Last Updated on February 14, 2022 2: 48pm
The Indian government has once again decided to impose a ban on 54 Chinese mobile applications that allegedly pose a security threat to the country.
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The Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology said it had received a request from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to ban the 54 Chinese apps under Section 69(A) of the IT Act’s emergency provision.
The applications of the ban list include Beauty Camera: Sweet Selfie HD, Beauty Camera – Selfie Camera, Equalizer & Bass Booster, CamCard for SalesForce Ent, Isoland 2: Ashes of Time Lite, Viva Video Editor, Tencent Xriver, Onmyoji Chess, Onmyoji Arena, AppLock, and Dual Space Lite.
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As per the MHA, the apps supposed to be banned are either cloned versions or are identical in functionality to those applications while were blacklisted by the government back in 2020.
They are said to have the same privacy problems, and security threats as alleged in the 267 apps blacklisted earlier.
On June 29, 2020, the Centre prohibited 59 apps, followed by a restriction on 47 related/cloning apps on August 10, 2020. Following that, 118 apps were restricted on September 1, 2020, and another 43 apps were blocked on November 19, 2020.
The 54 apps purportedly get a variety of critical permissions and harvest sensitive user data.
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“These obtained real-time data are being misused and sent to servers in hostile countries.” This will allow them to amass massive amounts of personal data to mine, aggregate, analyze, and profile by elements antagonistic to India’s sovereignty and integrity, as well as for acts damaging to national security,” the IT ministry said in a statement.