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<\/p>\nPlus: Thailand cracks down on scam gangs<\/p>\n
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Image:<\/p>\n
Apple stands up for Indians\u2019 privacy (Chinese not so much)<\/p>\n
Welcome to Computing’s weekly roundup of tech news in Asia. This time we look at the Indian government\u2019s backtrack on plans to force the installation of an app in the face of resistance from vendors, another major data breach in South Korea and Thailand\u2019s action against the scourge of forced-labour scam gangs.<\/p>\n
India has backed down on its demand for smartphone vendors to preinstall the government-backed Sanchar Saathi app on phones after a public backlash and Apple\u2019s stated refusal to comply.<\/p>\n
When the public learned that the government had secretly mandated that the anti-fraud app must be preinstalled in a way that couldn’t be disabled or restricted the outcry was immediate, with the move seen as an infringement on citizens’ data rights and privacy. But the final nail in the plan\u2019s coffin came when Apple, many of whose devices are now assembled in India, said it wouldn\u2019t comply. Samsung also said it would resist the directive.<\/p>\n
A day after the story broke, the Indian government announced it would no longer be proceeding with the scheme, offering a face-saving statistic that 600,000 new users had now downloaded the app. Communications minister Jyotiraditya Scindia also denied that the app could be used for snooping. However, a revised version of the legal order has yet to emerge, leading to suspicions that the government will try again. It wouldn\u2019t be the first time the authorities have tried to mandate installation of state-backed apps or access to mobile OSs.<\/p>\n
Observers have also contrasted Apple\u2019s standing up for Indian users\u2019 privacy with its customary behaviour in China, where the company has a history of complying with local regulations in China, even when they are seen as restrictive or controversial, implementing content filtering and censorship in its products and services and removing apps such as VPNs form its app store.<\/p>\n
Australia<\/p>\n
YouTube has confirmed it will comply with Australia\u2019s ban on under-16s having an account by locking underage users out of their accounts by 10th December, when the new law comes in. Source<\/a> China<\/p>\n The ZTE Nubia M153, which is the first smartphone running ByteDance\u2019s agentic AI phone assistant has sold out on day one of its availability, despite only an \u201cengineering prototype\u201d being available. The embedded assistant can carry out tasks via voice commands. Source<\/a> India<\/p>\n India has backed down on a plan enforce the preloading of a state-backed fraud prevention app<\/a> on all new phones, after Apple made it clear it would not comply. Source<\/a> Japan<\/p>\n Japan plans to allocate about \u00a5252.5 billion (US$1.6 billion) next year in extra budget to support AI and semiconductor development. An additional \u00a593.7 billion (US$599 million) has also been proposed to help secure rare earths and reduce reliance on China for such resources. Source<\/a> North Korea<\/p>\n North Korean threat actors responsible for the Contagious Interview campaign have continued to flood the npm registry with almost 200 malicious packages which have been downloaded over 31,000 times. Source<\/a> South Korea<\/p>\n A major authentication vulnerability in Korean online shopping platform Coupang allowed an intruder to access the names, emails, phone numbers and addresses tied to 30 million customer accounts. Source<\/a> Taiwan<\/p>\n Taiwanese prosecutors raided two of the homes of former TSMC senior vice president Wei-Jen Lo, seizing digital evidence. Along with being accused for leaking TSMC secrets, Lo is now suspected of violating Taiwan’s national security. A court has also approved a petition to seize financial assets. Source<\/a> Elsewhere in Asia<\/p>\n Singapore: The EU and Singapore have outlined potential partnerships in areas such as AI, data, cybersecurity, semiconductors and digital trade. Closer EU-Asia ties could open up research possibilities, accelerate semiconductor development and align AI standards. Source<\/a>.
