THAILAND’S DATA protection bill, approved by the Cabinet earlier this week, is falling short of the benchmark set by the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) law, especially in terms of protecting Thai citizens’ right to their online data, according to the Thai Netizen Network.

Arthit Suriyawongkul, coordinator of the network, said a major issue is that the proposed national committee on data protection, which will be in charge of protecting the rights of Thai citizens, will not be independent enough since most committee members will be state officials and representatives of private sector bodies.

In addition, this crucial committee is under the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society’s (MDES) jurisdiction, so committee members will not have the autonomy enjoyed by those sitting on the National Human Rights Commission or the previous National Broadcasting and Telecom Commission, he said.

The proposed national committee also has members who are users of the people’s online data, including representatives of the Thai Bankers’ Association and Federation of Thai Industries and the Board of Trade, so there is a potential conflict of interest as far as protecting citizens’ online data is concerned.

The National Committee on Digital Economy and Society, chaired by deputy premier Prajin Juntong, yesterday held a meeting to discuss enforcement of the EU law, which was implemented worldwide yesterday. Dr Pichet Durongkaveroj, the Minister of Digital Economy and Society, said earlier the government is speeding up enactment of the Thai data protection bill to ensure that the country has a legal framework to work with the EU on this matter.

There were also reports that the Cabinet-approved bill may need some changes so that it is up to date when compared with the EU law, especially in terms of punitive measures covering data leaks and breaches.

The EU law’s enforcement also has consequences for Thailand and other countries that deal with EU citizens. In Thailand, tourism and related businesses, financial services, and healthcare are among the sectors required to take steps to comply with the EU law, or they may face punitive measures if there are data leaks and breaches involving EU customers.

According to Arthit of the Thai Netizens’ Network, the government should consider upgrading the composition of the national committee on data protection to ensure that they are better qualified to do their duty to protect the rights of citizens’ online data.

The EU has said that its data protection law, which was enacted in 2016, is designed to allow citizens to take back control of personal information held online. Brussels has insisted that the law will become a global benchmark for the protection of people’s online information, particularly in the wake of the Facebook data harvesting scandal, according to AFP.

AFP also reported that some US news websites were blocked by the EU data law yesterday after the law took effect, with the LA Times, Chicago Tribune, New York Daily News, Baltimore Sun and Orlando Sentinel websites all displaying the same message that they could not be accessed.

“Unfortunately, our website is currently unavailable in most European countries,” the message read. “We are engaged on the issue and committed to looking at options that support our full range of digital offerings to the EU market. We continue to identify technical compliance solutions that will provide all readers with our award-winning journalism.”

The blocked websites are all owned by media company Tronc, formerly known as Tribune Publishing. Local US newspapers owned by Lee Enterprises, including the St Louis Post Dispatch and Arizona Daily Sun, were also out of reach.

“We recognise you are attempting to access this website from a country belonging to the European Economic Area, including the EU which enforces the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and therefore cannot grant you access at this time,” its website said.

According to AFP, the EU rules were officially adopted two years ago, with a grace period until now to adapt to them, but some companies have been slow to act, resulting in a last-minute scramble.

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The groups created a website, and a Facebook page, to garner support for a petition to the US Federal Trade Commission to require the social media firm to spin off Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger into competing networks, and to “impose strong privacy rules.”

The effort was launched by a handful of groups focusing on digital rights, privacy and other social causes.

“Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg have amassed a scary amount of power,” the groups said on their website.

“Facebook unilaterally decides the news that billions of people around the world see every day. It buys up or bankrupts potential competitors to protect its monopoly, killing innovation and choice. It tracks us almost everywhere we go on the web and, through our smartphones, even where we go in the real world.”

The effort comes with Facebook under fire in the US and elsewhere over the hijacking of private user data on some 87 million users, adding to concerns on how internet platforms were manipulated to spread misinformation during the 2016 US election.

Responding to the campaign, a company spokesman said Facebook “is in a competitive environment where people use our apps at the same time they use free services offered by many others.”

The spokesman said in an emailed statement that “the average person uses eight different apps to communicate and stay connected.”

Chief executive and founder Mark Zuckerberg told a US congressional panel last month that it “doesn’t feel like” Facebook is a monopoly.

Facebook has an estimated two billion users worldwide, and its Messenger and Whatsapp messaging services each have more than one billion.

Any breakup would require a lengthy investigation by US authorities and a potentially long court battle as well.

