In the past when you would buy a smartphone from a carrier, they would typically install their own apps and services on the phone in a bid to try and get you to use them. This is also known as bloatware and it is something that the majority of customers do not like or appreciate. However, over in Russia, that will soon become mandatory.
According to reports, Russian President Vladimir Putin has recently signed into law a new legislation in which it would make it a requirement that Russian software be installed on all smartphones, computers, and smart TV sets that are sold in the country. It will be coming into effect next year on the 1st of July.
The idea is that this will help local Russian IT firms better compete against international firms and also help provide customers with software that’s ready to use out of the box, as opposed to having to download it themselves. This will no doubt have a huge impact on companies such as Apple, who have typically prevented software from third-party developers from being preinstalled on their devices.
That being said, there are also privacy issues at hand here, where it has been speculated that these preinstalled apps could also be used by the government to track its citizens.
Filed in . Read more about Legal and Privacy. Source: uk.reuters