The Central Government on Wednesday blocked a total of 118 Chinese apps including PUBG which, according to it, are prejudicial to the sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of the State and public order.
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology said that it had received many complaints from various sources including several reports about the 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 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", Government said.
It added that the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre under the Ministry of Home Affairs had also sent an exhaustive recommendation for blocking these malicious apps.
"This 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 Government claimed.
Union Government had also banned nearly 50 Chinese apps including TikTok over security and data sovereignty concerns in July.
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