Apps failing to comply with regulatory measures will remain blocked: Saudi minister

Apps failing to comply with regulatory measures will remain blocked: Saudi minister

RIYADH — Minister of Communications and Information Technology Eng. Abdullah Al-Swaha said that communication services would remain blocked for some mobile applications that do not comply with Saudi Arabia’s regulatory and security measures.

“The sovereignty and security of the homeland is a red line and the companies that do not adhere to the specified procedures will not be allowed to function in the country,” he said.

The minister made the remarks while attending the program titled “Al-Liwan” on Rotana Khalijia television channel.

Selling customer data to commercial entities by the telecom companies is a global challenge, especially since the average user shares his data with social media platforms and sometimes governments may not know anything about this, Al-Swaha said.

He pointed out that the talk about selling customer data was already monitored in the past by some companies, but the matter now was completely different.

The power of cloud computing is measured in the number of megawatts, where the baseline was less than 20 megawatts and is now 90 megawatts. The ministry aims to triple this number by the year 2025, he said.

How he became minister

While attending the program, Al-Swaha also talked about the scenario behind his appointment as minister in 2017. The minister explained