SHOUT 2019 BUMPER EDITION - English

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ISSUE OF THE BULLETIN – EWALLETS IN MALAYSIA

What you need to know

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BUMPER EDITION

SOCIAL MEDIA LIFE – A BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO MAKING MONEY ON YOUTUBE

I S S U E 2 0 1 9

SHOUT! PUBLISHED BY THE COMMUNICATIONS AND MULTIMEDIA CONSUMER FORUM OF MALAYSIA

THE WORD WITH...

DZULEIRA ABU BAKAR The CEO of MaGIC talks about igniting the spirit of entrepreneurship in Malaysia

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INTRO EDITORIAL COMMITTEE

AHMAD IZHAM KHAIRUDDIN NOOR SHAHDIELL A ABD MANAN ROHARRASHIDAH ABDUL HALIL

EDITOR’S NOTE SHOU T !

Dear valued readers,

is published by:

Welcome to our bumper edition of SHOUT! magazine where we have crammed in even more exciting news and invaluable knowledge on knowing your rights as a consumer compared to our previous issues.

Communications and Multimedia Consumer Forum of Malaysia (CFM)

2019 is shaping up to be an exciting year for us as Malaysia is seeing greater Internet penetration than ever before and with it, a growing need for faster and more reliable connectivity. Earlier this year, we have seen a variety of promising solutions that aim to bring better connectivity to more Malaysians but above all, we’re extremely excited about the potential benefits that 5G can bring to the nation in terms of enhancing our lives, our productivity and more.

Malaysian Communications & Multimedia Commission

We also had the opportunity to speak to Dzuleira Abu Bakar where she shares more about her role as the CEO of MaGIC, her views on the entrepreneurship landscape in Malaysia, and her plans on how to put Malaysia on the global map of innovation for startups and entrepreneurs alike.

As we are increasingly sharing our lives online in social media and other platforms, it also requires a certain amount of discretion. In our Hands On feature, we tell you how to maintain your online privacy while our indepth Tutorial tells you how exactly to manage and delete cookies off your smartphone and PC.

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SHOUT 2019 BUMPER EDITION

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Discover fascinating Internet usage and access statistics for Malaysians in 2018

ON THE WIRE

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Find out what exciting things that the Communications and Multimedia Consumer Forum of Malaysia (CFM) have been up to in the news

SOCIAL MEDIA LIFE

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DO’S & DON’TS A BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO MAKING MONEY ON YOUTUBE

Get insight on how to become a YouTube content creator and a primer on how to eventually monetise your creations

MAKE LIFE HAPPIER - BRIGHTEN UP AND DETOX YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA TIMELINE

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THE ESSENTIAL SMART HOME PRIMER

THE RISE OF TARGETED ADVERTISING BOON OR BANE? The eerie ads that you see when web browsing and on social media seem to know exactly what you’re looking for. Find out how and why this happens

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MASTER A NEW L ANGUAGE WITH THESE EXCITING L ANGUAGE LEARNING APPS

HANDS ON

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Your activities online may not necessarily be private. Here’s how to maintain your online privacy

Why you need a Smart Home and how to get started?

DZULEIRA ABU BAKAR

Find out the pros and cons of using eWallets and what lies in store on the horizon

Learning a new language is a very rewarding experience.

Here are four of the best to download on your smartphone

Check out just what sort of tech you need to become the next live streaming sensation

THE WORD

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT E WA L L E T S I N M A L AY S I A

The adoption of eWallets is on the rise in Malaysia. Check out this curated selection of awesome eWallets that are right on the money

THE LIVE STREAMING PRIMER - WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

D I G I TA L L I F E

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P O P U L A R E - PAY M E N T A P P S I N M A L AY S I A

Discover how to declutter your social media timeline to make it a more positive, happier environment to be in!

TOP GEAR

ISSUE OF THE BULLETIN

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That’s all for now readers, see you all next issue!

Muhammad Radzillah Abdullah Editor

THE NUMBERS

(MCMC) Former HQ

In our latest issue, we will be covering a host of exciting topics across our regular columns with an emphasis on digital content. In Social Media Life, we take a closer look at what it takes to be a content creator on one of the world’s most popular streaming platforms, YouTube, as well as how to eventually monetise your creations.

If you are aspiring to be a live streamer, check out our Top Gear column on our recommended tech gadgets that you may need.

W H AT ’ S I N S I D E

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The CEO of MaGIC sits down and has a chat with CFM on sparking and nurturing spirit of entrepreneurship in Malaysia

TUTORIAL

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Find out how to delete cookies on your smartphone, Mac or PC

THE NUMBERS

INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY (ICT) ACCESS AND USAGE STATISTICS BY HOUSEHOLDS AND INDIVIDUALS I N M A L AY S I A F O R 2018 The proliferation of affordable internet access has resulted in an increasingly better connected Malaysia. According to the most recent figures from the Department of Statistics Malaysia, there were slightly more individuals aged 15 years and older using the Internet in 2018 from 2017 in Malaysia. There has also been a modest increase in the usage of computers and smartphones with 97.9% of surveyed individuals in Malaysia using a mobile phone versus 97.7% in 2017. The number of households with access to the Internet has also increased modestly from last year.

In terms of usage for 2018, the most popular activity by users was participating in social media networks (96.5%), searching for information on goods and services (83.1%) and downloading content be it movies, games, applications or videos. There was also an increase in Internet use for sending/receiving email (74.8%).

ICT ACCESS BY HOUSEHOLDS Internet

Computer

Mobile Phone

2018: 87.0% 2017: 85.7%

2018: 71.7% 2017: 74.1%

2018: 98.2% 2017: 98.1%

Television

Pay TV Channel

Fixed Line Telephone

Radio

2018: 98.6% 2017: 98.5%

2018: 73.1% 2017: 72.3%

2018: 26.5% 2017: 28.6%

2018: 95.7% 2017: 94.9%

ICT USE BY INDIVIDUALS MAIN ACTIVITIES OF INTERNET USE

Internet

2018: 81.2%

Finding information about goods or services

Downloading images, movie, videos or music; playing or downloading games

2018: 96.5% 2017: 86.3%

2018: 83.1% 2017: 80.4%

2018: 81.7% 2017: 81.2%

Downloading software or applications

Sending or receiving e-mail

Telephoning over the Internet / VoIP

2018: 76.5% 2017: 74.5%

2018: 74.8% 2017: 70.4%

2018: 70.0% 2017: 62.5%

2017: 80.1%

Computer

2018: 70.5%

Participating in social networks

2017: 69.8%

Mobile Phone

2018: 97.9%

2017: 97.7%

Information courtesy of the Department of Statistics Malaysia (https://www.dosm.gov.my) 1. https://www.dosm.gov.my/v1/index.php?r=column/cthemeByCat&cat=395&bul_id=U3VCWU95MFNZK2kxbHd6cnBYZDY5dz09&menu id=amVoWU54UTl0a21NWmdhMjFMMWcyZz09 2. https://www.dosm.gov.my/v1/index.php?r=column/pdfPrev&id=bHBzbWxkWElxRDlmaU81Q3R2ckRkZz09 3. https://twitter.com/StatsMalaysia/status/1124162042426843136 SHOUT 2019 BUMPER EDITION

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ON THE WIRE

CFM ACTIVITIES AND PROGRAMME WITH CONSUMERS

AN INTERVIEW WITH TV3 ‘SUARA KONSUMER’ 29 January 2019 | Cyberjaya TV3 Suara Konsumer programme has interviewed CFM Director, Ahmad Izham Khairuddin to get some tips on how to identify scam syndicates in job vacancy advertisements. In the interview, CFM has reminded consumers to be very selective in giving their personal information to other parties as to avoid being victims of scammers. The recorded interview was aired on TV3 on 23 February 2019, at 6.00 pm.

AN INTERVIEW WITH TV3 ‘BORAK KOPITIAM’ ABOUT CFM ANIMATCH 2 March 2019 | Sri Pentas, Petaling Jaya CFM was invited by Borak Kopitiam, a casual talk programme on TV3 to share informative tips and CFM’s current activities. In the interview, CFM Director, Ahmad Izham Khairuddin has spoken about some tips to avoid being a victim of scam syndicates. He has also explained about CFM’s animation video competition, CFM ANIMATCH which was open to the public, especially animation enthusiasts. CFM has chosen animation as the concept in the competition since it is a medium that can easily attract audiences and effectively deliver messages regarding the issues regularly faced by consumers in communications and multimedia services. The interview was aired live on TV3 and Borak Kopitiam Facebook page at 8.30 am.

CFM SHARING SESSION WITH CIDB KEDAH STAFF 13 March 2019 | CIDB, Kedah CFM has imparted some useful information to consumers in Kedah through a Pocket Talk programme in CIDB Kedah. The sharing session was delivered by CFM Director, Ahmad Izham Khairuddin who spoke on CFM’s roles in helping consumers, things to keep an eye on telephone bills, tips to avoid unreasonable roaming charges, and how to avoid being a victim of scams. The session was held for two hours from 2.30 pm and attended by 33 CIDB staff.

Participants who correctly answered an online quiz by CFM were given CFM merchandise.

CFM SHARES TIPS ON HANDLING SCAMS IN TV RTM FRESH BREW PROGRAMME 7 March 2019 | Angkasapuri, Kuala Lumpur CFM was invited by RTM talk show, Fresh Brew to give some advice on scams that have been rampant. CFM Deputy Chairman, Azizan Mohd Afandi elaborated on the syndicates’ modus operandi and the ways to identify a scammer. In the interview, Azizan also provided the audience with some guidelines on dealing with fake calls, SMSes or emails received from scam syndicates as well as how to protect their personal data. The recorded interview was aired on RTM TV2 on 31 March 2019, at 10.00 am.

CFM SHARING SESSION AT CMCF SELF-REGULATION SEMINAR WITH KEDAH COMMUNITY 14 March 2019 | Alor Setar, Kedah CFM was invited to be part of a knowledge-sharing session on “Consumer and Public Rights” during the Self-Regulation Seminar: Consumers’ Rights in the Digital World organised by the Communications and Multimedia Content Forum of Malaysia (CMCF) at Sentosa Regency Hotel, Alor Setar, Kedah. The then CFM Chairman, Mohamad Yusrizal Dato’ Yusoff shared CFM’s roles and telecommunication issues commonly faced by the consumers to 150 participants who attended the seminar. In the one-hour sharing session, participants took part in the CFM online quiz to stand a chance of winning CFM merchandise.

CFM SHARING SESSION IN NESCA SEMINAR 20 March 2019 | Kuala Pilah, Negeri Sembilan Through the membership grant, Negeri Sembilan Consumer Association (NESCA) organised a seminar in SMK Tuanku Muhammad, Kuala Pilah. CFM was invited as a speaker for a sharing session, which was delivered by CFM Council Member, Muhammad Radzillah Abdullah who shared about CFM’s roles in protecting consumers’ rights in communications and multimedia.

