The neighboring countries had only recently come to terms regarding the Doklam standoff, and before we could breathe in peace, another standoff has already arisen. After calling on to the Chinese for their unceremonious activities at the border, Indian authorities are now calling them on the data security solutions in practice for safeguarding the data of Indian users with Chinese mobile manufactures.



It is well known that Indian Smartphone market is clouded by Chinese companies, whether it’s mobile manufacturing or hardware building, China claims to have an upper hand in providing cheap and workable materials. Market trends show that almost half of all Smartphones sold in India were from Chinese brands. With the rising tensions on border, the government is tightening its grip on the security issues with its notorious neighbor. Indian officials have begun demanding the Smartphone manufacturers, especially Chinese, to co-operate with the security ordeals, and work on data security solutions.



Hacking and Cyber terrorism aren’t an uncommon phenomena, and are used unethically across the globe to gain upper hand. China’s current encounters with India exacerbate the situation, thus prompting government to take major steps.

The government has reportedly sent notices to 30 companies demanding information on their data protection procedures in its attempt to check data security solutions of consumer data. One of which is the Alibaba’s owned browser UCweb, which hosts more than 100 million monthly active users making up a 57 % market share. UCweb however, remains unaware of the Indian government’s move about the probe and called it a common practice to have servers around the globe to improve services and claims to have taken measures to encrypt the transmitted data.

data security solutions
Image source – youtube

Most of the brands have their data servers in Singapore and China, and many of these haven’t disclosed the location where data goes, thus complicating the situation as it directly raises questions on consumer data security. Lenovo, a leading Chinese Smartphone company, has called the security of customer data a Key priority. Other mobile handset companies, including HTC, Xiaomi, etc. have also replied to the government on data security solutions adopted by them, but there are still many companies which haven’t responded. It appears that the Centre will have to extend the deadline for mobile companies to submit details as a majority have failed to provide the data security solutions.



China being a one party socialist state, has its own reasons to despise Democracy and it’s quite obvious that why Chinese technology companies doesn’t go well with the norms in democratic countries. For Tech giants like Alibaba who run UCWeb, the data they receive from people about their interests, demands, preferences and localities are fairly valuable to assist the users for better user interface but it gets problematic if the same user data is hacked or manipulated or finds its place in the wrong hands. It’s wise for Indian government to be a little conscious about the consumer data.