In no particular order, here are MediaNama’s top 10 stories of the week ended 26th May 2019
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Google pulls Huawei’s Android licence days after US govt put it on trade blacklist
In a huge blow to the Chinese company, Google has cut off Huawei’s Android licence, Reuters reports. The development comes just days after the US government added Huawei to a trade blacklist, preventing it from buying components from US companies without prior government approval. Read it here
GOQii threatens to sue Flipkart for offering “70-80% discounts” on its fitness trackers
Smart wearables maker GOQii Technologies has sent a cease-and-desist notice to Flipkart, accusing the e-commerce platform of violating terms of agreement by selling its fitness trackers at huge discounts without approval. Read it here
Top chipmakers start to cut off Huawei’s supply even as US eases some restrictions for 90 days
Chipmakers Intel, Qualcomm, Broadcom and Xilinx have told their employees that they will suspended shipments to Huawei until further notice, Bloomberg reports. Another Bloomberg report says Huawei has stockpiled chips from US suppliers to last it at least three months. Read it here
Aadhaar-based biometric attendance will prevent fake attendance at medical colleges, says MCI
The Medical Council of India is going ahead with the installation of an Aadhaar-linked biometric attendance system to prevent fake attendance and ghost faculty in medical colleges, per the New Indian Express. Read it here
Aadhaar database raises risk of unnecessary surveillance, Human Rights Watch tells UN
Human Rights Watch (HRW) has submitted a report to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights in which it examines how the use of Artificial Intelligence and other data-driven technologies in welfare programs – including Aadhaar – affects people’s human rights. Read it here
Microsoft calls for GDPR-like privacy laws in the US, higher onus on tech companies
On the first anniversary of the European Union’s data protection and privacy law GDPR coming into effect, Microsoft’s Julie Brill called for a similar federal legislation on privacy in the United States. In a blog, Brill argued that “preserving a strong right to privacy will always fundamentally be a matter of law that falls to the government”. Read it here
Aadhaar PIL in Delhi HC: Shamnad Basheer calls for committee to ascertain extent of Aadhaar data breaches
In response to the UIDAI’s claim that Aadhaar data has never been breached, academician and lawyer Shamnad Basheer suggested the constitution of a neutral, court-ordered committee to independently ascertain the extent of Aadhaar data breaches, reports Bar & Bench. Read it here
Netflix appoints Priyanka Chaudhari as director and senior counsel for content and IP in India: report
Netflix has appointed Priyanka Chaudhari as director and senior counsel for content and intellectual property in India, LiveLaw reports. Prior to this, she was group vice president for legal at Balaji Telefilms. Chaudhari will be based out of Mumbai and will lead and grow Netflix’s IP law team in India, reporting to the company’s head office in Los Angeles. Read it here
Facebook now regulates content on sale of drugs and firearms, removed 3.4 billion fake accounts in 6 months
Facebook yesterday said it disabled 3.4 billion fake accounts between October last year and March this year. The company disclosed this in its biannual community standards report, which is a summary how much and what content it moderated. Of the 3.4 billion fake accounts removed, 1.2 billion were removed in Q4 2018, and 2.19 billion in Q1 2019. Read it here
India had over 1B active mobile connections in March 2019, Vodafone Idea had the most wireless connections: TRAI
India lost 0.92 million active mobile connections in March 2019. In the same month, Airtel, Vodafone Idea, and Reliance Jio accounted for 93% of total active mobile connections in India, according to data released by TRAI. The active connections data represents peak VLR (Visitor Location Register) data for the month. Read it here
