US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order to ban transactions with eight more Chinese apps in the country. The move is aimed at reducing the threat posed by Chinese apps to American consumers as such apps have a large user base and access to sensitive user data.

By collecting sensitive user data, these apps allow China to track the location of federal employees and build their profiles for spying purposes. The executive order states that the United States must take “aggressive action” against Chinese developers to protect the country’s national security.

As per the executive order, the following apps from Chinese developers will be banned within 45 days:

• Alipay
• CamScanner
• QQ Wallet
• ShareIt
• Tencent QQ
• Vmate
• WPS Office
• WeChat Pay

“By accessing personal electronic devices such as smartphones, tablets, and computers, Chinese connected software applications can access and capture vast swaths of information from users, including sensitive personally identifiable information and private information,” the executive order states.

The executive order instructs the Commerce Department to define the type of transactions that will be banned for these apps.

Notably, CamScanner and a few other popular Chinese apps were banned by the Indian government last year. China’s Ministry of Commerce issued a statement against the executive order saying it goes against fair competition and harm Chinese apps and companies.

President Trump had previously passed an executive order to ban TikTok and WeChat in the US. However, the order was blocked by the court citing the violation of freedom of speech.

Since the executive order will come into effect 45 days from now, it is possible that President-elect Joe Biden will reverse it on the first day of his office. This is, however, unclear as of now, with Biden’s team refusing to comment on the matter.