Also present at the event were speakers from the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs (KPDNHEP) Negeri Sembilan and Tuanku Ampuan Najihah Hospital. The programme was attended by 110 participants involving teachers and school students and held from 9.00 am to 1.00 pm.

CFM received 126 participations from university students and animation creators.

Among them, 20 contestants were chosen to the semi-final and 10 finalists were selected to compete in the final round.

CFM Animatch was conducted at multiple levels: 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

CFM ANIMATION VIDEO COMPETITION - CFM ANIMATCH 2019, AN INITIATIVE TO FOSTER BETTER AWARENESS AMONG CONSUMERS 31 March 2019 | Cyberjaya, Selangor For the first time, CFM held an animation competition, “CFM ANIMATCH” which provided a platform for talented members of the public to create creative animation videos about issues frequently faced by consumers of communications and multimedia services.

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Online registration of participants (4 - 15 February 2019) Submission of Storyboard/Animatic by the participants (24 February 2019) Announcement of the top 20 participants (27 February 2019) Storyboard/Animatic presentations by the 20 participants (9 & 10 March 2019) Announcement of the top 10 finalists (11 March 2019) Review session of 10 finalists with Mentor (17 & 24 March 2019) Presentation of the final videos by the 10 finalists (30 March 2019) Announcement of CFM Animatch winners (31 March 2019)

The panel of judges who reviewed the submissions and coached the participants, consisted of Malaysia’s father of animation, Hassan Abd Muthalib; Mike Ismail Animation Film Director, and Ayie Ibrahim - Creatvtoon Studio Animation Director.

CFM Animatch champion received a cash prize worth RM8,500 and a trophy, while the first and second runner-up winners took home a cash prize worth RM5,000 and RM3,000 respectively. The awards were given by the Deputy Secretary General (Policy), Ministry of Communications and Multimedia Malaysia, Tuan Shakib Ahmad Shakir.

CFM SHARING SESSION WITH SAITO UNIVERSITY COLLEGE STUDENTS 5 April 2019 | Petaling Jaya, Selangor Around 60 students attended a sharing session delivered by CFM Communications and Public Relations Department Manager, Noor Shahdiella Abd Manan. Among the topics addressed were the roles of CFM and the issue of scams. The students also participated in the CFM online quiz to test their understanding of the delivered topics. Students who managed to answer correctly and quickly were given CFM merchandise as the prize.

ON THE WIRE

CFM SHARING SESSION WITH THE WOMEN COMMUNITY IN PULAI 12 April 2019 | Tampoi, Johor CFM was invited to deliver a talk on consumer rights in the communications and multimedia services and fake calls scam at the “Program Keselamatan Kejiranan Muafakat Wanita Zon Pulai 2019.”

CFM was represented by its Director, Ahmad Izham Khairuddin who talked to an audience of 150 women living in the area. The programme was organised by the Kawasan Rukun Tetangga Pangsapuri Sri Murni 2 in cooperation with the Johor Bahru Perpaduan Office.

CFM SHARING SESSION WITH KAMPUNG RINCHING RESIDENTS IN MACFEA COMMUNITY PROGRAMME 14 April 2019 | Bangi, Selangor Malaysian Consumer & Family Economics Association (MACFEA), which is one of CFM’s members, organised “Program Komuniti Pengguna Pintar Melalui Komunikasi Dan Multimedia 2019” through the activities grant from CFM membership. CFM was represented by the then CFM Chairman, Mohamad Yusrizal Dato’ Yusoff and the then CFM Council Member, Mohd Ashwar Abdul Aziz to discuss about “Pengguna Pintar: Isu dan Cabaran Pengguna dalam Komunikasi dan Multimedia” who were joined by another panelist, the Deputy President of MACFEA. The programme was attended by 150 Kampung Rinching residents and university students, and was held from 8.30 am to 5.00 pm in Sekolah Rendah Agama Kampung Rinching Hilir, Bangi.

CFM SHARING SESSION IN THE CMCF SELF-REGULATION SEMINAR WITH TERENGGANU COMMUNITY 18 April 2019 | Kuala Terengganu, Terengganu CFM was invited to share information related to the rights and complaints of consumers on the communications and multimedia services at the Self-Regulation Seminar hosted by the Communications and Multimedia Content Forum of Malaysia (CMCF), at Paya Bunga Hotel.

CFM Communications and Public Relations Department Manager, Noor Shahdiella Abd Manan has shared the industry’s information to about 270 attendees. The sharing session went for an hour before the audiences participated in the online quiz to test their level of understanding on the delivered topics and stand the chance to win CFM merchandise.

AN INTERVIEW WITH BERNAMA TERENGGANU 18 April 2019 | Kuala Terengganu, Terengganu During the CMCF SelfRegulation Seminar, BERNAMA interviewed CFM Director, Ahmad Izham Khairuddin regarding the issues frequently faced by the communications and multimedia consumers. In the interview, Izham shared the number of complaints received from the consumers, including the ones reported by consumers in the East Coast region. An article of the interview was published in BERNAMA’s portal and social media.

RADIO INTERVIEW WITH MANIS FM 16 April 2019 | Kuala Terengganu, Terengganu CFM shared a lot of tips to the listeners of Manis FM regarding the roles of CFM in managing consumers’ complaints, money-saving tips in choosing telco package, scams and how to avoid being blacklisted by telco.

The interview session that was held at the radio station was aired in four different slots: 1. 24 April 2019 – Roles of CFM and the types of complaint most received by CFM 2. 8 May 2019 – Money saving tips in choosing telco package 3. 12 June 2019 – Scam 4. 19 June 2019 – Tips to avoid being blacklisted by telco CFM Director, Ahmad Izham Khairuddin was interviewed by DJ Syazwan and DJ Adam. Each slot was aired for an hour from 4.00 pm to 5.00 pm in the Law@manis segment.

CFM SHARING SESSION WITH KRAFTANGAN TERENGGANU STAFF 17 April 2019 | Kuala Terengganu, Terengganu CFM continued with its efforts in helping the consumers by delivering a sharing session with the Terengganu community. CFM Director, Ahmad Izham Khairuddin shared about the roles of CFM, Scams and Digital marketing. The session was held for two hours from 10.00 am. The attendees also participated in the CFM online quiz and 10 participants who managed to answer the quiz quickly and correctly won CFM merchandise.

AN INTERVIEW WITH NEGERI FM 25 April 2019 | Seremban, Negeri Sembilan

RADIO INTERVIEW WITH TERENGGANU FM 19 April 2019 | Kuala Terengganu, Terengganu CFM explained on its roles to help consumers in an interview with Terengganu FM. The interview was aired live with DJ Sidi in the studio. In the one-hour session, CFM Director, Ahmad Izham Khairuddin also shared the issues with the highest number of complaints made by the consumers in the East Coast region.

He also explained how to lodge a complaint to CFM and some tips on how to choose the right telco plan for cost-saving. The interview was shared in Terengganu FM’s Facebook Live and some questions posed by the listeners were also answered by CFM.

CFM was represented by the then CFM Chairman, Mohamad Yusrizal Dato’ Yusoff to attend a live interview with Negeri FM. In the 30-minute interview, CFM talked about bill & payment disputes.

CFM also clarified on the complaints made in relation to bill & payment disputes, such as service termination, reminders through calls or SMSes, and outstanding bills post-termination.

CFM JOINED THE RTM 73rd ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION 27 April 2019 | Kuantan, Pahang CFM participated in a carnival organised by the Jabatan Penyiaran Pahang in conjunction with RTM 73rd Anniversary celebrations by opening an exhibition booth to advocate consumer rights in the communications and multimedia industry. CFM also organised casual activities to attract visitors and increase their awareness on telecommunication issues regularly faced by the consumers. Through the carnival, CFM also shared some useful tips to overcome issues experienced by the consumers and ways to lodge their complaints to CFM. The carnival held at the Kompleks Penyiaran Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah, Kuantan was conducted from 9.00 am to 5.00 pm.

As an initiative to encourage consumers to be well informed, CFM hosted the CFM Dialogue 2019 as a platform for consumers to get detailed clarification as well as feedback from service providers and regulatory bodies. The Dialogue, themed “The Changing Landscape of Malaysia’s Broadband” focused on the challenges and future of broadband in Malaysia. The event was also held to celebrate World Telecommunication and Information Society Day (WTISD) 2019.

The programme which took place at Pentas@Celcom, Petaling Jaya, was attended by 230 people. Through this dialogue, consumers got the chance to gain a deeper understanding about the development of Malaysia’s broadband landscape, challenges faced by the industry as well as the factors that drive the future of broadband in Malaysia.

RADIO INTERVIEW WITH PAHANG FM 30 April 2019 | Kuantan, Pahang CFM has widened its reach to educate the consumers on its roles through an interview with Pahang FM. The live interview was held at 12.00 pm and CFM was represented by one of it’s Council Members, Abdul Rahman Samad. He explained about the roles of CFM that could help consumers, and the complaint categories with the highest number received from the consumers in the East Coast. Besides that, CFM also shared some tips to the listeners in choosing the right telco for cost-saving. The 30-minute interview was also streamed on Pahang FM’s Facebook Live.

The CFM dialogue sessions were presented by three panelists: CFM 2019 DIALOGUE SESSION - A PLATFORM FOR A CONSTRUCTIVE DISCUSSION ON THE CHALLENGES AND FUTURE OF BROADBAND IN MALAYSIA 3 July 2019 | Petaling Jaya, Selangor

1. Celcom Head of Home Business, Khazalin Ghuzal 2. YTL Communications Network Design Manager, Rahul Shrivasta 3. MCMC Head of Division Policy, Muhammad Razali Anuar At the end of all three slots, the panellists answered questions from the dialogue participants and provided feedback regarding today’s broadband services.

CFM Dialogue 2019 was also streamed live on CFM Facebook page, to ensure that other consumers could follow the session online.

SHOUT 2019 BUMPER EDITION

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ON THE WIRE

CFM SHARING SESSION AT TTPM 4 July 2019 | Putrajaya

CFM SHARING SESSION WITH MMU STUDENTS 9 July 2019 | Cyberjaya

CFM was invited to a knowledge sharing session with the staff of the Tribunal for Consumer Claims Malaysia (TTPM) about the roles of CFM and the types of complaints reported by consumers to CFM. The session was delivered by CFM Director, Ahmad Izham Khairuddin for an hour. Apart from getting to know the highest complaint category received by CFM, participants also took part in the online quiz conducted after the sharing session to test their level of understanding of the topics presented.

CFM shed light on the roles of CFM, the ways to lodge complaints regarding telecommunications and multimedia issues, as well as scam cases affecting consumers to students of the Malaysia Multimedia University (MMU). The session was delivered by CFM Director, Ahmad Izham Khairuddin in front of 50 students. The knowledge sharing went on for two hours before ending at 12.00 pm. Through the knowledge sharing, students got to understand the right channel to lodge complaints, as well as how to avoid being among the victims of scam syndicates.

