Fact Check: Is Govt Forcing Phone Companies To Delete Pre-Installed Apps?

Reuters recently reported that govt. is going to force smartphone companies to let users remove pre-installed apps from their phones. Let’s do the fact-check!

According to a recent Reuters article, the Indian government might soon force smartphone manufacturers to permit users to uninstall pre-installed apps. 

The story is “simply false,” according to Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar, who has denied the news.

The Minister stated in a tweet on the microblogging site Twitter that the administration is fully dedicated to promoting ease of doing business and is concentrated on expanding electronics manufacturing in the nation.

He stated that the news is the result of “a lack of understanding” and “uncontrolled creative imagination.” It is based on continuing discussions between the industry and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technologies (Meity).

“This story is flat out false; there has been no “crackdown” or “security testing,” as the story implies. “@GoI MeitY is 100% committed to Ease of doing Business and is totally focused on growing Electronics Mfg to hit USD 300 Bln by 2026. 

The report is based on a lack of understanding and perhaps an unrestrained creative imagination that is based on a continuing consultation process synchronization between the Ministry & Industry on mobile security standards of BIS Standard IS17737 (Part-3) 2021,” he wrote in the Twitter post.

In case you missed it, Reuters recently reported that India may soon propose new security regulations that require screening of significant operating system updates. 

According to Reuters, who cited two sources and a government document it had access to, the government may require smartphone manufacturers to provide customers the option to delete pre-installed apps from mobile devices.

Most cellphones at the moment have pre-installed apps that cannot be removed. For instance, Apple’s Safari web browser, the GetApps software store from Xiaomi, and Samsung Pay Mini. 

According to two persons with knowledge of the proposal, the new regulations will require smartphone manufacturers to include an uninstall option and to have new models evaluated for compliance by a lab approved by the Bureau of Indian Standards agency.

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