Soumyarendra Barik
@imsoumyarendra
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The Indian Express | I report on the intersection of tech and society | Views mine, not employer’s
Joined February 2017
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Last Seen Profiles
Meet Prashant. He’d come over to my place to deliver a Blinkit order when I was jamming with a few friends. He’s interested in music and wanted to play a few songs. And he’s INCREDIBLE. Sharing a song he played - have fun!
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🚨BREAKING: ExpressVPN becomes first major VPN provider to remove its servers from India in the aftermath of CERT-In's cybersecurity rules which require VPNs to store user data for 5 years.
Says users will still be able to connect with their VPN services.
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🚨🚨BREAKING: More than 100 women working with Urban Company as beauticians are on strike against the company protesting against low wages, high commissions and poor safety working conditions for them.
I’m reporting live
@entrackr
videos in 🧵
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Electric vehicles will not save the planet. Efficient, accessible and affordable public transport will.
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🚨🚨EXCLUSIVE. YOU ARE READING IT FIRST HERE. Urban Company has sued women protesting against the company calling the strike “illegal”, in what is perhaps the first such case where a new age Indian tech company has initiated legal action against its own gig workers.
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Okay, presenting to y'all Good Habits of an Ideal Tech Boy.
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Ground report | I tailed an Ola and Uber driver for a number of rides to investigate an important question: why have these drivers increasingly been asking passengers to cancel the ride on the app?
Here's what I found
@entrackr
(🧵)
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🚨BIG: Amazon’s last-mile delivery network in Pune has come to a grinding halt after its delivery personnel went on strike on March 16 demanding better pay and insurance cover from the company. Around 20 delivery hubs have been hit. My story
@entrackr
1/n
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🚨NEW: “What is Twitter? Can I get my wife hospitalised using that?” Akhil Prasad who stood outside Gangaram Hospital in Delhi said when I asked if he had looked for help on Twitter.
My ground report for
@entrackr
and a 🧵
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I think the biggest lie in this obviously fake conversation is that he has a friend
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🚨Apple has sent a fresh round of warnings to some Indian users that their iPhone may have been targeted by spyware like Israeli NSO-Group's Pegasus. Notifications were sent at 12:30 am today, unclear how many people in India were targeted.
@IndianExpress
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New: RTI docs reveal that Delhi Police while using facial recognition considers a match of 80% as positive. But, even for people whose match is below 80%, are considered 'false positive' and remain on police radar.
RTI by
@internetfreedom
, Page 1 story
@IndianExpress
(🧵)
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🚨Breaking: Women workers of Urban Company have gone on strike yet again calling for an end to a new 'Flexi' category and a new subscription service charge they have to pay to the company.
They had first went on a strike just this October.
(Video by spl. arrangement)
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🚨🚨BREAKING: Ashwini Vaishnaw is India's new IT Minister. He's a graduate from IIT Kanpur and Wharton and a former civil servant.
#CabinetExpansion2021
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How Blinkit workers striking against the company organised themselves together - and how these protests mark a new flashpoint in gig work’s dismal reality.
My report from the ground
@IndianExpress
🧵
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I come from two Indias.
An India which will have one of the weakest data protection laws for its citizens of anywhere in the world.
But also an India which has the most wide ranging exemptions for the government and its friends for accessing citizens’ personal data.
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Career Update: I have joined
@IndianExpress
as Principal Correspondent where I’ll continue reporting on the intersection of tech and society and a bit of pharma. I got my first byline in today’s paper.
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A group of women told me that if
@urbancompany_UC
doesn’t listen to their demands, they’ll organise a strike across multiple cities. For now, the women in Gurgaon have decided not to log in to the app on the weekend. More sloganeering from earlier in the evening:
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— These
@urbancompany_UC
women workers allege they are charged Rs 2,000 if they do less than 30 jobs in a month. How is that a marketplace model? they are asking.
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What these women are protesting:
— UC is charging commissions as high as 35%. They want it to come down to 20%
— Beauticians have to buy products from UC at a high markup. They are not even provided with a bill for these products.
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@iamjohnoliver
Hi John, I'm a reporter from India, where Last Week Tonight streams on Disney owned platform Hotstar. The latest episode focused on Indian PM Narendra Modi has not been uploaded on the platform yet, and it seems as if it has completely nuked it. Need your comment
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I can tweet this because I'm in Gurgaon and you can read this tweet because you're not currently in one of the five districts of Haryana where the state government has snapped internet services.
Just to suppress voices coming out of the farmer-led protests.
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TN Hari of BigBasket, a grocery delivery startup that thrives on services of delivery workers, said on a Moneycontrol panel that workers have a constitutional right to form a union.
