{"id":694739,"date":"2026-01-14T05:44:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T05:44:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/694739\/"},"modified":"2026-01-14T05:44:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T05:44:09","slug":"indias-smartphone-security-proposal-faces-backlash-over-privacy-concerns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/694739\/","title":{"rendered":"India&#8217;s smartphone security proposal faces backlash over privacy concerns"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul data-testid=\"Summary\" class=\"summary-module__summary__QjADA\">\n<li data-testid=\"Body\" class=\"text-module__text__0GDob text-module__dark-grey__UFC18 text-module__regular__qJJtA text-module__small__sph8i body-module__base__o--Cl body-module__small_body__gOmDf summary-module__point__UgXPz\">IT ministry cancels scheduled meeting with tech giants, sources say<\/li>\n<li data-testid=\"Body\" class=\"text-module__text__0GDob text-module__dark-grey__UFC18 text-module__regular__qJJtA text-module__small__sph8i body-module__base__o--Cl body-module__small_body__gOmDf summary-module__point__UgXPz\">Internet rights group IFF says it is worried about proposal<\/li>\n<li data-testid=\"Body\" class=\"text-module__text__0GDob text-module__dark-grey__UFC18 text-module__regular__qJJtA text-module__small__sph8i body-module__base__o--Cl body-module__small_body__gOmDf summary-module__point__UgXPz\">Proposal seeks to micromanage how users interact with their devices, privacy advocacy group says<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>BENGALURU, Jan 13 (Reuters) &#8211; The Indian government&#8217;s plan requiring smartphone makers to share source code as part of a raft of new security measures has drawn criticism from privacy advocates and technology experts over fears of heightened surveillance.<\/p>\n<p>Companies including Apple <a data-testid=\"Link\" target=\"_blank\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/markets\/companies\/AAPL.O\" rel=\"noopener\" class=\"text-module__text__0GDob text-module__inherit-color__PhuPF text-module__inherit-font__1P1hv text-module__inherit-size__EyiQW link-module__link__INqxZ link-module__underline_default__-okuC link-module__with-icon__qlg76\">(AAPL.O), opens new tab<\/a> and Samsung <a data-testid=\"Link\" target=\"_blank\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/markets\/companies\/005930.KS\" rel=\"noopener\" class=\"text-module__text__0GDob text-module__inherit-color__PhuPF text-module__inherit-font__1P1hv text-module__inherit-size__EyiQW link-module__link__INqxZ link-module__underline_default__-okuC link-module__with-icon__qlg76\">(005930.KS), opens new tab<\/a> have privately protested the proposed <a data-testid=\"Link\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/china\/indias-proposed-phone-security-rules-that-are-worrying-tech-firms-2026-01-11\/\" class=\"text-module__text__0GDob text-module__inherit-color__PhuPF text-module__inherit-font__1P1hv text-module__inherit-size__EyiQW link-module__link__INqxZ link-module__underline_default__-okuC\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">package of security standards<\/a>, which also includes a requirement to maintain phone logs on devices for a year, <a data-testid=\"Link\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/china\/india-proposes-forcing-smartphone-makers-give-source-code-security-overhaul-2026-01-11\/\" class=\"text-module__text__0GDob text-module__inherit-color__PhuPF text-module__inherit-font__1P1hv text-module__inherit-size__EyiQW link-module__link__INqxZ link-module__underline_default__-okuC\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Reuters reported<\/a> on Sunday, citing a review of confidential government and industry documents.<\/p>\n<p data-testid=\"promo-box\" class=\"text-module__text__0GDob text-module__dark-grey__UFC18 text-module__regular__qJJtA text-module__small__sph8i body-module__base__o--Cl body-module__small_body__gOmDf article-body-module__promo-box__hVl8h\"> Sign up  <a data-testid=\"Link\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/china\/indias-smartphone-security-proposal-faces-backlash-over-privacy-concerns-2026-01-13\/undefined?location=article-paragraph&amp;redirectUrl=%2Fworld%2Fchina%2Findias-smartphone-security-proposal-faces-backlash-over-privacy-concerns-2026-01-13%2F\" class=\"text-module__text__0GDob text-module__inherit-color__PhuPF text-module__inherit-font__1P1hv text-module__inherit-size__EyiQW link-module__link__INqxZ link-module__underline_default__-okuC\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The proposal is part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi&#8217;s efforts to boost security of user data as online fraud and data breaches increase in the world&#8217;s second-largest smartphone market, with nearly 750 million phones.