Xiaomi reaffirms commitment to protect customer data during its annual Security and Privacy Awareness Month

Xiaomi, the world's leading consumer electronics and smart manufacturing company, recommitted itself to protecting customer data during its annual Security and Privacy Awareness Month completed today. It held employee training events and expert seminars at the Xiaomi Technology Park in Beijing, China and at Xiaomi's Technology Operation Center in Singapore.

 

This was the third consecutive year that it held special classes for its engineers and other employees and led discussions with industry executives, IT security experts, and the public about the importance of data security and user privacy protection. Xiaomi also released updated white papers on security and privacy along with its annual transparency report detailing its data security activities.

  

The purpose of the month-long series of events was to bolster its user security and privacy protection practices and to build trust in Xiaomi’s products through transparency and accountability.

Xiaomi has built a comprehensive governance structure to protect data security and user privacy. This involves cooperation between cybersecurity experts, smartphone operating system engineers, lawyers, and legal compliance experts. Overseeing these specialists is a Security and Privacy Committee led by senior executives.  

 

Cui Baoqiu, Xiaomi Vice President and Chairman of the Xiaomi Security and Privacy Committee, called data security and user privacy protection a key to the long-term, sustainable development of the company's global business. "Protecting the data security and privacy of our users is the top priority,” he said. “Our customers care about this issue more than any other. Xiaomi is committed to offering safe and reliable Android smartphones and IoT products."

 

Eugene Liderman, Director of Android Security Strategy of Google, highlighted Xiaomi's contribution to the Android system. "One of Android's biggest strengths is the diverse ecosystem of partners. Xiaomi is a great example of this and it's great to see their continued investment in cyber security hygiene across their product portfolio", he added.

 

Professor Liu Yang, School of Computer Science and Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, said, "As the security challenge is becoming the focus of many technology discussions, industry stakeholders attach more importance to the urgency of managing vulnerabilities at hardware, software and even in the massive open-source space. Xiaomi has made tremendous effort to address the issue, safeguarding users with technology expertise, and continuously exploring new methods for better data protection."

 

With the world's largest consumer IoT platform, Xiaomi is constantly working to improve IoT security and privacy protections. Xiaomi held its fifth annual IoT security summit on June 29 and 30 in Beijing. Industry executives and experts discussed a wide range of issues from data security governance frameworks and cross-border data transfers to the security of internet-connected electric vehicles and solutions for software supply chain security threats. 

 

During the June event, Xiaomi announced that its Electric Scooter 4 Pro obtained IoT Security Rating Gold level certification from Underwriter Laboratories Inc, an international safety research institute based in the U.S. This designation made Electric Scooter 4 Pro the world's first electric scooter with such a high-level safety rating. The certificate also indicated that the security baseline of Xiaomi's IoT product development is in line with international standards. 

 

Xiaomi created its Security and Privacy Committee in 2014. In 2016, Xiaomi became the first Chinese company to receive certification from TrustArc. Xiaomi adopted the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) of European Union compliance assessment in 2018. In 2019, Xiaomi security and privacy practices were certificated on ISO/IEC 27001, ISO/IEC 27018. Last year, Xiaomi published its first transparency report, making it the first Android smartphone brand to do so. Xiaomi this year obtained the certificate of registration of NIST CSF (National Institute of Standards and Technology, Cybersecurity Framework), further strengthening its data security protection capabilities. 

 

 

For the white papers and reports mentioned above, please use the Xiaomi Trust Center at https://trust.mi.com/

UnionBank discusses how Open Banking will drive the digital economy

 

Open banking and open finance are two models that are now slowly taking over the financial sector, with the promise of revolutionizing banking and financial services like never before and acting as "a catalyst for the new wave in financial innovation."

This was the main point of discussion during the 14th edition of Union Bank of the Philippines' (UnionBank) virtual roundtable series E-TalkTales, which took place last June 28 via Zoom. The event was led by UnionBank's Fintech Business Group Head Erika Dizon as its main speaker. 

In her presentation, Dizon explained that while open banking and open finance may differ slightly from each other—the former promotes data sharing on banking services, while the latter promotes data and capability sharing across the financial sector—the goal is the same, which is the creation of an open ecosystem.

