• Google launches AI-driven Safety Charter to enhance cybersecurity in India.
• DigiKavach protects 177M users, prevents ?13,000 crore in fraud in 2024.
•  New security center in India to tackle scams and develop responsible AI.Google Launches AI Safety Charter to Fight Cyber Fraud in India.

Google has unveiled a comprehensive Safety Charter aimed at strengthening cybersecurity and combating digital fraud in India, its largest market outside the United States. Announced at the Safer with Google India Summit, the initiative underscores Google’s commitment to fostering a secure online environment for users, businesses, and government institutions while advancing responsible AI development.

The Safety Charter is built on three core pillars: protecting users from online scams and fraud, enhancing cybersecurity for government and enterprise infrastructure, and ensuring responsible AI development. This strategic blueprint comes at a critical time, as digital fraud in India is on the rise. According to government data, fraud related to the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) surged by 85% year-over-year, reaching nearly $127 million in 2024.

The company has already covered more than 177 million Indians via its DigiKavach program, providing them with AI-based protection and education on the financial fraud front. Google Pay issued over 41 million alerts to warn users of potential scams, helping prevent fraud worth ?13,000 crore. Also, the company's app safety system, called Google Play Protect, blocked almost 60 million potentially harmful app installs on 13 million devices since its pilot launch in India in October 2024. The AI filters in Gmail prevented more than 99.9 percent of spam, phishing, and malware attempts around the world.

To further these efforts, Google has joined hands with the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) of the Ministry of Home Affairs to raise awareness among users against cybercrimes in the next several months. Also, the company is partnering with the DigiKavach program in India that will lead to the fortification of the entire digital security system in India with its sophisticated AI technologies and cybersecurity policies.

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A key component of Google’s strategy is the establishment of a security engineering center (GSec) in India. This center will foster collaboration with local communities, including government bodies, academia, and small and medium enterprises, to develop innovative solutions for cybersecurity, privacy, and AI challenges. Heather Adkins, Google’s VP of Security Engineering, emphasized that the GSec will focus on tackling online scams, securing critical infrastructure, and building responsible AI systems.

The AI method has completely changed how Google detects threats in its platforms. As an example, Google Search now detects 20-fold as many pages linked to scams, and the number of impersonation-based attacks on customer services and government websites has decreased by more than 80 per cent and 70 per cent, respectively. A secure-by-design philosophy stipulates that the business attributes security to its products, but AI systems are being developed according to which suspicious patterns remain unseen by them.

By combining AI-powered threat detection, cross-sector intelligence sharing, and proactive policy measures, Google is setting a new standard for digital safety in India.