Govt May Ask Smartphone Makers To Remove Pre-Installed Apps: Report

New Delhi: Under the proposed new security rules, the Centre plans to force smartphone makers to allow the removal of pre-installed apps and mandate screening of major operating system updates, according to two people and a government document seen by Reuters, NDTV reported.

The new rules, details of which have not been previously reported, could extend launch timelines in the world’s No.2 smartphone market and lead to losses in business from pre-installed apps for players including Samsung, Xiaomi, Vivo, and Apple. The IT ministry is considering these new rules amid concerns about spying and abuse of user data, said a senior government official, one of the two people, declining to be named as the information is not yet public, the report added.

“Pre-installed apps can be a weak security point and we want to ensure no foreign nations, including China, are exploiting it. It’s a matter of national security,” the official was quoted as saying.

Centre has ramped up scrutiny of Chinese businesses since 2020, banning more than 300 Chinese apps, including TikTok. It has also intensified scrutiny of investments by Chinese firms. Globally too, many nations have imposed restrictions on the use of technology from Chinese firms like Huawei and Hikvision on fears Beijing could use them to spy on foreign citizens. China denies these allegations.

The new rules

• Under the new rules, smartphone makers will have to provide an uninstall option and new models will be checked for compliance by a lab authorized by the Bureau of Indian Standards agency
• The government is also considering mandating screening of every major operating system update before it is rolled out to consumers.

According to a February 8 confidential record of an IT ministry meeting, most smartphones used in India have pre-installed Apps/Bloatware which poses serious privacy/information security issue(s). The closed-door meeting is said to have been attended by representatives from Xiaomi, Samsung, Apple and Vivo, the meeting record shows.

The document added that the government has decided to give smartphone makers a year to comply once the rule comes into effect, the date for which has not been fixed yet. The companies and IT ministry did not respond to a Reuters request for comment, the report added.