Apple Pressed by India to Pre-Install Government Apps on iPhones

I hate Apple for this.

Money > Everything, absolutely everything.

Money? It's not about money at all, it's about legislation. They have to comply with local legislation or exit the market. What's the alternative you envision? Maybe direct your hate toward the legislation.

There is no indication that these apps can do anything beyond what normal apps can do, so they'd be under the same security model, as far as we know.

If you don't live in India it won't affect you. If you do live in India, you can buy the product or not, which is one more choice than if they exited India.

If the apps are of value to Indians to access government information or services, they will install them themselves. Forcing them to be installed does not lead one to believe they are innocuous.

Whether I live in India is irrelevant. I want freedom from government overreach for everyone.

‘also requested that their apps be available for download outside the company's app stores from third-party sources without triggering "untrusted source" warnings.’

Whoever is suggesting these rules is taking millions in bribes from scam call centers and hackers.

Some of the govt apps like VoterID, BHIM, DigiLocker are really good and useful in day today life. But it could just come up as a popup recommendation before setup. No need to shove it down everyone's throat.

‘also requested that their apps be available for download outside the company's app stores from third-party sources without triggering "untrusted source" warnings.’

Whoever is suggesting these rules is taking millions in bribes from scam call centers and hackers.

"without triggering "untrusted source" warnings."
That's the real danger. In other words Indian government wants to spy using phones.

Very bad idea from a very untrustworthy regime and would set a very dangerous precedent. Hope both Apple and Google push back hard on this.

Brother.. give me an example it's an untrustworthy "regime"? The government was elected last year via a nationwide democratic electoral process. People do trust the government and have a chance to vote out the current party next election if they don't like it. This is not the case for governments in China, Russia, N. Korea and few other countries. Now no country will ever trust one another under any circumstance. But they don't go on calling each other untrustworthy lol.

I do believe that forcing to install all govt apps is a bit excessive bordering bloatware. But 3-4 apps made by the government are genuinely useful in urgent situations.

I will tell MacRumors members what the real problem faced by the Indian government is: Recently there have been lots of scams targeting Indians and especially senior citizens who are made to install government apps for Bank verification purposes. Gullible people install those FAKE GOVT apps (found on iOS and Android app store). These apps intercept OTP (one time password) used for bank to bank money transfers. That is why government wants Apple to show only the "Real" apps mandated by the government and reduce the scams. Yes we Indians also face scams en mass and the money is transferred to neighboring countries quickly making it harder for police to track the real criminals residing outside of India.

Little more to the above story: Criminals who are not Indian nationals, get mobile number and bank account in name of random street beggars or homeless person in need of urgent money. They ask him/her to go to a bank and open new account and give the mobile number and activate net banking, international bank transfers, etc. In return, the beggar/ poor person enjoys Rs. 5000 to Rs 10000 cash per month (or till the period the criminals can milk that account). This account is the one where scam call centers mislead gullible people to transfer their money. When the criminals believe that the amount is sufficient, it's transferred to international bank account in another country. The local police catch the beggar who has zero clue what's going on with his account at the cost of money paid to him per month in cash.