VIR India

AgilizTech celebrates 72nd Independence Day with VIR India

What does freedom mean?

Does it mean freedom from coercion and slavery? The right to be free of all bonds and chains?

For VIR India, it is a privilege. A privilege that we are able to afford today because of the valiant efforts of freedom fighters 71 years ago, and the bravery displayed by our very own armed forces every single day. VIR India is a client of AgilizTech, an organization commenced with the aim of serving those who serve the nation. AgilizTech, on the occasion of the 72nd Indian Independence Day had organized a Fireside Chat with the team to talk about freedom, independence and their laudable initiative for the Indian Army.

The Fireside Chat

The VIR India team, consisting of Mr. MC Ram Mohan – Founder, Mrs. Aparna Goenka – Vice President, and Ms. Tharuni Priyadarshini – Director, visited our premises for an interactive session with the AgilizTech team. They explained how VIR India was founded in 2015 with the intent of giving back to the Armed and Paramilitary Forces, the respect they deserve. They do this by providing the armed forces community with the VIR Honour Membership, which enables them to avail exclusive offers and discounts on household articles, groceries, electronic gadgets and more at select partner retail outlets, and online platforms.

In the long run they plan to provide additional services such as banking (enabling the beneficiaries to easily apply and obtain credit cards), insurance (for vehicle, home and medical needs), education (for children of fallen comrades), and placement services (upskilling and re-skilling facilities to help them maximize their potential and have a stable income), among others. VIR India also plans to tie up with corporates to take this up as a CSR activity and widen their reach.

VIR India Team

We also had a Q&A session wherein the audience could pose questions and learn more about VIR India. One of the questions posed was an instance of customer delight wherein an army person had benefited from using the VIR India services. Ms Aparna Goenka told us of one of the orders by an army officer stationed in Kashmir who wanted to send flowers to his mother living down south. He used the VIR India services for that and expressed his happiness at being able to be there for her, even while he was serving his country. That was a special moment for the team, as it showed the power of this initiative.

Another question raised was on how VIR India will cater to the needs of those member families who are not digitally savvy and can’t use the mobile and web apps. Ms Aparna and Mr Ram Mohan explained that these days Jawans are more adept at using technology and hence can easily use the VIR India platform to fulfill their family’s needs. Since a section of society is still not well versed with tech, they plan to open call centers where users can call and communicate their needs. They started with the apps first and are slowly looking out for other avenues to reach a wider audience.

The interactive session helped us to understand how users were being benefited and also their roadmap to reach a wider audience in the future.

VIR India – A movement

VIR India is not just a venture, it is a movement aimed to honor, respect and give back to those who lay down their lives for the nation. We, as civilians, are bound to help these brave souls securely and easily integrate back with the society once their service term ends. We can do this by sharing the inspirational work being done by VIR India, and ensure that this initiative is spread virally for maximum exposure.

Let’s support this movement and make sure that the VIRs are made aware of this initiative and are able to reap its benefits.

August 21, 2018 Awards & Celebrations No comments yet

A helping hand to god’s own land -AgilizTech contributes to Kerala Flood Relief

The recent floods in Kerala have caused widespread devastation, with hundreds of people missing and thousands displaced. As an organization that strongly believes in one’s responsibility to the society, AgilizTech decided to help those in need by contributing to the Kerala flood relief measures.

AgilizTech raised funds for this cause, to which employees also contributed. These funds were used to buy medicines, food items such as biscuits, rusks, ready-to-eat foods, and other essentials and toiletries such as toothpaste, brush and soaps. The relief material was collected, packed and dispatched last week by our staff to their contact in Kerala.

Kerala Flood Relief

 

We hope more and more people step forward to help the disaster struck state and help the affected overcome their distress. Every little bit helps!

Special thanks to our employees – Karan, Balveer and Thomas for assisting with the collection and dispatch and spearheading the Kerala Flood Relief initiative on behalf of the entire team.

