Facebook data breach casts a doubtful shadow on WhatsApp Pay

Facebook on Tuesday gave Indian fintech experts 50 million reasons to doubt the safety of its ongoing experiment in India, WhatsApp Pay. The social media giant is caught in the middle of a data breach controversy. It allegedly shared data of up to 50 million users with a political data analytics company Cambridge Analytica. The data was allegedly used to tilt the results of US elections in favour of Donald Trump.
India’s industry experts as well as fintech firms are voicing their reservations around such company getting access to financial data via WhatsApp. Many believe that these firms should be regulated as well as held accountable.

The National Payments Corporation of India (NCPI) had given its consent for the roll-out of WhatsApp BHIM unified payments interface (UPI) beta with limited user base of one million users and low per transaction limit.

Bill tabled in US Congress seeks call centre employees to disclose location

Legislation introduced in the US Congress could potentially curtail the competitiveness of the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry in India and other key offshore locations like the Philippines and Mexico.

Introduced by Senator Sherrod Brown from Ohio, the piece of legislation, if passed, will require call centre employees to disclose their locations and give customers the right to ask to have their calls transferred to customer service agents in the US. The item of legislation also proposes the creation of a public list of companies that outsource call centre jobs and provide preference in federal contracts to firms that have not shipped these jobs overseas.

This, however is not the first time such a proposal has been introduced in the US. In 2013, a similar piece of legislation, which was introduced by Congressman Tim Bishop and supported by many senators, did not see the light of the day.

Facebook outraged over data breach of 50 mn users by Cambridge Analytica

Facebook said on Tuesday the company was "outraged" after being "deceived" over the misuse of data by political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica, which improperly harvested information on 50 million users.

A company statement appeared to place the blame for the incident on the British-based firm linked to President Donald Trump, which according to Facebook violated terms of the social network by misusing data from an academic researcher.

"The entire company is outraged we were deceived.

We are committed to vigorously enforcing our policies to protect people's information and will take whatever steps are required to see that this happens," the statement said.

It added that chief executive Mark Zuckerberg and chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg and their teams "are working around the clock to get all the facts and take the appropriate action moving forward, because they understand the seriousness of this issue.

US urges Maldives Prez Yameen to lift emergency, restore people's rights

The United States on Tuesday urged President Abdulla Yameen to lift the state of emergency in the Maldives and restore the rule of law.

"We continue to call on President Yameen to end the state of emergency, uphold the rule of law, permit the full and proper functioning of Parliament, and restore the constitutionally guaranteed rights of the people of the Maldives," a State Department Spokesperson told PTI.

The spokesperson was responding to a question on the recent meetings that Maldivian opposition leaders has had with officials of the State Department and other wings of the Trump administration.

State Department officials met with the former Maldivian Foreign Minister Ahmed Naseem in Washington on March 15, the spokesperson said.

Maryland school shooting: Student injures 2, dies in gunfight; top updates

A 17-year-old male student shot two other students at Great High School in Maryland on Tuesday, in eastern United States (US), but the event was quickly “contained”, officials said. The shooter was killed in gunfight and the injured were immediately rushed to a local hospital.
According to local sheriff's office, a male student opened fire at a girl in the hallway shortly after school started, injuring another male student in the process. Other students of the school were evacuated to another school to be reunited with their parents.
School principal Jake Heibel had warned of a shooting threat weeks before the incident, but concluded that the threat was "not substantiated" after investigation. It is unclear whether the threat was linked to the actual shooting.
Great Mills High School is located about a 90-minute drive southeast of the US capital Washington DC. St Mary's County Public Schools said on its website that the law enforcement was on the scene. "It happened really quickly, right after school started" after 8:00 am (1200 GMT), Jonathan Freese, a student at the school, told CNN. "The police came and responded really quickly," Freese said.

United Nations gives strong support to Lebanon's political independence

The UN Security Council has reaffirmed its strong support for Lebanon's political independence following a report by Secretary-General Antonio Guterres who said "crises in the region continue to pose a risk to the stability" of the country.

In his report circulated this week, Guterres pointed to the sudden resignation of Lebanon's Prime Minister Saad Hariri while he was in Saudi Arabia, which was later rescinded. He also reiterated his call to all Lebanese "to cease their involvement in the Syrian crisis."

A statement by the council after closed briefings Tuesday by the UN peacekeeping chief and senior U.N. official in Lebanon backed efforts by Lebanese authorities "to restore normal functioning institutions" and hold legislative elections on May 6.

Facebook data breach of 50 mn users: Cambridge Analytica suspends CEO

Cambridge Analytica, the political data firm with ties to United States President Donald Trump's 2016 election campaign, suspended its chief executive, Alexander Nix, on Tuesday, amid a furor over the access it gained to private information on more than 50 million Facebook users.

The decision came after a television broadcast for Britain's Channel 4 News, in which Nix suggested unseemly practices to influence foreign elections on record, according to The New York Times.

Announcing the chief executive's suspension, the company said in a statement that "in the view of the board, Nix's recent comments secretly recorded by Channel 4 and other allegations do not represent the values or operations of the firm and his suspension reflects the seriousness with which we view this violation".

Meanwhile, Facebook said that it is "outraged" by the misuse of data by Cambridge Analytica, according to local media reports.