In no particular order, here are MediaNama’s top 10 stories of the week ended 7th April 2019
MediaNama would like to thank its sponsors: E2E, for their support.
What Mozilla said in its submission on the E-Commerce Policy
Mozilla’s submission to DPIIT, accessible here, outlines a position of reforming the policy to take into account greater consideration of security of the data of Indian users and a more strategic approach to enabling competition in e-commerce. The submission is summarised below. Read it here
TRAI’s OSP registration consultation flags the issue that online applications could be required to register in India
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has asked whether applications should be regulated as “other service providers” (OSPs) in a consultation paper issued on March 29th. OSPs are, under the Department of Telecommunications’ definition, companies that provide application services that use the telecom infrastructure and resources provided by telecom operators to provide services like “tele-banking, tele-medicine, tele-education, tele-trading, ecommerce, call centre” etc. Read it here
India’s draft Ecommerce Policy: Online Vendors’ Association wants marketplaces regulated as “economic utilities”
The All India Online Vendors Association (AIOVA) has submitted comments to the DPIIT on the E-Commerce Policy, representing 3500 sellers operating on e-commerce marketplaces, such as Flipkart, Amazon, Snapdeal etc. Read it here
Key Points from Mark Zuckerberg’s call for regulation of the Internet: harmful content, data portability, election interference, privacy
In his article in the Washington Post, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg suggested the need for new rules from lawmakers to balance the interests and responsibilities of all the different stakeholders’ i.e. Read it here
Tech manifestos 2019: Congress promises digital rights, voluntary Aadhaar, reduced regulation, Sovereign fund, and more
The Indian National Congress has promised net neutrality, privacy and protection of personal data, safeguards against surveillance, regulation against fake news, and other digital rights it will guarantee in its Elections 2019 manifesto. The Congress has promised that it keep Aadhaar voluntary but encourage it, and no person will be denied food security for want of Aadhaar. Read it here
WhatsApp will soon let you decide who can Invite you to a Group
WhatsApp is now adding a new invite system to let users decide which groups they would like to join, reports NDTV. Currently, any WhatsApp user can be automatically added to any group without their consent; the new invite system will do away with this. The feature will begin rolling out to users starting today, and will be available worldwide in the coming weeks. Read it here
All India Gaming Federation wants regulation of online gambling to be an election promise
We missed this earlier. Ahead of the upcoming elections, All India Gaming Federation (AIGF), has approached members of Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) and Indian National Congress (INC) manifesto committees for suggesting that they include legalisation and regulation of online gaming in their manifesto respectively before the finalising of it. Read it here
Airbnb invests $150-200 million in Oyo: Reports
On April 1, home-rental firm Airbnb confirmed it had invested in Gurugram-based Oyo. While the companies did not disclose figures, various reports including one from the Economic Times pegged Airbnb’s investment at $150-200 million (Rs 1,027 crore to Rs 1,370 crore). Read it here
Percentage of Android devices with ‘potentially harmful apps’ fell in 2018, says Google report
Google said in its latest Android security and privacy report that 0.45% of all Android devices running Google Play Protect installed potentially harmful apps (PHAs) in 2018, compared to 0.56% in 2017. This equates to a 20% year-over-year improvement. Two apps outside of this category are versions of a popular video player that mines cryptocurrency in the background without user consent. Read it here
BHIM’s 14.9M transactions accounted for only 1.9% of UPI payments in March 2019
The number of transactions on the Bharat Interface for Money (BHIM) UPI app was 14.9 million for the month of March 2019, up 16.3% from 12.8 million last month. The total value of the transactions stood at Rs 6,417 crore, up 14% from Rs 5,624.2 crore in February 2019, according to data provided by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). Read it here
