Indian Government wants OEMs to stop putting Bloatware

The Government of India is now in a very aggressive mood regarding the privacy of its citizens. It is now planning to pass a law that will force manufacturers to stop putting bloatware on their devices.

After banning TikTok, PUBG, and hundreds of other apps in the last two months over privacy issues, the Government of India is said to be working on a policy document that seeks to prevent smartphones and app companies from collecting information that goes beyond their intent.

A report in the Economic Times says that “the government is understood to be looking at prohibiting mobile applications from collecting user information beyond their area of functioning, the move coming in the backdrop of concerns around data handling and user privacy, including at the hands of American internet giants Facebook and WhatsApp and scores of top international and Chinese apps.”

The government is also keen on prohibitng push apps that are advertised by OEMs.

Many smartphone manufacturers, especially of Chinese origin such as Xiaomi, Realme, Pocophone, and more come with a bunch of pre-installed bloatware. Obviously, these are installed without the consent of the end-user. Many reports have found it evident that these apps have access to very intrusive permissions out of the box, collect and send data about users to advertisers, and have security flaws that often remain unpatched.

This is what the Indian Government wants to change.