\n Meta has also started removing under-16s from Facebook and Instagram, and is blocking the creation of new accounts for under-16 users in Australia from 4th December. Source<\/a><\/p>\n
\n China is using AI to censor and monitor its citizens and is exporting its techniques other countries, reports the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI). Source<\/a>
\n The US Senate Foreign Relations Committee has been told that American efforts to restrict access by China to advanced technologies have been a failure. Source<\/a>
\n Chinese AI companies are taking advantage of Kenya\u2019s weak labour laws and high youth unemployment to recruit students to train their models. Source<\/a>
\n The EU announced a \u20ac3 billion rare earth\u2019s strategy to counter China\u2019s near-monopoly by funding mining, refining and recycling projects in Europe and beyond. Source<\/a><\/p>\n
\n Apple is not always so upstanding against government pressure. 9to5Mac observes that \u201cApple complies with the law in each of the countries in which it operates\u201d is the boilerplate statement it wheels out while bowing to restrictive measures by China. Source<\/a>
\n Meesho, a decade-old Indian e-commerce platform is set to launch an IPO of around $606 million. It is the first major Indian e-commerce platform to go public. Source<\/a>
\n Meanwhile, the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) has fined Meesho for facilitating the sale of walkie-talkies without regulatory approval. Source<\/a>
\n India\u2019s Civil Aviation Minister says GPS spoofing and jamming activity has been detected at eight major airports including Kolkata, Amritsar, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Chennai. Source<\/a>
\n Indian techies are staying at home or looking at alternatives to working in the US – including Dubai, Japan and Singapore – after H-1B visa rules were changed, RestOfWorld reports. Source<\/a>
\n A government portal hosting records of 1.8 million cybercrime suspects is raising major privacy concerns, with experts warning that predictive policing and large centralised databases could lead to profiling, bias and unchecked surveillance. Source<\/a><\/p>\n
\n Retailer Askul has partially restored online sales after a ransomware attack in October took down its ordering and logistics systems. Corporate customers can now purchase a limited range of products on its platform. Source<\/a>
\n A gaming company is asking job applicants to draw during their interview, after a spate of applicants using AI fakes. Source<\/a><\/p>\n
\n BleepingComputer has published a detailed report on security researchers exposed how North Korean IT recruiters target and lure developers into renting their identities for illicit fundraising. Source<\/a><\/p>\n
\n Four people have been arrested for the alleged hacking of 120,000 IP cameras and using stolen footage in sexually exploitative videos sold overseas. It is thought that the four suspects were acting independently of one another. Source<\/a>
\n South Korea will invest 280 billion won (US$191 million) over the next four years to develop next-generation battery technologies, to boost the competitiveness of the sector amid rising global competition. South Korea also wants to reduce its reliance on China for such materials and critical minerals. Source<\/a>
\n Samsung has announced a breakthrough with the development of ferroelectric NAND which could cut the power needs of datacentres by up to 96% by being able to hold data without power. Source<\/a><\/p>\n
\n Taiwan is banning access to Chinese social media app Xiaohongshu (Rednote) for one year, citing security risks and fraud concerns. Source<\/a>
\n Taiwanese lawyers charged the Taiwan unit of Japanese semiconductor equipment maker Tokyo Electron Ltd with intellectual property theft from TSMC. Source<\/a>
\n Taiwan revised its economic growth forecast for 2025 sharply upwards to 7.37%t, the fastest rate in 15 years. Global demand for AI and consumer electronics boosted electronics. GDP increased 8.21% in the third quarter compared with the same period in 2024. Source<\/a>
\n Chipmaker United Microelectronics Corp (UMC) has agreed to explore collaboration with Polar Semiconductoron to manufacture 8-inch wafers in the US. Source<\/a><\/p>\n
\n Vietnam: Apple airpods maker Luxshare, a Chinese manufacturer, is planning to produce game consoles in Vietnam with annual capacity of up to 4.5 million units. Source<\/a>
\n Thailand: The Thai authorities have been cracking down on forced-labour online scam gangs that infest parts of Southeast Asia, seizing more than $300 million in assets, including shares in a major energy company, and issuing warrants for the arrest of 42 people. Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Plus: Thailand cracks down on scam gangs Image: Apple stands up for Indians\u2019 privacy (Chinese not so much)…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":176309,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[576,986,114,61,2568,1665,60,582,94228,9458,541,2073,80,1667,7562],"class_list":{"0":"post-176308","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technology","8":"tag-asia","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-china","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-india","13":"tag-indonesia","14":"tag-ireland","15":"tag-japan","16":"tag-sanchar-saathi","17":"tag-singapore","18":"tag-south-korea","19":"tag-taiwan","20":"tag-technology","21":"tag-thailand","22":"tag-vietnam"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176308\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/176309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}