<\/p>\n<p>India&#8217;s IT ministry has said &#8220;any legitimate concerns of the industry will be addressed with an open mind&#8221; and consultations were ongoing. It also refuted that it was considering seeking source code, without commenting on the government or industry documents cited by Reuters.<\/p>\n<p>The Internet Freedom Foundation, a privacy and free speech rights organisation, said it &#8220;strongly rejects any proposed regime that effectively grants the state access to confidential source code and embeds persistent controls into devices used daily by hundreds of millions of Indians&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The proposals seek to micromanage how users interact with their own devices,&#8221; IFF added in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>India&#8217;s IT ministry did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n<p>POTENTIAL CONFLICT OF INTEREST<\/p>\n<p>The ministry called off a meeting scheduled for Tuesday with the tech giants to discuss their feedback and concerns about the proposal, according to three people with direct knowledge.<\/p>\n<p>Seeking source code &#8211; the underlying programming instructions that make phones work &#8211; erodes trust and &#8220;is a massive step backwards from India&#8217;s goal of improving the ease of doing business,&#8221; said Akash Karmakar, a partner at Indian law firm Panag &amp; Babu who specialises in technology law.<\/p>\n<p>Last month, India <a data-testid=\"Link\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/india\/india-cyber-safety-app-mandate-breach-privacy-main-opposition-party-tells-2025-12-03\/\" class=\"text-module__text__0GDob text-module__inherit-color__PhuPF text-module__inherit-font__1P1hv text-module__inherit-size__EyiQW link-module__link__INqxZ link-module__underline_default__-okuC\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">revoked<\/a> an order mandating a state-run cybersecurity app on phones following opposition from opposition parties and privacy advocacy groups.<\/p>\n<p>The latest proposal says tech companies should inform Indian officials before releasing security updates and they can test them if they want.<\/p>\n<p>That creates a conflict of interest as it allows the state to act as a regulator while potentially exploiting vulnerabilities for surveillance, said Raman Jit Singh Chima, global cybersecurity lead at internet advocacy group, Access Now.<\/p>\n<p data-testid=\"SignOff\" class=\"text-module__text__0GDob text-module__dark-grey__UFC18 text-module__regular__qJJtA text-module__extra_small__8Buss body-module__full_width__kCIGb body-module__extra_small_body__Bfz20 sign-off-module__text__LQAMP\">Reporting by Munsif Vengattil and Aditya Kalra; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise<\/p>\n<p data-testid=\"Body\" dir=\"ltr\" class=\"text-module__text__0GDob text-module__dark-grey__UFC18 text-module__regular__qJJtA text-module__small__sph8i body-module__base__o--Cl body-module__small_body__gOmDf article-body-module__element__5eCce article-body-module__trust-badge__5mS3f\">Our Standards: <a data-testid=\"Link\" target=\"_blank\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thomsonreuters.com\/en\/about-us\/trust-principles.html\" rel=\"noopener\" class=\"text-module__text__0GDob text-module__dark-grey__UFC18 text-module__medium__2Rl30 text-module__small__sph8i link-module__link__INqxZ link-module__underline_default__-okuC link-module__with-icon__qlg76\">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.reutersagency.com\/en\/licensereuterscontent\/?utm_medium=rcom-article-media&amp;utm_campaign=rcom-rcp-lead\" target=\"_blank\" dir=\"ltr\" class=\"button-module__link__A3sD0 button-module__secondary__70gBu button-module__round__QDFgq button-module__w_auto__Sem-F\" data-testid=\"LicenceContentButton\" rel=\"noopener\">Purchase Licensing Rights<\/a><a data-testid=\"AuthorBioImageLink\" class=\"author-bio-module__author-image__jcaG3\" href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/authors\/munsif-vengattil\/\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" tabindex=\"-1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p data-testid=\"Body\" class=\"text-module__text__0GDob text-module__dark-grey__UFC18 text-module__regular__qJJtA text-module__extra_small__8Buss body-module__base__o--Cl body-module__extra_small_body__Bfz20 author-bio-module__description__9ynkB\">Based in Bengaluru, Munsif Vengattil leads Reuters&#8217; technology news coverage in India. He tracks themes at the intersection of tech, business, and labor.