The government has proposed mandatory disclosure of source code by all smartphone makers as part of a major cybersecurity push, a report said on Sunday, citing persons privy to the development.
The changes, which would also require smartphone makers to alert the government before releasing any software update, have received a pushback from tech majors including Apple and Samsung, the Reuters report said.
The raft of security measures being mulled over by Indian authorities mandate phone manufacturers to rejig their software, in order to allow the deletion of pre-installed apps, the report said, citing documents. The changes should enable blocking all apps from using cameras and microphones in the background, in order to avoid potentially malicious usage.
The proposals, if enacted, could result in automatic scanning on phones at periodic intervals for malware detection, according to the report. The measures also require devices to maintain digital records of 12 months of system activity.
The measures, first drafted in 2023, could be imposed legally if the government decides to go ahead with the same. Officials from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), and executives of major tech companies are expected to discuss the security standards in a meeting on Tuesday, Reuters said.
There was no official statement issued by MeitY at the time of publishing this report. The smartphone makers were also yet to publicly react to the news report.
Notably, the most sensitive among the mandates being mulled over is the new Indian Telecom Security Assurance Requirements, which could grant authorities the access to source code, which is the set of programming guidelines that make smartphones work. These codes would be possibly tested at designated Indian labs, the news agency reported, citing the documents it accessed.