Technology

Tech giant Google announced in a blog post on 14 January that it had examined hundreds of personal loan mobile applications in India reported by users and government agencies, and immediately removed them for violating user security guidelines provided by RBI (Reserve Bank of India) from the Play Store. Google did not reveal the names of the removed apps.

“Providing a safe and secure experience across Google’s products is our top priority. Our global product policies are designed and implemented with this goal in mind, and we're always working to improve our practices to enhance user safety,” Google said in its blog.

“We have reviewed hundreds of personal loan apps in India, based on flags submitted by users and government agencies. The apps that were found to violate our user safety policies were immediately removed from the Store, and we have asked the developers of the remaining identified apps to demonstrate that they comply with applicable local laws and regulations. Apps that fail to do so will be removed without further notice. In addition, we will continue to assist the law enforcement agencies in their investigation of this issue,” Google iterated in the statement.

New Delhi: WhatsApp has decided to delay the rollout of its new policy update to May 15 after massive criticism from users globally, including India, over concerns that data was being shared with its parent company Facebook.

The move assumes significance for users in India given that the country is among the biggest markets for WhatsApp with over 400 million users.

In a blog post, WhatsApp said it is moving back the date on which people will be asked to review and accept the terms.

"No one will have their account suspended or deleted on February 8. We're also going to do a lot more to clear up the misinformation around how privacy and security works on WhatsApp. We'll then go to people gradually to review the policy at their own pace before new business options are available on May 15," it said in the blog post.

In response to last week’s violence in Washington perpetrated by the supporters of President Donald Trump, Twitter has suspended more than 70,000 accounts since Friday. 

In a blog, Twitter Inc said that the accounts were primarily dedicated to sharing QAnon content.

“Given the violent events in Washington, DC, and increased risk of harm, we began permanently suspending thousands of accounts that were primarily dedicated to sharing QAnon content on Friday afternoon”, Twitter said in a blog late on Monday.

QAnon is a completely unfounded, or rather a disproven theory, that says that President Trump is waging a secret war against elite Satan-worshipping paedophiles in influential roles. Many among the crowd that stormed the U.S. Capitol were seen wearing outfits in support of QAnon.

Telegram founder Pavel Durov has hit out at Facebook saying that the company should respect its users. Durov said that Telegram has become a major problem for the Facebook corporation. Durov said that WhatsApp is “unable to compete with Telegram in quality and privacy” and that the Facebook-owned messaging app has switched to covert marketing citing articles which state WhatsApp used multiple paid bots. Durov also noted that WhatsApp’s new policies ask users to feed all their private data to Facebook’s ad engine.

"I hear Facebook has an entire department devoted to figuring out why Telegram is so popular. Imagine dozens of employees working on just that full-time. I am happy to save Facebook tens of millions of dollars and give away our secret for free: respect your users," Durov noted in a post

"Millions of people are outraged by the latest change in WhatsApp Terms, which now say users must feed all their private data to Facebook’s ad engine. It’s no surprise that the flight of users from WhatsApp to Telegram, already ongoing for a few years, has accelerated," he added.

New Delhi: An instant messaging app Signal has been the talk of the town since past couple of days. The app, which is a direct rival to Facebook-owned WhatsApp messenger, is seeing a massive surge in registrations as users are opting for Signal as an alternative to WhatsApp. This is happening as users are not happy with WhatsApp new policy which states that it will share some user data with Facebook's other apps and services. The surge in new registrations on Signal even delayed things, as the company sent out a tweet to tell users that verifying them may get delayed because a lot of people are trying to join Signal. Apart from WhatsApp's policy, Signal's surge can also be attributed to Elon Musk, who also asked his followers to "join Signal" on Wednesday.