RADIO INTERVIEW WITH IKIM FM 12 July 2019 | Kuala Lumpur

CFM SHARING SESSION WITH HELP UNI STUDENTS 17 July 2019 | Kuala Lumpur

In IKIM FM’s Hebahan segment, CFM shared some tips on using international roaming services while in Mecca to avoid bill shock.

The sharing was done during the Hajj season to give some guidelines to Hajj pilgrims on mobile and internet services. The live interview took 30 minutes from 9.30 am.

During the session, CFM Director, Ahmad Izham Khairuddin also shared some information on roaming complaints received by CFM and some suggestions for Hajj pilgrims to stay connected with their families while being abroad.

CFM was invited by HELP University to share information about the issues in telecommunications and multimedia, such as scams, tips to avoid expensive phone bills, and the tips to choose the right prepaid plan. Around 40 students attended the sharing session that was delivered by CFM Director, Ahmad Izham Khairuddin.

CFM SHARING SESSION IN SMK SUBANG 28 July 2019 | Subang Jaya, Selangor CFM continued its awareness activities by sharing useful knowledge with the students of SMK Subang during the school’s consumer carnival. The sharing session was delivered by CFM secretariat, Roharrashidah Abdul Halil to about 100 people comprising of school students, their parents and teachers. Among the topics talked about were the roles of CFM, highest complaint category received by CFM, as well as tips to avoid bill and charges dispute.

In the session, a number of school students received CFM merchandise after correctly answering CFM’s online quiz.

AN INTERVIEW WITH BERITA TV9 20 August 2019 | Cyberjaya

CFM ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING AND APPOINTMENT OF NEW CFM CHAIRMAN & COUNCIL MEMBERS FOR 2019-2021 31 July 2019 | Cyberjaya

CFM Members, comprised of representatives from service providers and consumer associations, attended the 18th CFM Annual General Meeting (AGM) that took place at the MCMC Auditorium. The AGM witnessed the appointment of 13 new Council Members for the 2019-2021 session, through e-voting done by CFM Members who attended the meeting. Telekom Malaysia Berhad (TM), represented by Datin Mohana Mohariff was elected as the new CFM Chairman. After the meeting, a press conference was conducted to announce CFM’s performance and achievements for the year of 2018, as well as to inform a number of issues regarding direct carrier billing that became CFM’s concern.

CFM CELEBRATES NATIONAL DAY 2019 WITH CFM MERDEKA EXPLORACE 28 August 2019 | Kuantan, Pahang

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SHOUT 2019 BUMPER EDITION

In conjunction with Malaysia’s 62nd National Day, CFM celebrated the momentous occasion with a fun programme that fostered teamwork through a joint activity with RTM Pahang, “CFM Merdeka Explorace.” The programme was held in Beserah, Kuantan since the area is rich in historical values. The activity saw the participation of 30 people comprising of high school and college students, as well as the local community. Through the activity, CFM took the chance to connect the locals with the issues and information on consumers’ rights in the communications and multimedia industry. During the Aspirasi Merdeka Pahangfm 2019 programme, CFM also participated in the Merdeka Largest Jigsaw Puzzle which set a record in the Malaysia Book of Records. CFM believes that through this activity, consumers can be educated on the value of the technological advances enjoyed by us today.

Berita TV9 interviewed CFM for a special report held in conjunction with the National Day on the topic of modern colonization in technology.

CFM Director, Ahmad Izham Khairuddin shared the benefits of 5G technology that can give a lot of advantages in our daily lives. According to him, the technology utilized towards achieving a stronger development for the country should not be identified as colonization. However, abuse of technology directed by negativity is a form of colonization as it can harm other people for one’s own benefits. The interview was aired by Berita TV9 on 3 August 2019, at 8.00 pm.

CFM SHARING SESSION WITH EXCHANGE STUDENTS FROM KIGS BRUNEI AND LIMKOKWING UNIVERSITY 20 September 2019 | Cyberjaya About 20 students from Kolej International Graduate Studies (KIGS) Brunei and Limkokwing University attended a sharing session at our CFM office. The students were exposed to the roles of CFM that can help the country’s communication and multimedia industry, as well as the complaints frequently reported by consumers to CFM. The sharing session was delivered by CFM Communications and Public Relations Department Manager, Noor Shahdiella Abd Manan.

ON THE WIRE

CFM SHARING SESSION WITH INTERNATIONAL ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY MALAYSIA STUDENTS 18 October 2019 | Gombak, Selangor

CFM JOINS SARAWAK WOMEN’S DAY 2019 CELEBRATION 28 September 2019 | Kuching, Sarawak In an effort to get close to the women community in Sarawak, CFM participated in the Women’s Day celebration that took place at the Borneo Convention Centre, Kuching. CFM, in collaboration with Sarawak MCMC set up a booth so that the public could get to know the roles of CFM and its initiatives in helping the consumers of communications and multimedia services.

The one-day event saw the presence of more than 2000 people from all over Sarawak. The occasion was also attended by the Sarawak Chief Minister, Datuk Patinggi Abang Haji Abdul Rahman Zohari Tun Datuk Abang Haji Openg and the MCMC Chairman, YBrs. Encik Al-Ishsal Ishak.

CFM PARTICIPATES IN PUTRAJAYA OPEN DAY, KKMM 5 October 2019 | Putrajaya The Ministry of Communications and Multimedia Malaysia (KKMM) organised the Putrajaya Open Day (POD) by providing exhibition booths and showcased services from various agencies in each ministry aimed at the citizens of Putrajaya and its vicinity. CFM joined the event by opening a booth in the KKMM building to expose the attendees to CFM’s roles and services in helping the consumers. CFM also organised game activities to attract more visitors.

CFM was invited by the Institute of Public Relations Malaysia Student Association (IPRMSA) IIUM Chapter to share about the importance and impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) which has changed the landscape of public relations and how organizations interact with the members of the public. The sharing session was delivered by CFM Director, Ahmad Izham Khairuddin in front of more than 100 students and staff of IIUM. Apart from CFM, other panelists who also joined the stage were Executive Director of Business Ethics Institute of Malaysia, J.D Lovrenciear and Founder of Citrine One, Ivlynn Yap.

AN INTERVIEW WITH MHI TV3 21 October 2019 | Sri Pentas, Petaling Jaya CFM was invited to Malaysia’s talk show programme, TV3 Malaysia Hari Ini (MHI) to shed light on the modus operandi of scam calls and to share some advice to the consumers so they won’t fall victim to the scams. The new CFM Chairman, Datin Mohana Mohariff shared the information during the live programme that was aired on TV3 as well as on MHI Facebook page. CFM also gave some suggestions to MHI audiences regarding the steps to protect personal data against being abused by irresponsible parties.

The programme was held in MMU Cyberjaya campus and involved 48 participants from the private sector, industry members and MMU students.

The event was an effective platform to make information more accessible to participants and consumers at large.

SYNERGY PROGRAMME – TRIPLE M EXPLORACE 30 November 2019 | Cyberjaya CFM and the Malaysian Technical Standards Forum Bhd (MTSFB), collaborated for the first time to organise an awareness programme, “Triple M Explorace” together with the Malaysia Multimedia University (MMU). The collaborative event sought to promote the roles and functions of the communications and multimedia industry forums which have contributed to the development of the industry.

CFM ENGAGES WITH SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCER IN THE SOUTHERN REGION 12 December 2019 | Pontian, Johor CFM activities in Pontian were filled with sharing sessions with a well-known social media influencer, Viral Media Johor, which is a famous Facebook page among Malaysians in the southern state with 2 million followers. CFM representatives got the chance to learn more about telecommunications issues commonly encountered by consumers in Johor. The coverage on CFM programmes, and the CFM animation video were uploaded on Viral Media Johor Facebook page.

The closing ceremony of the programme was officiated by MCMC Chief Corporate Sector, Dato’ Mohd Ali Hanafiah Mohd Yunus. Also present at the programme were CFM Chairman, Datin Mohana Mohariff; Senior Manager of MTSFB, Norazlina Dato’ Ghazali; and MMU Vice President, Zambri Pawanchik.

AN INTERVIEW WITH RTM TAMIL NEWS 12 December 2019 | Cyberjaya RTM Tamil News interviewed CFM, which was represented by its member from Penang Consumer Protection Association (PCPA), Gunaselan Marian.

He shared some information on fake calls scam, the modus operandi of the scam syndicates and some tips to avoid being their victims as well as some tips to protect personal data. The interview was held on 4 December, and aired on 12 December, 7.30 pm.

CFM PARTICIPATES IN KLIK DENGAN BIJAK PROGRAMME WITH COMMUNITY 15 December 2019 | Pontian, Johor CFM was invited to participate in a community Klik Dengan Bijak programme organised by Kawasan Rukun Tetangga Taman Utama Pekan Nanas and Pusat Internet Pekan Nanas. CFM held some activities at their event booth to educate the community in Pontian, Johor about consumers’ rights and issues in communications and multimedia services. CFM also delivered a sharing session titled “Cara untuk Melindungi Data Peribadi Anda” delivered by CFM Communications and Public Relations Department Manager, Noor Shahdiella Abd Manan in front of 100 attendees. Besides CFM, other organizations who also shared some information with the attendees were Bank Negara Wilayah Selatan and Bank Islam.

CFM DIALOGUE 2019 SECOND EDITION – CONSUMER PROTECTION IN THE ERA OF SPAM, SCAM AND FRAUD 18 December 2019 | Bangi, Selangor

CFM INDUSTRY SHARING SESSION WITH SERVICE PROVIDERS REPRESENTATIVES 19 December 2019 | Cyberjaya

CFM took the initiative to hold the second edition of CFM Dialogue 2019 themed “Consumer Protection in the Era of Spam, Scam and Fraud” to educate consumers about online safety in Malaysia. The programme which was held in Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) was a platform to share knowledge with the consumers. The CFM 2019 Dialogue heard presentations from industry experts from Commercial Crime Investigation Department (JSJK) Bukit Aman, Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs (KPDNHEP), Malaysia Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), CyberSecurity Malaysia, Apigate Sdn Bhd and Boost e-Wallet. Among the attendees were representatives from consumer associations as well as university students.

CFM held an industry sharing session titled “CFM Masterclass 2019” with representatives from the service providers. The session focused on the guidelines of advertisement in the communications and multimedia industry. It was also a platform for information exchange between the service providers and the regulator, as well as to discuss advertising guidelines in line with consumer protection. Among the panelists involved in delivering the session were the Tribunal for Consumer Claims Malaysia (TTPM), Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs (KPDNHEP), Advertising Standards Advisory (ASA) and Communications and Multimedia Content Forum of Malaysia (CMCF).

AN INTERVIEW WITH NASIONAL FM 24 December 2019 | Angkasapuri, Kuala Lumpur CFM shared the pros and cons of using e-Wallets during an interview with Nasional FM radio. The live interview was aired for 30 minutes from 10.15 am to 10.45 am. CFM Deputy Chairman, Mohamad Yusrizal Dato’ Yusof shared some important reminders for consumers using the e-Wallet to avoid being a victim of scams.

