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Facebook Pay allows users across the company’s various platforms, including WhatsApp and Instagram, to make payments without exiting the app. Bank Indonesia assistant governor Filianingsih Hendarta, who heads payment system policy, told Reuters that three local firms had approached the regulator to ask about tentative approval for a payments partnership with Facebook.

From Facebook, three fintech firms in talks to launch mobile payments service in Indonesia | South China Morning Post:

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The following day the National Business Daily reported that the Xiangcheng district of Suzhou was expected to put the currency to use in May by paying half the travel subsidies given to public sector workers in digital form.

From China’s digital currency takes shape as trials begin with travel subsidies and Communist Party fees | South China Morning Post:

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More banks will continue to participate in the test of the DC/EP, in a bid to improve the technology, security and stability of the payment tool, Chen Bo, director of the Finance Research Centre at the Institute of Finance and Economics at the Central University of Finance and Economics told the daily.

The Agricultural Bank of China, one of the country”s big four state-owned banks, has tested the DC/EP (digital currency/electronic payment) in four cities in an app launched last Wednesday.

“There will be two types of players in future trials, the banks and telecom companies. At present, the central bank is testing the software of DC/EP, and whether it will be combined with 5G and sim cards in the future needs to be discussed,” Chen said.

From China begins testing of digital currency:

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The results of our investigation show that when shopping on Amazon for what might appear to be well-reviewed, cheap products, it’s a bit of a lottery. The rise of fake reviews means consumers face a confusing and potentially misleading proposition when relying on customer scores, and has led to an extremely challenging environment for small businesses legitimately trying to raise interest in their products.

Amazon tech with fake reviews rated ‘Don’t Buy’ in Which? labs – Which? News:

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There is no shopkeeper. Instead, locals in this bucolic hideaway download a mobile app that opens the shop door and allows them to scan products, paying for them online.

The shop is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Initially designed to provide a retail option for people living in remote areas, the 14 Lifvs shops across Sweden have, as the coronavirus spreads through the country, become a lifeline for older people who want to stock up while staying socially distant.

From Coronavirus lockdown in Sweden: a new take on safe shopping — no assistants | News | The Sunday Times:

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The following day the National Business Daily reported that the Xiangcheng district of Suzhou was expected to put the currency to use in May by paying half the travel subsidies given to public sector workers in digital form.

From China’s digital currency takes shape as trials begin with travel subsidies and Communist Party fees | South China Morning Post:

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South Korea has a customised app that sounds an alarm and alerts officials if people stray; as of March 21st 42% of the 10,600 people under quarantine there were using the app. Taiwan uses a different approach, tracking quarantined people’s phones using data from cell-phone masts. If it detects someone out of bounds, it texts them and alerts the authorities. Leaving quarantine without your phone can incur a fine; in South Korea fines for breaking quarantine are hefty, and will soon be accompanied by the threat of prison.

From Creating the coronopticon – Countries are using apps and data networks to keep tabs on the pandemic | Briefing | The Economist:

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What we have had is a pervasive “trace, test, treat” programme designed to catch every infection. The government is able to look into our private records (credit card, telephone etc) to “contact trace” our movements and treat every potential infection.

From Postcard from Seoul: ‘Coronavirus? What coronavirus?’:

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Gus Hosein, executive director of Privacy International, a campaigning group, said he was relatively relaxed about contact-tracing apps in which data is anonymised and well-regulated.

From Majority in UK support use of mobile phones for coronavirus contact tracing  | Financial Times:

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“Specifically, that means maintaining fair competition in private, data-intensive markets (as envisioned in the European Commission’s newly proposed data strategy), and ensuring that private and public service providers can access and combine different sources of data. Governments should not be granting exclusive rights to public-sector data that could be used by other third parties to deliver social benefits. In fact, policymakers should even consider mandating that certain forms of private-sector data be made accessible to third parties, in order to ensure interoperability between platforms.”

From “It’s Now or Never for National Data Strategies by Diane Coyle – Project Syndicate”.

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