The government will continue to scrutinise apps of Chinese origin that are constantly accessing data of Indians “through illegal means”, a senior official said. This came a day after it was revealed that 54 such apps, including many from the stables of large Chinese technology companies such as Alibaba, Tencent and gaming firm NetEase, had been banned in the fifth and latest crackdown by the authorities.

“Chinese apps are constantly changing names or hosts to access sensitive data of Indians. The government will keep scanning them from time to time,” an official told ET, asking not to be named.

ET reported on Monday that the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) had ordered the latest ban, terming the apps a “threat to national security”.

In a statement issued on Monday, a spokesperson for Google said: “On receipt of the interim order passed under Section 69A of the IT Act, following established process, we have notified the affected developers and have temporarily blocked access to the apps that remained available on the Play Store in India.”

In September 2020, the government had banned the hugely popular PUBG Mobile, owned by Tencent. This fuelled the growth of Garena Free Fire in India, which has now been banned as well.