SHOUT 2019 BUMPER EDITION

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SOCIAL MEDIA LIFE

DO’S & DON’TS - A BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO MAKING MONEY ON YOUTUBE YouTube has become one of the world’s most popular social media channels with over five billion videos shared on the platform alone to date and that huge number is growing daily. This veritable cornucopia of content on YouTube ranges from the mainstream to the esoteric, from the purely whimsical to the deeply philosophical all the way to the highly educational. If you search around long enough on YouTube, you will likely find someone has made a video for whatever subject or need you’re looking for no matter how unusual it is.

Beyond more popular content like movie trailers, makeup tutorials, viral videos, product unboxing clips of toys and gadgets, zany pet videos, discussions on the latest Game of Thrones episode or whatnot, YouTube also has a ton of surprisingly useful content available across a gamut of topics from learning how to replace the broken display on a notebook all the way down to more mundane issues like the right way to bake a cake and even how to resolve those tough maths equations in your homework.

The interesting question remains though - who is creating all this content? Rather than some large conglomerate, the contributors and creators of this diverse array of YouTube content are surprisingly people from all walks of life. While many do it to share their passion, a great many - aspiring musicians, small businesses, budding entrepreneurs and more are sharing what they love and making money by doing so on YouTube. Interested? Here’s how!

WHAT DO I NEED TO START?

ANYTHING ELSE TO WATCH OUT FOR?

If you are already running a business, you can use YouTube as a platform for advertising by paying YouTube a fee for every view of a commercial that you supply that will appear on the platform to viewers to drive more business but that, and other forms of income generation like product sponsorships are an entirely different topic. For the scope of this article, we will be focusing on the most common means of making money with YouTube - as a content creator.

For advertisers to be confident enough to advertise on your videos and platform, you’ll need one more important thing on top of having a healthy subscriber count respectful, positive content that is mindful of social and cultural norms. Essentially, don’t post anything that would be hurtful to another demographic or belief that wouldn’t appear on daytime national TV.

By creating interesting videos and cultivating an audience who tune in regularly, you create opportunities that allow other advertisers to place their ads on your YouTube channel and which then allow you to generate revenue via advertising on the YouTube Partner programme.

To start earning advertising revenue, you will need to grow your channel to a certain size and have a minimum number of subscribers before you’re allowed to join the YouTube Partner Programme. Currently, to be eligible you need at least 4,000 watch hours in the last 12 months and at least 1,000 subscribers to be considered for membership. The figure is daunting but it can be achieved!

Even if you’re already a content creator on YouTube, it pays to do your homework to find out how to create exciting content that fans will want to subscribe to your channel for and in order to grow your channel to meet the size required to be monetisable.

Whether you’re a neophyte or a seasoned YouTube content creator, you’ll constantly need to conduct research to find out what the top content creators in your chosen interest niche are doing right and how you can improve your own videos and channel in the long run. For example - If you are doing cookery videos, find out who’s the biggest and the best, then find out how they run their channel and create content.

Good content is half the equation though. You still need equally good equipment to create that content as most people won’t tune into a channel with videos that are an incoherent mess with low resolution footage and inaudible sound. That means you need some solid equipment.

You can check out our feature in Top Gear on the essential equipment you need on ‘How to Be a Vlogger’ to get started.

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Another thing to be mindful of is copyright infringement. That means you cannot simply use someone else’s work and claim it for your own. If you’re using music, graphics or any other form of content that is created by someone else, you either need to pay royalties or give due credit. It is important that you to be familiar with the basic concepts of copyright so that you avoid getting in trouble and risking litigation or having your channel being taken offline for copyright infringement. For more specific details on the YouTube Partner programme, you can visit their page at https://creatoracademy. youtube.com. Good luck and have fun creating great content!

SOCIAL MEDIA LIFE

MAKE LIFE HAPPIER - BRIGHTEN UP AND DETOX YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA TIMELINE Pop open your feed on Facebook, Instagram or your favourite social media feed and you’ll likely be greeted by a constant barrage of updates of your friends and celebrities that you follow having the time of their lives and living the good life with all the trappings of luxury like expensive phones, handbags and the whatnot, holidays overseas in exotic locations and the like. Unfortunately, this cocktail of updates and news, is also a toll on our mental wellbeing.

We usually include and have our friends and family in our social media circles as a matter of course. We also often include a host of famous celebrities into our feeds to get a taste of what the rich and famous are up to. Unfortunately, there’s a tendency for everyone on social media, whether they’re well-heeled or just getting by to show only the good things happening in their lives.

Add in the fact that most people who use social media have a tendency to compare themselves with the lives of everyone else they know and you have a recipe that can gradually wear away at your self-esteem. Another exhausting challenge that weighs on many people using social media is the fear of missing out. When everyone is uploading pictures of their social gatherings and exciting things happening in their lives, it is all too easy to feel left out or neglected by your peers. This can lead to a time-wasting, negative cycle to constantly check your social media to stay updated when you could be doing other more productive things.

The fact of the matter is that everyone is at different stages of their lives and everyone, even the rich and famous, have their own worries and burdens to bear. What you seen online is a mere fraction of what they are showing to the public of their lives and which likely doesn’t represent the whole picture.

While the most extreme method would be to get off social media entirely, that’s not exactly an option in our highly connected society. Interestingly enough, Malaysia has one of the most active populations when it comes to social media. According to the Hootsuite Digital 2019 report, 78% of the population are using social media - that’s 25 million active social media users out of a total population of 32.25 million as of 2019. In controlled doses, social media does have its benefits as it accomplishes its original goals - to keep users socially connected with friends and family.

The SOLUTION here is: • To follow the positive reinforcing social media; • Unfollow negative social media accounts and instead follow more positive ones that help you feel good about yourself; • Learn practical tips and advice applicable to real life, be it for your career or even a useful life hack and more.

Here are a few helpful sites to get you started: CFM – Everyone’s favourite site for top tips and news on consumer rights, communications and multimedia in Malaysia. https://www.facebook.com consumer.forum.malaysia/ Ringgit Plus – You can get information about financial products in Malaysia such as credit card, loans, investment, insurance. https://www.facebook.com/RinggitPlus/ SAYS – A social news site that serves you more entertaining videos that will make you laugh your heart out. https://www.facebook com/saysdotcom/ Befrienders KL – Give you the emotional support if you need someone to talk to. They are reachable 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. https://www.facebook.com/BefriendersKL/

So Worth Loving – A host of wonderfully positive and uplifting messages and pictures along with some cool merchandise too. https://www.instagram.com/soworthloving/ Goalcast – Your dose of daily inspiration. https://www.instagram.com/goal.cast/?hl=en National Geographic Travel – See hundreds of beautifully shot photos of flora and fauna from all over the world. https://www.instagram.com/natgeotravel/ Dogs of Instagram – Whimsical and wonderful pictures of man’s best friend in your feed daily! https://www.instagram.com/dogsofinstagram/ Cats of Instagram https://www.instagram.com cats_of_instagram/?hl=en ML Studios – The infotainment video platform where you can get a lot of sharing from various perspectives. https://www.instagram.com/ mlstudiosmy/?hl=en

MedTweetMY Official – Brings Malaysian doctors from 38 different disciplines on Twitter who share current health information and answer health related questions. https://twitter.com/MedTweetMYHQ UbatOhUbat – Everything about medicine in Malaysia. https://twitter.com/UbatOhUbat LearnEnglish_BC – Provide you with hundreds of high-quality resources to help you learn and improve your English. https://twitter.com/LearnEnglish_BC The Yuniversity – Short helpful snippets on how to tackle English grammar and useful words to beef up your vocabulary. https://twitter.com/The_YUNiversity Awkwardgoogle – Provide you the DIY ideas, tips and tricks. https://twitter.com/awkwardgoogle

First off, start thinning down who you follow on social media. You can still remain friends with people and simply unfollow them so that you don’t see their posts as often.

After thinning down your feeds, try and follow more uplifting social media sites and pages such as the Communications and Multimedia Consumer Forum of Malaysia (CFM) which offers a host of very practical tips on digital living and more.

MauKerja – A platform that shows the latest vacancies for jobs in Malaysia along with some helpful career tips. https://twitter.com/MauKerjaMY Norizan Sharif – A guy who shares tips on career and self-development. https://twitter.com/nobisha SHOUT 2019 BUMPER EDITION

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TOP GEAR

THE ESSENTIAL VLOGGER STARTER KIT EQUIPMENT YOU NEED TO START CAPTURING AWESOME VIDEOS The proliferation of stable broadband connectivity in Malaysia has also brought about a growth in people sharing, creating and viewing video content on social media.

Malaysians are hopping onto popular social media platforms like Facebook and YouTube as well as other alternative platforms like TikTok and WeChat to view and share all manner of content from beauty tips to current events. Some users feel a higher calling and rather than just enjoy content, they want to create their own and share it with the world. Enter the vlogger.

Vloggers can hop onto the soapbox that is social media and then create all manner of videos whether it’s a walkthrough for a food recipe or even a live tour of their neighbourhood.

Are you keen to become a vlogger? Here’s the equipment you need to get started!

A GOOD CAMERA OR SMARTPHONE This is the cornerstone of your vlogging efforts and the most important piece of equipment that you will need.

All your efforts will revolve around this and the quality of your video is contingent on what you purchase so it’s well worth it to invest a little more to get high quality video that will have viewers coming back for more.

You don’t necessarily have to purchase the highest end DSLR. Many prosumer compact cameras and flagship phones in the current market are powerful enough that you can use them as a general workhorse for all your vlogging work. You will also have to factor in what sort of videos that you will be taking.

If you’re generally aiming to take footage indoors or in places with good lighting, a highend smartphone or compact camera will work just fine. If you’re looking to capture more robust activities like jungle trekking, water sports and the like, you will likely get better results buying an action camera - this category of camera is small and built like a tank to survive drops along with improved water resistance for some models. If superb image quality is paramount over all other concerns, a DSLR would be ideal but you will have to factor in the weight and the fact that it needs a lot of extra gear - batteries, lenses and the like - to retain effectiveness in the field.

A TRIPOD OR GIMBAL STABILISER A tripod is absolutely essential for any vlogger or, for the matter, any photographer. Not only do they come in handy to capture steady shots and videos, they are needed if you aim to undertake your vlogging experience solo or aim to to take footage for extended lengths of time. Unless you have arms of steel, your hands will inevitably judder if you hold any camera for too long which leads to blurred video or shots. Some types of footage just can’t be captured without a tripod such as time lapse shots, shots in dim lighting conditions, trick shots like starscapes and light trails or lengthy footage of an event such as a lecture, seminar or whatnot.

Tripods come in a variety of sizes and differing levels of sturdiness though you need to factor in what you’ll be mounting first. Pocket sized versions exist that are ideal for smartphones and lightweight cameras but they’re rather short so you’ll need to place them on a table or somewhere high up, if you’re shooting. But it is very portable. If you are using a larger, heavier camera or you need something with a higher angle, you’ll need to get a traditional full sized tripod but they are also rather heavy to tote around.

