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> Also, given that India semi-recently blocked some entertainment apps on national security grounds (let's assume the stated intent for the sake of the argument

> Also, given that India semi-recently blocked some entertainment apps on national security grounds (let's assume the stated intent for the sake of the argument), I wonder if anyone in the Indian government is alarmed that U.S. megacorps hold IMO much more precious keys to the financial security of their 1.4B population? Most of these payment systems are just a wrapper around GOI's UPI (which is one of the best things to come out of India in the past decade)[1]. The money remains in banks throughout the transaction. Additionally, very little of people's money is stored in digital wallets and that too for a short period of time (anecdotal). However, yes it should be a cause of concern for any country when foreign firms are tightly involved in its economic sector, and we cannot discount interventions on basis of internal security and geopolitical situations. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unified_Payments_Interface https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unified_Payments_Interface

oefrha 6y ago
Good thing these foreign apps don’t have access to funds. They still have access to the transaction data, right? So they can build financial profiles on their users, as well as communications profiles (even if only metadata is available) since they dominate that market at well. Seems like a gold mine for intelligence operations. Are there laws mandating that the data has to stay on Indian servers and be insulated from the outside? Or maybe government/public sector employees can’t use these foreign services (seems unlikely)?
- krtkush 6y ago
  > They still have access to the transaction data, right? So they can build financial profiles on their users, as well as communications profiles (even if only metadata is available) since they dominate that market at well. Seems like a gold mine for intelligence operations. Definitely. That's what they're all in for. > Are there laws mandating that the data has to stay on Indian servers and be insulated from the outside? GOI have started enforcing these requirements but I'm not sure where exactly the situation is right now. > Or maybe government/public sector employees can’t use these foreign services (seems unlikely)? Only recently these things have picked up and are considered a serious threat to the nation's security and sovereignty. The defense forces are more serious about it right now but maybe with time it'll change for other government employees too.

oefrha 6y ago

Good thing these foreign apps don’t have access to funds. They still have access to the transaction data, right? So they can build financial profiles on their users, as well as communications profiles (even if only metadata is available) since they dominate that market at well. Seems like a gold mine for intelligence operations. Are there laws mandating that the data has to stay on Indian servers and be insulated from the outside? Or maybe government/public sector employees can’t use these foreign services (seems unlikely)?

krtkush 6y ago
> They still have access to the transaction data, right? So they can build financial profiles on their users, as well as communications profiles (even if only metadata is available) since they dominate that market at well. Seems like a gold mine for intelligence operations. Definitely. That's what they're all in for. > Are there laws mandating that the data has to stay on Indian servers and be insulated from the outside? GOI have started enforcing these requirements but I'm not sure where exactly the situation is right now. > Or maybe government/public sector employees can’t use these foreign services (seems unlikely)? Only recently these things have picked up and are considered a serious threat to the nation's security and sovereignty. The defense forces are more serious about it right now but maybe with time it'll change for other government employees too.