India bans 59 Chinese mobile apps including Tik Tok.

[Rohith_Kumar_Sp]

Summary

India-China standoff: GOI bans 59 Chinese apps including TikTok, SHAREit. Amid the heightened tensions with China along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), the Indian government on Monday took an unprecedented step and decided to ban at least 59

 

 

 

Quotes

Quote

“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,” -   ministry of electronics and IT (MEITY)

 

My thoughts

This comes in the heat of china and india border dispute, and the recent death of 20 Indian soldiers in the border, people took to streets destroying chinese products

 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/17/explainer-what-is-the-deadly-india-china-border-dispute-about
 

 

 

 

Sources

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/centre-bans-59-mobile-apps-including-tik-tok-uc-browser-others/articleshow/76694828.cms

[PCGuy_5960]

Good riddance, especially after some semi-recent discoveries about that app collecting as much data as possible.

[Rohith_Kumar_Sp]

2 minutes ago, youngboy said:

I mean I have family over in India. They don't use any of those apps, but most of them have Xiaomi phones with those apps on them. Shouldn't be a big problem to them.

 

[Eaglerino]

Too bad USA won't ban them, then again Google and Apple are so reliant on China they may as well be Chinese

[Techstorm970]

India be fighting the good fight.

[cold drew]

No more TikTok? Teenagers everywhere collectively gasped.

[captain_to_fire]

6 hours ago, youngboy said:

I mean I have family over in India. They don't use any of those apps, but most of them have Xiaomi phones with those apps on them. Shouldn't be a big problem to them.

https://palant.info/2020/05/08/what-data-does-xiaomi-collect-about-you/

https://palant.info/2020/05/04/are-xiaomi-browsers-spyware-yes-they-are.../

 

Quote

Even with the recent changes, Xiaomi browsers are massively invading users’ privacy. The amount of data collected by default goes far beyond what’s necessary for application improvement. Instead, Xiaomi appears to be interested in where users go, what they search for and which videos they watch. Even with a fairly obscure setting to disable this tracking, the default behavior isn’t acceptable. If you happen to be using a Xiaomi device, you should install a different browser ASAP.

 

Quote

 

If you use Mint Browser (and presumably Mi Browser Pro similarly), Xiaomi doesn’t merely know which websites you visit but also what you search for, which videos you watch, what you download and what sites you added to the Quick Dial page. Heck, they even track which porn site triggered the reminder to switch to incognito mode! Yes, if Xiaomi wants anybody to believe that this wasn’t malicious they have a lot more explaining to do.

 

The claim that this data is anonymized cannot be maintained either. Even given the random user ID (which appears to be permanent by mistake) deducing user’s identity should be easy, we’ve seen it before. But they also transmit user’s Xiaomi account ID if they know it, which is directly linked to the user’s identity.

 

Xiaomi now announced that they will turn off collection of visited websites in incognito mode. That’s a step in the right direction, albeit a tiny one. Will they still collecting all the other data in incognito mode? And even if not, why collect so much data during regular browsing? What reason is there that justifies all these privacy violations?

 

 

[captain_to_fire]

I had a status update about the reverse engineering of TikTok which revealed it collects way more data than it should. I guess it's fitting to share it here.

https://linustechtips.com/main/profile/277318-captain_to_fire/?status=268252&type=status

Quote

 

[D13H4RD]

"Clean Master"

 

Well, that app should've been banned long ago

[williamcll]

Gonna need to EU legislation if you really want to clamp down on the privacy issue.

 

Funniest thing I've read about the boycott Chinese products are people telling to use Nokia phones instead (Also made in China). If only they don't bleed all their best talents to California.

[StDragon]

3 hours ago, williamcll said:

Gonna need to EU legislation if you really want to clamp down on the privacy issue.

 

Funniest thing I've read about the boycott Chinese products are people telling to use Nokia phones instead (Also made in China). If only they don't bleed all their best talents to California.

It's called GDPR. Expecting the EU to enforce their own laws in China is sophistry.

[LAwLz]

I find it weird that people are going "China bad" and then cheering on the exact same censor- and dictatorship tactics they condone China for, only difference being the country doing it. 

