No Proposal To Force Smartphone Makers To Share Source Code, Govt Clarifies

There is no proposal on forcing smartphone makers to share their source code, the government said late on Sunday.

The clarification came hours after a Reuters report said that the Ministry of Electronics and IT was mulling over mandatory sharing of the codes, which are the programming guidelines that make smartphones work.

"The Government of India has not proposed any measure to force smartphone manufacturers to share their source code. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has started the process of stakeholders’ consultations to devise the most appropriate regulatory framework for mobile security. This is a part of regular and routine consultations with the industry for any safety or security standards," stated the fact check unit of Press Information Bureau, the Centre's official media arm.

Once the stakeholder consultations are done, then various aspects of security standards are discussed with the industry, it explained.

"No final regulations have been framed, and any future framework will be formulated only after due consultations," the government further clarified.

Earlier in the day, Reuters, citing sources, reported that the government has proposed mandatory disclosure of source code by all smartphone makers as part of a major security overhaul.

These codes would be possibly tested at designated Indian labs, the news agency reported, citing the documents it accessed.

The report further stated that the rules received a pushback from major phone manufacturers, including Apple and Samsung, who claimed that the measures being considered risk revealing proprietary details, and lack any global precedent.

There was, however, no statement issued by any of the phone makers in public domain.

As per the Reuters report, the IT Ministry was mulling over a raft of security measures, which would require smartphone companies to alert the government before releasing any software update.

The measures also require a change in their software, in order to allow the deletion of pre-installed apps, the report said, citing documents it accessed. The changes should enable blocking all apps from using cameras and microphones in the background, in order to avoid potentially malicious usage, it added.

The proposals, if enacted, could result in automatic scanning on phones at periodic intervals for malware detection, according to the report. The proposed measures also require devices to maintain digital records of 12 months of system activity, it further said.

The report, and the subsequent clarification, comes a month after the government mulled over mandating a state-run cyber safety app on smartphones. The plan, however, was revoked amid mounting concerns related to "surveillance".