Latest news with #PreetiLobana
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Business Standard
2 hours ago
- Business
- Business Standard
Google unveils Safety Charter to boost user security and prevent fraud
Google India on Tuesday announced the launch of a Safety Charter, a broad framework aimed at improving user safety online by blending artificial intelligence into cybersecurity. The Safety Charter, the company said, would focus on three aspects — protecting users from online fraud, strengthening enterprise and government cybersecurity, and embedding responsible AI into platform design and deployment. 'Building AI responsibly, an AI that works safely and ethically, is the goal,' said Heather Adkins, Vice President of Security Engineering and the Cybersecurity Resilience Officer at Google. 'Cybersecurity is not just about the elimination of malpractices and other scams, but also about enabling trust within users, to try and use cyberspace with safety in mind,' said Preeti Lobana, Vice President and Country Manager at Google India. This new Charter builds on DigiKavach, an India-first initiative launched in October 2023. Focused on real-time fraud detection, DigiKavach partnered with agencies like the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Sector (I4C) and civil society groups including CyberPeace Foundation and FACT to protect users from digital financial scams. In just one year, DigiKavach and Google's AI-led systems blocked over ₹13,000 crore in fraud attempts, flagged 20 times more scam domains and prevented 60 million high-risk app installs across 13 million devices, the company said in a presentation during the launch of the Safety Charter. Google Messages intercepted over 500 million scam texts monthly. The programme reached 177 million people through scam alerts and safety content in multiple languages, Google said.
Time of India
3 hours ago
- Business
- Time of India
India's digital economy a powerhouse; trust, security key to sustain momentum in AI era: Google India head
Swift expansion of India's digital economy has cemented the country's status as a "powerhouse", Google India 's Country Manager and Vice President Preeti Lobana has said, emphasising that a razor sharp focus on trust and security are key to sustaining the momentum in the AI era . In an interview to PTI, the newly appointed top executive of Google India asserted that the US tech firm is "deeply committed to having rich, thriving digital ecosystem when it comes to Android or Play Store". According to her, Google sees "competition" as means of making the "digital ecosystem richer". Lobana declined to comment on the specifics of the search giant's antitrust cases in the country (bundling of the Play Store with Android TV OS, a case that Google settled by paying Rs 20 crore or the Play Store policies case) but said the company complies with the local laws in any country it operates in. "So we will work with the government and any of the regulatory bodies to make sure we are complying," she affirmed. New technologies, like artificial intelligence , are unleashing creative potential, but, at the same time, bringing to the fore challenges around deepfakes, she acknowledged. "And therefore, our efforts to make sure that whatever content is created using our AI, there are watermarks on that, and then enabling or sharing tools through which a wider section of users can upload some of this content to be able to identify the 'synthID'," Lobana said. Tackling AI-powered misinformation and deepfakes requires industry-wide collaboration, she said, noting this remains a key area of the ongoing focus and development not only for Google but other industry stakeholders as well. Google sees India as a critical market, Lobana said, adding that with the country on track to reach a $1-trillion digital economy in the near future, the tech giant hopes to leverage its expertise in advertising, cloud technology, and advanced AI to contribute to the nation's economic growth. The top honcho of Google India said she is excited to have taken over her new role at a "critical and exciting juncture" as the company looks to contribute to India's economic progress, especially in the digital space. "Google looks at India as a critical market. We are deeply engaged here, deeply committed. We are all-in and when you look at the breadth of 'One Google', we are here across all our products," she said. Lobana cited the uniqueness of India's digital landscape that has seen remarkable adoption rates when it comes to new technologies. She noted that proliferation of systems like UPI , and by extension, payment platforms such as Google Pay have exceeded expectations. "So, if you look at the digital landscape in India, (it is) so unique... think about the adoption. Who would have imagined a few years ago that UPI and therefore, consequently, you know, payment systems like Google Pay would be so widely adopted," she said. The takeoff and the billions of transactions that get enabled through UPI have been nothing short of amazing, she said, adding that the digital payment system has made a big difference to how people consume and purchase. "As you know, we are looking at a 1 trillion digital economy in the next few years... so how do we bring the best of Google ads, our cloud and cutting-edge AI to power India's economic momentum," she said, outlining Google's priorities for this market. India has become a strong player in the way its digital economy has developed overtime, she said, emphasising that trust and security will be crucial to its continued success. "India is a powerhouse in terms of how the digital economy has taken off, right? But none of that good stuff will continue to grow and evolve without that deep foundational layer of people having trust, people feeling secure," she said. On Tuesday, the company unveiled Google Safety Charter for India's AI-led transformation. As per Google, the charter is a blueprint for tackling the online world's new challenges collaboratively with the wider ecosystem. This includes keeping the end user safe from online frauds and scams; cybersecurity for government and enterprise infrastructure; and building AI responsibly. Lobana further noted that India was the launchpad for YouTube Shorts and GPay -- showcasing the key role the market plays in Google's global strategy. "So if you think about the short form video 'shorts' came on YouTube first to India... Look at the scale of Google Pay in India. So that is where we launched the product, taking the learnings overseas. So India is a very critical market for us, and we have made investments in putting a lot of large teams here," she said.
