{"id":50728,"date":"2026-01-14T15:47:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T20:47:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=50728"},"modified":"2026-01-14T15:47:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T20:47:15","slug":"india-may-want-ioss-source-code","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2026\/01\/14\/india-may-want-ioss-source-code\/","title":{"rendered":"India May Want iOS&rsquo;s Source Code"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.macrumors.com\/2026\/01\/12\/apple-opposes-india-plan-access-ios-source-code\/\">Tim Hardwick<\/a> (<a href=\"https:\/\/news.ycombinator.com\/item?id=46583719\">Hacker News<\/a>):<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/www.macrumors.com\/2026\/01\/12\/apple-opposes-india-plan-access-ios-source-code\/\">\n<p>Apple and other smartphone manufacturers are resisting an Indian government proposal that would require them to hand over source code for security review, reports <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/china\/india-proposes-forcing-smartphone-makers-give-source-code-security-overhaul-2026-01-11\/\">Reuters<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>[&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p>Apple, Google, Samsung, Xiaomi, and industry group MAIT have all reportedly objected, citing a lack of global precedent and concerns about revealing proprietary details.<\/p>\n<p>[&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p>The country&rsquo;s IT ministry also said it &ldquo;refutes the statement&rdquo; that it is considering seeking source code from smartphone makers, despite the requirement appearing in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/china\/indias-proposed-phone-security-rules-that-are-worrying-tech-firms-2026-01-11\/\">government documents<\/a> reviewed by <em>Reuters<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theregister.com\/2026\/01\/12\/india_mobile_security\/\">Simon Sharwood<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/www.theregister.com\/2026\/01\/12\/india_mobile_security\/\">\n<p>India has had similar fights with big tech companies in the past, and nearly always backed down.<\/p>\n<p>Last December India&rsquo;s Department of Telecommunications <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theregister.com\/2025\/12\/02\/india_mandatory_sanchar_saathi_app\/\">demanded<\/a> that smartphone makers pre-install government apps on all handsets. Civil rights groups and tech industry lobbies both opposed the measure, leading India&rsquo;s government to first water down the proposal and then abandon it in less than a week.<\/p>\n<p>In 2022, India introduced a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theregister.com\/2022\/04\/29\/cert_in_directive\/\">directive<\/a> requiring organizations operating locally to disclose any cybersecurity incidents within six hours of detection, and framed it so cloud operators would have to report on activities conducted by their tenants. Vendors and tech lobby groups pushed back, India&rsquo;s government eased the requirement, and has scarcely mentioned it since the 2023 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theregister.com\/2023\/03\/22\/cert_in_cyber_reporting_ignored\/\">revelation<\/a> that compliance with the law was very low.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p>Previously:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2025\/12\/03\/mandate-to-pre-install-ios-app-in-india\/\">Mandate to Pre-Install iOS App in India<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2024\/07\/23\/india-calls-out-app-store\/\">India Calls Out App Store<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tim Hardwick (Hacker News): Apple and other smartphone manufacturers are resisting an Indian government proposal that would require them to hand over source code for security review, reports Reuters. [&#8230;] Apple, Google, Samsung, Xiaomi, and industry group MAIT have all reportedly objected, citing a lack of global precedent and concerns about revealing proprietary details. [&#8230;] [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"apple_news_api_created_at":"2026-01-14T20:47:19Z","apple_news_api_id":"f41e97d0-8de5-4f49-baaa-1a093f05e353","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2026-01-14T20:47:20Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAD\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/w==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/A9B6X0I3lT0m6qhoJPwXjUw","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":"\"\"","apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1770,31,2741,209,74,48],"class_list":["post-50728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology","tag-india","tag-ios","tag-ios-26","tag-legal","tag-opensource","tag-security"],"apple_news_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50728"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50728\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50729,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50728\/revisions\/50729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}