it does not share users' contact lists or data of groups with Facebook for ads purposes, and that neither WhatsApp nor Facebook can read messages or hear calls between users on WhatsApp. Last week, WhatsApp had informed users of an update in its Terms of Service and privacy policy regarding how it processes user data and partners with Facebook to offer integrations across the social media giant's products. It also stated that users will have to agree to the new terms and policy by February 8, 2021, in order to continue using WhatsApp's service. This kickstarted a spate of conversations and memes on the internet over WhatsApp's alleged sharing of user information with Facebook, and many users have started shifting to rival platforms like Te...

  US telecommunications giant T-Mobile has suffered a security breach that may have exposed call records and phone numbers for some of its customers. According to T-Mobile, the data breach did not expose account holders' names, physical addresses, email addresses, financial data, credit card information, social security numbers, tax IDs, passwords or PINs. First reported by Bleeping Computer, T-Mobile said the breach exposed customers' proprietary network information (CPNI), including phone numbers and call records. "Customer proprietary network information (CPNI) as defined by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rules was accessed," the company said in a security update. "The CPNI accessed may have included phone number, number of lines subscribed to on your account and, in some cases, call-related information collected as part of the normal operation of your wireless service", it added. Read More

  A new scam has surfaced and the target this time is the popular instant messaging app WhatsApp . Hackers are sending texts to people pretending to be a friend or relative and asking for immediate help stating some emergency. The Whatsapp OTP scam is similar to other recent scams where hackers target to gain access to one-time password (OTP). Here is how it works and why one must be careful: What is this WhatsApp OTP scam? Hackers can contact you via SMS, pretending to be your friend or relative, and will ask for an one time password (OTP) they may have sent on your number by mistake. If you share the OTP then hackers will get access to your account and all your personal messages and media. The hacker can then send messages to your friends/relatives and can also ask money from them. What to do if this happens? One should immediately reset WhatsApp and log in again. To avoid the scam, it's always advisable to not share any information without confirming if the message is...

  Irish privacy regulators have opened two investigations into Instagram over the social media site's handling of young people's personal data. Ireland's Data Protection Commission said it launched the investigations in September after receiving complaints about the company. Facebook, which owns Instagram, said it's in close contact with the commission and is "cooperating with their inquiries. The investigations were first reported late Sunday by Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper, which said they came after a US data scientist aired concerns that Instagram made public the email addresses and phone numbers of people under 18. The minimum age to use Instagram is 13. Data scientist David Stier said last year that his analysis found users, including those under 18, who switched their account types to business accounts also had their contact information displayed on their profile. Users were apparently switching to business accounts in order to see statisti...

The computing code of Aaroyga Setu , India’s coronavirus-tracing app , will be opened up for independent developers to check and make suggestions, said the government on Tuesday after privacy activists flagged their worries about its safety and use. The app's Android version will be made open source first and other makes later, said the government. “This is a unique thing to be done. No other government product anywhere in the world has been open sourced at this scale. Today its scale and size is 115 million. It cuts across phones, IVRS. Only product available in 12 languages. All Covid-19 related apps put together, Aarogya Setu is bigger than all of them," Amitabh Kant, chief executive officer of Niti Aayog, was quoted as saying in a LiveMint report. Read More

In an era of technological advancement, where the growth of the digital economy has meant the use of data as a critical means of communication, the Personal Data Protection Bill is proposed to ensure the informational privacy of individuals, and ensuring empowerment, progress and innovation The Personal Data Protection Bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday, and referred to a Joint Select Committee (JSC) following a voice vote. Well, according to parliamentary procedure, the Bill could also have been referred to the departmental committee, which in this case, would be the parlimentary standing committee on information technology, headed by Congress leader Shashi Tharoor. However, it didn’t happen that way and Tharoor objected to the proposal of sending the Bill to the JSC and also wrote to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla to register "strong concerns" with Prasad's proposal. He said the Committee on IT has a mandate and a parliamentary responsibility to ...