August 20, 2018 Awards & Celebrations 1 comment

Solved – Angular router outlet appended the view instead of replacing it

Recently while working on an Angular project, we faced a very weird issue while working on one of the third-party plugins recently – the Angular router outlet appended the view instead of replacing it. We spent considerable amount of time searching for solution, before finally cracking it. We hope this article saves your time.

Problem

The router outlet did not load the component that we had asked it to load, instead it appended the view on top of the previous view.

Structure of our component looked something like this –

<app-header></app-header>
<router-outlet></router-outlet>
<app-footer></app-footer>

 

From the dashboard component (for which the route is ‘/dashboard’) we asked the router to replace the view with home component (for which the route is ‘/home).

This is how the navigation code looked like,

import { Router } from ‘@angular/router’;
…
constructor( private router: Router) {}
…
this.router.navigate([‘/home]);

But this did not work as expected. The layout after the router navigation looked something like this –

 

Angular router outlet appended the view instead of replacing

 

Instead of replacing, it placed the Home view above the Dashboard view!

 

Solution

We dug deeper to understand why this happened. Here’s what we found –

The plugin we used took the application out of Angular’s ecosystem (which is good as it optimizes performance when starting a work consisting of one or more asynchronous tasks that don’t require UI updates or error handling to be handled by Angular).

In the handler function of the plugin, the ‘this’ keyword that we had used did not hold proper value for the router object.

To force the chunk of code to execute back in the required and necessary “Angular ZONE” we just replaced the navigation code with the following lines,

import { Router } from ‘@angular/router’;
import { NgZone } from ‘@angular/core’; // do not forget the import 🙂
…
constructor( private router: Router , public zone: NgZone) {}
…
this.zone.run(() => { this.router.navigate([‘/home]); });

 

That’s it! 🙂

Happy Coding!

 

References

For more information on ngZone check out Angular docs at https://angular.io/api/core/NgZone

June 15, 2018 MEAN Stack 6 comments
AgilizTech Third Anniversary Celebrations

AgilizTech third anniversary bash – A day of reminiscence, inspiration and celebrations

We are elated to announce that AgilizTech completed three years of its journey on June 10, 2018. What started as a small aspiration of Mr. Ganesh Babu (MD and CEO of AgilizTech) has taken flight as an upcoming company in the IT services arena. To mark this important milestone, on June 09, 2018, the AgilizTech family congregated at Golden Palms Resort, Bangalore for a day of cheer and celebrations.

It was a cloudy Saturday when we assembled at Golden Palms resort. Set amidst lush greenery, the sights instantly refreshed us from the daily hustle and bustle of the city, and the glowing screens of our laptops. It was with this refreshed mindset and a jolly festive mood that the AgilizTech extended family (the team and their family members) gathered for the celebrations.

Hosted by Ms. Meghana Manjunath and Mr. Surya Saravana Kumar, the day started on a traditional note with a lamp lighting ceremony in which the guests participated.

agiliztech third anniversary

Guests participating in lamp lighting ceremony

Mr. Anand Gangoor, Head – Service Delivery at AgilizTech, welcomed the gathering and introduced the chief guest for the day, Mrs. Arundhati Rao, Director at DXC technology, an industry stalwart and motivational speaker, and the other dignitaries – Mr. Alakappan Sreenivasan and Mrs. Deivanai Alakappan Sreenivasan, Mr. Koilraj Jeyasingh (Solution Architect at TCS) and Mrs. Vijaya Bharathi Ganesh.

The event proceeded, with the organization updates provided by Mr. Ganesh Babu, Mr. Sujeeth Shetty (VP – Sales and Marketing at AgilizTech), Mr. Anand Gangoor (Senior Technical Delivery Manager) and Mr. Karan Singh (Senior Project Manager).

agiliztech third anniversary

Mr. Ganesh providing company updates

 

The speakers touched upon the past year’s performance, projects delivered, new customer acquisitions, new product rollouts and employee performance.

