Intelligence agencies urge Indians to stop the use of 52 mobile apps of China. Is it safe to use these apps?

Intelligence agencies urge Indians to stop the use of 52 mobile apps of China. Is it safe to use these apps?

 The National Security Council Secretariat has supported the recommendation to stop or discourage the usage of 52 mobile apps. The list of apps given by the security establishment to the government includes video conferencing app Zoom, short-video app TikTok, and other use and content apps such as UC Browser, Xender, SHAREit, and Clean-master, etc. An elder government official announced the recommendation of the intelligence agencies had recently been supported by the National Security Council Secretariat, which thought these could be harmful to India’s security.

“The discussions on the recommendations are continuing,” stated an official, explaining that the parameters and the hazards connected to each mobile app will have to be inspected one by one.

There have been requests for action against mobile apps that are noted to be compromising security from time to time. And companies such as the hugely-popular video-sharing app TikTok - owned and managed by Chinese internet company ByteDance - have published denials.

But officials said there was information that many Android and IOS apps, either developed by Chinese developers or launched by companies with Chinese connections, had the potential to be utilized as spyware or other malicious ware. There have been records that security agencies had warned security personnel from using them in view of the “detrimental impact that this could have on data security”.

Such attentions about backdoors in China-linked hardware or software have been often explained by western security agencies too. One discussion has been that China could use its access to corrupt communications services in case of battles.

Indian intelligence agencies have urged the government to block or warn people to stop the usage of 52 mobile applications associated with China over concerns that these weren’t safe and ended up obtaining a large amount of data outside India. The 52 apps that are mentioned to avoid are:

1. TikTok  

2. Vault-Hide 

3. Vigo Video  

4. Bigo Live  

5. Weibo  

6. WeChat  

7. SHAREit  

8. UC News  

9. UC Browser  

10. BeautyPlus  

11. Xender  

12. ClubFactory  

13. Helo  

14. LIKE  

15. Kwai  

16. ROMWE  

17. SHEIN  

18. NewsDog  

19. Photo Wonder  

20. APUS Browser  

21. VivaVideo QU Video Inc  

22. Perfect Corp  

23. CM Browser  

24. Virus Cleaner (Hi Security Lab)  

25. Mi Community  

26. DU recorder  

27. YouCam Makeup  

28. Mi Store  

29. 360 Security  

30. DU Battery Saver  

31. DU Browser  

32. DU Cleaner  

33. DU Privacy  

34. Clean Master Cheetah  

35. CacheClear DU apps studio  

36. Baidu Translate  

37. Baidu Map  

38. Wonder Camera  

39. ES File Explorer  

40. QQ International  

41. QQ Launcher  

42. QQ Security Centre  

43. QQ Player  

44. QQ Music  

45. QQ Mail  

46. QQ NewsFeed  

47. WeSync  

48. SelfieCity  

49. Clash of Kings  

50. Mail Master  

51. Mi Video call  

52. Parallel Space