Alibaba's UC Browser under govt scanner over data leak

23 Aug 2017

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The UC Browser, developed by the Chinese mobile internet company UCWeb and owned by Alibaba Group of China, is under the government's scanner in India, for alleged leak of mobile data of its users.

UC Browser is the second-most used web browser in India after Google's Chrome and leads mobile phone segment with 48.66 per cent market share as Chinese mobile handsets have their biggest market in India.

"There have been complaints against UC Browser that it sends mobile data of its users in India to server in China. There are complaints that even if a user has uninstalled it or cleaned browsing data, the browser retains control of DNS of user's device," a PTI report quoted a government official as saying.

The ministry of electronics and IT instituted an investigation into the UC Browser following the findings of University of Toronto, which has allegedly discovered "several major privacy and security vulnerabilities that would seriously expose users of UC Browser to surveillance and other privacy violations".

The Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), Hyderabad is doing technical investigation into the allegation made in University of Toronto report, which also mentioned that the browser is mostly used in India and China.

If found guilty of data leak, Alibaba's UC Browser faces certain ban in the country, senior IT ministry officials said.

UC Browser is part of Chinese e-commerce major Alibaba's mobile business group.

In India, Alibaba has made significant investments in the payment bank firm Paytm and its parent company One97. Besides Paytm, Alibaba has invested in e-commerce firm Snapdeal as well.

UC Browser has last year claimed that it has over 100 million monthly active users in India and Indonesia.

As per Stat-Counter report at the end of June 2017, UC Browser is second most used web browser in India after Google's Chrome and leads the mobile phone segment with 48.66 per cent market share.

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