Indian intelligence agencies have asked the government to block or advise people to stop use of 52 mobile applications linked to China over concerns that these weren’t safe and ended up extracting a large amount of data outside India, people familiar with the development told.
As the border tensions between India and China begin to intensify, Indian Intelligence Agencies have asked the government to block or advise people to stop using several Chinese mobile applications. The list of apps given by the agencies includes 52 apps in total.
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.
A senior government official said the recommendation of the intelligence agencies had recently been supported by the National Security Council Secretariat, which felt these could be detrimental to India’s security.
Over and above the China-linked apps, Intel agencies have raised concerns about video-conferencing app Zoom. 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). According to the advisory, MHA had deemed Zoom as an unsafe platform and asked individuals using the video conferencing app to adhere to certain security settings in a bid to safeguard their meetings from malicious attackers.
There have been calls for action against mobile apps that are perceived to be compromising security from time to time. And companies such as the hugely-popular video popular video-sharing app TikTok – owned and operated by Chinese internet company ByteDance – have issued denials.
But officials said there were inputs that many Android and IOS apps, either developed by Chinese developers or launched by companies with Chinese links, had the potential to be used as spyware or other malicious ware. There have been reports that security agencies had advised security personnel from using them in view of the “detrimental impact that this could have on data security.
Such concerns about backdoors in China-linked hardware or software have been frequently articulated by western security agencies too. One argument has been that China could use its access to degrade communications services in case of conflict.
The recommendation of the intelligence agencies on the ban of apps has also been supported by the National Security Council Secretariat, which also felt these could be detrimental to India’s security.
52 apps red-flagged by Intel agencies
360 Security, APUS Browser, Baidu Map, Baidu Translate, BeautyPlus, Bigo Live, CacheClear DU apps studio, Clash of Kings, Clean Master – Cheetah, ClubFactory, CM Browser, DU Battery Saver, DU Browser, DU Cleaner, DU Privacy, DU recorder, ES File Explorer, Helo, Kwai, LIKE, Mail Master, Mi Community, Mi Store, Mi Video call-Xiaomi, NewsDog, Parallel Space, Perfect Corp, Photo Wonder, QQ International, QQ Launcher, QQ Mail, QQ Music, QQ NewsFeed, QQ Player, QQ Security Centre, ROMWE, SelfieCity, SHAREit, SHEIN, TikTok, UC Browser, UC News, Vault-Hide, Vigo Video, Virus Cleaner (Hi Security Lab), VivaVideo- QU Video Inc, WeChat, Weibo, WeSync, Wonder Camera, Xender and YouCam Makeup.
