The Indian Army bans the usage of 89 apps citing security concerns and sensitive data leakage. The issued directive has urged all army personnel to delete these apps from their phones by July 15. These apps include social media giants Facebook, Instagram, and Truecaller among others.
The banned apps also include the 59 Chinese based apps that are prohibited by the Indian Government. While there have been instances on lesser use of social media applications like WhatsApp, the current directive covers a wider range of online apps that go as far as the message, media sharing, browsing, e-commerce among others.
The 1.3 million Indian Army is constantly at risk of being honey-trapped by malicious and false social media accounts online. The directive is issued in order to prevent unwanted data from reaching the wrong hands.
An officer in conversation with the Times of India said, “The directive has been issued because there has been an exponential increase in the number of military personnel being targeted online by intelligence agencies of Pakistan and China.”
Truecaller Reacts, calls the move ‘unfair’
As soon as the directive became public, officials at Truecaller were quick to react calling the move disappointing. They also said Truecaller’s inclusion in the list of 89 banned apps was ‘unfair’ and ‘unjust’.
A Truecaller spokesperson on Thursday reacted to the news and said, ” Truecaller is an app of Swedish origin that considers India it’s home. We also have immense respect for the Armed Forces and we stand in solidarity with them and the Indian government. We would like to reiterate that Truecaller remains safe to use, both for our citizens and for our esteemed armed forces personnel. We see no reason for Truecaller to be on this list and will investigate the matter further.”
Here is the complete list of applications banned by the Indian Army:
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