An open ecosystem, she said, provides numerous benefits, including seamless data access and sharing, more opportunities for cooperation and collaboration, and most importantly, unprecedented customer-centricity. All of these point to the potential of the movement to completely change the way people see banking and finance.

Dizon listed down a few examples of how the open finance movement can positively impact different sectors of society. For service providers, it can inspire innovation and create new revenue streams. For businesses, it can promote increased transparency and operational efficiency. For customers, it can help enable better personalization, and in turn more meaningful experiences. 

Dizon also named several pillars supporting open banking, namely, (1) regulatory push for frameworks built on principles of consent, interoperability, and collaboration; (2) heightened expectations coming from the digital and modern social experiences that are redefining banking and finance; (3) competition especially with the emergence of non-traditional players; and (4) infrastructure, which is increasingly becoming more reliant on application programming interfaces.

"All of these factors are coming in to play and have triggered the open banking and open finance movement and the beginning of the unbundling of the traditional banking models," Dizon said.

After her presentation, Dizon participated in a fireside chat with the event’s moderator, veteran journalist Rico Hizon. One of the questions that she answered was on data privacy, which is currently one of the biggest concerns related to open banking and open finance. She reiterated that, at the core of open banking, there should be customer consent, where end users can have the choice to share their data or not, and limit how much of their data is used.

Another topic discussed during the chat was balancing competition with collaboration, especially since open ecosystems require the latter for them to truly serve their purpose. She said that for UnionBank, rather than competing, the focus is more on “coopetition,” adding that there is a place for different industry players to benefit from a win-win-win model.

“We understand that some financial institutions, some fintechs, some third parties have specific products and services that we don’t, and we believe that for us to be able to better serve our customers, we should be able to integrate those specific products and services into our own,” Dizon said.

“Open banking and open finance are only as good as the number of players that cooperate within that ecosystem, and that’s, I think, one of the biggest things that we have to consider.”

On the topic of how open banking and open finance can create more value for UnionBank, she said that these allow the Bank to identify new potential business models, and with these, generate more income streams and revenue models.

“More importantly, it adds value to our customers and how they do their financial transactions, and that is what’s really important to us,” Dizon said. “Of course, as a bank, there is a bottom line that we need to think of, but we believe that there is a space for both to co-exist, for the customers to be served appropriately and for the Bank to be able to have new business models.”

 

OPPO & Mineski Phillippines crowned their new OPPO Game On Cup Champion

The first ever OPPO Game On Cup tournament ended with power! After beating more than 100 contenders, the top four teams squared off at SM Mall of Asia, Central Atrium last June 26,2022 with AP 2.0 emerging on top. Crowds cheered as they witnessed just how skilled Filipino mobile gamers are with El Ganador Knights, the second placer, not giving up until the very end of best of 5 series. 

The exhilaration was non-stop with Blacklist International, world-renowned mobile gaming champions, greeting the audience in between match-ups and giving them firsthand tips on how to power up in every battle. The audience was also treated to a surprise as Blacklist International went against Blacklist International! Half of the world-renowned team coached AP 2.0 and the other half mentored El Ganador Knights LIVE during the event. What a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity indeed!

 

"The OPPO Game On Cup was such a fun tournament to see just how skilled and powerful Filipinos are at mobile gaming,” shares Coach Bon. “It’s great to see the future of esports in the country and how we can keep pushing the limits on the virtual battlefield!”

 

The whole playoffs day was a show of power moves where third and fourth placers, K Signs Gaming and Click ESports, gave solid defense and the battles went back and forth in best of 3 games.

 

The four teams bagged a cash prize pool amounting to P100,000. Each of the champion players took home an OPPO A96, a smartphone Designed to be Powerful, and the rest of the players were awarded OPPO Enco Air2 earbuds.   

 

The tournament was hosted by avid gamer Vince Velasco and broadcasted live on OPPO Philippines Facebook page where it attracted tens of thousands of viewers. The power casters INGANation, Burger Kim and Prof B sustained their energy all throughout the hours-long event. 

 

Do you think you are #DesignedToBePowerful? Stay up to date with the latest OPPO Game On activities and tournaments, join the OPPO Game On Facebook group.

UNIQLO Launches JOIN: THE POWER OF CLOTHING

Global apparel retailer UNIQLO today announces the launch of JOIN: THE POWER OF CLOTHING, a global campaign to support activities for a better world. The campaign will start from Japan on Friday, July 1.