While Mr. Ganesh took us for a stroll down the memory lane and made us familiar with the current company position, and the roadmap, he also gave us the mantra for the year – 3Cs.

Competency Strengthening

Technical, Processes & Customer Focus

Aiming to strengthen our technical skillsets, streamlining process and having a razor-sharp focus on customer experience.

Constantly Innovate

Improve Productivity, Emerging Technologies & Customer Solutions.

Developing innovative solutions using the latest technologies, and reducing repetition and redundancy with a smarter, more productive way of working.

Consistently Grow

With existing Customers, New Customers & New Products

Improve service delivery and enhance customer experience thereby gaining recurring customers.

 

Mr. Sujeeth spoke on the importance of upskilling ourselves to serve customers better and take up more challenging opportunities. Mr. Anand elaborated on the service delivery practice at AgilizTech, bottlenecks and solutions, and Mr. Karan showcased the goodwill enjoyed by AgilizTech among current employees as well as aspirants using Glassdoor statistics.

 

What TAKE stands for…

Next, the chief guest Mrs. Arundhati Rao was called on stage to present her keynote, which was short yet impactful.

Mrs. Rao explained how we should apply the TAKE formula in our professional and personal lives to be successful. According to Mrs. Rao TAKE stands for:

T – ‘T’echnology

Wherein we ought to look at technology as a means to achieve ends. Technology is the great enabler that solves business problems. So, focus on how to end the customer problem, and then pick up a technology that suits the situation.

A – ‘A’spire

Often, people look at jobs as nine to five’s that pay the bills and keep us occupied. Mrs. Rao urged us to seek more from life by aspiring for higher goals. She stressed upon the point of building careers over holding jobs.

K –S’k’ills

In order to aspire and grow, individuals need to acquire and polish skills. In a fast-changing world, where a new technology emerges every other day, it is important to stay updated. While staying put makes one complacent, staying relevant to the industry helps one tap into new opportunities.

E – ‘E’mpower

Mrs. Rao explained that we must all empower ourselves by showing initiative and helming responsibilities even when it is not expected of us. We must not just do a job, we must own it.

It was a very inspiring 45-mins speech that motivated us all to be better employees and individuals. We are sure that these nuggets of wisdom from such experienced professionals would help us move ahead in our careers and lives.

Awards galore at the AgilizTech Third Anniversary celebrations

To recognize the contributions of the employees over the years, AgilizTech presented awards and certificates. The awards were handed over by the guests – Mrs. Arundhati Rao, Mr. Alakappan Sreenivasan and Mrs. Deivanai, Mr. Koilraj Jeyasingh, Mr. Ganesh Babu and his wife Mrs. Vijaya Bharathi.

Awards presented to the AgilizTech team members on the occasion of the third anniversary celebrations.

Posted by AgilizTech on Wednesday, June 13, 2018

 

Time for some fun

A Tabla Tale

Master Arnav, son of Mr. Anand Gangoor, entertained us all with his tabla prowess.

agiliztech third anniversary

Master Arnav on the Tabla

 

Dubsmash – A smash hit among the AgilizTech Team

The Dubsmash craze has swept the whole world and we Agilians aren’t immune either. The AgilizTech Fun Committee had asked the entire team to create dubsmashes and submit. It was quite a new way for everybody to let their hair down and get out of comfort zones. The result was a compilation of downright hilarious videos in a mélange of languages – Hindi, Kannada, Tamil and more. The audience thoroughly enjoyed the videos almost as much as the team did when creating them.

Apart from dubsmash, AgilizTech Fun Committee had also asked the team to create videos expressing their thoughts on AgilizTech’s third anniversary. What resulted was a beautiful compilation of videos where employees conveyed their heartfelt wishes towards the continued success of AgilizTech.

Here’s the video.

 

Cut the Cake!

No anniversary celebration is ever complete without a cake cutting ceremony. And we are not ones to be left behind. We had a beautiful 3Kg White Forest delicacy for the AgilizTech third anniversary celebrations, and the whole team participated in the cake cutting.

agiliztech third anniversary

Cut the cake!

