The move will safeguard the interests of crores of Indian mobile and internet users. This decision is a targeted move to ensure safety, security and sovereignty of Indian cyberspace. The 118 banned mobile apps include PUBG MOBILE Nordic Map: Livik, PUBG MOBILE LITE, WeChat Work, WeChat reading, Cyber Hunter, LifeAfter and Warpath.
The decision to ban such Apps was taken by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology as it has received many complaints from various sources including several reports about misuse of some mobile apps available on Android and iOS platforms for stealing and surreptitiously transmitting users’ data in an unauthorized manner to servers which have locations outside India. The Ministry in a statement said, the compilation of these data, its mining and profiling by elements hostile to national security and defence of India, which ultimately impinges upon the sovereignty and integrity of India, is a matter of very deep and immediate concern which requires emergency measures.
It said, the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre, of Home Ministry has also sent an exhaustive recommendation for blocking these malicious apps. It said, there have been similar bipartisan concerns, flagged by various public representatives, both outside and inside the Parliament of India. The Ministry said, there has been a strong chorus in the public space to take strict action against Apps that harm India’s sovereignty as well as the privacy of citizens.