The nature of a tripod means that it works best if you’re in a static position but what happens if you need to take smooth footage on the go? That’s where a gimbal stabiliser comes into play.

A gimbal is a specialised stabiliser with a built-in gyroscope and weights that help to balance out your camera and cancel out sudden movements to ensure silky smooth video. Gimbal stabilisers come in a variety of sizes ranging from small ones designed for smartphones to heavier rigs for even DSLRs too. These are ideal if you aim to take a lot of video on the move.

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LIGHTING EQUIPMENT Vloggers aiming to shoot a lot of video indoors or in dimly lit areas need to get some form of lighting to get viewable footage. Even if the lighting is good, a strategically placed light can alter the mood of a shoot and make it even more memorable. Depending on the circumstances of where you’ll be shooting and how often you aim to do so, you’ll have to select the right type of lighting equipment so that you get best results without being weighed down by your gear.

For vloggers, one of the more essential pieces of lighting equipment is a ring light that consists of a series of lights in - a ring-shaped array. This setup helps to eliminate shadows when shooting closeup videos of people talking into the camera and makes the subject look more pleasant. They come in a variety of strengths and sizes so you’ll need to shop around for your needs.

Another useful bit of equipment are on-camera lights which are essentially hand-sized LED arrays that you can move around and adjust as needed. If you’re starting out and taking a lot of outdoors shots, these portable on-camera lights are ideal as they’re compact and highly portable yet capable of good results if you place them right. A variety of models exist at different price points and with different lighting patterns with some offering a stronger, more concentrated output while others are softer and more diffused. Most models have a built-in battery that you can charge which makes them easier on the pocket too in the long run rather than having to fork out for batteries.

EXTERNAL MICROPHONE Good audio quality is an essential component towards creating a great video. Even if you capture riveting footage that’s worthy of an Oscar, it isn’t going to work out if viewers have to lip read and guess what you’re saying or if the audio fuzzes out with static on account of wind or background noise. Despite advances in imaging technology in smartphones and cameras that allow them to capture high quality 4K resolution footage, it is often the case that audio quality takes a backseat and most phones and cameras really can’t deliver good quality audio capture suitable for video with their built-in microphones alone. That’s where a good quality external microphone comes in.

Mention microphone and you’ll likely recall the baton-sized version you will most often see in the hands of singers on stage and on broadcast newscasters but vloggers fortunately have a host of lighter, more portable alternatives. Vloggers who have more static setups and who shoot primarily indoors can acquire a microphone headset which combines headphones and a flip-down mike but these headsets need to be plugged in via USB to a PC to work. Some of the higher end headsets also have noise cancelling built in which is very handy.

For vloggers who are shooting a lot of footage outdoors, a shotgun microphone may be a better bet. They mount onto a small camera and enable you to capture clearer audio in a cone focused directly in front of the mike. Vloggers looking for a more entry level solution can opt for smaller microphones that are designed to mount onto smartphones but they generally have limited range.

D I G I TA L L I F E

THE ESSENTIAL SMART HOME PRIMER WHY YOU NEED A SMART HOME AND HOW TO GET STARTED? If you watch any of a plethora of sci-fi movies out there, you will likely encounter scenes where the protagonist walks into a home or some other building and the lights will turn on automatically. With just a hand clap or even with their voice alone, they would be able to turn on the music or adjust the thermostat, all without having to walk to a wall switch or pick up a remote control to do so. With a simple voice command, a virtual assistant would also be able tell the time, the weather and do much more. Sounds too good to be true? Well, buckle up because the future is just around the corner and may be in your home sooner than you think. Say hello to the Smart Home.

SO WHAT EXACTLY IS A SMART HOME? In layman’s terms, a ‘smart home’ is a building, most likely a home or office, that is equipped with a variety of connected technologies that relies on the Internet to automate tasks, process orders or instructions and provide information upon request to make life easier.

These technologies can be made up of a host of different devices but all of them are able to be remotely controlled or automated by the provision of artificial intelligence, voice commands or via your smart devices such as a mobile phone or tablet.

The size and scope of a smart home can vary depending on an aspiring owner’s budget and ambitions. You can simply have a smart speaker that can answer rudimentary queries much in the vein of Amazon’s Alexa or Google Home, or at the other end of the scale, an intricately interconnected setup of lights, air conditioners, home theatre systems, home security cameras and even smart coffee maker machines and much more. Controlling these devices are via voice commands or when preset conditions are met, such as adjusting the air conditioner temperature according to the weather, or opening the curtains and activating the coffee maker machine when you wake up in the morning.

Upon your return from outside, a smart home can be set to authenticate who you are with biometrics before unlocking the door for you, turn on the air conditioner and lights, play music off your favourite track list and more as soon as you step in. To say that it is the home of the future is not far off.

SO WHY DO I NEED A SMART HOME? Aside from impressing your neighbours, a smart home promises benefits in terms of saving time and money in the long run, enhancing security, and making domestic life much more easier and convenient.

You will likely have to incur some financial investment to acquire these smart devices and upgrade your network as part of the process to create the foundation of a smart home. However, the rewards pay for themselves later on with the time saved in managing domestic operations and saving on your electricity bill over time through more efficient power management.

The ideal smart home will have a variety of intelligent and connected devices such as smart LED lights as well as smart home appliances such as air conditioners and thermostats. In a smart home, these intelligent devices would be able to switch itself off or activate optimum energy saving modes when not in use.

For example, a smart air conditioner can automatically adjust the temperature based on the day’s weather report. If it detects that the weather is blazing hot outside, it will run cooler and vice versa. Security motion sensors installed in a smart home can fulfill multiple purposes, turning off the power in empty rooms while monitoring for intruders. In the long run, every little bit adds up and offer potential savings on your electricity bill.

One of the better perks of a smart home is convenience. Smart automation of home appliances and other connected tech can help to free up time for you to focus on more productive things.

Among the potential use cases are employing these intelligent appliances to help you with your house chores at preset schedules. For example, you can order a robot vacuum cleaner to start cleaning the floor as soon as you step out of the house. A smart refrigerator can help place an order for more eggs or more milk if it detects that you are running low on them or track your products expiry dates. A smart air conditioner can even preemptively cool down the house before you even reach home!

One of the most practical benefits of having a smart home is that it can help make it a safer place. A series of connected security cameras and sensors set up around your home boundaries can help alert you when there are visitors, including unwanted ones.

Intelligent light control sensors can help to illuminate the exterior and interior of your home when they detect movement which acts as both a deterrent to intruders and an aid to safely getting about the house without fumbling for wall switches all the time.

Ultimately, all these benefits combine to offer the most important thing of all - peace of mind that your home is well taken care of.

GREAT! HOW DO WE GET STARTED? Fortunately, setting up a smart home does not require rocket science, nor is there a need to tear out huge chunks of masonry from the walls or install a complicated nest of wires. The first step that you can take is to get a digital assistant such as Amazon’s Alexa or Google Assistant. Unfortunately, there are not many official options here in Malaysia to acquire them so you would have to order them online and have it shipped in from overseas.

While you can technically run a smart home off your mobile device, you will still derive the most benefits with a voice-activated smart speaker. Once you have got one installed and paired up with a good Internet connection, you will enjoy the luxury of being able to discuss and set your daily schedule or get answers to basic queries with your voice alone.

From there on, depending on how deep your wallet is, you can then eventually upgrade to a whole array of smart home enabled devices and appliances like intelligent refrigerators, robot vacuum cleaners, smart locks and many more. What is clear is that the future is on the horizon. Are you ready to live in a smart home?

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THE WORD

THE WORD WITH

DZULEIRA ABU BAKAR

C E O O F M A L AY S I A N G L O B A L I N N O VAT I O N & C R E AT I V I T Y C E N T R E ( M a G I C ) The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Malaysian Global Innovation & Creativity Centre (MaGIC), Dzuleira Abu Bakar has extensive experience in the start-up and tech ecosystem space both locally and abroad. Prior to MaGIC, Dzuleira was CEO of Cradle Seed Ventures (CSV) and has held key positions in both the public and private sector with a focus on venture capitalism and private equity. She is also an appointed Council Member of the National ICT Association of Malaysia (PIKOM).

We chatted with her to find out more about herself, her role as CEO of MaGIC and the lay of the land for entrepreneurs in Malaysia.

1.

What does MaGIC do and what is your role as its CEO?

MaGIC is an extension under the Ministry of Entrepreneur Development and Cooperatives (MEDAC) and carries out the role of creating and catalysing the growth of innovation-driven entrepreneurship by bringing together all the various stakeholders from universities, schools, right up to the market itself. In essence, MaGIC acts as a connector and as the core of the entrepreneurship ecosystem in Malaysia.

As CEO of MaGIC, my role is to develop entrepreneurial talent for the country and to create a pipeline of talented entrepreneurs by establishing a healthy and thriving ecosystem.

2.

How is the entrepreneurial spirit in Malaysia like? What can be done to nurture and foster it to the next level?

According to the Global Innovation Index in 2018, Malaysia ranked 35 with a score of 43.16, improving 2 notches compared to 2017. That said, there is still a lack of innovators, makers and creators in Malaysia.

We have tremendous potential with the younger generation who are extremely technology savvy, creative and ambitious.

Unfortunately, what is sorely lacking in the younger generation: an inquisitive mind to identify a problem and asking themselves how could it be solved and what can they do to solve it; and having the fundamental entrepreneurial behaviour and mindset such as financial literacy, cross-border collaboration, solving social causes or being part of one that can positively impact society and disrupt the industry. This is where education would need to go beyond academia through a thriving and healthy ecosystem.

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“To be an entrepreneur, you will need to be creative and innovative, willing to take risks, not afraid to fail, and be tenacious among others.�

- DZULEIRA ABU BAKAR -

THE WORD

Playing our role, MaGIC is dedicated to groom exponential entrepreneurs equipped with the latest exponential technological trends (Big Data, IoT and AI), psychological tools (innovative business models) and learning how to leverage on the power of the crowd (crowdfunding, community building etc).

We are also focused on developing the ecosystem and making it accessible for all stakeholders.

Part of the underlying foundation for a thriving ecosystem it to have a collaborative business environment which links to relevant industry mentors, enterprises and corporates; the other significant aspect is providing viable access to funding which includes raising venture capital, pitching opportunities to angel investors, have access to the market and etc. There are other aspects as well such as support infrastructure, robust policies and regulations, ensuring the market is strong enough to support the demand and supply of the innovation being created and sustained, education and training systems, and creating general awareness amongst the public.

Challenges come in all aspects and if we are deemed to be playing catch up then so be it, for as long as we are seen to be moving the needle from where we started.

4. Can you elaborate more on what a Social Enterprise (SE) is, what it means to be a SE and what updates there are in the mechanics of applying for Social Enterprise status with MaGIC? There is no uniform definition for ‘social enterprise’ around the world. We define SE as an entity with a social mission at the core of everything that they do and has a business model to meet that mission. Generally speaking, social entrepreneurship has three criteria - the ends which involve social or environmental good; the means be it selling goods or services; and a sound financial approach or business model.

