Ghana’s Parliament Summons Telcos Over High Data Charges, TikTok Sued for Sending User Data to China, and Indonesia to Impose Tax on Foreign Internet Companies

Africa

Ghana’s parliament summons telcos over high data cost

Ghana’s Parliament Communications Committee has summoned telecommunication companies after protests over rising data and call costs in the country, it has been reported. Telcos had updated their prices to reflect the 50% increase in Communication Service Tax (CST) after government stopped them from upfront deductions. Instead, they were charged to incorporate the tax into the price of the data, the result of which was a sharp increase in data and call charges. The increase in price triggered outrage on Twitter, with thousands of #SaveOurData tweets demanding a reduction in prices. Parliament has, therefore, decided to invite telecoms players to find a way to solve the impasse. Meanwhile, sections of the pubic have vowed to continue their demands for data charges and are planning on going on a demonstration. In other news, MTN has introduced “no expiry” data bundles.

Nigerian internet fraud academy busted

Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has arrested some 23 people enrolled in an internet fraud academy, it has been reported. The EFCC arrested the 23 persons aged between 19 and 35 in a village in Akwa Ibom state in southern Nigeria. The group was undergoing training on how to carry out identity theft as well as romance scams. As part of their training, the young recruits were learning how to profile the right victims to scam while masking their IP addresses. 21 mobile phones and 34 laptops were seized during the raid.

The Americas

Facebook allows users to upload photos to Google

Facebook has introduced a tool that will allow users to upload all their photos and videos to Google Photos, BBC has been reported. The move is part of a data portability which will be rolled out initially in Ireland. The Open Rights Group has called for this kind of portability to be applicable to all platforms and not just a handful of tech giants. “It’s critical that this kind of portability is not just for a handful of global giants, if it is going to encourage competition,” the rights group suggested. Facebook says it has taken steps to mitigate the risks involved with transferring data across platforms. The step includes an authentication step so only the owner of an account can transfer its data.

TikTok sued for sending user data to China

TikTok has been accused of sending data of American users to servers in China despite assurances to the contrary, it has been reported. The lawsuit was filed in California by college student Misty Hong, and accuses TikTok of having “vacuumed up and transferred to servers in China vast quantities of private and personally-identifiable user data.” The college student who said she had downloaded the app but never used it found that TikTok had created an account for her and collected information based on the videos she had created but never uploaded. The data was then uploaded to servers owned by China’s Tencent and Alibaba. TikTok is owned by Beijing ByteDance and operates entirely out of China. The company is already already facing a probe from US regulators over data storage and censorship concerns. In other news, TikTok has also been accused of actively suppressing videos uploaded by persons living with disabilities.

Asia

Huawei employee wrongfully imprisoned for 251 days

Li Hongyuan, a former employee of Huawei, was wrongfully imprisoned for eight months in China, the BBC has reported. Hongyuan was accused of extorting money and jailed after an amount of GBP 32,951 was deposited into his account by a Huawei employee. Huawei claimed the money was made after Hongyuan extorted it from the company. Hongyuan refuted the claims, saying the payment was part of an end of service bonus after he’d spent 13 years at Huawei. After finding no evidence of wrongdoing, the government released Hongyuan and paid him GBP 11,686 in compensation. Huawei released a statement saying it accepted the decision of the judicial system. “We respect the independence and authority of the criminal justice process to examine and make a lawful, correct judgement,” the company said.

Indonesia imposes taxes on foreign internet companies

Indonesia is introducing new rules that would require foreign internet companies with significant presence in the country to pay their fair share of taxes, Reuters can confirm. The new rule requires foreign firms to appoint local representatives through whom the tax authorities can demand tax revenues. Firms that receive massive traffic from Indonesia or a considerable amount of trade volume from the country will, henceforth, be considered as being equal to locally-existing company and will be required to pay taxes as such. “All this time we have only been a market. But now, if they are actively capitalizing on our market, they must also be present here,” said Susiwijono Mugiharso, who is secretary of the economic affairs ministry. Indonesia’s massive internet economy is scheduled to surpass $130 billion by 2025 according to figures, making it the fastest growing internet economy in the region.

Europe

PM Boris Johnson backs tech tax

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has promised to press ahead with a tech tax despite the US planning to retaliate to a similar tax in France, the BBC has reported. If the tax is approved, tech companies will face a 2% tax on all UK sales from April 2020. “On the digital services tax, I do think we need to look at the operation of the big digital companies and the huge revenues they have in this country and the amount of tax that they pay,” Boris Johnson said, adding that they needed to make a fairer contribution. The Trump administration has imposed a tax on French wine following the country’s tax on big tech like Google, Facebook, and Amazon. The US is willing to impose up to a 100% tax on cheese and other French exports. Large tech companies have been accused of paying too little taxes by taking advantage of low tax jurisdiction. While a solution is being pursued, some countries including the UK are imposing interim measures to recoup part of the revenues collected by these tech companies.

Royal Bank of Scotland trials first contactless payment fob

The Royal Bank of Scotland, RBS, is testing a new payment system that allows users to make payments of up to GBP 100 without a bank card, the BBC has reported. The payment fob uses biometric information like fingerprints to verify transactions. The fob is the size of a small keyring and comes with a fingerprint reader. The fob would allow users to make payments of more than GBP 30 at least without the need for a pin. “After the successful pilot of our biometric debit card we are looking at how we can further develop the technology and push the boundaries to integrate it into our customers’ everyday lives,” David Crawford, who is head of Effortless Payments at RBS, said.