Global Marketing News – 7th July 2015
Russia relaxes its “right to be forgotten” law
Russia has announced that it will be relaxing its online “right to be forgotten” law, as China tightens its own cyber-laws.
Russian lawmakers had originally proposed a controversial “right to be forgotten” law in June that meant that individuals could order search engines to remove links to any information about them deemed to be old or “unreliable”, without even having to specify the URLs where any such information may exist, or provide any “evidence or justification” for the deletion request.
The proposed law was met with criticism from the Russian search giant Yandex, as well as civil liberties campaigners, who said that there was the serious potential for the law to be misused.
Following talks with internet companies and critics of the bill, the Russian government has said that it will be introducing some amendments to the bill.
Individuals will now have to submit the specific links that they want removing, rather than giving search engines a vague topic that they want removing and expecting the search engines to find all links relating to that topic.
Individuals will now also have to provide evidence that the information they want deleting is indeed outdated or incorrect.
Some critics have said that the amendments do not go far enough, though, as the bill still allows famous people, including politicians, to ask for links about them to be removed. Under the EU “right to be forgotten” law, public figures are not allowed to make link deletion requests.
Meanwhile, in China, the government there has passed a vaguely-worded anti-terrorism law that includes a clampdown on cyberspace.
The law means that online criticism of the government potentially counts as “terrorism”, a move that has been met with concern by Human Rights Watch.
Research reveals Indian women’s online shopping habits
A study by cooliyo, a leading Indian fashion ecommerce platform, has delved into the online shopping habits of Indian women.
There are 40 million Indian women who engage in online shopping, with the majority of these women doing so on smartphones rather than on desktop or tablet computers.
300,000 Indian female online shoppers took part in the survey, which revealed that women aged 18-24 are the most likely to buy online.
9-11pm was the most popular time to shop online, with most women choosing to shop on weekdays rather than weekends.
The most popular items to buy online were clothes, followed by jewellery, accessories, home products, and finally shoes.
Cash-on-delivery was the most common payment choice, with 80% of respondents saying it was their preferred payment method, compared to 20% who said they preferred to pay online.
African ecommerce site MOBOfree starts ID verification
The African online marketplace MOBOfree, which works in a similar way to eBay, has launched an ID verification scheme in Nigeria and Uganda – the first such scheme ever launched on an African ecommerce site.
MOBOfree users will now be able to take a picture of their ID document and upload it to the site, along with their email address and phone number. ID documents will then be manually reviewed by MOBOfree within 48 hours, when they will be either accepted or rejected.
Once a user’s identity has been verified, their adverts will be placed in a more prominent position on the site.
The scheme is aimed at preventing fraud on the site, which is a big problem in many African nations.
Yandex Money app to launch on Russian Nokia Lumia phones
And finally, the Russian search giant Yandex has announced that their Yandex Money app will soon be available on Nokia Lumia phones in Russia.
Yandex Money is Yandex’s online payment system and allows users to conduct various financial transactions, such as pay their mobile bills, pay for services such as parking fees and transfer money between people.
Yandex Money will be available on Nokia Lumia phones later this summer, once a Windows Phone update has taken place.
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Gemma Houghton
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