To Protect India’s AI-Powered Digital Future, Google Released a Safety Charter
“To address the growing risks of online fraud, cybersecurity flaws, and the ethical development of AI technologies, internet giant Google unveiled its Safety Charter at the Safer with Google Summit in Delhi.”
Google has released a thorough “Safety Charter” to protect India’s growingly connected populace as the nation quickly adopts digital change. The Charter, which was unveiled during the Safer with Google Summit in Delhi, is based on three main principles:
- Protecting end users from online scams,
- Ensuring cybersecurity for governments & enterprises, and
- Building AI responsibly.
Preeti Lobana, country manager and vice president of Google India, stressed the importance of integrating trust into the core of India’s digital development narrative during her remarks at the summit.
Preeti Lobana, Country Manager and VP, Summit, Google, India,
| “For the internet to truly serve as a force for good and realize the potential for India and all Indians, safety, security, and trust cannot be an afterthought. It must be planned for in advance,” she said.
“Trust is the bedrock of our digital aspirations. AI’s adaptability is helping us close—sometimes even eliminate—the gap between defenders and attackers,” she added. |
Having worked in the banking industry for more than 20 years, Lobana emphasized the emotional and financial harm that cyber thefts can cause, as well as how they undermine people’s trust in digital systems.
“AI helps pre-empt threats, block malicious content, and prevent unauthorized access at scale,” she said, describing AI as both a powerful security enabler and a partner to human oversight.
When it comes to cyber dangers and remedies, India is leading the way.
India’s internet ecosystem is both large and vulnerable, with over 1 billion users, 59% of whom reside in semi-urban areas. Heather Adkins, Google’s VP of Security Engineering, highlighted the threat’s scope by revealing that financial crimes prevented by Google Pay in 2023 alone were worth ₹13,000 crore, and that cybercrime might cost ₹20,000 crore in 2025. Google Play Protect, meanwhile, stopped around 6 crore attempts to install dangerous apps.
Heather Adkins, VP of Security Engineering, Google
| “We are seeing threats evolve at machine speed. AI tools like Gemini are helping us react just as fast, improving threat detection by 300% on platforms like VirusTotal,” said Adkins.
“It’s like having a tireless detective, crawling through millions of clues to find the needle in the haystack,” Adkins explained.
“Safety is a shared responsibility,” said Adkins. “We’re committed to sharing our best tools, research, and partnerships to make sure every Indian can confidently participate in the digital future.” |
She explained Google’s efforts on Project Zero and a research project called “Big Sleep,” which uses artificial intelligence (AI) to find software flaws in popular codebases like SQLite before hackers can take advantage of them.
Wilson White, VP, Government Affairs and Public Policy, Google
| Wilson White, Google’s VP for Government Affairs and Public Policy, said that Asia-Pacific has become a hotspot for digital scams, with the region accounting for nearly two-thirds of global fraud losses.
“According to the Global Anti-Scam Alliance, APAC lost $688 billion to scams last year. AI can be part of the solution, helping us detect 20 times more scamming pages and reduce fake listings by 12 million on Maps,” said White. |
Reiterating the Charter’s call for multi-sector partnerships, he emphasized that governments, platforms, and users must work together and share intelligence to combat AI-driven dangers.
Government on High Alert!
The dual nature of AI is acknowledged by the Indian government as well. Phishing assaults on BFSI firms increased by 175% in early 2024, according to alarming statistics from the Digital Threat Report 2024. In India, the average cost of a data breach is expected to be ₹18 crores.
Deepfakes and AI-generated impersonation are now involved in more than half of commercial email hack occurrences.
Dr. Chandrika Kaushik, DG (PS&CI) at DRDO, Ministry of Defence
| “AI is being used on both sides—both to secure and to attack. We are witnessing deepfake scams, AI-assisted phishing, and intelligent malware creation. This makes AI-driven defense systems and domestic capability-building an urgent priority,” said Dr. Chandrika Kaushik, DG (PS&CI) at DRDO, Ministry of Defence.
“Cyber operations have become strategic tools of warfare. We must now think of cybersecurity as national security,” Kaushik asserted. |
Through its cybersecurity agency CERT-In, which managed over 14 lakh cybersecurity incidents in 2022 and routinely holds national-level cyber drills involving over 1,400 enterprises, Kaushik showcased India’s expanding defense.
In addition, the agency has hired more than 200 security auditors and established a cyber crisis management plan.
In terms of innovation, projects like the India AI Cyber Guard Hackathon and the RBI’s MuleHunter.ai tool use natural language processing (NLP) and transaction pattern recognition to identify fraudulent activity, while citizen awareness campaigns like Cyber Surakshit Bharat are reaching billions of people.
Rajya Sabha member Sujeet Kumar, speaking from a policy standpoint, placed the discussion in the context of India’s digital aspirations and the government’s Viksit Bharat agenda.
Sujeet Kumar, member, Rajya Sabha
| “We’re looking at a $1 trillion digital economy by 2027. Already, there are close to a billion Indians online, and almost 59% of them are from semi-urban parts of India. In April 2025 alone, we saw 20 billion UPI transactions, while in FY24-25, there were 180 billion transactions,” he said.
“There are no judicial precedents or laws that specifically deal with AI. Yet, cybercriminals are weaponizing AI faster than we can respond. That’s why events like the Safer India Summit and Google’s Safety Charter are so important,” he said. |
But accountability comes with scale. Although India doesn’t want to impede innovation by overregulating, Kumar noted that the country does not currently have the legal and regulatory frameworks necessary to completely regulate AI.
Google.org is stepping up its efforts to provide proactive, scalable solutions, as evidenced by its $5 million commitment to The Asia Foundation to expand cyber clinics in the region and partnerships with organizations like IIT-Madras to advance Post-Quantum Cryptography.
This commitment comes on top of the company’s $50 million commitment already made to The Asia Foundation.
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