India Gazette
4 hours ago
- Business
- India Gazette
Google unveils safety charter for India's AI-led transformation
New Delhi [India], June 17 (ANI): Google on Tuesday unveiled its Safety Charter for India's AI-led transformation, at the 'Safer with Google India Summit', focusing on the company's deep commitment to creating a safer online environment and empowering users, businesses, and governments while building AI responsibly. The strategic blueprint operates through three foundational pillars-- keeping end users safe from online frauds and scams; strengthening cybersecurity for government and enterprise infrastructure; and building AI responsibly. Under its Digikavach program, Google has reached over 177 million Indians with AI-powered protections and awareness initiatives to combat financial fraud. AI integration across its platforms is transforming threat detection--Search now identifies 20x more scam-related pages; impersonation attacks on customer service and government sites have dropped by over 80 per cent and 70 per cent, respectively. Google Messages blocks over 500 million scam texts monthly and has issued more than 2.5 billion suspicious link warnings via on-device AI. Since its October 2024 pilot in India, Google Play Protect has blocked nearly 6 crore high-risk app installation attempts across 13 million devices. Google Pay has issued 4.1 crore scam transaction alerts. Gmail continues to protect over 2.5 billion inboxes globally, automatically blocking more than 99.9 per cent of spam, phishing, and malware. By combining AI-powered threat detection across platforms with cross-sector intelligence sharing and proactive policy measures, Google has already demonstrated significant impact, including Google Pay averting Rs 13,000 crore in financial fraud during 2024. Google is enhancing cybersecurity through an AI-first, secure-by-design approach focused on early threat detection and intelligence sharing. The Google Cloud M-Trends report offers insights into key attack trends, while Project Zero, in collaboration with DeepMind, marked a global first--using AI to discover previously unknown memory-safety flaws in widely used software like SQLite. To strengthen the broader ecosystem, has committed an additional USD 5 million to The Asia Foundation, expanding the APAC Cybersecurity Fund to support 10+ new cyber-clinics, including partnerships with Indian universities to train MSMEs and students. In parallel, Google announced a collaboration with IIT-Madras in advancing Post-Quantum Cryptography, developing next-gen anonymous tokens that enable secure, privacy-first digital interactions for the future. Preeti Lobana, Vice President and Country Manager, Google India, said, 'For India to become Viksit Bharat, we must build and maintain trust in the internet and our digital infrastructure. Trust is the bedrock of our digital aspirations and the reason India's digital economy has become an engine of growth. At Google, safety isn't an afterthought--it's embedded in our design principles, engineering processes, and company culture. Our AI systems constantly evolve to detect new threats and scams, even recognising malicious patterns in attacks that have never been seen before. This scalable capability helps us narrow or even eliminate the gap between defenders and attackers, which represents a huge leap forward in security.' Heather Adkins, Vice President of Engineering, Google Security, highlighted, 'India's digital journey continues to unlock incredible opportunities, but we also see the rise of sophisticated online threats evolving at machine speed. Our Safety Charter represents a comprehensive blueprint where AI isn't just narrowing the gap between attackers and defenders--it's eliminating it in some cases. AI has four incredible superpowers that are reversing the defender's dilemma with its reasoning, learning, speed and scale. We've used AI to discover previously unknown vulnerabilities in real-world software before attackers can exploit them. This defensive potential is game-changing, demonstrating how AI can serve as a tireless, transformative force keeping platforms and users secure.' (ANI)
Business Standard
4 hours ago
- Business
- Business Standard
'Very critical': Google India head on tackling misinformation in AI era
New technologies like AI have opened massive opportunities but pose challenges like deepfakes, Google India's Country Manager and Vice President Preeti Lobana said asserting that fighting misinformation remains a top priority for the tech giant, which relies on strong policies, advanced AI technology, and human oversight to address these issues systematically. The Asia Pacific region is particularly seeing higher degree of scams/frauds and misinformation has been a challenge, she said adding Google is stepping up its efforts to curb misleading and fake content. Noting that Google last year had announced plans for launching 'Google Safety Engineering Centre' in India, Lobana termed the move "imminent". "This (tackling misinformation) is super important for us, when you think about our mission, about information being universally accessible and organising it in a certain way, making sure that we are tackling misinformation in a very systematic manner is very, very critical. So...