SBI MD Encourages MFIs to Enhance Data Privacy, Cyber Security

State Bank of India (SBI) managing director Alok Kumar Choudhary on Wednesday said there is a need for micro finance institutions (MFIs) to pay attention to data privacy and cyber security as they deal with data of a large number of customers. 

Speaking at a conference organised by Sa-Dhan, he said, MFIs should also focus on capacity building to deal with the challenges of the future.

“The second thing which is very important is the integration with the evolving regulation particularly when you have data privacy law. The enormous amount of data which has been handled by all the MFIs, this particular aspect (data privacy) requires attention and some kind of action plan needs to be in place,” he said.

Financial institutions need to focus on improving ease of transaction through digital means, he said, adding, the need of the customers in the changing time has to be addressed as per their convenience and ease.

“For this segment of (bottom of the pyramid) customers, we need to understand what they want and ease with which their desire can be fulfilled,” he said.

SBI has a significant credit line to MFIs as well as to NBFCs that are trying to foster financial inclusion.

Talking about participation of SBI in the government’s financial inclusion drive, Choudhary said, the bank alone has opened 36 per cent of the total account opened under PM Jan Dhan Yojana.

More than 50 crore bank accounts have been opened under the PM Jan Dhan Yojana in the last nine years and the deposit balance swelled to over Rs. 2.03 lakh crore.

With regard to Atal Pension Yojana, he said, SBI has enrolled 32 percent of total subscribers under the scheme.

Speaking at the event, SIDBI Chairman and Managing Director S Ramann said MFIs should not be complacent about their customer base as there is so much digital disruption happening around.

New players would enter the financial space and can drive traditional players out if the sector does not keep pace with time, he said.


Samsung launched the Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Galaxy Z Flip 5 alongside the Galaxy Tab S9 series and Galaxy Watch 6 series at its first Galaxy Unpacked event in South Korea. We discuss the company’s new devices and more on the latest episode of Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.
Affiliate links may be automatically generated – see our ethics statement for details.

Check out our Latest News and Follow us at Facebook

Original Source

Twitter Questioned Over Whistleblower’s Claims on India Operations by Tharoor-Led Parliamentary Panel

Twitter was questioned rigorously by Congress leader Shashi Tharoor-led Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information and Technology on Friday over a whistleblower’s revelations on its India operations. The social media platform’s officials were asked about data security and privacy. The Twitter executives denied the whistleblower’s claims. However, as per the sources, the panel has cited the replies provided by Twitter executives as “not satisfactory”. The parliamentary committee is currently working to prepare a comprehensive report on data privacy and security in the country.

As reported by PTI, top Twitter executives Samiran Gupta, Senior Director (Public Policy) and Shagufta Kamran, Director (Public Policy), were summoned before the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information and Technology on Friday. The meeting was scheduled from 4.30 pm IST. Besides Tharoor as the chair, Congress MP Karti Chidambaram, TMC MP Mahua Moitra, TRS MP Ranjith Reddy, BJP’s Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore and CPI(M)’s John Brittas were also a part of the panel.

The microblogging site was questioned about the revelations by the company’s former Head of Security, Peiter Zatko, accusing Twitter of knowingly allowing the Indian government to place its “agents” on the company payroll. As per Zatko, the agents had “direct unsupervised access to the company’s systems and user data”.

The company’s officials were also asked whether the data security policies are in synch with local policies. They were also grilled about how the company handles conflicts in national privacy policies of different countries. According to the source, the panel is not satisfied with the replies of the executives.

The company’s officials rejected Zatko’s claims. In line with Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal’s response to the revelations, the microblogging site has called these claims as “false narrative”.


Check out our Latest News and Follow us at Facebook

Original Source

Data Privacy Concerns: IRCTC Withdraws Tender for Hiring Consultant to Monetise Passenger Info

The Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) has withdrawn a tender, published earlier to hire a consultant to monetise the passenger data. The update was provided by a senior IRCTC official to the Congress leader Shashi Tharoor-led parliamentary panel on Friday. The railway company announced the tender in the second half of this month. The tender garnered controversy over privacy concerns regarding monetisation of passenger and freight customer data. IRCTC has now informed that it is no longer pursuing the tender.

According to a PTI report, the IRCTC MD and Chairperson Rajni Hasija deposed before Shashi Tharoor-led Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology on Friday along with other officials. The panel summoned officials of IRCTC following the reports announcing the tender for the appointment of a consultant for digital data monetisation.

The IRCTC officials confirmed to the panel that the company is no longer pursuing the tender. “IRCTC has withdrawn the tender in light of the non-approval of the Data Protection Bill,” an IRCTC official informed the panel, as reported by PTI.

The railway ticketing company took the decision to withdraw the tender at the IRCTC annual general meeting on Friday, which was scheduled ahead of the summon in front of the panel.

Through the tender, published in the second half of the August, IRCTC sought to study and monetise data including information such as “name, age, mobile number, gender, address, e-mail ID, class of journey, payment mode, login or password” and other details.


Check out our Latest News and Follow us at Facebook

Original Source

Privacy Sandbox: Google Will Phase Out Third-Party Cookies in Chrome Starting 2024 H2

Google has announced that it is expanding the testing of Privacy Sandbox APIs to more population, essentially postponing the phasing out of third-party cookies in Chrome to 2024. This is a part of deploying Privacy Sandbox — its solution to provide more private, targeted advertising on the Internet. Google says that it got feedback from developers, publishers, marketers, and regulators asking for more time to evaluate as well as to test the new technologies before disabling third-party cookies in Chrome. Google in 2020 had said it intended to deploy the solution “within two years”.

Anthony Chavez, Vice President at Privacy Sandbox, gave a timeline of how Google intends to deploy its Privacy Sandbox technologies in the Chrome browser. The company is expanding the scope of testing Privacy Sandbox APIs starting in “early August till the end of the year” and “into 2023.” Google expects that the Privacy Sandbox APIs will be launched by Q3 2023 and will be generally available in Chrome. It intends to “begin phasing out third-party cookies in Chrome in the second half of 2024.”

Google said that it has worked with developers, publishers, marketers, and regulators via forums like the W3C to refine design proposals. It also reached an agreement with the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) on how to develop and release the Privacy Sandbox in Chrome worldwide. As per the Privacy Sandbox website, the proposals are in various stages of the development process.

“The most consistent feedback we’ve received is the need for more time to evaluate and test the new Privacy Sandbox technologies before deprecating third-party cookies in Chrome. This deliberate approach to transitioning from third-party cookies ensures that the web can continue to thrive, without relying on cross-site tracking identifiers or covert techniques like fingerprinting,” Chavez said in the note.

As mentioned, Google had earlier said that it will start to phase out third-party cookies from Chrome browser “within 2 years”. These third-party cookies are used by companies to track users’ activities on the internet which raised concerns about privacy violations. Google’s Privacy Sandbox solution will limit sharing of user data with third parties and operate without cross-app identifiers, including advertising ID. This will result in delivery of more targeted ads as well as making healthy, ad-supported web rendering third-party cookies obsolete.


For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on Twitter, Facebook, and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel.

US Regulators Move to Block Meta’s Deal With Virtual Reality App Maker Within



Check out our Latest News and Follow us at Facebook

Original Source

Exit mobile version