Earlier in April 2019, MaGIC together with the Ministry of Entrepreneur Development and Cooperatives (MEDAC) launched the social enterprise guidelines and accreditation programme which encourages companies to be accredited as SEs via a user-friendly digital platform. Upon accreditation and subject to renewal every 3 years, SEs gain access to government procurement programmes (e-perolehan) and other benefits.

3. What is MaGIC doing to support the government’s initiatives in driving Industrial Revolution 4.0 (IR 4.0)?

5. Technology is a key accelerator and game changer. How do you plan on leveraging technology to encourage more entrepreneurship and to promote more gender equality in the traditionally malecentric startup space?

IR 4.0 brings a range of new emerging technologies and an increasingly competitive market which the ecosystem needs to be ready for. At MaGIC, we believe in creating the next generation of resilient entrepreneurs, better equipped and agile to thrive in IR 4.0. We want to enable the growth of entrepreneurs ready to face the future, ready to play an important part in ecosystem building.

Technology is an enabler that can radically change the way we live as well as improve it. In that sense, technology democratises access to various opportunities, be it starting a business, advocating a social cause, getting back into the workforce and many more. Innovation and use of technology cannot be separated from entrepreneurship especially so in the way the future is shaping up.

Firstly, we have the SPARK movement to create the citizens of the future via educating them to see problems as solutions and to inject the spirit of creativity in them. Secondly, we have the MaGIC Broadcast Network that will digitally distribute MaGIC’s public content to the CoWorking Alliance and partnering universities.

Last but not least, we aim to establish immersive entrepreneurship programmes with local and international universities to inculcate innovative thinking.

6. How do you see technology consumers in Malaysia? Are they tech savvy and well informed?

In its Digital 2019 Malaysia report, DataReportal shared that out of the 32.35 million people in Malaysia, 25.84 million of them are internet users. This is a 3% increase from its 2018 report. These are positive numbers and further shows that technology has changed our lives and permeates our daily tasks from finding knowledge on Wikipedia online, to performing banking with the click of a button, right down to cashless payments.

7. From an end user perspective, what do you wish to see in the mobile or internet industry?

Definitely the need for better security to protect our data and privacy, particularly in every online transaction a consumer would embark on given the advance in mobile technology.

8.

How do you see CFM as a consumer forum in Malaysia so far?

Great platform that allows for the entire community to engage.

9.

What books are you reading at the moment?

Why would you recommend them?

‘Abundance: The Future Is Better Than You Think’ by Peter H. Diamandis and Steven Kotler, published in 2012. It is a great book to appreciate the world we live in. Powerful insights to replace the common thinking of pessimism and scarcity. A must read to create and live a better tomorrow.

10. Who or what inspired you to become the person that you are today?

I draw inspiration from the people I meet on a daily basis, as well as from trailblazers and leaders who have made history, pioneers etc.

If I may say it humbly, where I am today really comes from wanting to be a better version of myself.

11. If you could meet anyone in the world throughout history, living or dead, who would it be and why?

Barack Obama. He is a man of true character, a realistic visionary. One that offered hope and change and gained support which almost everybody thought was impossible to begin with.

12. Do you have any advice for SHOUT readers on nurturing the spirit of entrepreneurship and how to become a successful entrepreneur?

To be an entrepreneur, you will need to be creative and innovative, willing to take risks, not afraid to fail, and be tenacious among others.

You would also have to think global in building a solution that would not only solve problems in Malaysia, but also for our neighbouring countries and international markets in order to gain traction and be sustainable.

SHOUT 2019 BUMPER EDITION

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ISSUE OF THE BULLETIN

W H AT YO U N E E D T O K N O W A B O U T E-WA L L E T S I N M A L AY S I A Back in the day, paying for something at the supermarket checkout line or at your local merchant was purely a cash transaction. You gave money equal to the value of the goods you paid for and then got some change back. The problem was that you needed to carry a wad of cash and coins to conduct transactions. Then along came credit and debit cards which offered some amount of convenience as you didn’t have to carry a reserve of cash wherever you go but you still need to carry a wallet around.

Now, if you walk to any checkout till, you’re greeted by a host of colourful signs offering a veritable array of new digital payment providers all of which allow consumers new options to pay for goods and services. Some offer discounts if you shop or eat at certain restaurants or buy from certain merchants. Others give you cashback rewards with continued use. All of them make it easier and more tempting than ever to indulge in retail therapy with just your smartphone without the need for your wallet or for the matter, a credit or debit card. Welcome to the eWallet revolution.

What exactly are eWallets?

Downsides of eWallets

For the uninitiated, eWallets are a short form for the term electronic wallet. The terms mobile wallets or digital wallets also refer to the same thing. An eWallet is essentially a service provider that operates via an app on your smartphone to help track your payment instruments while offering other incentives like reward points, discounts, cashback benefits or other perks to continue using it.

Unfortunately, there are a few downsides when using eWallets. The biggest being that the sheer number of eWallets currently available in the market means that you will likely have to use a combination of them to get your shopping or other business transactions done as there is no one dominant eWallet at present in Malaysia that can cater to all your favourite shopping venues and interests nor will any one merchant necessarily accept any or all of the eWallets you are using.

In Malaysia, the eWallet industry is still considered in its infancy but it’s growing by leaps and bounds with dozens of eWallet providers in Malaysia at present vying for market share. Some eWallets help you manage your existing payment instruments like credit cards and debit cards but do not store monetary value.

An example of this is Samsung Pay that allows you to use your credit and debit cards via your smartphone without having to carry the physical card itself but which does not issue any payment instrument of its own. Alternatively, you have an example like the Touch ‘n Go eWallet that you can store a sum of value in Ringgit that you can then use for purchases and for paying your fare at highway toll gates and LRTs. The latter example would be an eWallet that stores and allows for transactions in the form of e-money.

The key difference here is that while there are many eWallets available, not all eWallets are able to store or use e-money as it is a licensed payment instrument that is under the purview of Bank Negara Malaysia. In the case of eWallets that don’t integrate e-money mechanisms, they usually piggyback on top of a bank’s existing payment systems.

According to Bank Negara Malaysia, e-money is defined as E L E C T R O N I C M O N E Y ( E-M O N E Y ) I S A PAY M E N T I N S T R U M E N T T H AT C O N TA I N S M O N E TA R Y VA L U E T H AT I S PA I D I N A D VA N C E B Y T H E U S E R T O T H E E-M O N E Y I S S U E R . T H E U S E R O F E-M O N E Y C A N M A K E PAY M E N T S FOR PURCHASES OF GOODS AND SERVICES TO M E R C H A N T S W H O A C C E P T T H E E-M O N E Y A S PAY M E N T.

Including the aforementioned Touch ‘n Go there are, at present, a total of 46 e-money issuers available in Malaysia in 2019 with the total list available at Bank Negara Malaysia’s website at https://www.bnm.gov.my/index. php?ch=ps&pg=ps_regulatees

PAY

Why use an eWallet?

An eWallet offers quite a few benefits. Using an eWallet to pay for goods and services makes things considerably more convenient, especially in situations where you’re in a hurry like paying for parking fees when exiting a car park or paying for groceries at the checkout till so that you needn’t have to fish for change. Depending on which eWallet you sign up for, users can also get rewards or discounts for selected services too especially if you frequent an establishment such as a favourite restaurant so that you can get extra discounts or other perks.

Adopting an eWallet also makes for a much slimmer physical wallet too as well as the benefit of having a chance to recover the stored value in your eWallet if you happen to lose your phone. Granted, a negligent user can end up losing or getting scammed of the contents of their eWallet too but that’s still better than carrying physical currency around which, if lost, will be unrecoverable.

This level of convenience is liberating indeed and makes paying for stuff a breeze.

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Another limitation to the plethora of eWallets out there is that they may not necessarily be able to transfer value across to each other for personal transactions. If you’re using one type of eWallet and your associate that you want to pay is using another eWallet, you likely won’t be able to transfer money in any form to each other. This also works the other way around. You may have to top up the value in an eWallet manually or via a credit card but have limited means to cash out whatever value that you’ve put into an eWallet.

Having all those extra eWallet apps also takes up valuable storage space on your phone. This also has the added downside of having to store multiple different passwords and eWallet apps too and keeping track of them all will be a chore in and of itself. Even worse, if you forget to bring your phone out or lose it, you temporarily lose access to all your eWallets which can make for a rather embarrassing outing if you didn’t bring enough cash in your wallet and neglected to bring along your credit cards too.

Future of eWallets in Malaysia That aside, the future is bright for eWallets in Malaysia but what will make it exciting is that Bank Negara Malaysia has introduced the Interoperable Credit Transfer Framework (ICTF) that aims to address the disparate number of eWallets out there and allow for a shared payment network with interoperable QR codes that will enable payments outside of a given eWallets ecosystem to other users and merchants. This effectively means that eWallet A can transfer funds to eWallet B via a compatible QR code and to other merchants too. With the high smartphone penetration rate in Malaysia, the prevalence and eventual standardisation of payment systems means that eWallets will be here to stay and it’s simply a matter of time before they become a way of life.

ISSUE OF THE BULLETIN

THE RISE OF TARGETED ADVERTISING - BOON OR BANE? Back in the days of print and before the proliferation of widespread broadband and the Internet, advertising was primarily via print or via outdoor billboards, radio and television commercials. Much like carpet bombing, it was very imprecise and advertisers didn’t quite know if any of their ads reached their intended target audience. There was some measure of control by conducting surveys and discovering what demographics tended to favour certain platforms such as kids watching TV on Saturday mornings when there’s no school session or plonking in toy ads in the middle of a cartoon but by and large, the traditional approaches to advertising were not particularly precise affairs.

If you are a prolific user of social media whether it is Facebook, Instagram or whatnot, partake in online shopping and use a web browser in some form or fashion, you’ll likely have encountered somewhat creepy moments when the very thing that you’ve been searching for online via a few surreptitious queries suddenly appears in your feed as some form of advertising, be it as a pop-up ad or appearing in the corner of your social media feed as a sponsored post.

Welcome to targeted advertising.

The rise of the Internet and affordable connectivity means that more people than ever before are connected online and with it comes a wealth of information. Every website you surf online, everything you search for information no matter how simple and in some cases, everything you type even if it’s an ostensibly private chat on social media leaves a trail of digital breadcrumbs. These digital breadcrumbs help advertisers target their advertisements to the most appropriate people which is why if you searched for bedding and suddenly start seeing offers for mattresses on your social media feed, it’s not sorcery but targeted advertising.

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Find the Opt Out Option in Search Engines and Social Media

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Add an ad blocker to your browser

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Use a VPN

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Use Incognito Mode on your Browser

A host of firms including some of the largest search engines in the world collect all manner of information. These organisations then collect that data and uses artificial intelligence algorithms to process and predict our behaviour based on prior actions online and which are then used to display advertising that would have the most impact. This kind of analytics are also used to recommend videos on video streaming sites for us to watch based on prior content and genres that you’ve enjoyed.

