Threat to privacy: WhatsApp group links were visible on Google, research shows

Threat to privacy: WhatsApp group links were visible on Google, research shows

Anam.Ajmal@timesgroup.com

New Delhi:12.01.2021

At least 1,700 private WhatsApp group links were visible on Google through a simple web search, according to arecent research.

Published by internet security researcher Rajshekhar Rajaharia, the research claimed that the groups’ links available on the web posed a threat to WhatsApp users’ privacy. Rajaharia had shared screenshots of the WhatsApp group links on his Twitter profile on Sunday afternoon.

“Anyone who had access to these links could join these private groups, see the participants there and also have access to the group members’ phone numbers and profile photos,” he told TOIon Sunday.

On Monday, WhatsApp fixed the issue, and the links were no longer visible on Google. “Since March 2020, WhatsApp has included the “noindex” tag on all deep link pages which, according to Google, will exclude them from indexing. We have given our feedback to Google to not index these chats. As a reminder, whenever someone joins a group, everyone in that group receives a notice and the admin can revoke or change the group invite link at any time,” a WhatsApp spokesperson said in a statement.

According to Rajaharia, the issue arose because “Whatsapp allows users to generate rich preview links of group chat invites that eventually may allow search engine crawlers to identify the links and then index them for future searches”. An index is another name for the database used by a search engine.

This is the second time that WhatsApp has faced this issue. The Facebook-owned instant messaging platform had said in 2020 that it had fixed an issue that was causing phone numbers to show up on Google.

WhatsApp added that invite links are searchable only when they are posted publicly on the internet. “Links that users wish to share privately with people they know and trust should not be posted on a publicly accessible website,” the spokesperson added. However,according to Rajaharia, a “noindex” tag is not enough to stop crawlers from indexing a website page.

This is the second time that WhatsApp has faced this issue. The instant messaging platform had said in 2020 that it had fixed an issue that was causing phone numbers to show up on Google

All-pass in arrear exams: HC asks univs to explain status

All-pass in arrear exams: HC asks univs to explain status

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:12.01.2021

The Madras high court on Monday directed the universities in the state to file a report on the status of conducting arrear exams either through offline or online mode along with the schedule in three weeks.

The first bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy passed the interim order on a batch of pleas challenging the decision of the Tamil Nadu government to cancel the arrear exams.

On December 1, 2020 the court restrained the state universities from declaring all-pass in arrear exams without conducting exams either online or offline.

It was also made clear that the universities are free to conduct arrear exams despite a GO passed by the state cancelling the exams. The exams could be conducted either online or offline or a combination of both.

The orders were passed on the pleas moved by former Anna University Vice-chancellor E Balagurusamy, advocate Ramkumar Adityan and others challenging the GO cancelling arrear exams.

Responding to the pleas, UGC clarified that students who have not cleared the backlogs would not be eligible even to get a course completion certificate.

However, justifying its decision, the state government submitted that the decision was made only to alleviate distresses faced by the student community due to Covid-19. It was done to skilfully navigate the course to ensure safety and wellbeing of the students, the state department of higher education said in its affidavit.

Rejecting the argument that such an order would amount to discrimination among students, the department said, “the decision would not demoralise meritorious students as only moderated minimum pass mark is awarded to arrear students.”

“As this situation was unprecedented, students had left their belongings, textbooks, notebooks and laptops in their hostel. Therefore, they had no access to their study materials,” the department added.

Deemed univs lure aspirants for mgmt seats

Deemed univs lure aspirants for mgmt seats

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

12.01.2021

The state selection committee is conducting the last leg of the counselling with 432 management quota seats left in self-financing colleges, but deemed universities in the state are luring students to apply for 89 management seats and 146 NRI seats that were returned to the colleges as they fell vacant after three rounds of counselling including a mop-round.

Across the country, 1,092 such seats in deemed universities have been returned to colleges for counselling through offline mode. The list of eligible candidates will be forwarded to the respective institutions by the medical counselling committee (MCC) of the Directorate General of Health Services.

While colleges are advertising about the oncampus stray vacancy round, agents have been calling parents and students asking them if they were still interested in undergraduate medical programmes.

