Personnel are told by the Indian Army to delete 89 apps from their phones from July 15. This is in a bid to avoid leaking of sensitive data and in consideration of security. Before now, the Indian government had banned about 59 Chinese made apps that included famous Chinese applications like an explorer, virus cleaner, Tiktok, UC browser; ES file explorer, and Shareit.
Since they seem to be an increase in Military personnel targeted online, the armies personnel are, therefore, are uninstalling both Facebook and Instagram accounts. An Indian army source told TOl that the step was taken because of an exponential increase in the number of military personnel that was targeted online by the intelligence agencies of both China and Pakistan.
Indian Army has asked its personnel to delete 89 apps from their smartphones including Facebook, TikTok, Truecaller and Instagram to plug leakage of information: Indian Army Sources pic.twitter.com/l23Lu5ndNh
— ANI (@ANI) July 8, 2020
On the list are the first Chinese apps that were blocked, including apps across all the domains. So the 89 apps with its category are as follows:
- Blogging and microblogging apps – Reddit, Tumblr, and others
- Music apps – songs.pk and Hungama
- New apps – daily hunt, new dog and lifestyle apps
- Dating apps – OkCupid, happn, badoo, tinder, surfing & others
- E-commerce apps – china brands, club factory, Aliexpress, and others
- Gaming apps – clash of kings, PUBG, and others
- Utility apps – true caller, beauty plus, camscanner
- Messaging apps – we chat, helo. Share chat, IMO, Viber, hike, and others
- Video and live streaming – up live, zoom, vmate, Liveme and others
- Video hosting – kwali, tik tok, samosa, Likee, and others
- Web browsers – UC Browser Mini and UC Browser
Concerning the ban, truecaller asserts that they will like to repeat that truecaller will always be safe for use. This will be both for their esteemed armed forces personnel and their citizens too. That they see no reason why true callers should be on the list of banned apps, and they will go further in investigating the matter.