For an advertiser, this is of significant benefit as it offers a higher return on investment on account of less wastage of advertising dollars and helps them target customers that will most likely watch said advertising and be interested in what they have to offer. On the other side of the fence, customers get a more personalised experience though at the expense of wasted bandwidth as all those ads shoved onto your smartphone or notebook display eat up precious data. Unfortunately, targeted advertising when you’re online isn’t going to go away anytime soon.

There are however ways to keep yourself private.

Here’s a few methods how and while they each go some way to dealing with targeted advertising, they all work best when used in conjunction with each other.

Search engines and social media come with options that enable you to opt out of advertising and search engines in particular also have settings that also tell websites you go to ‘not to track’ you. These controls are usually in the settings of each browser and once you’ve enabled these options, you’ll get much less personalised ads served to you based on your online behaviour.

Some browsers like Chrome allow for extensions, extra features that you can download and add to your browser to enable additional functionality. In the case of Chrome, you can find ad blockers that can help block ads getting shoved to your phone or notebook. You’re also able to dial how aggressive you want the ad blocker to work.

Many online advertisements are targeted based on your geographical location and surfing behaviour. Using a Virtual Private Network or VPN for your web browsing shunts your traffic through another server in another country so that advertisers won’t know where or who you are to begin with. Most aren’t free but a few free VPNs exist though they have limited locations that you can select their VPN services from with most being in western countries.

Almost every web browser worth the name has a selectable Incognito mode that opens up a browsing window with a special icon and several unique features that keep you relatively anonymous online. Surfing in Incognito mode means that your web browser will ignore most tracking cookies that attempt to understand your behaviour and after you’re done and close the window, the browser will not record whatever or wherever you surfed. Some of these cookies are necessary though, such as when you’re adding goods to a shopping cart when shopping online. Incognito mode is not completely anonymous though - your internet service provider can still track the IP addresses you visit and Incognito mode does not mean you’re completely off the radar to advertisers - you’ll still get the occasional ad; just not targeted directly at you - but it does go some way to dealing with the more casual annoyances when surfing online.

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APPZONE

P O P U L A R E-PAYM E N T A P P S I N M A L AY S I A These are truly exciting times in Malaysia as we are experiencing a rise in the acceptance of cashless e-payments in lieu of traditional payment instruments and along with it a veritable cornucopia of e-payment platforms to choose from. Consumers are truly spoilt for choice with the array of e-payment options available in Malaysia with some sweetening the pot with cashbacks, extra bonuses and more.

While there are a host of them available for our selection, not all of them are universally accepted by all merchants. It’s up to the consumer to get their homework done and choose the right e-payment platforms that would suit their needs or the merchants and services that they frequent the most. While when this article was written, there is no one e-payment platform that is universally accepted nationwide, here are selections of some of the most popular ones in Malaysia.

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BOOST

TOUCH ‘N GO EWALLET

GRAB

The Boost app is an e-wallet that you can use to pay a variety of merchants across Malaysia with many of them being dining establishments in lieu of using physical cash. Not only can you pay these retail outlets via Boost, you will also get access to a variety of vouchers that you can use or even share with non-Boost users too. You can even send or request money to others.

The best part? It’s the easiest way to split a bill with friends!

This increasingly popular app lets you top up funds and pay your way through tolls with the app and purchase goods from a growing number of merchants. You’re also able to book movies, pay for flight tickets and more. Topping up the Touch ‘n Go ewallet app is exceptionally easy as you can link it to your bank account so that it auto reloads when your existing amount gets too low. Another perk is the ability to pay smartphone prepaid accounts straight from the phone.

The ubiquitous ride hailing app has expanded in recent years to encompass a host of other services under its umbrella.

On top of getting you a ride to your intended destination, the Grab app now includes the ability to deliver food to your office or home via GrabFood, send parcels via GrabExpress, get groceries delivered from store to your front door via GrabFresh and, more importantly, the GrabPay mobile wallet that lets you easily pay for all these services with just a few presses of a button.

Unfortunately, the Touch ‘n Go eWallet doesn’t directly integrate with existing Touch ‘n Go cards and is so far a separate ‘wallet’ that doesn’t allow for balance interchanges between it and other cards.

Another pickle is that it can’t be used at every tollgate or LRT stop, only a selected few in the Klang Valley.

FAVE

MAYBANK2U MY

The Fave app lets you get discounted offers at a vast variety of establishments for all manner of things from fun activities, dining, discounts on plane tickets and much more. Via the Fave app, you’re able to pay for your bills swiftly and easily and even get up to 30% cashback too. Even better, you’re able to send gifts in the form of vouchers for services under the Fave app umbrella to friends and family to make them feel extra special.

The juiced up Maybank2u MY app is amazingly intuitive and easy to use. On top of the obligatory ability to manage your finances with the bank, the Maybank2u MY app also features their QRPay feature that lets you scan a QR code to make peerto-peer cash transfers and make payments instantly. Another useful feature is their My Absolute e-Wallet that lets you pay and split bills as well as send and receive money wherever and whenever you are.

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APPZONE

MASTER A NEW LANGUAGE WITH THESE EXCITING LANGUAGE LEARNING APPS Learning a new language can be a rewarding experience as it expands your horizons in more ways than one. Other than acquiring new ways of thinking and understanding, you also gain a newfound appreciation learning a new culture. Mastering a new language also leads to personal growth and more career opportunities!

Here are several acclaimed language learning apps that cover the most widely spoken languages - they are suitable for various skill levels and needs as well as those who are seeking different ways of learning.

Learning a new language on Duolingo is a pleasantly casual affair that you can pick up and drop off comfortably as your daily work schedule demands it. The app caters primarily to non-native speakers who are looking for working fluency in a given language.

The app itself allows you to learn most of the major languages including English, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, Korean, Spanish, French, German, Italian Portuguese, Dutch and Russian. If you’re feeling particularly adventurous, you can attempt to pick up Esperanto, Polish and Turkish too.

DUOLINGO: LEARN LANGUAGES FOR FREE

What makes Duolingo attractive and effective is that it gamifies the process of learning a new language. Lessons are designed in a series of minigames, allowing you to have fun while improving your vocabulary and grammar in the language you wish to learn.

Duolingo starts you off easy with basic verbs and phrases to get you started and then ups it gradually with structured sentences as it tosses new words at you everyday. Unfortunately there are a few paywalls here and there as you advance towards higher levels though serious users will find the price a pittance to the gains acquired mastering a new language.

It might look like a run of the mill language learning app but LingoDeer surprisingly offers in-depth content. Its unique approach to teaching a new language will likely appeal to more traditional learners. This is on account of the fact that LingoDeer’s curriculum and learning methodology were designed by professional language textbook creators so one can expect a structured form and method towards learning a new language in the app.

LINGODEER: LEARN KOREAN, JAPANESE, CHINESE & MORE

LingoDeer’s learning programme is exceptionally robust, as you would expect, and covers the fundamentals in your chosen language such as the alphabet, vocabulary, grammar, travel phrases and pronunciation before moving you up to advanced linguistic skills and native speaker level. This is particularly useful for languages that have their own unique alphabet system such as Korean, Japanese and Vietnamese. Of particular value is that the app includes audio recordings of content spoken by native speakers so you would hear and learn exactly how to pronounce it. The app includes exceptionally detailed grammar notes to explain the exact mechanics of how a given language works.

The only downside to the app is that it only has a few languages available at the moment though they’re the more important ones. You get to learn Japanese, Korean, Mandarin Chinese, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Vietnamese and, of course, English. It also works in offline mode which means you can get some learning done on the road or at places where you don’t have internet connection such as in a plane. Basic lessons are free and a subscription fee will be charged to access more advanced courses.

The approach in HelloTalk is perhaps the best and unique way to learn. Rather than undertaking a series of minigames, flash cards, tests or whatnot, HelloTalk throws you straight into the deep end by pairing you up with an actual native speaker who wants to learn the languages that you yourself are fluent in. In essence, the app is pairing up two language learners together to learn each other’s languages. There’s no homework per se but you will grow to appreciate the ability to practise and learn a language straight from a native speaker rather than from a textbook. Almost all major languages are represented on HelloTalk.

HELLOTALK: CHAT, SPEAK & LEARN FOREIGN LANGUAGES

The interface itself looks and feels somewhat like a social media app, making it relatively easy to navigate it and relatively easy to dive into. Interactions consist of conversations back and forth in both voice and text form. There’s likely to be a lot of mistakes during the first few lessons of learning and to address that HelloTalk has a built-in real-time correction tool to help correct the other’s grammar, pronunciation and written text.

The trick here is that getting the best experience from HelloTalk is contingent on finding the right language exchange partners for the languages you want to learn and which they hopefully want to learn from you. This does take some patience but once you find a cooperative language learning partner, it’s an engrossing way to learn the practical aspects of a language. The only downside is that this app is probably more suited for moderately skilled users seeking for practical training as some level of basic grammar in the language you want to learn is required to derive a meaningful and engaging experience.

Like many of us out there, you’ll likely need to make a trip overseas but don’t have the time to grasp the local culture or, for the matter, the local languages or dialects which can possibly lead to all manner of mishaps. Rather than a full-on lesson on reading, writing and comprehension in a given language, TripLingo has a more pinpoint focus by imparting ‘survivor-level’ language. Common phrases and local slang for important matters such as finding and ordering food, shopping, travelling around and the like are organised by categories along with a quick primer on local cultural norms to avoid a potential faux pas. The most amusing aspect of the app is that you can set a slider when translating phrases so you can alternate between formal, informal or highly localised variants depending on how chummy you want to get with the locals.

TRIPLINGO

Should you not be able to find a specific phrase, you can opt for a mode similar to Google Translate that helps somewhat or, if you chunk out for the premium option, get a live translator to help out. In terms of education options, TripLingo is a bit sparse as it emphasises teaching and helping out with the practical aspects of a language sufficient to survive in a given country rather than someone looking to learn the language. It does have a basic assortment of quizzes and audio walkthroughs though most of the good stuff and important phrases are hidden behind a paywall. That said, this is still worth a look as a backup option on your phone or if you really just want to get the bare basics in a given language.

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HANDS ON

P R O T E C T I N G YO U R O N L I N E P R I VA C Y A N D PERSONAL DATA

The last few years have been marked by a plethora of data breaches online along with a prevalence in identity theft, phishing attacks, SIM card hijacking and more nefarious acts which often end up with victims losing their money, dignity and worse, their very identity through identity theft, making them liable to being barred from legitimate services like phone subscriptions, banking services and more. All these complications stem from the fact that many people do not take their online privacy seriously.

People often dismiss just how much of their personal activities are exposed online. If you’re surfing the web, the queries that you type in, the websites that you browse and practically everything else that you do online is subject to potential scrutiny by your internet service provider and web browser.

