CIOInsider India Magazine
India to Remove 232 Betting, Lending Apps to Safeguard Citizens' Data
To prevent the misuse of its people's data, India is taking steps to remove 232 apps, some of which have connections to China and offer lending and betting services in the South Asian market.
To preserve the integrity of the nation, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology is enforcing a temporary ban on 138 betting and gambling apps and another 94 firms that offered illicit loans.
According to Prasar Bharti, the Ministry of Home Affairs directed the ministry to make the change. The apps raised fears that they may be used as espionage and propaganda tools since they attempted to trick users into taking on large debts without understanding the rules.
The move this week is the most recent in a line of actions taken by the government to combat shark lending applications and other services that are endangering the inhabitants of the country.
Nearly all the blocking orders issued to date have been under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act of 2000, which gives the government powers to exercise emergency measures to protect the “sovereignty and integrity, defence, security of the state and public order in India”.
In recent years, India has also prohibited more than 300 apps that have ties to China in order to defend the sovereignty and integrity of the country. Early last year, New Delhi banned 50 additional apps with alleged ties to China, including Xriver by Tencent, Free Fire by Garena, Onmyoji Arena and Astracraft by NetEase, and 50 more.
Amid geopolitical tensions between the two neighboring countries, the Indian government also outlawed dozens of apps in mid-2020, including TikTok from ByteDance, the Community and Video Call apps from Xiaomi, and UC Browser and UC News from Alibaba Group.
The new regulations state that lenders must explicitly state the yearly loan rate and are not allowed to raise a customer's credit limit without the latter's permission. Additionally, it is required for digital lending apps to obtain consumers' prior, express consent before collecting any data, and all such requests must be need-based.
Nearly all the blocking orders issued to date have been under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act of 2000, which gives the government powers to exercise emergency measures to protect the “sovereignty and integrity, defence, security of the state and public order in India”.