(it is about) having the right policies and guidelines, having the right technology, having the right human oversight to make sure that we are catching misinformation," she said. With innovations like SynthID for watermarking and verifying AI-generated content, Google is also working with partners to strengthen content authenticity and trust. "...we're introducing innovation like SynthID, so when any content is created using some of Google's AI tools, there is an invisible watermark, and it's pretty strong technology, because even if it is shared across multiple people or edited, it is detectable," she said. Google has also introduced a SynthID verifier that allows users to upload content and detect whether or not a video is synthetic or AI generated. Pointing out that fight against misinformation is always a work in progress she said Google is collaborating with other stakeholders in the ecosystem as well on provenance and authenticity. " These are our efforts. The ecosystem needs to come together, but it is deeply important to us to make sure that we are combating that," she said. Noting that Google had announced last year plans to launch Google Safety Engineering Centre in India, Lobana termed the move "imminent". On Tuesday, the company also unveiled Google Safety Charter for India's AI-led transformation. As per Google, the charter is a blueprint for tackling the online world's new challenges collaboratively with the wider ecosystem. This includes keeping the end user safe from online frauds and scams; cybersecurity for government and enterprise infrastructure; and building AI responsibly. Lobana said while AI, like other technologies in the past, had unlocked creative potential, it had fuelled a surge in misinformation and deepfakes. "Therefore our effort is to make sure that whatever content is created using our AI, there are watermarks on that, and then (the idea is) enabling and sharing tools through which a wider section of users can upload some of this content to be able to identify it. But like I said, it is about working with a broader ecosystem as well, because multiple AIs are used to generate some of this content," she said. Combating misinformation and deepfakes is a work in progress and an area of deep focus for not just Google, but others in the industry, Lobana noted.
Time of India
5 hours ago
- Business
- Time of India
Super important, very critical: Google India head on tackling misinformation, deepfakes in AI era
New technologies like AI have opened massive opportunities but pose challenges like deepfakes , Google India 's Country Manager and Vice President Preeti Lobana said asserting that fighting misinformation remains a top priority for the tech giant, which relies on strong policies, advanced AI technology , and human oversight to address these issues systematically. The Asia Pacific region is particularly seeing higher degree of scams/frauds and misinformation has been a challenge, she said adding Google is stepping up its efforts to curb misleading and fake content. Noting that Google last year had announced plans for launching 'Google Safety Engineering Centre' in India, Lobana termed the move "imminent". by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Play War Thunder now for free War Thunder Play Now Undo "This (tackling misinformation) is super important for us, when you think about our mission, about information being universally accessible and organising it in a certain way, making sure that we are tackling misinformation in a very systematic manner is very, very critical. So...(it is about) having the right policies and guidelines, having the right technology, having the right human oversight to make sure that we are catching misinformation," she said. With innovations like SynthID for watermarking and verifying AI-generated content, Google is also working with partners to strengthen content authenticity and trust. Live Events "...we're introducing innovation like SynthID, so when any content is created using some of Google's AI tools, there is an invisible watermark, and it's pretty strong technology, because even if it is shared across multiple people or edited, it is detectable," she said. Discover the stories of your interest Blockchain 5 Stories Cyber-safety 7 Stories Fintech 9 Stories E-comm 9 Stories ML 8 Stories Edtech 6 Stories Google has also introduced a SynthID verifier that allows users to upload content and detect whether or not a video is synthetic or AI generated. Pointing out that fight against misinformation is always a work in progress she said Google is collaborating with other stakeholders in the ecosystem as well on provenance and authenticity. " These are our efforts. The ecosystem needs to come together, but it is deeply important to us to make sure that we are combating that," she said. Noting that Google had announced last year plans to launch Google Safety Engineering Centre in India, Lobana termed the move "imminent". On Tuesday, the company also unveiled Google Safety Charter for India's AI-led transformation. As per Google, the charter is a blueprint for tackling the online world's new challenges collaboratively with the wider ecosystem. This includes keeping the end user safe from online frauds and scams; cybersecurity for government and enterprise infrastructure; and building AI responsibly. Lobana said while AI, like other technologies in the past, had unlocked creative potential, it had fuelled a surge in misinformation and deepfakes. "Therefore our effort is to make sure that whatever content is created using our AI, there are watermarks on that, and then (the idea is) enabling and sharing tools through which a wider section of users can upload some of this content to be able to identify it. But like I said, it is about working with a broader ecosystem as well, because multiple AIs are used to generate some of this content," she said. Combating misinformation and deepfakes is a work in progress and an area of deep focus for not just Google, but others in the industry, Lobana noted.