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Innocuous questions and bits of trivia that people leave all over their social media and other locations online all help to form a picture that a determined attacker can exploit. Simple facts that seem harmless on their own like your mother’s maiden name or where you first studied or even your pet’s name can all be used by an attacker attempting to brute force password recovery on your key email, banking or social media accounts. Bits and pieces of information like geotagging your pictures and locations on social media also help to fill in the blanks on your whereabouts and habits in order to mimic your identity.

WiFi connections where attackers can intercept communications and tap into what you’re typing, viewing and downloading.

Even if you’re fairly careful, data breaches can occur from the other side of the fence when those entrusted to hold that information in trust encounter intrusions and get their data sold or leaked online. Browsing the internet also has its share of hazards especially if you’re using public

All this means that online netizens need to be truly vigilant of what information they leave online, how and what they do online and how they connect to the Internet. To get started, here are a few crucial steps on protecting your online privacy and personal information.

Once hackers have collected enough data on you, they can attempt to hack into your personal emails, bank accounts and social media. They can even attempt to register fraudulent phone subscriptions or other services like postpaid accounts or credit cards in your name and then leave you with a humongous bill or even getting blacklisted or added to the CTOS list for something that you did not even purchase or do.

HANDS ON

P R O T E C T I N G YO U R O N L I N E P R I VA C Y A N D PERSONAL DATA 1

GET A VIRTUAL PRIVATE NETWORK (VPN) A Virtual Private Network (VPN) is software capable of encrypting data you send and receive online on top of hiding your actual IP address. Seeing as online data, by default, is unencrypted, a VPN makes things more challenging for attackers while making your communications more private and secure.

A VPN does so by channeling its data through secure channels of its own and obfuscating your IP so it looks like you’re logging in from somewhere else. While this is well and good, it only covers one potential avenue of attack by intruders and this needs to be paired with other security measures as listed here like a robust firewall and antivirus software. A variety of VPN options exist with some offering free, if modestly limited services while others require a subscription fee but with more substantial options.

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GET AN ANTIVIRUS SOLUTION If your privacy is compromised at the source - your PC or your mobile devices - with a malicious virus or other malware you’re back to square one as attackers can intercept whatever you do no matter how robust your other security measures are. Invest in a good antivirus solution and a firewall to prevent malware attacks on your devices and as part of a multi-layered solution to secure your privacy.

Naturally, this also ties in with proper awareness of what you download and where you visit online. By extension, this also means that it is in your best interests to use legitimate software rather than pirated ones as the latter can be a Trojan Horse loaded with malware that can circumvent or make the protective capabilities of an antivirus suite moot. A competent antivirus solution will also help to ensure the nastier viruses like ransomware and the like don’t permanently compromise your PC and ruin all your data.

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BE EXTREMELY CAREFUL WHAT YOU SHARE ON SOCIAL MEDIA AND ONLINE Contrary to what it seems, social media platforms are not a public soapbox for you to air your views and share your whereabouts or interests. Granted, social media has become one of the most effective ways to communicate and stay in touch with friends and family but what you post, write, comment and in general post online is not considered private by any measure of the word.

Even if you are fairly careful, hackers are often able to spoof accounts, stealing publicly available photos of yourself or your friends in order to mimic a legitimate account and thereby fish for more data for a subsequent intrusion and also to bypass the “friends only” limitation that many social media users also enact by creating fake accounts. Once they’ve stolen your identity, things rapidly go downhill from there.

Be extremely wary of what personal details and information you give out on your social media. Even if you are not the target, hackers can steal bits of personal information off you or even pictures and target another victim with what they have gleaned off you such as your mother’s first name, your first school, your pet’s name, where you work or more. Skip filling in all the fields in your social media account like where you live, your job, phone number and the like to minimise how much information you give away online. You will also want to be particularly careful and audit your privacy settings for all your social media to limit what you share with others.

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HANDS ON

P R O T E C T I N G YO U R O N L I N E P R I VA C Y A N D PERSONAL DATA 4

USE STRONGER PASSWORDS AND DIFFERENT ONES FOR ALL YOUR ONLINE ACCOUNTS Your banking, email and social media accounts all rely on two things - a user name and a password. Unfortunately, it isn’t particularly complicated for determined hackers to guess one or the other as many users often attempt to create passwords based off easily remembered bits of personal information. Details that can be gleaned by a hacker off social media all can be used to attempt to guess a password to an account like your name, age, date of birth, phone number and personal details for a parent or spouse.

Users also often attempt to create passwords that are easy to remember and which will invariably also be tested by hackers so the more obvious ones like “0000”, “password”, “qwertyuiop” and even the numbers on the keyboard “01234567890” are all vulnerable to attack. While it has been said before, strong passwords need to be robust and not something that can be guessed by someone even if they have knowledge of your personal details.

This means creating a password that involves combinations of numbers, symbols, upper and lower case letters and is not something that can be found in a dictionary. In lieu of that, you can also invest in a password manager to help manage these accounts for you as they will help you cook up extremely robust passwords and manage them for you when you login into accounts online. Another prudent measure is to ensure that you use different emails and different passwords for different accounts so that even if one account is compromised, it doesn’t result in a catastrophic loss of information and all your other accounts by one determined hacker.

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WATCH WHICH WEB BROWSER YOU ARE USING Most of the more popular web browsers online will track your online activities in some form or fashion so that they can serve you ads for products that you possibly may be interested in. If you have ever experienced situations where you typed in a search query and are suddenly bombarded by advertisements featuring the item or subject matter you were looking for, you will have experienced this eerie phenomenon firsthand.

Most of the more popular web browsers practice some form of tracking of your website surfing history in order to serve you better advertisements though this also impinges on your privacy. While astute users will suggest incognito mode, which is available on many browsers, this doesn’t stop websites from tracking you as it only ensures that cookies and data from your side is wiped. Another prudent measure would be to manage your cookies more rigorously and regularly clean out your cookie cache so that third-party cookies don’t end up constantly tracking you and your web browsing habits.

One particular option is to select web browsers that implement a no-tracking policy like DuckDuckGo, Epic Browser or Tor Browser.

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ALWAYS KEEP YOUR APPLICATIONS AND OPERATING SYSTEM UPDATED One of the ways that hackers can compromise your online privacy is by using known programming loopholes in operating systems and apps which can compromise your systems and your privacy. If there are updates pushed by a developer for your smartphone, PC or other device, download them as soon as possible as they are usually disseminated to plug an exploit or potential avenue of attack by hackers. Running unsupported operating systems like older versions of Windows and other applications that lack system updates by developers can also be a risky proposition because it exacerbates these potential problems and a hacker compromising your online privacy.

Most people put off updates because of their large download sizes and also for the fact that they often come at an inopportune moment, usually just before an important presentation or deadline, but the effort is well worth the trouble to save yourself from a lifetime of regret.

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BE WARY OF USING PUBLIC WIFI Who doesn’t love something for free? Some establishments like coffee shops or shopping malls offer free WiFi connections for customers but this is a potential danger as hackers can spy on and intercept whatever you do when connected to free WiFi. As they are publicly accessible networks by nature, nothing can stop hackers from accessing a free WiFi network as well and rooting about for vulnerabilities.

Another popular avenue of attack by hackers is to create a free WiFi hotspot that looks legitimate by labelling it as ‘Free WiFi’ or something equally tempting and hoping people will login to capture important private information.

If you absolutely have to use a public WiFi network, try and avoid doing any critical tasks like banking or accessing high security files and use a Virtual Private Network (VPN) to minimise potential risks though it is still preferred if you use on your own data connections.

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TUTORIAL

HOW TO MANAGE AND DELETE COOKIES ON YOUR PC AND SMARTPHONE If you have been browsing around the Internet long enough, you’ll likely have come across the term cookies in particular when websites dole them out and store them on your computer or smartphone. Rather than being a tasty baked treat, cookies are actually files that store tiny little bits of information about you to optimise your experience when you visit a particular website but they have another motive as well - to track your activities.

DELETING COOKIES ON GOOGLE CHROME FOR DESKTOP 1) Go to your Chrome browser window address bar and type chrome://history

2) Click the three horizontal lines in the upper left corner next to History. Then select Clear Browsing Data

3) Select how far back you want to delete your cookies from the last hour all the way to every cookie saved on your PC. Then press the blue Clear Data button.

Whenever you use a web browser on a device be it your smartphone or your PC and access a website, the site will pass you one or more cookies or read them if you already have one. Most cookies are innocuous and are actually useful as they help to save information stored from one session on a website so you can continue later.

An example of this is that stored cookies help you to login to some websites like your email account more easily rather than having to input your password each and every time - an onerous chore indeed.

Another scenario where cookies are beneficial are when they save stuff in your shopping cart when you’re buying things online - if this wasn’t the case you’d have to buy everything piecemeal one item at a time which would be a nightmarish experience indeed.

DELETING COOKIES ON GOOGLE CHROME FOR MOBILE

While most cookies are innocuous and actually serve a useful purpose, some websites also serve third-party cookies from advertisers to ostensibly serve you ads relevant to your interests but which can be used to track your activities on the Internet to some degree.

To take back control of your privacy, here’s how to delete cookies in the most popular browsers on desktop and mobile. Most browsers are rather indiscriminate in what they purge and you’ll likely get all your cookies wiped both benign and not wiped. You’ll have to login to all your favourite websites and email accounts again, but this occasional spring cleaning of your PC or smartphone is a necessary task much like keeping your own home spick and span. Here’s how to clean up your cookies on the most popular browsers on the PC, Mac and your smartphone.

1) In your Chrome browser on mobile, click the upper right ellipsis icon, it’s the one with three vertically aligned full stops like a traffic light.

2) Go to Settings > Privacy > Clear Browsing Data. You can select how far back to clear your cookies from one hour ago all the way to every cookie on your phone. Press the blue Clear Data button and you’re done.

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TUTORIAL

HOW TO MANAGE AND DELETE COOKIES ON YOUR PC AND SMARTPHONE DELETING COOKIES ON MICROSOFT EDGE FOR DESKTOP

DELETING COOKIES ON S A FA R I F O R iO S D E V I C E S

1) In your Edge browser click the ellipsis symbol in the upper right corner. It looks like three full stops arranged horizontally.

2) Go to Settings > Clear Browsing Data and then make sure the Cookies and saved website data box is ticked.

Press the Clear button and your cookies are purged from the Edge browser

D E L E T I N G C O O K I E S O N S A FA R I B R O W S E R O N M A C DESKTOPS

As the Windows version of Safari has been discontinued, the instructions as follows are for the MacOS version of the Safari browser for Mac desktops.

1) In the Safari browser, go to Safari > Preferences

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2) Select the Privacy tab

1) To purge cookies in the Safari browser, you need to go to the Settings menu.

3) Select Remove all Website Data to purge all cookies. You can also selectively allow cookies only from websites you visit. Once you’re ready, click the Remove Now button.

2) In Settings, scroll down and select Safari in the submenu settings

4) If you want more fine tuned control, you can click on the Details button in Safari’s Privacy tab to selectively purge cookies.

3) Inside Safari, select ‘Clear history and website data’ to remove cookies. You’re done!

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