On Monday, Sridhar Srinivasan, who works as a marketing head for a manufacturing company, received a call from an agent regarding his daughter’s admission. “He told us that the state counselling will be held until 13. If my daughter does not make it to any of the colleges, she can try for admission there. But admissions are done on a first-come-first-serve basis. They will give her the seat if her name is on the MCC list,” he said.

While students and parents have been visiting several deemed universities, student counsellors are now demanding a revamp. “Meritbased admission through NEET is defeated with such stray rounds. How will colleges get candidates in two days if the MCC is not able to fill them after three rounds of counselling over several weeks,” asked Manickavel Arumugam, who has been counselling students on MBBS admissions.

NEET booster shot: Cut-offs keep rising as students shine

PROGRESS REPORT

NEET booster shot: Cut-offs keep rising as students shine

Many Retake Exam To Enter Better Institutes; High Scores Up Competition For Seats In Govt Colleges

Pushpa.Narayan@timesgroup.com

12.01.2021

For four years, almost all parties in the state have been protesting National Eligibility and Entrance Test (NEET) as the sole eligibility for admissions to medical and dental colleges. But with every passing year since 2017 — when the state first adopted NEET — students have been raising the bar.

On Monday, data released by the state selection committee, a day after it closed MBBS admissions under the state quota, showed that the last student to enter medical college this year under the state quota scored 281 in NEET compared to 140 in 2017. The committee allots students the college of choice based on merit in NEET and 69% rule of reservation.

“It is not just cut-offs that have gone up in the past four years. The top scores in NEET have also increased,” said director of medical education Dr R Narayanababu. This year, seven students had marks above 700 compared to none last year. There were 205 students who scored more than 650 compared to 12 students last year. “Many students attempt NEET more than once so they get better colleges. In fact, most of the toppers are students who have repeated the exam for the second or third time,” he said.

This crowding at the top has made entrance to top city colleges such as Madras Medical College or Stanley Medical Colleges for the state tougher. For instance, the cut-off for open category students to join the Madras Medical College was 660 and the last student who entered the college had scored 511 marks.

Meritorious students opt for seats in government colleges, where annual tuition fee is ₹13,600. Up to 50% of seats in self-financing medical colleges are categorised as state quota seats. The annual tuition fee for students admitted under the state quota is between ₹3.85 lakh and ₹4.15 lakh compared to ₹12.5 lakh for students under the management quota and ₹23.5 lakh for NRI.

Eligible students, who don’t make it under the state quota, apply for management quota seats in self-financing colleges. Experts say more students in TN may make it to state quota if toppers make “smarter” choices.

Many toppers in the state are still apprehensive about applying for the online counselling held by the medical counselling committee (MCC) of the directorate general of health services. The MCC conducts counselling for the central government institutions and the 15% of seats surrendered by states from government colleges for admission under the all-India quota, besides deemed universities.

While some toppers apply to Jipmer in Puducherry, not many students try for intuitions such as AIIMS or Armed Forces Medical College. Many students with score about 600 told TOI that they were not aware of the centralised counselling, while some others said they decided to stay in TN. “Earlier, students did not apply because they had to write separate tests. But this year, the process for admissions to all colleges was similar,” said R Sathish Kumar, student counsellor. “We hope that their impression towards studying in colleges outside the state will change,” he said.

‘AIADMK has Rs 246.9 cr fixed deposits’

‘AIADMK has Rs 246.9 cr fixed deposits’

Panneerselvam also gave details of the amount spent for various purposes like Covid relief, helping cadre from poor economic background, 

Published: 10th January 2021 07:31 AM 

Aiadmk functionaries at general council meeting in Vanagaram | Ashwin Prasath

By Express News Service

CHENNAI: Submitting the income-expenditure accounts for the period between November 25, 2019, and January 8, 2021, AIADMK coordinator and treasurer O Panneerselvam recalled that he has been submitting the party’s income-expenditure accounts for the past 14 years since 2007. The party has fixed deposits to the tune of Rs 246.90 crore. Panneerselvam also gave details of the amount spent for various purposes like Covid relief, helping cadre from poor economic background, etc. 

EPS takes a dig at Udhaya

Referring to former minister B Valarmathi’s remarks on a recent statement of DMK youth wing secretary Udhayanidhi Stalin, Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami said, “Udhayanidhi has made remarks insulting women. You (Udhayanidhi) exhibit precociousness by your remarks because you were brought up like that.”

