From WhatsApp to TikTok: App bans that have swept US government devices
Meta Platforms
' WhatsApp messaging service has been banned from all devices issued by the US House of Representatives. A memo sent to House staff on Monday explained that the "Office of Cybersecurity has deemed WhatsApp a high risk to users due to the lack of transparency in how it protects user data, absence of stored data encryption, and potential security risks involved with its use."
But WhatsApp isn't the only app banned on US government devices over privacy and security concerns. Here are a few others that have faced a similar fate:
TikTok
by Taboola
by Taboola
Sponsored Links
Sponsored Links
Promoted Links
Promoted Links
You May Like
40세 넘고 PC만 있으면? 이 게임 완전 내 거임!
Hero Wars
플레이하기
Undo
Back in 2022, CNN reported that TikTok was banned from electronic devices managed by the US House of Representatives. An internal notice to White House staff described the Chinese-owned app as a 'high risk to users due to a number of security risks.'
In 2023, the Biden administration took it further by banning TikTok from all devices used by federal employees.
Live Events
The app's troubles, however, weren't restricted to just government devices. More recently, President Donald Trump extended the deadline for a possible nationwide ban for the third time, aiming to push TikTok into American ownership.
Discover the stories of your interest
Blockchain
5 Stories
Cyber-safety
7 Stories
Fintech
9 Stories
E-comm
9 Stories
ML
8 Stories
Edtech
6 Stories
DeepSeek
In March, Reuters reported that the Trump administration was considering a ban on the Chinese AI chatbot DeepSeek from US government devices, citing national security concerns.
Earlier in January, the US Navy advised its members not to use the platform, as did space agency NASA, which blocked access to DeepSeek on its systems. Then, in March, the US Commerce Department followed in their footsteps as well.
ChatGPT
In 2023, The Verge reported that House Chief Administrative Officer Catherine L Szpindor said lawmakers and staff were only allowed to use the paid version of ChatGPT, known as ChatGPT Plus, due to its stronger privacy protections. 'No other versions of ChatGPT or other large language models AI software are authorised for use in the House currently,' Szpindor wrote in a memo.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
NDTV
32 minutes ago
- NDTV
"Thank You For Decisive Action In Iran": NATO Chief's Pre-Summit Note To Trump
"Truly extraordinary": NATO boss Mark Rutte Tuesday sent a gushing, caps-filled, pre-summit note to Donald Trump Tuesday, showing how far he goes to flatter the mercurial US president, who promptly posted the missive online. "Congratulations and thank you for your decisive action in Iran, that was truly extraordinary and something no one else dared to do. It makes us safer," Rutte wrote in a message shared by Trump on Truth Social -- and confirmed by the NATO chief's office. Showing himself adept at borrowing the style of the US president, Rutte then turned to the meat of the NATO summit -- spending pledges -- again giving Trump the credit for bringing everyone on board. "Europe is going to pay in a BIG way, as they should, and it will be your win," said Rutte. "You are flying into another big success in The Hague this evening. It was not easy but we've got them all signed on to five percent," he wrote. Keeping Trump on board within NATO by all means has been the unequivocal priority for Rutte, as the US leader came back to power threatening allies he would not protect them if they did not spend their fair share. To that end, NATO leaders are set to sign up to a pledge to spend five percent of gross domestic product on defence, despite some last-minute grumbling, notably from Spain. Piling on the praise -- while adopting Trump's habit of writing in capitals -- Rutte said this was "something NO American president in decades could get done." And finally, playing on Trump's known love of pomp and royalty, Rutte signed off with "See you tonight at His Majesty's dinner." Dutch King Willem-Alexander is hosting the world leaders for dinner and has invited Trump to stay over at his palace -- an invitation gratefully accepted. (Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
Economic Times
43 minutes ago
- Economic Times
OpenAI goes after Google Docs, Microsoft's Word for web with new ChatGPT features
OpenAI has developed features that let people collaborate on documents and communicate via chat in ChatGPT, The Information reported, citing two people who have seen the for collaboration features suggest OpenAI could even consider developing related productivity features such as file storage, the report said. These features compete with rival Google's Docs and Word for the web by Microsoft, OpenAI's biggest shareholder and business partner. OpenAI has already eaten into traffic for Google's flagship Search, with ChatGPT becoming popular for web searches. Google recently rolled out its 'AI Mode' for Search in India, after announcing the feature during its I/O event last month. The feature employs Gemini 2.5 to improve Google search results and experience. Meanwhile, the AI major has been hurting business for Microsoft's Copilot AI with its ChatGPT Enterprise, Bloomberg reported. The two tech companies also compete for customers of AI coding assistants and AI models accessed via application programming interface (API) by more advanced developers. Notably, Microsoft's multibillion investments in OpenAI were crucial in making the latter a forerunner in the AI space. It's still not clear if OpenAI will release these features, The Information reported. But in the event it does, it will open a new front in the rivalry with Google, and further complicate its ties with Microsoft. OpenAI is trying to secure Microsoft's blessings for a restructuring plan for its for-profit unit that oversees ChatGPT. Last week, Financial Times reported that Microsoft is prepared to abandon its high-stakes negotiations with OpenAI over the future of its alliance. Also Read: Group that opposed OpenAI's restructuring raises concerns about new revamp planAttractive bundle A combination of enterprise AI and document collaboration features would make ChatGPT more attractive for businesses, who prefer productivity bundles like Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 for their workforce. OpenAI says it has increasingly generated revenue from ChatGPT Team, and even offered discounts on such subscriptions recently. The company has projected roughly $15 billion in revenue from business subscriptions to ChatGPT in 2030, up from $600 million in revenue in 2024 In the works OpenAI product chief Kevin Weil and other company executives first discussed and showed off designs for the document collaboration feature nearly a year ago, the report said. Not much came of it due to workforce limitations and other feature got a second wind in October with OpenAI's Canvas, a ChatGPT feature to draft documents and code with AI. More recently, OpenAI developed but hasn't launched software allowing multiple ChatGPT customers to communicate about their shared work in the app, The Information said. Last week, OpenAI announced the rollout of ChatGPT Record mode for ChatGPT Pro, Enterprise, and Edu users. The feature, however, has limited utility since ChatGPT doesn't offer file storage or other productivity features.