 

Fun in the sun

With that the formal event came to an end and the AgilizTech family was free to enjoy lunch and the splendors of the Golden Palms Resort. The swimming pool was a major attraction as a lot of employees chilled in the blue waters. Later the team moved on to the cricket ground for some friendly matches, wherein individuals showcased their cricketing prowess.

The AgilizTech third anniversary was a day of merriment, motivation and celebration for the entire AgilizTech family. Three years is a very important milestone in our journey, and we will strive to work harder as there are many more miles to go and many, many more summits to climb. We also take this opportunity to thank all our customers, partners and well-wishers who have stood with us throughout this period and provided encouragement and support.

Onward, we march!

June 13, 2018 Awards & Celebrations No comments yet

Customizing Notification Content in iOS before displaying to user

In this blog post, we piece together the steps involved in customizing notification content in iOS before displaying it to the user. Essentially, we will show how a chat application message can be customized to display a name for the sender’s number.

The need

In certain applications, for example chat apps, the server only saves the user’s numbers only. This is because the server cannot maintain the equivalent name of the mobile number as it is saved differently on each device. For example, the name Mr. Adam Smith can be saved as Adam, Adam Smith, Dad, Adam Smith 2, etc. Therefore, it is not possible for server to retain a name. Hence, it is upon the client, that is, the mobile app needs to display names and numbers appropriately, in notifications sent from server.

Developers can enable the application to find the equivalent name for a phone number that has sent you the message, by customizing the notification content in iOS using service and content extensions.

Let’s explore what extensions are and how to configure them, in the next few sections.

What is an extension?

Extensions are background applications, running independently from the app. They are around even when the app is not in the foreground. Service and Content extensions offer powerful new tools for customizing the notification information.

Service Extension

This object intercepts the push payloads from apps and helps developers to change content in the notification before it is presented.

Content extension

An object that presents a custom interface for a delivered local or remote notification. If you want to customize the UI of your notification you can use the content extension.

Note: Before getting started with notification extensions, the developer must be familiar with creating local and remote push notification.

 

Service Extension Setup

In the User Notifications framework, Apple introduced the Notification Service Extension. It’s a small program running in the background of your device that intercepts payload before notification center presents the push notification. In the Service Extension, you can modify your content with a UNMutablenotificationContent object modifying your content. That can be decrypting an encoded message or grabbing data in the userInfo to modify the content.

Setting up Service Extension

Here are steps to get started with the Service Extension:

  1. To set up the Notification Service Extension, you’ll need a new target in your application. In Xcode, go to File > New > Target.
  2. In the menu box that appears, select iOS. In the list that appears, select Notification Service Extension.

Notification Content in iOS

  1. Click Next and enter the product name. it is a good practice to suffix ServiceExtension to the app name (that gives more clarity) – for example, yourProductName ServiceExtention.

Notification Content in iOS

  1. Click Finish to complete setup.
  2. A dialog box appears seeking permission to activate the Service Extension Click Activate.

Using Service Extension

In the navigator a new group appears, which is the Service Extension. This group contains two files. Select the NotificationService.swift file.

This file consists of two functions and two properties. The core method used is the didReceive (Request: withContentHandler). This method assigns the content handler closure to one of the two properties. The other property, bestAttemptContent is a mutable copy of the push notification’s content. In this method, you change the content for the push notification, loading all that rich content you couldn’t fit in the payload, or do any change to the content you wish.

For example, Apple’s default template changes the title.   You can go ahead and customize your title by changing “bestAttemptContent.title”.

override func didReceive(_request: UNNotificationRequest, withContentHandler contentHandler:
@escaping (UNNotificationContent) -> Void)
{
self.contentHandler = contentHandler
bestAttemptContent = (request.content.mutableCopy() as? UNMutableNotificationContent)

let contactName = “Surya”
if let bestAttemptContent = bestAttemptContent {

// Modify the notification content here…
bestAttemptContent.title = “\(contactName)”
contentHandler(bestAttemptContent)

}
}

 

Making changes in payload

Now that we have made adequate settings in the Service Extension, we will initiate changes in the payload. Ensure that you possess the key value pair in your payload’s aps directory.

