Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

CTOnews.com, March 14 (Reuters)-India plans to force smartphone makers to allow users to uninstall pre-installed apps and review important operating system updates under proposed new security rules, according to two people familiar with the matter and a government document.

Details of the new rules, which have not been reported publicly before, could extend product launches in the world's second-largest smartphone market and cause losses on pre-installed apps for manufacturers including Samsung, Xiaomi, vivo and Apple.

A senior Indian government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the Ministry of Information Technology was considering the new rules because of concerns about misuse of foreign spies and user data. "the pre-installed app may be a security loophole, and we need to make sure that no foreign country is taking advantage of it," the official said. This is a national security issue. "

According to CTOnews.com, most smartphones come with pre-installed apps that can't be deleted, such as Samsung's Samsung Pay mini payment app and Apple's iPhone browser Safari.

Under the new rules, smartphone makers will have to provide uninstall options, and the new phones will be checked for compliance by laboratories authorized by the Indian Bureau of Standards, two people familiar with the matter said.

The government is also considering mandatory reviews of every major operating system update to consumers before it is released to consumers, a person familiar with the matter said.

"most smartphones used in India are pre-installed with application process / bloated software, which can cause serious privacy / information security issues," according to confidential government minutes of the IT meeting seen by Reuters on February 8. Representatives of Xiaomi, Samsung, Apple and vivo attended the closed-door meeting, according to the minutes of the meeting.

The document added that the Indian government had decided to give smartphone manufacturers a year to comply after the rules came into force, and that the effective date of the rules had not yet been set.

India's fast-growing smartphone market is dominated by Chinese manufacturers, with Xiaomi, vivo and OPPO accounting for almost half of all sales, South Korea's Samsung 20 per cent and Apple 3 per cent, according to Counterpoint.

Although EU regulations require that the pre-installed application process be deleted, there is no screening mechanism to check compliance, as India is considering.

An industry executive said that some pre-installed application processes, such as cameras, are critical to the user experience and that the government must distinguish between these and non-essential application processes when implementing audit rules.

Smartphone manufacturers usually install proprietary apps when selling their devices, but sometimes pre-install other apps that have a profitable partnership with them.

Another concern, said another industry executive, is that more testing could extend the approval time for smartphones. Currently, it takes about 21 weeks for government agencies to conduct safety compliance tests on smartphones and their components.

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