I'm in touch with a number of BigBasket workers who'd be thrilled to know that.
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🚨🚨Swiggy delivery workers in India’s north eastern town of Guwahati are on strike, demanding better pay and curtailing hiring via third parties.
2021 has been a big year for labour movements in India, and has exposed the ugly underbelly of the internet gig economy.
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A few days ago, I reported a story about the life of one Zomato delivery worker in Gurgaon after tailing him for an entire day.
But, there were a few things about dignity and tips that I couldn't add in the original story
I've documented it here:
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Meet Seema, who works at a beautician for
@urbancompany_UC
and is leading the protest. Here’s her summing up today’s developments
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The only reason he’s delivering food in such torrential rain is because he’ll get a surge payout for delivering during rains which is typically higher than usual payouts. It’s not out of dedication but due to the desperation to make some Rs 10-15 more. Should that be celebrated?
I was really amazed to see this man trying to deliver food on time even with a terrified heavy rainfall. People who are driving cars were struggling to drive but this man has such a dedication, hats off, hope
@zomato
recognise these type of people and give some rewards.
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.
@urbancompany_UC
CSO Captain Kamal Yadav who was at the protest site asked me to step out from the company’s property when I was trying to cover the voices of the striking women.
“I don’t care,” said Yadav when I told him about covering the protest.
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🚨Scoop: WhatsApp could soon become a major search engine for key government schemes, powered by ChatGPT and a local languages crowdsourcing project. Small team at MeitY working on it, demos showed to Microsoft’s Satya Nadella.
My report
@IndianExpress
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Despite growing concern around road safety 10min delivery firms have introduced new incentive-based payment terms that include penalising workers for late deliveries, which workers say are forcing them to ride even faster.
My page 1 report
@indianexpress
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Staying true to their word, the women striking against
@urbancompany_UC
in Gurgaon are logging out of the app for the weekend as a mark of protest. This is the nth photo I’ve received from one of those brave women.
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🚨New: In a rush to make living wage, delivery workers for Blinkit, Swiggy, Zomato spend hours under the harsh sun. Many say they can't afford a sick leave
Their skin burns more: India’s climate crisis is putting gig workers at greater risk
@IndianExpress
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.
@urbancompany_UC
also sent a message to these women warning them against striking. “Urban Company will take strict police action against anyone who stops other partners from going to work,” company told them.
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Google says that in 2021, YouTube supported 7.5 lakh full-time equivalent jobs and contributed Rs 10,000 crore to India’s GDP.
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Here’s a list of the demands made by the women workers protesting against
@urbancompany_UC
. They demand reducing company commissions, a decrease in product prices among other things.
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BREAKING: WhatsApp has moved the Delhi High Court challenging the traceability requirement in India's new social media rules. Says traceability requirement "would break end-to-end encryption and fundamentally undermines people’s right to privacy".
@entrackr
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🚨 More details from Twitter’s petition: says between Feb 2021-22, IT Min sent orders to block 1474 accounts, 175 tweets. Twitter is challenging 39 flagged URLs; says increasingly Ministry is issuing orders to block entire accounts
@IndianExpress
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After hours of striking some women protesters are now seen entering the company’s office. They’ve been protesting since 11 am and previous talks have broken down. The women are frustrated.
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🚨BIG: A government-sponsored facial recognition surveillance system, billed as India’s largest such effort to date, is proposing to detect faces when covered with masks, or even modified by plastic surgery, sparking privacy concerns.
I report
@entrackr
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BREAKING: DCP of Delhi Police’s Special Cell Sanjeev Kumar Yadav just told me that “I’m not aware of this investigation”, when asked for details about the raid on Twitter’s offices.
@entrackr
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Abiraj Bal,
@urbancompany_UC
CEO just left the company’s premises in his car. Protestors say he’s leaving secretively. “Chori chupke nikla hai” one woman said.
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.
@urbancompany_UC
is definitely going to take a financial hit over the weekend as disgruntled women workers plan to stay logged out today and tomorrow. Here’s a notification that the UC app showed a worker who’s not taking any jobs:
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Career update: Yesterday was my last working day at
@entrackr
, a workplace that I'm immensely grateful to, for giving me all the editorial freedom in the world and some wonderful colleagues who became friends for life.
And a big thank you to you all for being wonderful readers!
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My first lead story for
@indianexpress
. Also read for a sense of where legislations related to the internet ecosystem in the country are likely headed.
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BREAKING: Nigeria has suspended Twitter’s operations in the country indefinitely, days after the platform deleted a tweet by Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari where he referenced the Nigerian Civil War.
