12 phone firms respond to notice on data safety

NEW DELHI: The government is likely to extend the deadline for handset companies to submit details of security procedures for protecting user data on smartphones, after requests to the effect from players such as Samsung, Oppo and Sony.

Smartphone makers like HTC, Xiaomi, Comio, Vivo, Lenovo, HMD, MTech, Intex, OnePlus, Huawei, Honor and InFocus have submitted the details with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, which had on August 16 ordered 30 companies to provide their individual security protocols for each of their devices. Monday was the deadline to submit the information.

"We have got details from 10-12 companies, four have asked for more time, so we may extend the deadline for all," a senior official said, asking not to be named.

The official did not say what could be the new deadline. A person familiar with the matter said that while Samsung has submitted initial details, it has sought more time if the government wanted more details.

Apple confirmed that it has submitted its response to the government.


The government sought details from 21 smartphone makers in the first set, and then extended the directive to nine more such as Motorola, Honor, Asus, OnePlus and InFocus. Officials had earlier said that remaining brands, including Reliance's Lyf, would be told to furnish their details in the same way.

The directive on data security came amid tension between India and China over the Doklam standoff, as also rising concerns over imports of Chinese IT and telecom products.

On Monday, Indian authorities said forces of both countries had mutually agreed to disengage, indicating an end to the border impasse.

While issuing the order, the IT ministry had cited international and domestic reports about data leaks from mobile phones, and said devices and pre-loaded software and apps would be under scrutiny in the first phase. Based on the response of the companies, it would initiate verification and audit of devices where required.

The ministry warned of imposing penalties of up to Rs 5 crore under provisions of the IT Act in case stipulated processes were not being followed.

ET reported on Monday that Chinese smartphone makers Oppo and Vivo were planning to move their cloud service locations to India, while another brand had called off talks with developers of apps to be pre-loaded on its devices after the government's order, to be on the right side of the law. Some domestic device vendors are also seeking clarity from pre-loaded app developers about security features to protect user data.

Companies like Oppo, Samsung, Micromax and Xiaomi have said they comply with Indian regulations and their devices were secure. "We do not collect any data from anybody without taking prior permission. We do have some Internet-based services like cloud, Mi messaging, but all these services require a user to cautiously say, 'yes, I want to use these services' and then only these services will use their data," Xiaomi India managing director Manu Kumar Jain had earlier said.

He said all services were fully encrypted and even if anyone were to gain access to the information, he cannot retrieve it. "Thirdly, all our data is sitting in Singapore and the US on AWS servers, and our devices are extremely secure," he had said.