NewDelhi Aug 5 : The government has identified and blocked 348 mobile applications developed by various countries, including China, for allegedly collecting user information for profiling citizens and transmitting it overseas in an unauthorised manner.<\/p>\n
Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar made the declaration in the Lok Sabha in response to a question by BJP’s Rodmal Nagar. “These\u00a0348 mobile applications were\u00a0collecting users’ information and transmitting it in an unauthorised manner to servers located\u00a0outside the country for profiling,” Chandrasekhar said.\u00a0“Based on the request from the MHA, the Ministry of Electronics and\u00a0Information Technology (MeitY) has blocked those 348 mobile applications since such data\u00a0transmissions infringes the sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India and security of the state,” he said.\u00a0On being asked whether all these apps are developed by China, Chandrasekhar said, “These apps are developed by various countries including China.” This comes a few days after Google suspended\u00a0Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI), a popular battle royale game from South Korea’s gaming giant Krafton, from its Play Store. Google had said that it had received an order from the government in this regard and thus blocked access to the app. In September 2020, Krafton’s PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) was banned in along with 117 other China-linked apps, citing data security concerns. Earlier in the year, it was also reported that battle royale game Free Fire was\u00a0banned along with 53 other China-linked apps\u00a0under section 69A of the Information Technology Act on February 14, citing security concerns.<\/p>\n