3 days ago, a growing news channel claimed that Indian intelligence agency and security agencies have found serious security breach in popular Chinese apps like Tik Tok, Helo, UC News and there use was a threat for the country.
According to the intelligence agencies, these Chinese apps end up extracting a large amount of data from Indian users and keep it stored on servers outside the country, a leading daily reported.
A message on WhatsApp also claimed that the Uttar Pradesh STF has advised all its officers and employees to not use Chinese Apps.
In a widely circulated message, the Uttar Pradesh STF also listed 52 Chinese Apps that were dubious and posed a threat to national security and users proivacy.
However, there was another claim attributed to the Government of India regarding the Chinese Apps. Some reports and messages on social media claimed that India's National Information Center had warned or asked Google Play Store and Apple Store to restrict/ban a list of Chinese Apps as they compromised the 'sovereignty of the country'. The viral message claimed that the GOI has used its power under the IT Act and asked Google Play Store and Apple Store to restrict the use of Chinese apps with immediate effect.
The claim was widely circulated and credence in the anti-China sentiment prevalent in the country due to the Galwan Standoff.
ALTERNATIVE APPS:
1. ROPOSO (Alternative to TikTok / Likee / Kwai)
Among the many issues with TikTok, privacy has been a major concern for many users. Just recently, four US senators urged the FTC to investigate TikTok because it apparently failed to take down videos made by children under the age of 13 — a violation of their 2019 agreement. Besides, the advocacy group alleged that TikTok failed to protect the privacy of minors. Apart from that, many users are suspicious of apps that are based out of China because of obvious privacy reasons. TikTok, which is owned by ByteDance– a Beijing-based company — has been accused of sharing user data with China.
2. Google Chrome – (Alternative for UC Browser and CM Browser)
UC Browser, owned by Alibaba Group of China, is the second most popular browser across India and China, but it has had many security and privacy controversies in the past few years. In 2015, Citizen Lab published a detailed study that underlined glaring security vulnerabilities and privacy gaps within the app. The report concluded that personally identifiable information of users where sent to Umeng, an Alibaba analytics tool without any encryption.
3. ShareChat – Helo Alternative
Helo is another Chinese app that has had a huge success in the Indian market. It’s a social media platform for discovering viral content and sharing them with friends and communities. The catch behind Helo’s success is its highly curated content for regional audiences. The app offers its service in more than 14 Indian languages and it’s currently one of the top-ranking apps on the Play Store.
4. Files by Google (Alternative to SHAREit, Xender)
ShareIt started as a file transfer application, but now it has pivoted to a content platform just like Helo and ShareChat. As a result, the app has moved from its primary goal and now mostly caters to content creators. In my brief usage, I found many inappropriate contents on its app and I would really not recommend it for anything, let alone file transfer.
5. Adobe Scan – CamScanner Alternative
CamScanner is s popular document scanner app and it’s run by INTSIG, a Chinese company based in Shanghai. Last year, it was removed from the Play Store after Kaspersky found a Trojan Horse module inside the CamScanner app. The researchers said that “Trojan downloader can download malicious modules depending on what its creators are up to at the moment”.
6. ProtonVPN – TurboVPN Alternative
TurboVPN is a free VPN app that has quickly garnered wide popularity because of no speed restriction and no data limit. It’s run by a company named Innovative Connecting which is based out of Singapore. However, if you look closely, the company has deep roots with China, as revealed by Security Affairs. On top of that, the privacy policy of TurboVPN is sketchy at best and I would not really trust it.
7. KineMaster – VivaVideo Alternative
VivaVideo is a popular app for editing videos on your smartphone. But you should not be using it if you value your privacy. In a recent article published on VPN Pro’s blog, it considered VivaVideo and other apps from the same company as Chinese spyware. The app asks too many permissions that a video editing app doesn’t require.
8. Google News – (Alternative for UC News and NewsDog)
Both UC News and NewsDog are one of the most popular news apps in India. But they also feature in the list of 52 apps released by Indian Intelligence agencies. Thankfully, there are many great news apps that you can use to replace these apps. My favorite is the Google News app. Not only it gets you the latest news, but it also shows you multiple sources for the same story so you can form your own opinion.
0 comments:
Post a Comment