The latest campaign was launched by the activist organizations Demand Progress, MoveOn, and SumOfUs, along with the groups Citizens Against Monopoly, Jewish Voice for Peace and Muslim Grassroots Movement.

It comes as Zuckerberg prepared to appear before European Parliament members to answer questions on the data scandal involving Cambridge Analytica, which obtained Facebook user data while working on the 2016 Donald Trump campaign.

It is going to be an important match for both countries as they seek a solid foundation to reach the knockout round. In Group D, Indonesia finds itself up against Malaysia, France and record 14-title holder and defending champion China.

Susy Susanti, head of sport development for the Indonesian Badminton Association (PBSI), said her team was ready to fight for a spot in the next round.

“The strategy for the [opening] match is based on head-to-head between players [of Indonesia and Malaysia],” Susy said on Sunday, adding that the association had decided who would play whom based on their respective condition.

The cup applies a best-of-match match — three singles and two doubles — with a tradition of sending off a country’s top player to open the match.

Indonesian Fitriani, world number 39, has a chance to play world number 31 Goh Jin Wei in Monday’s opener.

Susy said the world ranking would not affect the match, as she believed the individual player’s readiness was more significant when it comes to playing on the court.

“They are on the same level. They have beaten each other in previous matches. Now, it depends on their readiness, bravery and confidence when they step onto the court.

“We are optimistic, although we know it will be a tough match,” added the Indonesian legend, who helped the country win the cup in 1994 and 1996.

Indonesia, a three-time title holder, has been struggling to return to the top level after the 1996 victory. In the previous cup in 2016, Indonesia lost in the quarterfinals.

The Queqiao (“Magpie Bridge”) satellite was blasted into space from the southwestern Xichang launch centre in the pre-dawn hours, according to the China National Space Administration.

The satellite split from its carrier, a Long March-4C rocket, after 25 minutes and unfolded its solar panels and communication antennas, as it headed towards its destination, the CNSA said.

“The launch is a key step for China to realise its goal of being the first country to send a probe to soft-land on and rove the far side of the Moon,” Zhang Lihua, manager of the relay satellite project, was quoted as saying by the official Xinhua news agency.

The satellite will relay communications between controllers on Earth and the far side of the moon, where the Chang’e-4 lunar probe — named after the moon goddess in Chinese mythology — will be sent later this year.

Also known as the “dark side” of the Moon, the far hemisphere is never directly visible from Earth and while it has been photographed, with the first images appearing in 1959, it has never been explored.

The Chang’e-4 rover will be sent to the Aitken Basin in the lunar south pole region, according to Xinhua.

It will be the second Chinese probe to land on the Moon, following the Yutu (“Jade Rabbit”) rover mission in 2013.

At first, the Yutu looked destined to fail when the rover stopped sending signals back to Earth.

But then it made a dramatic recovery, ultimately surveying the Moon’s surface for 31 months, well beyond its expected lifespan.

The CNSA is planning to send another lunar rover, Chang’e-5, next year to collect samples and bring them back to Earth.

China is pouring billions into its military-run space programme, with hopes of having a crewed space station by 2022, and of sending humans to the Moon in the near future.

Sompoat Chansomboon, managing director of dtac accelerate, said the top 11 were selected from over 500 start-ups pitching to Thailand’s top nine start-up mentors.

The standard of presentations by start-ups has dramatically improved on several fronts, he said. Teams had done their research in market validation to make sure there was market demand for their product, ensuring product-market fit that validates the product through garnering the first 100 customers, and “growth hacking” that aims to expand the business to potentially reach one million customers.

Most of the start-ups included team members who are domain experts in the industry and have a good understanding of problems or pain points.

For example, there were many doctors or medical professionals involved in the health tech start-ups, including Doctor A-Z, whose co-founder is a doctor.

Teams had also started to adopt new tools, such as AI and machine learning. Women made up more than 50 per cent of founders or co-founders of this year’s start-up teams, which is significantly higher than previous years.

All finalists will receive seed funding ranging from Bt500,000 to Bt1.5 million per team, along with commercialisation support from DTAC worth more than Bt100 million. They will also participate in an intensive boot camp that will run from this month through to August.

All finalists will participate in an intensive boot camp with respected mentors, including Nir Eyal, whose “Hooked Model” is behind Facebook and Instagram’s success, and Hai Habot, one of the world’s top “Objectives and Key Results (OKR” experts.

The final pitch and the announcement of winners will take place on “Demo Day” in August.