@entrackr
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🚨In India where delivery workers aren't allowed to use the same lifts as residents in housing societies, and where food choices are dictated by generational experiences with caste, Zomato's segregation idea is problematic. I write
@IndianExpress
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The protesting women confronting the remaining
@urbancompany_UC
employees at their Gurgaon office.
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The drones the police flew over farmers protesting against the farm laws, were illegal — they were never authorised to fly by the Civil Aviation Ministry, or DGCA, both entities which regulate drone use, RTIs revealed. My story
@medianama
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I had tweeted an image about the earnings of one Urban Company worker. However, in response to that image, the company clarified that the image was actually of the 'settlement' & not 'payout' screen. This worker had made Rs 285/job on an average. I'm deleting the image, but... 🧵
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Urban Company’s suit against these workers levels some serious charges. Story up soon.
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Professional update (2): I've joined
@entrackr
, where I'll be reporting on issues that lie at the intersection of technology, policy, and society. As always, my DMs are open for pitches/story ideas, or you can email me at: soumya[at]entrackr[dot]com
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Ruckus again after the departure of Abhiraj Bhal
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With delivery timelines shrinking, concerns have grown regarding safety. The Chennai traffic police registered cases against over 970 workers of Swiggy, Zomato, Dunzo, Amazon, etc for flouting traffic norms, *in a single day*
I report
@IndianExpress
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Instead of teaching engineering students—who by the way come from all faiths—Hindu scriptures, how about mandating a course on the Indian Constitution, with an exam whose scores factor in their overall grades? The Constitution after all is the best text on the idea of India.
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🚨Pharma firms bought electoral bonds every time there was regulatory or investigative action against them, with companies in the sector purchasing them almost in apparent tandem. Data tells a clear pattern.
I report with
@AanchalMagazine
@IndianExpress
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Companies like Blinkit also use heavy handed techniques to quell protests. Here’s two workers showing me that Blinkit blocked their account for ‘enabling strikes’
4/
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🚨🚨BREAKING: Twitter India just told the Karnataka HC that Twitter Inc. (the US-based company that operates Twitter platform) does not hold even a single share in Twitter India.
Twitter India says some 9000 shares are held by Twitter International (regd in Netherlands)
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Scoop: The upcoming Digital India Bill could overhaul the long held understanding of internet intermediaries - can bring fact checking and AI-based platforms under its ambit.
@IndianExpress
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🚨
@IndianExpress
investigation into fraud loan apps, Part 2: For Rs 300, fake govt IDs, SMS folder, contact lists & photo galleries are being sold online to get loans from fake apps.
Scamming the scammers: A stunning role reversal — this time, shady loan apps are the 'victims'
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Haha, here’s an alt resolution for you: “we will stop being exploitative”.
our new year resolution is to not get boycotted on twitter this year🤞
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🚨New: Taiwan chip cos have reservations about India - poor infra, low talent & red tape, which is stopping them from investing in India’s chip push. Taiwan’s foreign minister tells me the sticking points that Delhi should address
@IndianExpress
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Data gathering and efforts of citizen data monetisation by public agencies picks up even as data protection law hangs fire. I report
@IndianExpress
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🚨Gurgaon District court has sent a notice to one of the protesting women to appear in court at 10 am on Wednesday (Dec 22).
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🚨New: Despite all the anti-China rhetoric, data shows 8 of the 10 laptops sold in India in FY 24 until Jan came from Beijing. Companies are unwilling to move quickly on local manufacturing despite govt’s efforts.
@IndianExpress
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🚨New: Beyond political numbers, a new ramification of the new coalition government: Gujarat may no longer be the favoured state for new manufacturing projects like chips, phones - NCBN, TDP could push AP as a destination.
@IndianExpress
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🚨🚨Read: You can find all details on Urban Company’s lawsuit against its own gig workers in this story
@entrackr
:
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Link Aadhaar to the nostrils and veins of citizens to track breathing and blood flow, but in Parliament, while discussing crucial and often unconstitutional legislation, voice vote will do.
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🚨New: In first week of model code, a web of advertisers on Facebook and Instagram paid more than Rs 85 lakh and placed pro-BJP ads, ridiculing the Opposition. Of the 20 top political advertisers only the BJP was boosted by surrogates. 1/n
@IndianExpress
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🚨🚨BREAKING: Civil Aviation Ministry has notified final drone rules which are extremely liberalised compared to the drone rules they replace. A copy of the rules:
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🚨🚨NEW: Mitrabhanu Lenka, a student of class eight from a remote village in Odisha, sets out on a journey across the state border to Andhra Pradesh everyday.
Why? In search of better internet to attend online classes.
