India is intensifying a crackdown on Chinese technology companies, with a government official saying security testing of China’s UC Browser was being done to see if it is leaking data.
Testing on the popular browser made by Alibaba Group Holding Ltd’s (阿里巴巴) UCWeb is under way and the government is awaiting a report before deciding on any action, Indian Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology Secretary Ajay Prakash Sawhney said on Wednesday.
UC Browser has over 100 million monthly active users in India and claims more than 50 percent of the mobile browser market in the country.
The ministry earlier this month said that it was focusing on “securing Indian cyberspace” and its digital infrastructure.
It directed more than two dozen smartphone companies to provide detailed written responses by Monday on their “safety and security practices, architecture, frameworks, guidelines and standards.”
The companies included prominent Chinese device makers such as Xiaomi Corp (小米), Lenovo Group Ltd (聯想), Oppo Mobile Telecommunications Corp (歐珀移動), Vivo Communication Technology Co Ltd (維沃移動通信) and Gionee Communication Equipment Co Ltd (金立), as well as global brands Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics Co, and Indian companies.
While the government has not singled out Chinese phone companies, it noted in the directive that mobile devices have achieved 75 percent penetration in the Indian market and “there’s a need to ensure the safety and security of the devices.”
Brands such as Xiaomi, Vivo, Oppo and Lenovo have improved their market share, accounting for more than half of the smartphone shipments to India for the second successive quarter ending in June, according to data from researcher IDC.
Xiaomi, which is fast closing the gap with the country’s leading brand, Samsung, plans to open 100 brick-and-mortar stores in the next two years to further its market share.
The security audit comes amid a tense standoff between the armies of India and China over territory in Bhutan.
Across the border, China’s government has placed restrictions on companies like Apple, which has had to remove dozens of popular apps that allowed users to access virtual private networks and get around the government’s stringent system of Internet filters.
India’s sudden directive has puzzled phone makers.
“Let’s not play hide and seek. If the government wants that Indian data should not go out, it should say so decisively,” Indian Cellular Association national president Pankaj Mohindroo said in an interview.
The government could be seeking to locate data hosting servers in India, create a national firewall for the apps and create a standard for a secure smartphone, he said.
The association is the country’s leading trade body, comprising at least 50 device makers as well as app makers, distributors and retailers.
“We recognize the requirement of national security and protection of customer data,” the association said in an official release.
It is not just the growing market share of Chinese brands that worries the government, but also that the bulk of components are directly imported from China.
“Over 95 percent of the components come from China or are made by Chinese-owned companies in Taiwan or elsewhere, nothing is made in India other than chargers, batteries and headsets,” said Sudhir Hasija, chairman of Karbonn Mobiles Pvt, a domestic budget phone maker.
“There’s a feeling that China collects data through their chip sets from users,” Hasija said. “This is the worry of the whole world and this is also the worry of the Indian government.”
India’s imports of electronics could rise to about US$300 billion by 2020, with demand increasing to US$400 billion, according to a June forecast by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India, an industry body.
“This could be the first step to getting technology companies to set up servers within India,” said Ravinder Zutshi, a former deputy managing director of Samsung India and the ex-chief of the country’s leading consumer electronics manufacturers’ body.
“This could be the government’s way of ensuring that there’s no data leaking outside the country’s borders,” Zutshi said by in a phone conversation.
“Security is obviously a concern and they are checking all devices to ensure there are no data breaches either through the apps or devices,” Gartner Inc research director Anshul Gupta said in Mumbai.
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