Hong Kong has banned WhatsApp, Google Drive and WeChat, calling them risky. Along with messaging apps, this ban has been imposed on Google's cloud storage platform, especially for government employees and offices. Ordinary users in Hong Kong will continue to use them. Even before this, social media platforms have been banned in government officials and offices in many countries.
IT guidelines issued
According to AP news agency, the Hong Kong government has issued an IT security guideline for civil servants, in which the use of these three apps has been banned. Let us tell you that the Hong Kong government has taken this decision due to the data breach that came to light in the beginning of the year. In the data breach, personal data of thousands of people of Hong Kong government department was leaked, due to which there was a lot of uproar.
According to the guidelines issued by Hong Kong's Digital Policy Office, government employees will not use apps like WhatsApp, WeChat and Google Drive on their official phones, laptops and PCs. However, to use these apps on personal phones, government employees will have to take approval from their reporting manager. This step taken by the Hong Kong government has been welcomed by many security researchers.
Hong Kong is not the first country where government employees have been banned from using social media apps. Even before this, many Chinese apps including TikTok have been banned from being used by government employees in America.
Big security risk
The government says that government data exchanged on social media and cloud services reaches third party vendors outside the government, which may pose a security risk. Many such data are shared among government officials and are highly confidential. In such a situation, this confidential information reaches the cloud server of WhatsApp or Google Drive. In view of this risk, the Hong Kong government has banned the use of these apps by employees working in government departments.
Information – Infinix launches cheap phone with 8GB RAM, 256GB storage and 5000mAh battery
Image Credit: India-Tv.