‘Respect grassroots level cadre’ 

Deputy coordinator R Vaithilingam said that despite many trials and tribulations, the AIADMK stands tall due to unstinted loyalty of grassroots level cadre and their sacrifices. “AIADMK is a cadre-based party. The cadre can become the leader and vice versa. So respect them. If we fail to respect cadre, time will trample on us.” 

Perambalur woman dies after delivering stillborn baby as husband, father-in-law attempt home birth

Perambalur woman dies after delivering stillborn baby as husband, father-in-law attempt home birth

Doctors said the 10-month-old baby had been dead in her womb for two days before the attempted delivery. 

Published: 10th January 2021 11:20 PM |

A Perambalur woman died after delivering stillborn baby during home birth

By Express News Service

PERAMBALUR: A 29-year-old pregnant nursing graduate in Perambalur died on Sunday after her relatives, who do not trust allopathic medicine, attempted to conduct a home birth. The family had sought no advice from the doctors through the entire course of pregnancy. Doctors later said the 10-month-old baby had been dead in her womb for two days before the attempted delivery. 

Alagammal, who married Vijayavarman (35) two years ago, had suffered from stomach pain on Saturday. Assuming she had gone into labour, her husband and father-in-law Veerapandiyan, who reportedly practiced acupuncture, attempted a home birth. However, when the child was crowning, its head seemed lifeless.

Alarmed, father and son called doctors at the Poolambadi Primary Health Centre, and based on their recommendation, took Alagammal to the Perambalur Government Hospital. There, doctors confirmed that the baby had been dead in the womb for at least two days. Observing that Alagammal required advanced treatment, they referred her to Tiruchy Government Hospital to which she was taken by ambulance. At the Tiruchy GH, despite treatment, Alagammal died.

The Perambalur health department lodged a police complaint against Vijayavarman and Veerapandiyan. The father-son duo allegedly claimed to be acupuncture practitioners and refrained from taking any support from the government's health workers or doctors since Alagammal became pregnant. It is alleged that ever since Alagammal’s pregnancy was noted at the Poolambadi PHC, health staff were trying to provide her support, in vain. Although there are maternal benefits available under government schemes, the family allegedly did not take any support, stating that they did not trust allopathy and would only use natural medicine and methods for care and delivery. Because of this, Alagammal was also not taken for scans or ultrasounds to check the health of the foetus.

Physical inspection of private TN engineering colleges highly likely this year

Physical inspection of private TN engineering colleges highly likely this year

Private engineering colleges in Tamil Nadu have to apply for Anna University’s provisional affiliation online this year due to the pandemic.

Published: 11th January 2021 04:49 AM 

By Sushmitha Ramakrishnan

Express News Service

CHENNAI: Private engineering colleges in Tamil Nadu have to apply for Anna University’s provisional affiliation online this year due to the pandemic. Despite the lockdown restrictions, university officials said physical inspection may be carried out to prevent malpractice in colleges.

The affiliation inspection by varsity officials was interrupted by the lockdown the previous academic year, said varsity Vice-Chancellor MK Surappa. While many colleges were granted affiliation after physical inspection, the varsity had to make do with self-declaration of adherence to regulations to provisionally grant affiliation. “We want a clean and transparent process.

Unless the Covid-19 situation gets very bad, we will have physical inspections in most cases,” he said. While the varsity was initially mulling following the same procedure this year — keeping safety in mind — after learning of malpractice in the self-declaration process, it decided to physically inspect colleges before granting affiliation, said a varsity official.

The official said the inspection will counter-check colleges’ adherence to university regulations even though it has already received approval from the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) . “In accordance with the recent Supreme Court ruling — that universities can deny affiliation for engineering courses even if the AICTE grants affiliation — we will make sure colleges follow all rules before approving their applications.

Existing institutes that do not submit online applications on time will not be considered for the grant of affiliations. The details of all permanently-affiliated courses conducted in colleges should also be submitted online through the same form.

The varsity’s registrar L Karunamoorthy, through a recent circular, announced that the online application portal for the ‘Affiliation Monitoring System’ will be open from 10 am on Monday till 5 pm on Tuesday.

The circular further said faculty qualifications, experience, scale of pay and cadre ratio should be strictly followed as per the AICTE’s seventh CPC norms. The college should verify the original faculty certificates, AICTE faculty ID, PAN and Aadhaar details before uploading them.