Govt wants option to delete pre-installed apps: Report

European Union regulations require allowing removal of pre-installed apps. Representation pic

The Centre plans to force smartphone makers to allow removal of pre-installed apps under proposed new security rules, according to two people and a government document seen by Reuters.

The government is also considering mandating screening of every major operating system update before it is rolled out to consumers, one of the people said. The new rules could lead to losses in business for players including Samsung, Xiaomi, Vivo and Apple, as pre-installed apps come with monetary benefits.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology is considering these new rules amid concerns about spying and abuse of user data, said a senior government official, declining to be identified, as the information is not yet public.

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"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 added. Under the proposed rules, smartphone makers will have to provide an uninstall option and new models will be checked for compliance by a lab authorised by the Bureau of Indian Standards agency, sources said.

"Majority of smartphones used in India are having pre-installed Apps/Bloatware which poses serious privacy/information security issue(s)," stated a February 8 confidential government record of an IT ministry meeting, seen by Reuters. Representatives from Xiaomi, Samsung, Apple and Vivo attended the closed-door meeting. 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 document added.

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