Google ramps up efforts in India to make internet safer

Tech giant Google is ramping up its efforts in India to make the internet a safer place by investing in systems and processes to tackle menaces like misinformation, fraud, threats to child safety, violent extremism, phishing attacks, and malware.

The company is dedicating more resources for its content moderation systems and processes. It also plans to help train developers and startups to build communal solutions and innovate on open-source tools to better protect Indians online.

Further, the company is launching a new and updated Google Safety Centre in eight languages, with plans to launch it in three more Indian languages by the year-end. As part of its digital safety resources for parents and children, the company has also launched Be Internet Awesome program in India.

"At Google, safety is core to everything we do. We design our products to ensure that they are secure by default and private by design, and you’re in control of your information. We are privileged that hundreds of millions of Indians place their trust in Google products," Sanjay Gupta, Country Manager & Vice President, Google India, and Kristie Canegallo, Vice President, Trust & Safety, Google, said in a blog.

Google India, the blog said, has been working towards making the internet helpful for over a billion people through a deeper understanding of users’ needs under the Next Billion Users initiative besides launching many India-first features and products.

"After the outbreak of COVID-19, the internet's role in our everyday lives has become all the more central. With more and more Indians turning to the internet for their day-to-day needs, we recognise our responsibility to ensure that they’re protected from an evolving range of online risks — from phishing to financial fraud to misinformation. We also know that new users in particular are vulnerable to threats from bad actors," Gupta and Canegallo noted.  

With over 20,000 people spread across the world, Google's Trust and Safety teams are dedicated to identifying, fighting, and preventing online harms. This includes everything from researching emerging abuse trends, to developing policies and standards that make clear what is acceptable on our platforms, to building the technology that enables enforcement of those policies at scale, including compliance with local laws and regulations in every country we operate in.

"Just in the last year, we’ve invested over $1 billion on our content moderation systems and processes, and we continue to invest in this area," the blog said. "In India, we have significantly increased the resources dedicated to these teams, adding product policy analysts, security specialists, and user trust experts, and expanded our efforts to provide coverage in more than 10 vernacular Indian languages, enabling our central teams to benefit from the local nuance and inputs.  This increased focus will help us to tackle misinformation, fraud, threats to child safety, violent extremism, phishing attacks, and malware, among other abuse areas."

Google noted that building a safer internet needs the leadership of the larger internet industry that is driving India’s digital economy. These challenges cannot be overcome by one or two players alone, and there is a need to step up the collective efforts as an industry. "We are committed to sharing our tools and the institutional knowledge and capabilities we’ve developed over the years to contribute to this joint responsibility. We will be working with leading industry organisations to help train developers and startups in these capabilities, build communal solutions to shared safety challenges, and innovate on open-source tools so we can better protect Indians online," Gupta and Canegallo said.

The Google Safety Centre, which serves as a single destination dedicated to educating and empowering our users on the importance of digital safety, will be launched in three more Indian languages by 2021-end besides Hindi, Marathi, Malayalam, Kannada, and Telugu.

"On this platform, users can discover helpful resources and easy tips, and identify the digital habits that are right for them and their families, all in the language of their choice. With the ‘My Activity’ hub in the Safety Centre, they can review, control, or delete the activity saved to their Google accounts. This section received more than 1 billion visits by Indian users in the first half of 2021 alone, and we hope this refreshed Safety Center will help millions more," the duo added.

Google has launched a user education campaign in multiple languages, to bring attention to common threats like phishing, malware, and fraud.

While Google policies don’t allow kids under 13 to create a standard Google account, the company has worked hard to design enriching product experiences for them — as well as for older teens and their families. As part of its commitment for digital safety resources for parents and children, Google has launched the global Be Internet Awesome program in India.

The program is designed and crafted by digital safety experts to help children, families, and educators learn about staying safe online. Available in English and Hindi first, then soon in other Indian languages, Be Internet Awesome is a great resource for kids, parents, and teachers to learn about safe and healthy internet habits.

"It includes a highly visual, interactive experience called ‘Interland’, where children can learn the fundamentals of online safety and participate in a series of fun, challenging games. They’ll learn how to safeguard valuable information, one-up cyberbullies, and spot what’s real and what’s fake. We’re also keen for children to explore Be Internet Awesome through avenues they’re already familiar with, and so we are delighted to announce our partnership with popular Indian comic book publishers, Amar Chitra Katha, who will help kids discover these critical internet safety lessons through their favourite characters, in eight Indian languages," the blog noted.

Google has also stepped up efforts to deliver a privacy-first experience with Android 12 with a new privacy dashboard that gives people a clear timeline view of apps that have accessed their location, microphone, and camera in the last 24 hours — so they can better understand and control what data apps use.

"At the same time, we’re taking steps to identify and respond to concerns around specific app categories more quickly. For example, we recently announced clarifications around the policies on personal loan apps, including new requirements that will help safeguard users, while enabling legitimate developers to operate and flourish. And we have significantly expanded our Google Play support teams in India, enabling us to gain a deeper understanding of the needs of our partners and users — including around online safety. The bottom line is this: when we solve for our users, we also solve for our developers," Gupta and Canegallo stated.