China's market regulator has released new anti-monopoly guidelines that target internet platforms, tightening existing restrictions faced by the country's tech giants.
The new rules formalise an earlier anti-monopoly draft law released in November and clarify a series of monopolistic practices that regulators plan to crack down on.
The guidelines are expected to put new pressure on the country's leading internet services, including e-commerce sites such as Alibaba's Taobao and Tmall marketplaces or JD.com. They will also cover payment services like Ant Group's Alipay or Tencent Holding's WeChat Pay.
The rules, issued on Sunday by the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) on its website, bar companies from taking a range of actions, including forcing merchants to choose between the country's top internet players, a long-time practice in the market.
SAMR said the latest guidelines would "stop monopolistic behaviours in the platform economy and protect fair competition in the market".
The notice also said it will stop companies from price fixing, restricting technologies and using data and algorithms to manipulate the market.
In a Q&A accompanying the notice, SAMR said reports of internet-related anti-monopoly behaviour had been increasing, and that it was facing challenges in regulating the industry.
"The behaviour is more concealed, the use of data, algorithms, platform rules and so on make it more difficult to discover and determine what are monopoly agreements," it said.
China has in recent months started to tighten scrutiny of its tech giants, reversing a once laissez-faire approach.
In December, regulators launched an antitrust investigation into Alibaba Group following the suspension of the $37 billion initial public offering plan of its payment affiliate, Ant Group.
At the time, regulators warned the company over practices including forcing merchants to sign exclusive cooperation pacts at the expense of other internet platforms.
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Ponti
Sharlene Teo, Pan Macmillan
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Wednesday: West Indies v Scotland
Thursday: UAE v Zimbabwe
Friday: Afghanistan v Ireland
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Top tips to avoid cyber fraud
Microsoft’s ‘hacker-in-chief’ David Weston, creator of the tech company’s Windows Red Team, advises simple steps to help people avoid falling victim to cyber fraud:
1. Always get the latest operating system on your smartphone or desktop, as it will have the latest innovations. An outdated OS can erode away all investments made in securing your device or system.
2. After installing the latest OS version, keep it patched; this means repairing system vulnerabilities which are discovered after the infrastructure components are released in the market. The vast majority of attacks are based on out of date components – there are missing patches.
3. Multi-factor authentication is required. Move away from passwords as fast as possible, particularly for anything financial. Cybercriminals are targeting money through compromising the users’ identity – his username and password. So, get on the next level of security using fingertips or facial recognition.
4. Move your personal as well as professional data to the cloud, which has advanced threat detection mechanisms and analytics to spot any attempt. Even if you are hit by some ransomware, the chances of restoring the stolen data are higher because everything is backed up.
5. Make the right hardware selection and always refresh it. We are in a time where a number of security improvement processes are reliant on new processors and chip sets that come with embedded security features. Buy a new personal computer with a trusted computing module that has fingerprint or biometric cameras as additional measures of protection.
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Sunday's games
All times UAE:
Tottenham Hotspur v Crystal Palace, 4pm
Manchester City v Arsenal, 6.15pm
Everton v Watford, 8.30pm
Chelsea v Manchester United, 8.30pm
How to donate
Send “thenational” to the following numbers or call the hotline on: 0502955999
2289 – Dh10
2252 – Dh 50
6025 – Dh20
6027 – Dh 100
6026 – Dh 200
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets