Smartphone Data Privacy| Smartphone privacy a Nightmare| whether Ban of Chinese apps protect your data?

Government of Indian has banned more than 170 Chinese apps including TikTok, PUBG, Xender, Shareit and many others in concern of user data privacy and nation security. TikTok had about 119 million active users in India  alone and about 277.6 million download in 2019 alone while PUBG has about 50 million active players in world-wide. Considering the data breaching with these Chinese apps or the apps which have some linking to China, Ministry of Information & Technology banned almost 177 apps in India. The main reason behind the ban was user’s private data protection and nation security. This is the largest sweep against China. But the real question rising now is that whether banning of these Chinese apps will protect your data, will keep your privacy safe or whether it will have a complete protection on nation security. The real answer is NO, banning of these Chinese apps is only a tip of the iceberg, the real iceberg is under the water and yet to be solved.

Whether Ban of Chinese apps protect your data or keep your privacy safe

Government of India had banned 118 Chinese apps recently and 59 earlier. The ban of these apps will never be complete solution. When the dispute between India and China started in Border, campaign of boycott china started in India. Indians came to roads to protest against Chinese products. India is angry after the June 15 bloodshed between Indian and Chinese troops in Galwan. Across the country, there are calls to boycott Chinese products and suspend trade between the two countries, with people burning Chinese products and goods. After the ban of these Chinese apps the data flow from India to China will be reduced by an amount but the data flow or breach will continue.

Smartphone Market Share Q1 2020 Analysis

According to the report Chinese brands including Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo and Realme control more than 81% of India’s Smartphone market. Xiaomi leads the race by having more than 45% of online Smartphone market. In the first quarter of 2020 Xiaomi and Realme shows a great progress in sales in India. From Q2 the sales started showing a downfall due to the dispute between India and China. As per counterpoint study India is the fastest growing segment in the range of Rs. 11,000 to Rs. 18,000. India is the second largest market for smartphones after China, in 2019 158 million smartphones were shipped to India. There, Chinese manufacturers shipped 113 Million cell phones to India (11.3 crores). The real concern is not about the number or the profit these Chinese companies are making, the real issue is with the user data they take from us. These Chinese Smartphone have everything about you, they knows everything about you and even they can predict about you, the world of data science and machinelearning has grown a lot that it have the power to analyse you completely.

These Chinese Smartphone brands have record of all your data, even they have your unique fingerprints and retinas stored in their servers. There was a report early May this year that these Chinese smart phones are Collecting Data from Millions of Customers from around the World and the data was then being sent to remote servers hosted by another Chinese tech giant, Alibaba, which were ostensibly rented by Xiaomi. The device has record of the activities in the browser, even in incognito mod (private web), also has record of the folder we visit. Last year there was a news about the security concern about Huawei equipment. US & Australia have banned Huawei from providing equipment for their 5G networks. Concerns also rise over Chinese brands Oppo and Realme now new concerns have been raised about the personal data capture. Data security regarding the Chinese smart phones and smart devices are at great concern for years and now the concerns are increasing day by day. Many countries have asked for clarification and started looking for replacements.

These Chinese companies still have the apps banned by Indian Government, and the apps which already have concerns about data security and scarier thing is that some of these apps are system apps in those devices. Among some of the devices user don’t have the permissions to uninstall or remove those banned Chinese apps. Companies are working to remove those apps from the devices and proposed that they will be removing those apps from the new devices. Xiaomi released a statement on Twitter clarifying the situation with China's banned apps on its phones. It states that no Indian government banned apps are available on any Xiaomi phone and also 100 percent of Indian user data resides in the country. Xiaomi also states that its own MIUI Cleaner app does not use the now banned Clean Master app.

Effect of Boycott China on Chinese smart phones - #boycottchina

According to the reports the Chinese brands like Xiaomi, Realme, Vivo, Oppo and one plus had 81% of Indian market and due the effect of boycott china coupled with covid-19 the sales dropped to 72%. Attitude of Indians started to change and they are searching for a replacement of these Chinese brands, which shows a great down slope in the market for these Chinese brands. Due to the app ban by Indian Government the Chinese app makers could lose $70-$100 million annually.

The replacement of Chinese smart phones is not an easy task and it can’t be done in a single day. Also if a sudden ban on Chinese product will increase the price of these items like Smartphone, TV and other gadgets which will eventually making it difficult for a common citizen in India. Government should take healthy measures to ensure that all data stays in India and no private data is recorded and also promote Indian start-ups to come with a best replacements.

List of Chinese Apps banned by Indian Government inIndia

Smartphone Privacy

Internet users in the world are rising and the Smartphone users are increasing exponentially. Smart phones can be a replacement of a computer or it can do more than what a normal computer can do today. According to the reports there are about 5.15 billion mobile phone users in the world and out of that more than 3.5 billion is Smartphone users. China has the most number of Smartphone users followed by India; China has more than two time the users in India by 2019.

Number of Smartphone users in millions by country as of 2019

Anything you do on your smartphone or any information you store is at risk of being hijacked or unintentionally provided if you do not take appropriate precautionary measures. Consider your own conversations via text, email, or instant messenger app; any online accounts and passwords you can enter in your phone; contacts and call history; your location data and history; your web browser history; and your photos, videos, snapshots, swipe and the like. It’s hard to convey how much of our personal lives we can express on our smartphones.

You can think of your smartphone as a network of connected services, each of which can provide access to other information stored or collected on your phone. Your phone receives an Internet and phone service from an Internet service provider. Your phone's operating system can collect usage data and transfer it back to its developers. Applications running on your phone may be granted access to certain sensors or data, and may share that data with developers (and advertisers). Criminals can infiltrate your phone through malware, hacking, or physical access to your device. In some cases, the government may be interested in getting information on your phone. By knowing what services can collect data on your smartphone, you can make more informed decisions to better protect your privacy.

Smartphone users in India in 2015 to 2020 in millions

Smartphone privacy a Nightmare

The increase of Smartphone users shows the importance of a Smartphone and also now the smatphone have become an unavoidable component of a human life. Samrtphone has become a replacement of your personal computer, when mobile was invented the purpose of mobile was to communicate messages via text or voice. But with smartphone the requirements have grown, now a smartphone is able to do or can do more than what a normal computer can do. Today we use Smartphone for bank transfers, navigation, watching movies, connecting on social media and even for our office purposes. But the scary thing is that this tiny device keeps an eye on you for 24/7. It records whatever you and it know what you are going to do the next sec.

• Microphones are open ears of your neighbor

Our Smartphone comes with high quality microphone and in 2020 our smart phones have 2-4 microphones. Ears are open for 24/7 and listening all our secrets, just think whenever you call ‘ok Google’ the smart phone replies you, so it is waiting for your command for 24/7. You have also noticed that if you speak something about any product you will be seeing ads related to that. So Smartphone microphones have all secrets about you. This is really a big nightmare if you think in deep that the words you talk to your wife, husband, girl or boy friend everything can be heard by a third person.

• Smartphone keyboard knows you better than anyone

All the text communications you do in a smartphone is via keyboard and there are thousands of keyboard application available, some of that will be Malicious apps so double check before installing any keyboard in your phone. Just remember that the password you enter, the secret pins, all bank transactions, secret chats everything is done via a Smartphone virtual keyboard and the virtual keyboard have all data about you. You remember the recommendation by keyboards; all these are done by collecting your vital data. The keyboard also collects data and use them to show adds for you. All the secret search you done in your private browser is also done via this virtual keyboard and this can also be seen as recommended words. So be very careful while using smartphone keyboard otherwise smartphone privacy will be a nightmare.  

• Geo tracking know where you are

Map navigation is the one of the most helpful feature smartphone have, it can safe live at danger points and a trust-able friend at new places. But geo tracking is also a privacy nightmare, Your smartphone knows where you are going and what you are doing. Last year I received a notification in mobile showing that this year you have traveled these much places, these many km and all also whenever I go to a new place I use to get notification about the train timings, restaurant, place to visit etc. Even if you turn off your gps the smartphone can track you completely. You can’t hide from your smartphone geo tracking ability.

• App permissions

If we analyse the app permissions you already gave then it will be a great privacy nightmare. You will note that facebook will be collecting information from almost all apps you use and this is not only the case of facebook, other apps are also collecting your data for their adds. When you check your permissions settings in your phone you will notice that even the calendar app requires your storage and contact permission or weather app requires your all permissions. This is too scary that all apps you install takes permission to everything on your phone even if it is not required. So be very careful while installing apps, don’t install any malware apps and give only required permissions.

• Smartphone Camera

Smartphone camera s a wonderful item and it keeps on developing over years, even better than our digital cameras. In 2020 three camera is a must and capable to taking awesome pics. But the worst scary thing is that the apps you install ask for camera access and we use to grant. Smartphone cameras are a security concern, hackers can access your camera at any time using some malware app or other sources. Camera’s are the privacy concern of every individual and a hacker can operate your camera even you will not be able to understand that. So give camera access to only required apps.

Today we can’t avoid smartphone which has become a part of us and we need this for both in our personal and professional life.  So what we can do is to take precautions while using the smartphone, update regularly, update to latest security patches and don’t give any unnecessary permissions and also don’t install any Malicious apps.