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Eastern Mirror Desk
Dimapur, June 18 (EMN): Indian intelligence agencies have asked the government to either block or advise people to stop using 52 mobile applications linked to China over concerns that the apps are not safe or end up extracting a large amount of data outside India, according to Hindustan Times on Thursday.
The list of applications red-flagged by the intelligence agencies include video conferencing app Zoom, short-video app TikTok, and other utility and content apps such as UC browser, Xender, SHAREit and Clean-master.
Citing a senior government official, the report stated that the recommendation of the intelligence agencies had recently been supported by the National Security Council Secretariat.
“The discussions on the recommendations are continuing,” said an official.
In April this year, the Union 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).
“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,” read the report.
Again, it cited officials as having that 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,” added the report.
Complete list of mobile apps on intelligence agencies’ radar:
TikTok, Vault-Hide, Vigo Video, Bigo Live, Weibo, WeChat, SHAREit, UC News, UC Browser, BeautyPlus, Xender, ClubFactory, Helo, LIKE, Kwai, ROMWE, SHEIN, NewsDog, Photo Wonder, APUS Browser, VivaVideo- QU Video Inc, Perfect Corp, CM Browser, Virus Cleaner (Hi Security Lab), Mi Community, DU recorder, YouCam Makeup, Mi Store, 360 Security, DU Battery Saver, DU Browser, DU Cleaner, DU Privacy, Clean Master – Cheetah, CacheClear DU apps studio, Baidu Translate, Baidu Map, Wonder Camera, ES File Explorer, QQ International, QQ Launcher, QQ Security Centre, QQ Player, QQ Music, QQ Mail, QQ NewsFeed, WeSync, SelfieCity, Clash of Kings, Mail Master, Mi Video call-Xiaomi, Parallel Space.