The Indian government has issued a fresh order banning 54 Chinese mobile applications, accusing the parent firms of these apps, such as Alibaba, Tencent, and GameEase, of stealing consumers' data, thus posing a threat to the sovereignty and integrity of the country.
"These 54 apps allegedly obtain various critical permissions and collect sensitive user data. These collected real-time data are being misused and transmitted to servers located in hostile country", the federal Information Technology Ministry said in a statement on Monday.
Millions of Indians use the applications for streaming music, taking selfies, gaming, and video chats, among other things.
"These apps were allegedly engaged in activities prejudicial to the sovereignty and integrity of the country also posing a serious threat to Security of the State and defence of India", the ministry further added.
The Narendra Modi government started banning Chinese mobile applications in 2020, days after 20 Indian soldiers were killed in a violent face-off with People's Liberation Army troops in Ladakh's Galwan Valley.
In three rounds of such orders, 267 applications have been banned over security threat concerns.