 

“mutable-content”:1

Navigate to payload and add this key value pair. The result should look like this:

{
“aps”:{
“alert”:{
“title”:”9909912345″
},
“badge”:1,
“sound”:”default”,
“category”:”notification.category”,
“mutable-content”:1
},
“subtitle”: “How are you??”
}

You can test with this payload by using any 3rd party push testing tool. Here we are using NW pusher.
Notification Content in iOS

Configuring the Service Extension with user info

Follow the steps given below to configure the Service Extension:

  1. In Service Extension, click NotificationServiceExtension.swift file

The file has two functions – didReceive with contentHandler and serviceExtensionTimeWillExpire

  1. Place the custom information in the didReceive function. For example, you can change the notification title by editing this line:
bestAttemptContent.title = “custom Title”

 

  1. Place the custom information into the body, giving a list of the order, and add the subtitle to the subtitle property.

 

Note: You’ll need the userInfo dictionary. Let’s make referring to the dictionary easier by making it a constant in the function, casting it to the JSON dictionary type of [String:Any].

 

Here’s how it is done:

//get the dictionary
let userInfo = bestAttemptContent.userInfo as! [String:Any]

 

  1. Subtitles are user info in a payload but are a property of UNMutableNotificationContent, so they need to be transferred. Since it’s a dictionary entry, we’ll unwrap it and check for nil. If not nil, then we have a subtitle and can update the value. Let’s downcast the value to String when assigning it the subtitle content, since the dictionary has the value as Any.
//change the subtitle
if userInfo[“subtitle”] != nil{
bestAttemptContent.subtitle = userInfo[“subtitle”] as! String
}

 

For Example:

override func didReceive(_ request: UNNotificationRequest, withContentHandler contentHandler:
@escaping (UNNotificationContent) -> Void) {
self.contentHandler = contentHandler
bestAttemptContent = (request.content.mutableCopy() as?UNMutableNotificationContent)
 
if let bestAttemptContent = bestAttemptContent {
// Modify the notification content here…
// bestAttemptContent.title = “Custom Title”

//Contact number from push payload has been received and the equivalent name of that number should be determined, and that name should be displayed as a notification title

let userInfo = bestAttemptContent.userInfo as! [String:Any]
guard let apsDict = userInfo[“aps”] as? [String:Any] else {return}
guard let alertDict = apsDict[“alert”] as? [String:Any] else {return}

if let contactNumber = alertDict[“title”] as? String {
let notificationTitle = findContactName(phoneNumber: contactNumber)
bestAttemptContent.title = “\(notificationTitle)”
}

//change the subtitle
if userInfo[“subtitle”] != nil{
bestAttemptContent.subtitle = userInfo[“subtitle”] as! String
}
bestAttemptContent.subtitle = “How are you??”
contentHandler(bestAttemptContent)
}
}

 

Here findContactName(phoneNumber: contactNumber) is the custom method which retrieves the contact name from our contact list by comparing the mobile number which has been pushed from our payload

 

With this step we are ready with the Service Extension. In the next section, we need to configure info.plist

The Property List

We’ve a few more steps to complete before running the notification:

  1. Go back to Xcode. There one more file in the service extension we’ve yet to look at.
  2. Click on the info.plist and open NSExtension.
  3. Open the NSExtensionAttributes and access the UNNotificationExtensionCategory
  4. Content extensions run on categories, so whatever category this property is, that will be the category of the notification found in content.category. Change it to category.

 

This extension will run for only the notification.category notifications. If an extension has another category, it will not run. Remember to do this. If you forget this, the extension will not work for you.

Run the Notification

You are ready to run the notification. When you add extensions, Xcode often defaults to the run scheme for the extension. Check to make sure you are on your device run scheme for the app.

