Your Gmail account was snooped, while Saavn got your data from Facebook

Wednesday July 04, 2018 , 3 min Read

Facebook, in written responses to the US Congress, stated it gave 61 businesses, including Nike, Spotify, UPS, and Hinge, special rights to access user data after blocking this access more broadly. Two Indian companies – music-streaming app Saavn and telecom firm Airtel – were among the several companies that signed data sharing agreements with the social networking giant or had a one-time exemption for data access.

Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg. Image: TechCrunch

Even as Facebook struggles to recover from the massive data scandal reports have emerged that claim Google allowed third-party app developers to read and browse through the emails of millions of Gmail users. Gmail’s access settings allow data companies and software developers to sneak into the inboxes, especially those who sign up for email-based services, and view details like recipient addresses, timestamps, and even entire messages.

Bengaluru-based payments company PhonePe said it recorded close to 50 million transactions on its platform in June. The company claimed these transactions resulted in over Rs 10,000 crore in total payment value transacted on the platform during the month through United Payments Interface (UPI). According to the National Payments Corporation of India, the total number of UPI transactions in June stood at 246.37 million, with a total of Rs 40,834 crore transacted through the payment system.

The total number of UPI transactions in June stood at 246.37 million

Online insurance aggregator PolicyBazaar announced it will create 2,500 new job vacancies in FY19, taking its total employee strength to 6,000. The new vacancies will be mainly in the customer support function, where it expects to add 2,200 roles, while the rest of the jobs will be distributed across corporate and tech functions. The new employees in the customer support function will be expected to advise and help consumers in understanding various insurance products. The news comes a week after the company raised more than $200 million in Series F funding led by SoftBank Vision Fund.

Yashish Dahiya, Co-founder & CEO, PolicyBazaar.com

Impact investor Gray Matters Capital has announced it will sell its entire 81.92 percent stake in Delhi-based Non-banking Financial Company Indian School Finance Company (ISFC) to Manappuram Finance Limited. The total value of the deal is Rs 248.50 crore. As part of the transaction, Caspian, an impact-focused investor, will exit from ISFC, selling its 3.48 percent stake. The entire transaction values ISFC equity shares at Rs 248.50 crore.

California-based robotic process automation company Automation Anywhere raised $250 million in Series-A funding, taking the value of the company to $1.8 billion. The $250-million funding round was led by New Enterprise Associates and Goldman Sachs Growth Equity with participation from General Atlantic and World Innovation Lab.