Indian Army Orders Personnel to Delete 89 Apps Including Facebook, Instagram, Tinder

As tensions with China along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) rages on, the Indian Army has asked its personnel to delete 89 apps from their smartphones including Facebook, TikTok, Tinder, PUBG and Instagram to avoid leakage of information, ANI report quoted Indian Army sources as saying.

Camscanner, Helo, Xender, ShareIt, Bumble, UC browser, Tinder, Snapchat are among the 89 apps that the army personnel has been instructed to uninstall.

The list of apps the Indian army personnel have reportedly been asked to delete from their smartphones is divided into numerous categories like messaging apps – (We Chat, Helo, Share Chat, Viber, IMO, Hike and others), video hosting (Tik Tok, Likee, Samosa, Kwali and others), contents sharing (ShareIt, Xender, Zapya and others), web browsers (UC Browser and UC Browser Mini), video and live streaming (Zoom, LiveMe, Vmate, Uplive and others), utility apps (CamScanner, Beauty Plus and True Caller), gaming apps (PUBG, Clash of Kings and others), eCommerce apps (Club Factory, AliExpress, Chinabrands and others), dating apps (Tinder, OkCupid, Badoo, Bumble, Happn, Couch Surfing and others), news apps (News Dog and Daily Hunt), lifestyle apps (POPXO), music apps (Hungama and Songs.pk) and blogging/micro blogging apps (Tumblr, Reddit and others).

It is to be noted that Centre has already banned 59 Chinese apps citing that these are”prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of state and public order.”

In view of the information available they are engaged in activities which is prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of state and public order, the government order stated.

The Ministry of Information Technology has 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 order further stated.

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 added.

Source:ANI