Results

In our payload we gave phone number and while receiving the notification we are getting the customized name.

Notification Content in iOS

 

References

  1. https://developer.apple.com/documentation/usernotifications/unnotificationserviceextension
  2. https://developer.apple.com/documentation/usernotificationsui/unnotificationcontentextension
  3. https://www.pushwoosh.com/docs/ios-10-rich-notifications-integration
May 9, 2018 Apple iOS 1 comment
stealing your personal data

Are apps stealing your personal data? Part Three

In the last two posts, we explored how some mobile apps were malicious in nature and indulged in stealing your personal data for their gains. We also looked at a few steps that mobile app developers can undertake to bring stronger, more resilient mobile apps that don’t support dangerous activities of hackers.

In this final part, we will understand what you as an end user can do to stay vigilant and prevent mobile apps from stealing your personal data.

Note to end users – How to hackproof your smartphone

Fingerprints can be lifted. Use passcode

One of the biggest nightmares for an individual these days is losing their phone. While the hardware must have cost big bucks, what’s more vital is the loss of personal data that’s present – think emails containing sensitive information, photos, videos and more. While most of us secure our phones with fingerprints, it is not always safe as it is easy to lift prints. It is better to use strong passcodes. And if you have an evil twin, it is time to say goodbye to facial recognition as an unlocking medium as well.

Also, while smart unlock features such as unlocking phone when you reach home/office is cool, it is dangerous when your phone is in the wrong hands.

 

Activate Find My Device feature so that even if physically lost, phone can be locked or wiped

Another way to proof your data in the event you have lost your device is to track it online and lock it. You can even wipe it fully so that the hackers cannot glean anything from it. In Android, Find My Device helps to locate the device as well as lock it or wipe it. iPhone users can use Find my iPhone feature to locate their devices and even switch on Lost Mode.

stealing your personal data

Don’t reveal sensitive data while on Public WiFi

Never use Public WiFi to perform financial or business transactions as hackers can position themselves between you and the connection point and intercept sensitive personal and corporate data. Always use secure connections while performing such activities. According to a Kaspersky Lab report, one in five persons has been a target of cybercrime while abroad and a third (31 per cent) of them are senior business managers.

stealing your personal data

 

Review app permissions and EULA before installing

It is important to review what all permissions an app is requesting before completing installation. As said before some apps seek permissions for internet and location just to send targeted ads and make money. And before you know it, your phone is filled with unwanted ads.

 

While mobile apps have been a boon to smartphone users around the world, the security risks associated with them cannot be denied. It is in your own personal interest that you monitor your apps and eliminate those that you think might compromise your data’s safety. Also, lesser the number of apps and lesser the number of distractions, the more organized your phone and well-spent is your time.

May 4, 2018 Mobile App Development No comments yet
apps stealing your personal data

Are apps stealing your personal data? Part Two

In the previous post, we looked at how some mobile apps can be malicious and attempt to take advantage by stealing your personal data for monetary gains. In this part, we will explore the measures that mobile app developers can take while building apps to make them more secure and prevent critical personal data loss.

Note to developers – Building secure mobile apps

Ensure libraries are free of vulnerabilities

Developers must be cautious while using third-party libraries as they could contain malicious code or could possess security flaws. Ensure that the code is tested thoroughly before being used in the app development.

Application sandboxing against malware

While building and testing apps, it is a good practice to follow sandboxing. This helps to isolate application data and code execution from other apps. A sandboxing approach helps execute untested or untrusted programs or code, possibly from unverified or untrusted third parties or websites, without risking harm to the host machine or operating system.

stealing your personal data

Don’t ask too many permissions to sensitive information

A simple app such as a flashlight does not require permission to access internet and location. These days users are concerned about data privacy issues and hence do not prefer apps that need permissions which they find unnecessary. Therefore, tuning down on number of permissions might help increase user adoption. In fact, one of the flashlight apps has put up a permission comparison screenshot to showcase less permissions as a USP:

stealing your personal data

Validate input fields to prevent SQL injection attacks

SQL injection is an attack technique that takes advantage of applications that don’t correctly validate user-supplied requests before passing them to the associated backend database. Using normal request channels such as form data, scripts and URLs, hackers can pass malicious SQL queries and commands to a database if they are not thoroughly checked first. By validating input fields and sanitizing data inputs regularly and monitoring input logs, threats like SQL injections can be thwarted.

