With the government having banned Chinese apps, including Xiaomi's Mi Community, the Chinese technology company has announced its plan to work on a new version of MIUI. In an open letter, the company clarified that none of the apps blocked by the Indian government are available for access on any Xiaomi phones launched in India. Also, the company is developing a new version of MIUI, which will be rolled out in a phased manner over the next few weeks. This new version will be built without pre-installed blocked apps.
"We wanted to take this opportunity to update our community on a couple of important things regarding our data privacy and security. Xiaomi India has always upheld user privacy and security as the top priority for all our devices. The love and support from Mi Fans and customers over the last 6 years is a testament to their trust in our brand," said Manu Kumar Jain, Vice President, Xiaomi, and Managing Director, Xiaomi India in an open letter.
In addition, the company highlighted that it continues to comply and adhere to all data privacy and security requirements under Indian law. And since 2018, even before it was mandated, 100 per cent of data from Indian users is being stored on servers located in India. The company stated that none of this data is shared with anyone outside of India.
Regarding the Clean Master issue, Xiaomi clarified that 'Clean Master' is a common industry name, used by multiple app developers. MIUI has its own Cleaner app and is not using the Clean Master app that has been blocked by the Indian government. MIUI cleaner app was only using industry definitions that are vital to the functioning of cleaner app. Since this might be confusing for consumers, they are removing these definitions from the updated MIUI Cleaner App. Users can also manually update the Cleaner app in Settings by going to System apps updater on their smartphones.
Also, going forward, all new and upcoming smartphones from Xiaomi India will have the updated software.
On June 29, 2020, the government of India invoked power under section 69A of IT Act to ban apps that were believed to engage in activities prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of state and public order. The Ministry of Information Technology has received many complaints from various sources including several reports about misuse of some mobile apps available on Android and iOS platforms for stealing and surreptitiously transmitting users' data in an unauthorised manner to servers which have locations outside India.Also Read: Emami Q1 results: Profit remains flat at Rs 39 crore, revenue falls 26%
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