Online safety is crucial for India’s digital future, says Google India chief

Do you remember getting SMSes or Whatsapp messages claiming that you won a lottery or a selection for a part-time job? The ones that are followed by a sneakily suspicious link to claim the winning amount or to join a WhatsApp group, only to end up losing money from your bank account or giving away personal details. 

I’m sure many of you might have come across these types of messages almost on a daily basis. Online search giant Google is more than aware of this issue, hoping to do their bit to keep Indian netizens safe and secure online, away from the nefarious designs of increasingly more tech-savvy cybercriminals.

With just 700 million people online – half of its entire population – India saw over 18 million cyberattacks which is around 200,000 threats and online scams every day in the first three months of 2022 alone, according to security firm Norton. That’s insane!

Online security against cybercriminals becomes extremely important, especially for users coming online for the first time. This was the general purview under which the second edition of the Safer With Google event was held in New Delhi where Google India announced new programs for enhancing its online security measures and empowering online users with awareness campaigns. After all, dealing with such a threat requires knowledge of identifying it in the first place. 

“As more of India comes online, it's important to ensure the opportunity of connectivity doesn't come at the price of online safety. For the farmer who's using the internet to explore new crops, the way we're using the internet to educate and empower or even the next Neeraj Chopra, who used to watch videos online to perfect his javelin throw, it is crucial that they're able to trust the internet in order to leverage its full potential and true potential. The issue of safety therefore, is not a compliance check box. It is the foundation on which we need to build our digital future,” said Sanjay Gupta, VP and Country Head, Google India.

Safeguarding kids and even grandparents becomes even more important in such a scenario where there are constantly new technological advancements and if you’re unaware, there’s a lot to lose online. Just in the first quarter of this year, Google removed over 1 million videos from YouTube and blocked over 60,000 channels globally, because they failed to comply with their child compliance measures.

“As local threat vectors evolve, our focus is on strengthening our defenses against these, through safety enhancements in our products, adapting our policies to prevent misuse of our platforms, and identifying and weeding out threats at the root cause. As we go forward, we will continue to double-down on these efforts, joining forces with industry bodies, regulators, civil society organizations, and law enforcement agencies to share our technology, insights, and experience,” said Saikat Mitra, Senior Director & Head of Trust & Safety, Google APAC.

Cybersecurity Roadshows to upskill over 1 lakh developers

Google has announced multi-city Cybersecurity Roadshows for developers, startups and IT professionals where it will impart the best practices, tools and guidance for building safer apps to over 1 lakh participants across India. Additionally, a cybersecurity course will also be conducted during the annual Google Developers DevFest which is attended by over 15,000 developers. The purpose of this program is to provide support to developers so that they can build more secure apps from the ground up.

$2 million grant to NGOs for digital literacy

Google.org is offering a $2 million (16 crores) grant to nonprofit organizations such as Collective Good Foundation, Point of View and HelpAge India that it believes will help women, the LGBTQIA+ community and senior citizens to access the Internet safely. 

With this grant, the Collective Good Foundation aims to reach over 9 lakh people for outreach programs, content and resources in five languages including English, Hindi, Bengali, Telugu and Marathi. Similarly, the Point of View foundation will boost TechSakhi, a digital helpline for women and LGBTQIA+ users with regional content in Hindi, Bengali, Marathi and Tamil across six states in India. Meanwhile, HelpAge India aims to provide digital literacy and safety training to over 50,000 senior citizens so that they can access the internet without any fear of fraud.

Staying two steps ahead of cyber fraud

Google also doubled down on how important user awareness is for protecting online safety. The main gist of this campaign calls for users not to click on any suspicious link or share any bank details with a caller pretending to be from a bank. To this end, it has partnered with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) and Digital India to roll out four new PSAs (Public Service Announcements) campaigns featuring Indian film stars Neena Gupta, Sanya Malhotra, Rana Daggubati and Rajkummar Rao. Google’s multilingual awareness campaign is being supported by HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Airtel, SBI, and ICICI who will be using consumer channels like websites, apps, SMS and ATMs to alert users against fraud.

Also Read: How 5G Will Transform Mobile Gaming In India, According To Gaming Experts

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Siddharth Chauhan

Siddharth reports on gadgets, technology and you will occasionally find him testing the latest smartphones at Digit. However, his love affair with tech and futurism extends way beyond, at the intersection of technology and culture. View Full Profile