Shouldn't government controlling access to programs and social media be frowned upon no matter which country does it?

[LAwLz]

41 minutes ago, huilun02 said:

China's censorship is for a completely different reason.

 

What India did is both appropriate and effective for the situation.

 

They need to go one step further and DNS/IP block the big ad networks at the ISP level.

 

Dont just fight data collection. Go straight to the source and snuff out the very reason for data collection in the first place.

But India didn't remove these apps because of ads. They blocked it because it threatened the "sovereignty of India". In other words, India blocked these apps because they were a threat to the India political party in power. Probably because the apps are Chinese, and India and China are on very bad terms right now, killing and attacking each others soldiers over territories. 

 

To me it seems like India banned these apps because they are afraid they might be used to spread messages which could be seen as attacking the Indian government. 

 

And this is not me being a tinfoil-hat conspiracy theorist. It's the official explanation provided by India. 

 

 

India is basically China 2.0.

[dizmo]

And people keep saying Huawei would never be a threat....

 

 

Right.

[Shreyas1]

Should have been done long ago, and by many more countries

 

 

[Rohith_Kumar_Sp]

1 hour ago, LAwLz said:

India is basically China 2.0.

The difference right now is that our govt. is fascist not authoritarian/dictatorship like the ones from china. 

[VirusDumb]

2 hours ago, LAwLz said:

But India didn't remove these apps because of ads. They blocked it because it threatened the "sovereignty of India". In other words, India blocked these apps because they were a threat to the India political party in power. Probably because the apps are Chinese, and India and China are on very bad terms right now, killing and attacking each others soldiers over territories. 

 

To me it seems like India banned these apps because they are afraid they might be used to spread messages which could be seen as attacking the Indian government. 

 

And this is not me being a tinfoil-hat conspiracy theorist. It's the official explanation provided by India. 

 

 

India is basically China 2.0.

Ok, so you are very lucky as all the libraries are closed, or else you would be getting slapped through the internet.

 

I don't know if you have read Indian history, but you may have obviously heard about Gandhi ji, so during the British rule in India, the British used to have most of their profits by selling their goods in India through, so to minimize the profit, a swadeshi movement was started in which, people started to boycott British goods and started using products made by Indian owned industries, causing a loss to British. So if we don't use the apps it'll obviously affect the ad revenue, may not be by a large decrease but still noticeable.

 

And Chinese apps, for example Tiktok has previously been held for stealing data by US Navy and Reddit CEO, Steve Huffman called the app "fundamentally parasitic" claiming the was always listening and that the fingerprint technology Incorporated into the app was, in his opinion truly terrifying. So we can't trust the app.

 

And if the government was afraid, then other apps such as Facebook and Twitter would have been banned a long time ago. As there are actual messages spread against the government, which has been used as propaganda against the government during various riots.

 

And yes, you are not being a tinfoil-hat conspiracy theorist, You are even dumber. 

The government meant that they were a threat for stealing important information about several services.

 

 

[VirusDumb]

In my opinion this is a amazing decision taken by the government, people will now find Alternatives and it'll show a increase in the downloads of other apps, and will encourage Indian developers.

 

And I think Indian phone companies (Micromax anyone?) Should make a comeback, who knows maybe they do it better than oppo,vivo, xiaomi. 

 

And finally

Jai Hind

[lewdicrous]

The Indian government vs those apps

[LAwLz]

5 hours ago, huilun02 said:

I'd be happy if more countries banned the same set of bad apps. They should also ban ad networks and social media while they are at it.

 

I am not anti-China or pro-India. I am pro-consumer and pro-consumer rights. Has always been and will always be.

So you agree with china's decisions to for example ban social media? 

Like I said, it seems like people are extremely against China to the point where they actually want to do the same thing the Chinese government does. Control what their citizens can and can't do. 

Like I said before, I don't think it is up to any government to dictate which apps their citizens can and can't use. I think this is setting a very bad precidency and people are too caught up in "China bad" and "tiktok bad" to stop and think about the consequences of what is happening. 

[ColdPressCoconutOil]

21 minutes ago, LAwLz said:

So you agree with china's decisions to for example ban social media? 