The data-collection business model fuelling Facebook and Google represents a threat to human rights around the world, Amnesty International said in a report Wednesday. The organization argued that offering people free online services and then using information about them to target money-making ads imperils a gamut of rights including freedom of opinion and expression. "Despite the real value of the services they provide, Google and Facebook's platforms come at a systemic cost," Amnesty said in its report, "Surveillance Giants." "The companies' surveillance-based business model forces people to make a Faustian bargain, whereby they are only able to enjoy their human rights online by submitting to a system predicated on human rights abuse." With ubiquitous surveillance, the two online giants are able to collect massive amounts of data which may be used against their customers, according to the London-based human rights group. The bus...

Google and Facebook collect information about us and then sell that data to advertisers. Websites deposit invisible “ cookies ” onto our computers and then record where we go online. Even our own government has been known to track us. When it comes to digital privacy, it’s easy to feel hopeless. We’re mere mortals! We’re minuscule molecules in their machines! What power do we possibly have to fight back? That was the question I posed to you, dear readers, in the previous “Crowdwise.” Many of you responded with valuable but frequently repeated suggestions: Use a program that memorizes your passwords, and make every password different. Install an ad blocker in your web browser, like uBlock Origin. Read up on the latest internet scams. If you must use Facebook, visit its Privacy Settings page and limit its freedom to target ads to you. What I sought, though, was non-obvious ideas. It turns out that “digital privacy” means different things to different people. “ Everyone...

When the spectre of dragnet online surveillance and grave violations of privacy looms large over India’s citizens, here is some news for cheer for those opposed to government surveillance . In a decision which was recently uploaded, the Delhi high court held that the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has to disclose, under the provisions of the RTI Act, information to a citizen whether his phone was under surveillance mounted by Vodafone – a private telephone services provider – on orders of the government. Justice Suresh Kait held on 20 November that TRAI, being the regulatory authority of telecom service providers and a public authority under the RTI Act, could not prohibit the disclosure of such information. This ruling is a victory for the RTI Act, and safeguards citizens’ privacy from the depredations of private sector organisations who try to obfuscate the release of sensitive information. Read More Business Standard

Global spending on information security products and services is forecast to grow 8.7 per cent to reach $124 billion in 2019, a new report has said. According to market research firm Gartner, the market will exceed $114 billion in 2018 -- which is an increase of 12.4 per cent from 2017. "Security leaders are striving to help their organisations securely use technology platforms to become more competitive and drive growth for the business. Persisting skills shortages and regulatory changes like the EU's Global Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) are driving continued growth in the security services market," Siddharth Deshpande, Research Director at Gartner, said in a statement. A survey done by the market research firm in 2017 revealed that the top three drivers for security spending are security risks, business needs and industry changes. Privacy concerns will drive at least 10 per cent of market demand for security services through 2019 and will im...

Facebook blocked the most (956 or 58%) of URLs, under section 69A of the Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000, followed by Twitter (25%) and YouTube (9%) Current Affairs News : As many as 1,662 uniform resource locators (URLs) or posts on social media were blocked over 18 months ending June 2018, Ravi Shankar Prasad, minister for electronics and information technology, told the Rajya Sabha (Parliament’s upper house) on August 3, 2018, as part of an explanation on combating fake news . “Recently, it has come to the attention of the government of India that a number of disturbing instances causing loss of innocent lives have taken place in various parts of the country,” RS Prasad said in his reply on the issue of misuse of social media and fake news. “These are deeply painful and regrettable, as well as a matter of deep concern for the government.” Section 69A of the IT Act, 2000 says websites/pages can be blocked in “defence of India”, its sovereignty, security and in...

Facebook has reported that they are not aware of any misuse of information Current Affairs News : The CBI has initiated a preliminary enquiry against Cambridge Analytica and Global Science Research for alleged illegal personal data harvesting of Indians from Facebook, officials said on Wednesday. It is alleged that Cambridge Analytica received data from Global Science Research which employed "illegal means" of personal data harvesting of Indians using Facebook, they said. After receiving a reference in this regard from the Centre, the CBI has initiated the preliminary enquiry which is normally a first step to decide whether the allegations deserve a full-blown investigation through an FIR or not, they said. Data mining and analysis firm Cambridge Analytica earlier faced allegations that it used personal information harvested from 87 million Facebook accounts to help Donald Trump win the 2016 US presidential election. Article Source >> BS ...