My story
@entrackr
(🧵)
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“On March 15, Amazon issued a new policy saying that we will earn Rs 10 on delivering small packages and Rs 15 for deliveries made through tempos. Earlier, we used to make Rs 35 on deliveries. The price of petrol is touching Rs 100," a delivery person told me. 2/n
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And here’s a gem from a Blinkit executive about aspirations and who an ‘ideal’ delivery ‘partner’ is -
6/
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🚨Mega interview: I sat down with MoS
@Rajeev_GoI
with an annotated data protection Act, and asked him questions about every single word, sentence in the law that needed clarification.
He responds to the questions in a candid interview.
@IndianExpress
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🦉Users of Dunzo may have used it to order groceries or send documents to a friend. But a Bengaluru resident used it for something that the company may not have included in its investor pitch deck: rescue an injured bird.
Weekend read
@entrackr
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🚨Exclusive: Hero Electric, India’s largest two-wheel EV maker, has signed an agreement with Massive Mobility to install 10,000 2w EV chargers across the country in the next one year.
I report
@entrackr
<🧵>
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🚨Key details about Account Aggregators that claim they'll increase credit access in India. A 🧵
1. Four major Indian banks—HDFC, ICICI, Axis and IndusInd—are currently live on the account aggregator network, which account for 40% of all bank accounts.
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Massive data breach at Air India: Sensitive personal data such passport info, credit card data, contact info, of around 45 lakh people breached. Passwords, and CVV/CVC data not impacted, per airliner. Breach impacted data registered between August 2011 and February 2021.
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🚨 Unpacking the alleged MobiKwik data breach
A dataset of 10 crore MobiKwik users, with information like images of Aadhaar cards, passports, phone numbers, emails, credit card details and their location, is on sale on the dark web
@entrackr
1/n
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🚨NEW: The National Health Authority wants to map the SECC database with Aadhaar to target beneficiaries of PM-JAY. States however, are pushing back, fearing privacy issues and the data being used for political gains.
My front page report
@IndianExpress
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Last month, Swiggy announced a paid 2-day period break every month for its women delivery workers.
Curious, I reached out to Zomato and Urban Company asking if they had any similar plans for their women workers, and… 🧵
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The success of the farmers’ protests has had a monumental impact on the psyche of Urban Company’s women workers. “If the govt can buckle to reasonable demands, so can Urban Company,” some women at the strike told me.
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🚨🚨Representatives from the IT Ministry and Home Ministry summoned today by the Parliamentary IT Committee headed by Shashi Tharoor wrote in excuses and did not appear before the committee.
The issue of
#Pegasus
was to be discussed at today's meeting. The evasion continues.
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Ground Report: For The Indian Express, we set out to explore the world of 10 minute grocery delivery - an anatomy of those 10 minutes and the pressure that it puts on the humans in the operational chain.
Front page report with
@pranavmukul
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Today is a big day in India's tech regulation journey as we move to formally talk about the core Internet law.
MoS IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar is in Bengaluru to present the basics of the Digital India Bill - the successor to the decades old IT Act, 2000.
🧵 on what to expect.
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🚨Story: A voter gets a call. On the other end is a local leader, asking them what issues they are facing and would like addressed if the leader were elected to power. The voter says electricity cuts are a big issue. The leader apologises for the power cut issue.
Continues… 🧵
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I asked Rajeev Chandrashekhar about concerns raised by VPN providers on CERT-In's latest cybersecurity norms. He said VPNs who do not adhere to the rules are free to exit the country. His statement:
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There's a lot more in the story. Do read.
Fin.
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🚨Another day, another security at an Indian company.
Stockbroking app Upstox revealed that it suffered a data breach which compromised contact details and KYC details of its users.
@entrackr
A 🧵on what I could gather about the breach. 1/
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Govt says AI advisory not for startups, only for Big Tech. Unclear why former is being exempted given their systems are equally (if not more) prone to hallucinations, misinformation (Eg Ola's Krutrim).
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The leaning tower of Prayagraj. Marvellous work by the UP administration.
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There was a government guideline in 2020 which said that Ola, Uber will have to cap commissions charged from drivers at 20%. Also, they had to device a way to stop drivers from working for over 12 hours at a stretch.
Ola, Uber have of course made a mockery out of it.
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NEW: Clubhouse has announced a creator support program in India. Will help creators with production and creative development, promotion, and provide financial support via matching them with brands or a monthly stipend.
@entrackr
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🚨Scoop: Recognising that online offences can be unique with no equivalent in the offline world, MeitY is considering regulation of “deliberate” misinformation and doxxing as offences under a fresh legislation, which is expected to replace the IT Act.
@IndianExpress
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Big: The IT Ministry proposes to introduce a government-appointed grievance committee that could potentially reverse content-related decisions taken by social media companies like Facebook and Twitter. Pushback likely.
@IndianExpress
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