Mint
an hour ago
- Mint
Trump Baffles With Sudden U-Turn on China Buying Iranian Oil
President Donald Trump on Tuesday appeared to undermine years of US sanctions on Iran, giving its biggest customer China the green light to carry on buying its oil as he seeks to bolster a ceasefire with Israel. The announcement on social media — which surprised both oil traders and officials in his own government — could undermine the central element of Washington's Iran policy under multiple administrations, which have sought to cut the regime's main source of revenue by making its top export off limits. 'China can now continue to purchase oil from Iran,' the president said on Truth Social, amid a flurry of posts demanding Israel and Iran cease hostilities. The statement landed only hours after Trump declared the Middle East rivals had agreed to a ceasefire, which got off to a shaky start with early breaches by both sides. It follows massive US airstrikes on several of the Islamic Republic's nuclear facilities Sunday, an offensive aimed at stopping Tehran from obtaining an atomic weapon. Oil prices extended losses after Trump's comments, with West Texas Intermediate futures sinking 6% to settle near $64 a barrel in New York. The market had already plunged in recent days as the threat to oil flows from the Israel-Iran conflict faded. US Treasury and State department officials handling Iranian oil sanctions were surprised by Trump's statement and uncertain how to immediately interpret it, according to people familiar with the situation. In the meantime, however, Treasury will continue to strictly enforce related sanctions, said one of the people, who asked not to be identified given the political and market sensitivity of the issue. The White House and Treasury Department didn't immediately respond to requests for comment, while the State Department referred questions to the White House. Tammy Bruce, State Department spokeswoman, declined to provide further specifics during a briefing Tuesday. 'I'm not going to get ahead of the president or try to guess what his strategy will be,' she said when asked about the comment. 'Things happen quickly and I think we'll find out sooner than later.' The apparent shift also comes as the Trump administration seeks to hammer out a new trade framework with China and climb down from a tariff war that saw duties reach levels high enough to cut all trade between the world's two biggest economies. The comments appeared to be Trump 'throwing a bone' to China and Iran for cooperating in their respective talks with the US, said Mark Malek, chief investment officer at Siebert. 'Most of us are thinking that it's just rhetoric at this point. But it definitely took me by surprise.' Allowing a specific carve out for China may be an effort by Trump to send positive signals to Beijing as he seeks a new tariff deal, said a person familiar with the president's thinking, also asking not to be identified. While the potential shift may ease some legal risks around China's buying of Iranian oil, it's unclear what impact the change would have on actual flows. China, the world's biggest importer, gets about 14% of its crude from Iran. But that figure is likely higher as some imports are masked as shipments from Malaysia, as well as the United Arab Emirates and Oman, in order to circumvent US sanctions, which Beijing doesn't recognize. Iran's oil, often purchased at a discount, is vital for China's substantial private refining sector, a crucial source of energy for its economy, which has struggled under the weight of a slumping property sector. 'The Iranian oil sanctions have been so significant for so long, but also with relatively muted enforcement,' said Daniel Tannebaum, former Treasury official and partner at Oliver Wyman. 'It would be premature to think that this policy — which would benefit both China and Iran — would go ahead without a longer term view of ensuring stability in the region, before just literally opening up the spigots to allow legal trade of Iranian oil by China.' Trump as recently as last month insisted all purchases of Iranian oil or petrochemical products 'must stop, NOW!' and that buyers would be subject to secondary sanctions and prevented from engaging in any business with the US. That threat built on previous warnings from his administration. In February, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Washington intended to squeeze Iran's oil exports to less than 10% of current levels, as it renewed the 'maximum pressure' campaign deployed during Trump's first term. As part of that effort, the US has sanctioned hundreds of oil tankers for their role in handling Tehran's petroleum and, absent an easing in those measures, some buyers may still take a more-cautious approach. The White House has also targeted Chinese entities that bought Iranian oil, something that could make other buyers wary. Likewise, secondary sanctions on Iran's sales remain in place and its not clear where the president's remarks will leave those. The sanctions were intended to force Iran to voluntarily give up uranium enrichment so that it would never be in a position to obtain a nuclear weapon. It's still unclear if US airstrikes over the weekend seriously damaged the country's nuclear facilities, while the International Atomic Energy Agency still doesn't know what happened to Tehran's stockpiled of 409 kilograms of highly-enriched uranium — potentially enough for 10 nuclear warheads. With assistance from Alaric Nightingale, Julian Lee, Jordan Fabian, Alexander Pearson and Kate Sullivan. This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