GDPR regulations and what it means for mobile apps

From May 25 2018 onwards, GDPR will be applicable to all websites and mobile apps which serve users who are citizens of EU. Developers must ensure that they adhere to the EU guidelines and ensure greater data protection for app users. Some of the guidelines are to collect only vital information, encrypt that data and allow users to delete/modify said data at any point of time.

We have looked at some steps the developers can undertake to embed security in mobile apps right from design and development stages. In the next post we will explore how you as a user can protect yourselves from malicious mobile apps and prevent them from stealing your personal data.

May 3, 2018 Mobile App Development No comments yet
apps stealing your personal data

Are apps stealing your personal data? Part One

Fire and fury. This was the feeling etched in the minds of the 2 billion strong userbase of Facebook once the Cambridge Analytica scandal came to limelight. Cambridge Analytica, a political consultancy firm based out of Dallas, US and London, UK, had assimilated data of millions of Facebook users with an app called thisisyourdigitallife, with no indication to users on how their data will be manipulated. It had then used this data to create psychological profiles of millions of people, sending them targeted ads to influence and sway their votes in the favor of Cambridge Analytica’s clients.

Has Cambridge Analytica been successful? The firm was involved and attributed in turning the tide towards Brexit by targeting voters with likeminded ads. Similarly, it was part of the Trump campaign, sending targeted ads and content to voters with specific psychological traits.

Closer home, Cambridge Analytica was found to have played in a role in the 2010 Bihar Legislative Assembly elections. Apart from this, both Congress and BJP are said to have worked with the now disgraced agency to use analytics and glean insights about Indian voters.

 

In today’s digital age, where data has become the new currency, netizens have risen in numbers against loss of private and sensitive information, and misuse of the trust they had on Facebook. In fact, in March 2018, the growing negative perception of the social media giant led to a $60 billion drop in market capitalization.

 

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s CEO has since testified before the US Senate Judiciary and Commerce committees, apologized for Facebook’s lapse and has vowed to enforce stronger data protection policies.

Given this atmosphere of absolute disregard for user data privacy, are mobile apps stealing your personal data? Is your data safe? How does your data get leaked anyway? Let’s explore in this blog post.

 

How is data leaked and what happens with it?

As per ProofPoint, mobile app data theft risks can be categorized as:

apps stealing your personal data - three levels of risks

Let’s look at a few examples of how your data can be stolen by mobile apps without your knowledge:

Unwanted ads – Madware

Beware of free apps. When you are unable to ascertain how a mobile app makes money most probably you and your data are being monetized by being targeted with ads. Madware is a much more aggressive version of advertising. Madware disrupts user experience and potentially exposes sensitive information such as location, contact information and device identifiers to cybercriminals. It enters your phone when you download an app and makes changes to browser settings automatically, allowing ads to pop up over all sorts of apps.

Location and internet access for targeted adds

Sometimes apps can seek location and internet access even when they don’t require it for functional purposes. In such cases, if you provide permission without understanding about it, your location might get tracked and you will receive location-specific ads over the internet. There have been incidents where even with the GPS being off, device location was tracked using cellphone towers, accelerometer and other features without the user’s permission.

 

Monetary loss – keystroke logging

Your bank accounts may be compromised if confidential data such as passwords and access codes can be read from the phone by malicious mobile apps. Some apps demand permission to SMS and call records. Such apps may employ keystroke logging to gather information such as credit card numbers, bank account passwords and more.