The programme will also provide tools from global partners, such as Google Cloud, Facebook, Microsoft Tencent Cloud, and AWS and commercialisation support worth over Bt100 million from DTAC and fellow companies under Telenor Group in 13 markets.

“The 11 finalists bring what dtac accelerate is looking for – creativity, business innovations to the Mobile Internet Ecosystem, and new-concept lifestyle applications to improve the quality of life of the Thai people,” said Sompoat.

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Eleven start-up finalists

1 Kohlife – Travel and transportation. To plan and book all ground transportation, as well as flight, activities and events in Thailand and worldwide.

2 Zwiz.AI – AI, business services. The first AI chatbot platform, allows quick access to AI chatbot and analytics tools.

3 PenguinT – Travel tech. Brings the best options from local travel agencies to mobiles through a chat channel.

4 Kochii – Entertainment tech. Platform to help gamers improve their skills.

5 Event Banana – Real estate tech. Online platform for property owners to rent and promote their under-utilised spaces, and for customers to easily find and book spaces for their meetings and events.

6 GoWabi – Beauty tech with a mobile app. Offers special deals for spa and beauty services.

7 Ooca – Health tech. Online platform connects patients and psychologists via video calls.

8 Somjai Home Loan – Property tech. A one-stop home loans application service for property

developers.

9 CareerVisa – Education tech. Platform offers personalised career development to explore career choices with mentors, set career goal, identify and close skill gaps and land a job.

10 Noburo – Fin tech. Lending-as-a-service platform enables easy lending by businesses to customers.

11 Doctor A-Z – Health tech. Platform matches medical tourism surgical patients to accredited hospital and specialist doctors.

To reduce their exposure, the study indicated that the majority of companies are being more selective in the data they collect and manage, with 70 per cent disposing of data ahead of the deadline for compliance.

Companies’ preparation for GDPR comes in the wake of increased scrutiny from consumers on businesses’ management of personal data.

A separate poll of 10,000 consumers, conducted by the Harris Poll on behalf of IBM, found that only 20 per cent of US consumers completely trust organisations they interact with to maintain the privacy of their data.

In the weeks leading up to the May 25 enforcement date, IBM’s Institute for Business Value (IBV) surveyed over 1,500 business leaders responsible for GDPR compliance for organisations around the world.

The results reveal how companies are approaching GDPR as an opportunity to build further trust with customers and to help drive innovation.

For example, 84 per cent believe that proof of GDPR compliance will be seen as a positive differentiator to the public, while 76 per cent said that GDPR will enable more trusted relationships with data subjects that will create new business opportunities. Despite this opportunity, only 36 per cent believe they will be fully compliant with GDPR by the May 25 deadline.

Kittipong Asawapichayon, country manager, Software Group, IBM Thailand said that GDPR will be one of the biggest disruptive forces impacting business models across industries – and its reach extends far beyond the EU borders.

“The onset of GDPR also comes during a time of huge distrust among consumers toward businesses ability to protect their personal data. These factors together have created a perfect storm for companies to rethink their approach to data responsibility and begin to restore the trust needed in today’s data-driven economy,” said Kitipong.

Saranee Boonritthongchai, head of consumer marketing for Google Thailand, said that the Thai-language Google Assistant will help Thais get things done quickly on their phones, including play a video, get directions from Google Maps, create a shopping list or get help with translations – and more.

The Google Assistant in Thai will roll out to eligible Android phones 5.0+ (Lollipop and above) over the next couple of weeks and will soon become available for iPhones (iOS 9.1 and above).

Sarannee said the local version will be truly Thai and is built for Thais. In addition to speaking our language, it will understand the things we care about from setting an alarm to navigating a route, playing a song or entertaining us with jokes.

In order to make it even more useful to Thais over time, developers and businesses could now build new actions for the Thai Assistant through the developer platform Actions on Google. Once an action is built, you could just say, “Ok Google, talk to…” and access the service or content straight through your Google Assistant.

“To talk to your Assistant, just touch and hold the Home button on eligible smartphones and your personal Google Assistant will be ready to help you throughout your day. Even when your hands are full, you can quickly set reminders or get directions with the Google Assistant,” said Saranee.

Powered by machine learning, the Google Assistant is built on two decades of experience in Search as well as natural language processing, computer vision, and understanding user context, she added.

“And it’ll get better over time – with your permission, it can learn your preferences, your likes and your dislikes – all done in a private, secure way that puts you in control.