It is also considering to ban more than 200 additional Chinese-made apps.
Almost a month before India has banned 59 Chinese-made apps from app stores in the country, it is now cracking down on various clone apps that have replaced the banned ones. An additional 47 apps are now being added to the blacklist, one of which includes TikTok Lite, a variant of the popular social media app that was also part of the original list.
Authorities from India have claimed that these apps were secretly collecting data from each device that it has been installed on. Aside from a potential privacy risk, most of this data is said to be sent back to servers in China, instantly making it spyware. Banning the apps would help make the Indian cyberspace more secure, said the local government.
Govt of India bans 47 more Chinese apps which were variants and cloned copies of the 59 apps that were banned in June. These banned clones include Tiktok Lite, Helo Lite, SHAREit Lite, BIGO LIVE Lite and VFY Lite.
Over 250 more apps under radar including PubG. #DigitalStrike— Punit Agarwal (@Punitspeaks) July 27, 2020
Other Chinese-made apps like PUBG are now also under the radar and is being investigated and decided if it will be added to the banned apps. Most of the new apps added to the list are ‘Lite’ version of existing apps like Helo Lite, SHAREit Lite, and BIGO LIVE Lite.
