Xiaomi working on a MIUI update with no pre-installed blocked apps, says Manu Kumar Jain

Over a month ago, the Indian government  **banned 59 Chinese apps**  citing security issues. Among the apps were also a few owned by Xiaomi, some of which come pre-installed in the brand’s smartphones. On Friday, Xiaomi has released a statement clarifying its status on the banned apps. As per a tweet by Xiaomi India Head, Manu Kumar Jain, none of the blocked apps are available on any Xiaomi smartphones launched in India. Jain confirmed that the company is working on a new MIUI update, in which none of the blocked apps in India will come pre-installed. This MIUI update will be rolled out in a phased manner in the next few weeks, he said. (Also read: Boycotting Chinese products: Brands like Vivo, OnePlus unaffected but may severely hurt employment in India) [caption id=“attachment_7731301” align=“alignnone” width=“1024”] Xiaomi explained 100 percent of data from Indian users is stored in servers located in India. Image: Reuters[/caption] In addition to this, Xiaomi also clarified that MIUI has its own Cleaner app and it is not the Clean Master app that was banned in India earlier. According to the company, the Mi Cleaner app was “only using the definitions that are vital to the functioning of our cleaner app”. To avoid any confusion, Xiaomi will be removing those definitions from the updated app. Users can also update the app manually by going to Settings> App system updater. It further adds says that ‘Clean Master’ is a common industry name used by multiple app developers.

As for user privacy and security, Xiaomi explained that “since 2018, 100 percent of data from Indian users is stored in servers located in India and none of this data is shared by anyone outside of India.” Xiaomi Head also tweeted saying that “some stray instances of misinformation are being spread regarding the above points.” He added that “Xiaomi reserves the right to take legal action against untrue accusations of its non-compliance with government orders. " In addition to this, Poco which is now an independent company has also released a statement regarding the same saying, “Neither POCO X2 nor POCO M2 Pro feature any apps that are blocked for access by the Government of India. As a proactive measure, MIUI for POCO is updated with its own definition of the Cleaner app. The update started rolling out in July 2020 and has now covered all POCO smartphones.”