BENGALURU: Google on Wednesday announced a slew of internet security measures for India with enhanced resources investment in deploying its specialists, enabling vernacular languages understanding and children-specific initiatives. India, according to the Internet and Mobile Association of India will see a 45% staggering growth in its smartphone userbase to 900 million by 2025.
Google said that its investments include expanding resources in its trust and safety teams in India, the launch of an enhanced Google Safety Centre in 8 Indian languages, and user education programmes focused on online safety for kids and families. In addition to launching the global ‘Be Internet Awesome’ program for kids in India, Google will also partner with Indian comic book publisher Amar Chitra Katha to interweave critical internet safety lessons through popular comic book characters, the company said in a statement.
The company aims to fight the emerging abuse areas, such as misinformation, fraud, threats to child safety, violent extremism, phishing attacks, and malware. This will also further strengthen Google’s global Trust & Safety operations of over 20,000 people spread across the world.
“With the increasing user adoption and the contribution of digital connectivity in India’s economy, we cannot take the internet for granted. Since the pandemic broke, there is a heightened need to strengthen safety and security, reliability and privacy, and the overall resilience of the internet and its applications,” ” said Vint Cerf, Vice President and Chief Internet Evangelist, Google.
“We need to develop tools to aid them in their quest for safety, so that companies, individuals, researchers, and governments can harness the internet for good, whilst protecting themselves from harm,” he said.