<br \/>\nA reporter for nine years, Munsif has written extensively on India&#8217;s electronics manufacturing aspirations and its tech policy space, AI and election interference, satellite internet, streaming wars, and data breaches. His stories also focus on investigating corporate strategies and revealing India-specific initiatives and challenges of the biggest of tech firms &#8211; from Apple, Facebook, and Google, to Foxconn, Samsung, and Nvidia.<\/p>\n<p><a data-testid=\"AuthorBioImageLink\" class=\"author-bio-module__author-image__jcaG3\" href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/authors\/aditya-kalra\/\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" tabindex=\"-1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p data-testid=\"Body\" class=\"text-module__text__0GDob text-module__dark-grey__UFC18 text-module__regular__qJJtA text-module__extra_small__8Buss body-module__base__o--Cl body-module__extra_small_body__Bfz20 author-bio-module__description__9ynkB\">Aditya Kalra is the Company News Editor for Reuters in India, overseeing business coverage and reporting stories on some of the world&#8217;s biggest companies. He joined Reuters in 2008 and has in recent years written stories on challenges and strategies of a wide array of companies &#8212; from Amazon, Google and Walmart to Xiaomi, Starbucks and Reliance. He also extensively works on deeply-reported and investigative business stories.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"IT ministry cancels scheduled meeting with tech giants, sources say Internet rights group IFF says it is worried&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":694740,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3159],"tags":[202557,124884,521,124888,202019,202020,209639,84737,10326,202021,202192,168726,168721,168727,168730,168724,168731,168743,206977,206978,205666,201820,168733,168725,168728,168734,168723,201818,201819,209645,168729,168732,201804,124890,209640,124880,62408,256,202698,209644,7900,547,202119,124887,205660,24252,205664,209641,209642,5471,124882,168719,168741,111302,209643,168742,206976,54750,4566,203994,203995,206938,205663,326,53,202991,9966,84744,84729,16,15,978],"class_list":{"0":"post-694739","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mobile","8":"tag-advo","9":"tag-amers","10":"tag-asia","11":"tag-asxpac","12":"tag-civ","13":"tag-clj","14":"tag-cmpelc","15":"tag-cmpny","16":"tag-cn","17":"tag-crim","18":"tag-cycs","19":"tag-destabn","20":"tag-destabx","21":"tag-destbnx","22":"tag-destdnp","23":"tag-deste","24":"tag-destfun","25":"tag-destlita","26":"tag-destnoinbsm","27":"tag-destnointim","28":"tag-destodat","29":"tag-destoustcm","30":"tag-destpco","31":"tag-destpcu","32":"tag-destpsc","33":"tag-destrbn","34":"tag-destrnp","35":"tag-destseabs","36":"tag-destseatp","37":"tag-destsi","38":"tag-destu","39":"tag-destucdptest","40":"tag-easia","41":"tag-emrg","42":"tag-fraud1","43":"tag-gen","44":"tag-hack","45":"tag-in","46":"tag-itec","47":"tag-kr","48":"tag-legal","49":"tag-mobile","50":"tag-mtpix","51":"tag-namer","52":"tag-netsv","53":"tag-ngo","54":"tag-nrlpaodat","55":"tag-phne","56":"tag-phne1","57":"tag-phones","58":"tag-pol","59":"tag-publ","60":"tag-regs","61":"tag-ret","62":"tag-rete","63":"tag-reuters-legal","64":"tag-sasia","65":"tag-sci","66":"tag-shop","67":"tag-shopal","68":"tag-spcret","69":"tag-srchen","70":"tag-swit","71":"tag-tech","72":"tag-technology","73":"tag-teeq","74":"tag-tmt","75":"tag-topcmb","76":"tag-topnws","77":"tag-uk","78":"tag-united-kingdom","79":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=694739"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694739\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/694740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=694739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=694739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=694739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}