Like I said, it seems like people are extremely against China to the point where they actually want to do the same thing the Chinese government does. Control what their citizens can and can't do. 

Like I said before, I don't think it is up to any government to dictate which apps their citizens can and can't use. I think this is setting a very bad precidency and people are too caught up in "China bad" and "tiktok bad" to stop and think about the consequences of what is happening. 

no citizen in india is against this implementation.

 

chinese authority is trying to expand and encroach indian territory, this has been the case for a long time. china has been india's enemy for a long time. chinese products, as we all know, are cheaper. indians like a good deal, so most indians use smartphones from chinese brands like xiaomi, oneplus, oppo, vivo etc etc. there is no way for the country to stop the purchase and usage of chinese products.

 

the "buy swadeshi" (meaning made in the same country) movement is one thats been going on for a long time. it is an attempt to reduce the amount of revenue indian customers are paying to the chinese brands. indirectly, funding their war costs. any purchase boycotted is of benefit. there is no guarantee that war will not break out between indian and chinese troops. by banning these apps, the government is trying to curb the revenue china is recieving through any method possible.

 

my social media feeds are blowing up with so many citizens happy with this decision. even popular indian stars who have got famous through tiktok are supporting this movement. for the small majority of the people here who are not, well shame on them.

 

a soldier from the indian army posted a video which went viral where he asks the citizens to reduce purchasing chinese products. it recieved a lot of positive reaction, it may or may not have convinced the government too, as the Indian government actually listens to its citizens.

 

by banning these apps, the government is trying to make some reasonable changes, and go across this dispute in a reasonable and diplomatic method, rather than going all out and dropping a nuke on china.

 

i dont want to belittle you for your thoughts, i just want to let you know what is going on here.

[ColdPressCoconutOil]

1 minute ago, PoopThatTookAPee said:

no citizen in india is against this implementation.

 

chinese authority is trying to expand and encroach indian territory, this has been the case for a long time. china has been india's enemy for a long time. chinese products, as we all know, are cheaper. indians like a good deal, so most indians use smartphones from chinese brands like xiaomi, oneplus, oppo, vivo etc etc. there is no way for the country to stop the purchase and usage of chinese products.

 

the "buy swadeshi" (meaning made in the same country) movement is one thats been going on for a long time. it is an attempt to reduce the amount of revenue indian customers are paying to the chinese brands. indirectly, funding their war costs. any purchase boycotted is of benefit. there is no guarantee that war will not break out between indian and chinese troops. by banning these apps, the government is trying to curb the revenue china is recieving through any method possible.

 

my social media feeds are blowing up with so many citizens happy with this decision. even popular indian stars who have got famous through tiktok are supporting this movement. for the small majority of the people here who are not, well shame on them.

 

a soldier from the indian army posted a video which went viral where he asks the citizens to reduce purchasing chinese products. it recieved a lot of positive reaction, it may or may not have convinced the government too, as the Indian government actually listens to its citizens.

 

by banning these apps, the government is trying to make some reasonable changes, and go across this dispute in a reasonable and diplomatic method, rather than going all out and dropping a nuke on china.

 

i dont want to belittle you for your thoughts, i just want to let you know what is going on here.

the more widely used apps, like zoom (which is what most institutions are using to conduct online classes) and pubg mobile (literally the biggest video game in india) have not been banned, as they are widely used by a vast majority of the indain population. the government is catering to the needs of its citizens while trying to curb down the poilitical tension

[BigDamn]

India bans Tik Tok? Shit. Might be time to move to India boys.

[BuckGup]

19 hours ago, yaboistar said:

gee golly if only nations would follow suit on this instead of leeching ad revenue while china collects data through "social apps"

The issue is China comes to companies in the US and they comply with anything they want because that's where the money is. 

[VirusDumb]

1 minute ago, BigDamn said:

India bans Tik Tok? Shit. Might be time to move to India boys.

Funfact:- we guys hated tiktok months before China attacked our borders, I even made 2. Topics about we dropping the rating from 4.6 to 1.3(unfortunately Google deleted 9 million reviews)