The Indian government has banned 14 mobile apps after intelligence agencies reported that these apps were being used by terrorists in Kashmir to communicate with their supporters and spread terror propaganda. This move comes in compliance with Section 69A of the country’s IT law, which empowers the government to block access to any information that is considered a threat to national security.

The apps that were banned on May 1st do not have representatives in India, making it difficult to track down activities happening on the app. This move brings the total number of banned apps to 288, with the previous bans targeting apps with connections to China, which the government deemed prejudicial to India’s sovereignty and integrity.

The banned apps include popular messaging and chat applications such as IMO, Element, and Threema, as well as file-sharing and storage apps such as Mediafire. The ban also includes apps that offer end-to-end encryption, such as Enigma, Wickrme, and Crypviser, which are popular among privacy advocates.

List of 14 apps that are banned:

• Crypviser
• Enigma
• Safeswiss
• Wickrme
• Mediafire
• Briar
• BChat
• Nandbox
• Conion
• IMO
• Element
• Second line
• Zangi
• Threema

The government had previously banned 59 mobile apps in June 2020, 118 apps including PUBG Mobile in September 2020, 43 apps including AliExpress in November 2020, and 54 apps including Tencent-backed Garena’s Free Fire in February 2022. The bans on these apps were also made under Section 69A of the IT law, with the government citing national security concerns and threats to public order.

The ban on these apps is expected to be enforced soon, with Google and Apple notifying developers to remove them from their app stores. This move is part of the Indian government’s ongoing efforts to combat terrorism and preserve national security by regulating the use of mobile apps and other digital technologies.

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One major argument put forward by the US administration in its major clampdown on Chinese companies such as Huawei, TikTok, WeChat and others is that they could transfer data of US citizens to the Chinese government. Apparent, there seems to be nothing wrong if the US government spies on its own citizens. That is what it looks like going by a recent report by the Wall Street Journal.

The report reveals that the US government has a contractor who embeds tracking software in over 500 mobile applications used by US citizens. The contractor is named as Anomaly Six LLC and is based in Virginia. According to the report, the contractor pays mobile app developers to include a self-developed tracking code within their apps. The trackers then collect anonymous data from phones running such apps. Anomaly Six then collates the data and sells it to the US government.

If this were to be Chinese apps carrying such tracking codes, the internet would be on fire right now but it is what it is. The report even clarifies that there is apparently nothing legally wrong in what the company is doing as long as the data is not being sold for commercial purposes such as advertising or marketing.

However, there are reasons to be worried even though the data is said to be anonymized. The WSJ notes that there are several ways by which such “anonymous” data could be used to figure out who owns the device. For example, the device will likely be idle at night while the owner sleeps, and the device’s location at that time is likely the owner’s home. Once that information is gotten, it is no difficult to start decoding other user habits, such as where they work, what they use to commute, where they go out to eat, etc. In other words, individuals can be tracked using such data.

Although Anomaly Six has confirmed the report, it refused to mention the apps with which it has partnerships. The Wall Street Journal has not been able to also get information on the apps by any other means. There is no available information on what the US government does with such data. The usual guesses will be law enforcement purposes or counter-terrorism.

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