India banned hundreds of apps with Chinese developers last year following a border skirmish with Chinese forces. Among them were popular apps like Tiktok, Shareit and the immensely popular game PUBG Mobile.
Following this, the developers of the game Krafton kept up the constant effort to reintroduce the game in India which is finally near fruition in the form of Battlegrounds Mobile India. This is essentially a reskinned version of PUBG Mobile but Krafton stresses with in-game warnings and disclaimers that it adheres to all Indian norms.
But now according to a report by IGN India, the developers still have the game communicate and send over data to servers in China, which was one of the biggest issues with PUBG Mobile in the first place.
According to the report, the data sent and received by the Battlegrounds Mobile India APK is from China Mobile Communications servers in Beijing. This is accompanied by Tencent-run Proxima Beta in Hong Kong along with Microsoft Azure servers located in the US, Mumbai, and Moscow.
One of the servers spotted on the logs (36.152.4.34) was apparently owned by China Mobile Communications Corporation which is state owned website by China in Beijing. According to the report and the screenshots shared this server was not just pinged for the game but device data was being sent as well.
The report also mentions that the game also pings the Tencent servers in Beijing when it boots up. In Krafton’s Battlegrounds Mobile India terms of service, the company states that while the personal data and information collected from theur mobile devices will be stored in India, it might “transfer your data to other countries” to meet “legal requirements”, which while unclear seems to give the company leeway to do this.
Damn ! Is this correct, will ask @GoI_MeitY to look into it . https://t.co/JBMZ5jdpUNJune 20, 2021
Following this another report clarifies, Chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee on India’s Data Protection Bill and BJP Member of Parliament, Meenakshi Lekhi has asked MEITY “to look into it” in her tweet. While MEITY previously clarified that it can’t ban a game before launch this new development along with pressure from other politicians might push it over the edge.