Indian Govt Issues Order To Ban 54 Chinese Apps

Recently our Indian Government has issued fresh orders of banning 54 Chinese apps which they have told are a threat to privacy. 

According to the Union Ministry of electronics and information, this decision has been taken to keeps all the sensitive data secured. The banned apps belong to very big technology firms including, Alibaba, Tencent, NetEase, etc. 

As per MHA, these apps obtain the sensitive data of the users along with some critical permissions which can be further misused in several ways. Hence the ministry of electronic and IT has issued the notice to ban apps including, Viva Video Editor, AppLock and Dual Space Lite, Onmyoji Chess, Isoland 2: Ashes of Time Lite, Equalizer & Bass Booster, Sweet Selfie HD, Tencent Xriver, Beauty Camera – Selfie Camera, etc. 

Also, we all know that the same initiative was taken by our government in the year 2020 when they took a drastic step and banned almost 59 Chinese apps on 29 June 2020, then 47 apps on 10 August, which was followed by the ban of 118 apps on 1 September 2020. These apps were very famous and included, Tik Tok, PUBG Mobile, PUBG Mobile Lite, CamScanner, Shareit, etc.

At that time also the ministry acknowledged the same issue where these apps were being used for transferring personal and data of Indian servers to China, which was quite dangerous. Therefore, the Ministry of Electronics and Technology with all its powers given in by Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000 has taken this step. The ministry has already asked many app stores including Google to remove them or block these applications so that no one is able to download the same.

“The 54 apps have already been blocked from being accessed in India through the PlayStore,” an official added. 

The IT ministry also added that all these 54 apps have been blocked due to security issues. One of the officials added, 

“These collected real-time data are being misused and transmitted to servers located in a hostile country. This will enable them to compile huge personal data to mine, collate, analyse and profile by the elements who are hostile to the sovereignty and integrity of India and for activities detrimental to national security.” 

Apart from this, it has also been concluded that many of these applications were being used to carry out surveillance activities and access locations through GPS. The officials also added,

“These apps were allegedly engaged in activities prejudicial to the sovereignty and integrity of the country also posing a serious threat to the security of the state and defense of India.” 

The report also suggests that the newly blocked applications were the cloned version or can be called “rebranded or rechristened” of the previous ones which were banned in 2020. Also, one of the officials gave the information saying,

“Even apps such as ByteDance-owned TikTok and Tencent’s WeChat were available for download through alternative means such as APK files, and the government has taken cognizance of it.”