Days after Truecaller came out and said that it was a Sweden-based company and not a malware as claimed by the Indian Army, file sharing app SHAREit has responded to the allegation saying that they are a user-friendly content sharing platform and not a malicious or spyware application in India.
SHAREit's response comes a week after reports emerged that the Union Home Ministry released a list of suspicious apps and asked Indian troops to uninstall and restrain from using some 40 "Chinese mobile apps", including SHAREit, which is the most popular file sharing app in India.
Now, the company has said in a statement released on November 5 that it does not compromise on users' security.
"At SHAREit, we strictly adhere to high security standards and respect our users' privacy. We do not compromise on user's security and their privacy is of utmost importance to us. We have a huge user base in India and we are committed to providing better products and service to our users with continuous technological developments," the company said in a statement.
According to reports, the Intelligence Bureau (IB), in an advisory on November 24, had asked troops to delete apps like WeChat, Truecaller, Xiaomi, Weibo, UC Browser and UC News from their smartphones, or format their devices altogether.
Reports last week alleged that foreign intelligence agencies including that of China and Pakistan were using these apps to hack into smartphones.
"We have taken this issue seriously and are investigating the advisory. We are also happy to interact with government and media representatives to give more clarity. As per industry standards, we have also partnered with Amazon AWS (Amazon Web Services) as our infrastructure service provider, aiming to provide fast and secure service to our global users," SHAREit added.
Meanwhile, Truecaller last week also denied the allegation that it was a spyware and said it is investigating why it was on the government's list of malicious apps.
"In response to certain reports, we would like to clarify that we are a Sweden-based company. We are not sure why the app is on this list, but we're investigating. Truecaller is not a malware, and all our features are permission based and are disabled by default," the company said in a statement.
India's leading smartphone brand Xiaomi has also refuted these reports and said that it takes users' security and privacy very seriously and is investigating the advisory.
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