 

Echo Chambers and Political Manipulations

Psychology has always been a tool for politicians to turn collective minds in their favour. Fake news is spread, hate speeches are made to instigate reactions that complement their party’s agenda. But with social media, some political strategists have gone a step further. They use illegal means to collect social media data of millions of users using apps, to analyze and form psychological traits that will sway voting choices.

It is apparent that hackers are employing various new ways to get hold of your private data for their personal gains. That politicians have jumped into the fray is distressing. Given the dangers of security lapses and data theft, what can app developers and we as users do to remain vigilant and cautious? Read our next part – Are mobile apps stealing your personal data? Part Two – to know more.

May 2, 2018 Mobile App Development No comments yet
Worldpay payment gateway redirection issue

Resolved – Worldpay payment gateway redirection issue

Worldpay is a global leader in payments processing technology and solutions for businesses. One of their key offerings is the payment gateway, which businesses integrate with their websites to enable online payments for customers. While building a solution for one of our UK clients, we encountered the Worldpay payment gateway redirection issue, that is, once the payment was completed, the user was not getting redirected to the website.

We searched high and low to resolve this, looked up all sorts of documents, but the solution evaded us. We even tried calling the Worldpay Support staff but couldn’t get much out of them. In the end, through endless trial and error we hit upon this solution. We hope this article saves you time and effort and helps you resolve the issue quickly.

Here are the steps to fix the Worldpay payment gateway redirection issue.

Note: This is for the Worldpay Business Manager users

Worldpay Business Manager Settings Change

  1. Log into Worldpay Business Manager and navigate to Setup > Installations
  2. Click the Settings button next to your domain in Test
  3. Ensure that the fields are filled as shown below

Worldpay payment gateway redirection issue

  1. Click Save Changes button

 

Copy resultC.html and resultY.html from CPanel to PC

  1. Login to CPanel of your domain (Siteground in my case)
  2. Navigate to File Manager > Webroot > Wp-content > plugins > business-worldpay-gateway-for-woocommerce > Payment pages > required
  3. Copy the resultC.html and resultY.html files to your PC

Worldpay payment gateway redirection issue

 

Add resultC.html and resultY.html in Worldpay Business Manager

  1. Next, log into Worldpay Business Manager and navigate to Setup > Installations > Edit Payment pages
  2. Under File menu, select File Management
  3. Upload the resultC.html and resultY.html files here

Worldpay payment gateway redirection issue

 

Try a test payment

  1. Now make a test payment in the website and check if it gets redirected

 

Copy settings to production

  1. Copy the same settings to Production in Worldpay Business Manager

The Worldpay Payment Gateway redirect issue is now resolved!

April 2, 2018 Application Development No comments yet
Campus to corporate 2017-18 - AgilizTech Winter internship

Campus to corporate 2017-18 – Internship at AgilizTech

More and more students are opting for internships while pursuing higher education these days. This is because an internship gives them a glimpse of the corporate world and serves as their career’s launchpad into the industry. Every year, AgilizTech invites students to join our internship programme and gain real-life experiences. This year, we were pleased to have Ms. P. Jerlin Juliet and Ms. G.R. Yogalakshmi from Madurai’s famed American College for an internship at AgilizTech.

Jerlin and Yogalakshmi, the third year MCA students who were interested in interning with us, came all the way from Madurai, Tamil Nadu, and quickly adapted to the fast-moving culture of Bengaluru and AgilizTech in December 2017. Over the course of 4 months they worked in various projects for AgilizTech – both internal and for clients.

In their words, “This has been a very fruitful experience for us, as we were able to apply our knowledge and work on live projects. We’re thankful to AgilizTech for providing us this opportunity.”

Internship at AgilizTech

At the end of the internship period, AgilizTech provided them the internship certificate and as a token of appreciation of their hard work, gift cards. We would love to collaborate with more students for our projects, as this program helps us build a connect with the student community and enables them gain foothold in the industry.

March 27, 2018 Awards & Celebrations No comments yet
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