Know better. Do better.

Surveillance is rising across India's cities - and, according to a new report, most Indians back it.

Think tanks Common Cause and Lokniti surveyed more than 9,700 people across 12 Indian states and found high public support for surveillance technology and poor awareness of privacy and data security issues.

Indian cities rank highest in the world outside China for the number of CCTV cameras per 1,000 people, according to Comparitech, a UK-based cyber-security and privacy research firm.

Two in three survey respondents had not heard about the government's illegal usage of Pegasus spyware against its political opponents.

More than 60% of people supported the use of facial recognition technology to identify criminals, and 75% backed its use against protesters or those disturbing law and order.

The report found no statistical correlation between police access to CCTV and the resolution of crime, murder and car theft. Interviews with serving policemen indicated that police personnel were ill-equipped to properly use surveillance effectively.

The report also indicated that surveillance technology exacerbated inequality. One in two respondents had installed CCTV cameras in their homes or colonies, whereas the most marginalised groups including poor people, those from lower castes and Muslims were least likely to support the usage of surveillance technology.

See our earlier reporting on public backing for surveillance technology in policing, and on increased policing of online content.

USA

Avi Asher-Schapiro, U.S. tech correspondent

A new poll from the Wall Street Journal shows that almost half of U.S. voters favor a ban on the Chinese video app TikTok, while a clear majority favor forcing a sale of the platform to a U.S. buyer.

This comes a week after Montana became the first U.S state to pass an outright ban on the app.

As Context has reported, lawmakers across the country have been raising concerns both about the app potentially sharing data with its Chinese parent company, and about its impact on children's mental health.

Africa

Kim Harrisberg, South Africa correspondent

AI is impacting a hidden work sector in Kenya: ghostwriters who help American students cheat at university by writing their essays for them.

Ghostwriters told Rest of the World that before the rise of ChatGPT, they were writing up to 70 assignments a year, but this has recently dropped to 40.

In January 2023, more than 89% of American students interviewed by education platform Study said they had used ChatGPT for help with homework assignments, while 53% said they had used it to write an essay.

Latin America

Diana Baptista, Mexico correspondent

Uruguay is set to start collecting data from households for its 2023 population census on April 29. It will request the ID card number, first and last name of the people interviewed to avoid duplications.

Digital rights nonprofits, such as the Laboratory for Data and Society, have warned that such sensitive data can be easily leaked, endangering those who participate in the census.

The collection of personal data is also concerning for undocumented migrants and members of the LGBT+ community, the nonprofit said.

Europe

Adam Smith, UK tech correspondent

The UK government tested a nationwide emergency alarm on Sunday which should have rung on every smartphone in the country.

But the alert, which could be used to warn against natural disasters or terrorist attacks, failed to activate on many phones - including this reporter's.

Welsh recipients noticed a translation error in their message, while blind users criticised the message because the loud alert sound overrode any screen-reading tools. Both the government and mobile networks have said they will be investigating the failures as part of a review of the test.