South Asia
Date of Event:
Dec 3, 2024
CamScanner was one of 59 Chinese apps the Indian government banned in 2020, amid a border conflict with China.
Rest of World found 30 documents from central and state government agencies that bear the “Scanned with CamScanner” watermark.
App bans make a loud political statement, but, in practice, they are difficult to enforce, experts say.
In October, a popular YouTuber tweeted out a document issued by the Election Commission of India that had been scanned using CamScanner, a Chinese document-scanning app.
CamScanner has been banned in India since June 2020, when the government blocked 59 Chinese apps amid a border conflict with China. The government stated at the time that these apps were “prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defense of India, security of state and public order.”
The Election Commission is not the only Indian government-adjacent entity still using this banned scanning app. Rest of World found 30 other instances of documents uploaded by government departments and ministries that were scanned with CamScanner since the app was banned more than four years ago. The documents were easily identified because they bore the watermark “Scanned with CamScanner.”
“The fact is that app blocking is never foolproof.”
Rest of World found that in India’s revenue department and the state governments of Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, and West Bengal officials have repeatedly used CamScanner over the past four years. Officials in the Jammu and Kashmir region have also used CamScanner several times since the ban. In 2021, Delhi police were called out on social media for using CamScanner and apologized for “inadvertently” using the app — but Rest of World found multiple documents that appear to have been scanned with the app in the years after. The Delhi police, revenue department, and state governments did not respond to requests for comment.
The government’s ban prevented new downloads, but those who already had CamScanner on their phones were likely able to continue using it, Deepanker Verma, a software developer and security researcher, told Rest of World. CamScanner, originally launched in 2011, reportedly had more than 100 million downloads in India before the ban.
Rest of World found 30 documents from central and state government agencies that bear the “Scanned with CamScanner” watermark.
App bans make a loud political statement, but, in practice, they are difficult to enforce, experts say.
In October, a popular YouTuber tweeted out a document issued by the Election Commission of India that had been scanned using CamScanner, a Chinese document-scanning app.
CamScanner has been banned in India since June 2020, when the government blocked 59 Chinese apps amid a border conflict with China. The government stated at the time that these apps were “prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defense of India, security of state and public order.”
The Election Commission is not the only Indian government-adjacent entity still using this banned scanning app. Rest of World found 30 other instances of documents uploaded by government departments and ministries that were scanned with CamScanner since the app was banned more than four years ago. The documents were easily identified because they bore the watermark “Scanned with CamScanner.”
“The fact is that app blocking is never foolproof.”
Rest of World found that in India’s revenue department and the state governments of Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, and West Bengal officials have repeatedly used CamScanner over the past four years. Officials in the Jammu and Kashmir region have also used CamScanner several times since the ban. In 2021, Delhi police were called out on social media for using CamScanner and apologized for “inadvertently” using the app — but Rest of World found multiple documents that appear to have been scanned with the app in the years after. The Delhi police, revenue department, and state governments did not respond to requests for comment.
The government’s ban prevented new downloads, but those who already had CamScanner on their phones were likely able to continue using it, Deepanker Verma, a software developer and security researcher, told Rest of World. CamScanner, originally launched in 2011, reportedly had more than 100 million downloads in India before the ban.
