INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Technology firms must protect user privacy and prevent abuse of their platforms, IT minister said on Thursday, speaking as the government
draws up a data privacy law and seeks to push companies to store more data locally.The Information and Technology Minister Ravi Shankar
Prasad said he wanted Indians to have access to more technology platforms but said this should not undermine user privacy."I have only one
caveat - it must be safe and secure, it must safeguard the privacy rights of the individual and you must make extra efforts that people
don't abuse the system," Mr Prasad told industry executives at a gathering organised by Alphabet Inc's Google in New Delhi.India's 130
crore people and their massive consumption of mobile data has turned it into a key growth market for US technology giants such as Google,
Facebook and Amazon.India has already forced foreign payment firms such as Mastercard Inc and Visa Inc to store data locally.Technology
firms have been concerned that the government's drive to step up measures to boost local data storage will increase investment
costs.Google said at the event that it had launched a new job-search feature on its Google Pay platform, which is used by 6.7 crore people
in a month and competes with SoftBank-backed Paytm and Walmart Inc's PhonePe.Google also expanded its artificial intelligence-based voice
assistant service to feature phones by partnering with one of India's top telecom carriers in a country where more than 30 crore use 2G
devices.Get Breaking news, live coverage, and Latest News from India and around the world on TheIndianSubcontinent.com
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