CHIMBO LA UDAKU

Google drops out of bidding for $10 billion Pentagon data deal Alphabet Inc’s Google said on Monday it was no longer vying for a $10 billion cloud computing contract with the U.S. Defense Department, in part because the company’s new ethical guidelines do not align with the project, without elaborating. Google said in a statement “we couldn’t be assured that [the JEDI deal] would align with our AI Principles and second, we determined that there were portions of the contract that were out of scope with our current government certifications.” The principles bar use of Google’s artificial intelligence (AI) software in weapons as well as services that violate international norms for surveillance and human rights. Google was provisionally certified in March to handle U.S. government data with “moderate” security, but Amazon.com Inc and Microsoft Corp have higher clearances. Amazon was widely viewed among Pentagon officials and technology vendors as the front-runner for the contract, known

WhatsApp builds system to comply with India's payments data storage norms MUMBAI::: Facebook Inc’s WhatsApp said on Tuesday it has built a system that stores payments-related data locally in India, in a bid to comply with a central bank directive that all such data should, within six months, be stored only in the country. WhatsApp rolled out a test of its payment system in India, its biggest market by users, earlier this year. “In response to India’s payments data circular, we’ve built a system that stores payments-related data locally in India,” WhatsApp said in an emailed statement. The Reserve Bank in April said all payments data should be stored only in India for “unfettered supervisory access”, a decision that has led to intense lobbying by global firms that worry it would cost them millions of dollars. written by DH