#UnmaskingChina: Intel agencies ask Indian government to ban 52 mobile apps linked with China

Security agencies in India have urged the government to ban as many as 52 Chinese apps that pose a threat to India  

New Delhi: Indian intelligence agencies have red-flagged the use of 52 mobile applications that have links with China.

According to a report on Hindustan Times’ website on Wednesday (June 17), the apps weren’t safe and ended up extracting a large amount of data outside India.

This comes at a time when 20 Indian soldiers were martyred by China’s PLA at the Galwan Valley. The ‘violent clashes’ in Ladakh have hurt Indians all over the world.

The list of applications sent by the security establishment to the government include video conferencing app Zoom, short-video app TikTok, and other utility and content apps such as UC browser, Xender, SHAREit and Clean-master.

The call for ban on these apps has been supported by the National Security Council Secretariat.

The website noted that in April this year, the home ministry had issued an advisory on use of Zoom on the recommendation of the national cybersecurity agency – Computer Emergency Response Team of India (CERT-in).

However it should be noted that India wasn’t the first country to restrict use of Zoom within the government.

Taiwan has banned government agencies from using Zoom, the German foreign ministry restricts its use of Zoom to emergency situations on personal computers while the United States Senate advises members to use other platforms. The company had responded to the home ministry advisory, insisting that it was serious about user security.

These apps, security experts feel are a grave threat to the country.