India Geger! Pemerintah Mau Paksa Apple hingga Samsung Serahkan Source Code Ponsel

Samsung is believed to be reluctant to provide source code to the Indian government (photo: dok. samsung newsroom)

JAKARTA - The Indian government is working on a new digital security rule that could shake up the global smartphone industry. In a proposal revealed by Reuters, India plans to require mobile phone manufacturers such as Apple, Samsung, Google, and Xiaomi to hand over the source code of their devices to the government as part of a reform of the national security system.

This policy is included in a package of 83 telecommunications security standards aimed at strengthening user data protection, amid a surge in online fraud cases and data leaks in India, which has nearly 750 million mobile phone users. In addition to the source code, companies are also required to inform the government before releasing major software updates as well as making certain system changes to mobile phones.

A number of technology giants strongly rejected the plan. They assessed that the obligation to share source code had no global precedent and risked revealing trade secrets and the company's core technologies. The Indian government's internal documents note that industry representatives expressed concerns that this rule was not applied in developed countries such as the European Union, North America, and Australia.

In the proposal, the Indian government wants to conduct vulnerability analysis through a review of source code that will be tested in a special laboratory in the country. In addition, manufacturers are required to allow users to delete built-in applications, block access to the camera and microphone by applications in the background, and perform automatic and periodic malware scanning.

The industry considers a number of provisions difficult to implement. The Association of Indian Electronics Manufacturers, MAIT, said that regular malware scanning can drain the battery of a mobile phone, while the obligation to report software updates before they are released is considered impractical because security updates must be done quickly.

India also proposed that the log of the activity of the mobile phone system be stored on the device for a minimum of 12 months. However, according to MAIT, the storage capacity of the mobile phone is insufficient to store log data for a full year.

India's IT Secretary, S. Krishnan, said the government was still open to dialogue and would consider industry input. A follow-up meeting between government officials and technology company executives is scheduled to take place this week, amid a tug-of-war between national security and the protection of global technology secrets.