The aim of the JOIN：THE POWER OF CLOTHING campaign is to encourage UNIQLO customers to be a part of the environmental sustainability activities that UNIQLO has conducted up to now. The two main initiatives, conducted at UNIQLO stores and the uniqlo.com online store, are Buy and JOIN and Learn and JOIN. The program aims to raise awareness of global problems such as ocean pollution among customers, and to inspire action that makes the world a better place.

 

In addition, UNIQLO will sell products made with 100% recycled fibers (plush toys, pocketable bags, T-shirts), featuring designs with Doraemon Sustainability Mode, the UNIQLO Global Sustainability Ambassador. 

 

During the campaign, when customers purchase UNIQLO products made with recycled materials, or Blue Cycle Jeans, they will be contributing to a better world in more ways than one. UNIQLO parent company, Fast Retailing, will donate up to US$1 million (approximately 130 million yen) to the Nippon Foundation to support activities that reduce ocean waste, by donating the profits of sales of these campaign items. 

The JOIN：THE POWER OF CLOTHING campaign gives customers two ways to participate.

 

1.  Buy and JOIN - Support donations with purchases

When customers purchase products incorporating recycled material, such as items made from 100% recycled polyester recovered from plastic bottles and featuring the Doraemon Sustainability Mode motif, or environmentally-friendly Blue Cycle Jeans, Fast Retailing will donate up to US$1 million (approximately 130 million yen) from the profits of campaign item sales to the Nippon Foundation to support activities to reduce ocean waste

Doraemon Sustainability Mode  Pocketable Bag

Doraemon Sustainability Mode Toy

Doraemon Sustainability Mode T-shirt

Doraemon Sustainability Mode KIDS T-shirt

Launch date    July 1, 2022 (Friday) 

Items        Doraemon Sustainability Mode Toy, Php 990.00

(100% recycled polyester, approx. 14 plastic bottles)

 Doraemon Sustainability Mode Pocketable Bag, Php 590.00
(100% recycled polyester, approx. 5 plastic bottles)

             Doraemon Sustainability Mode T-shirt, Php 790.00 (one design)
(100% recycled polyester, approx. 24 plastic bottles)

             Doraemon Sustainability Mode KIDS T-shirt, Php 790.00 (one design)
(100% recycled polyester, approx. 13 plastic bottles)

Availability      All UNIQLO stores in the Philippines, and through the UNIQLO.com online store

Per DTI Fair Trade Permit No. FTEB-145968 Series of 2022

 

JOIN Campaign Products

 

ドライEXクルーネックT 1500円

Recycled Materials Items that use recycled polyester recovered from plastic bottles.

DRY EX Crew Neck T-shirt Php 790.00

Blue Cycle Jeans Jeans that use up to 99% less water* in the finishing process compared to conventional methods. Vintage and other types of processing are done with lasers, significantly lessening the manual labor required.

Slim Flared Jeans (new item available in July) Php 1990.00

* Results obtained in a comparison of 2017 MENS regular fit jeans with 2018 model of same style, using the Blue Cycle process. Water reduction levels vary slightly by product.

 

2.  Learn and Join - Find out more about ocean pollution through special content

UNIQLO will open a special website on Wednesday, June 29, where visitors can learn about environmental issues and take action. The site includes messages from UNIQLO Global Brand Ambassadors calling for participation in the campaign, and a video with LifeWear Special Ambassador Haruka Ayase outlining some of the sustainability focus areas at UNIQLO. There is also a wide range of special content to learn about ocean-related issues, including an interview with a biological oceanographer, Ryota Nakajima, a talk with Ms. Yoko Koga on reducing the use of plastics in everyday life, and an interview with environmental specialist Dr. Keith Alverson.

 

 

Special website: https://www.uniqlo.com/ph/en/contents/sustainability/jointpoc/

 

Scan the QR code to visit the special website with more information on Doraemon Sustainability Mode items.

 

 

©Fujiko-Pro

 

 

 

Related links for reference:

 

UNIQLO Sustainability

www.uniqlo.com/jp/en/contents/sustainability/

 

Fast Retailing Sustainability Report

www.fastretailing.com/eng/sustainability/report/new.html