“Alisa AI” to be made non-removable on all smartphones: Ministry of Digital Development changes preinstallation rules, RATEK demands the project be halted

The Ministry of Digital Development, together with industry participants, is finalizing a draft government decree that will fundamentally revise the rules for the mandatory preinstallation of Russian software on smartphones imported into the country. The key novelty concerns AI-based voice assistants: services such as Yandex’s “Alisa AI” may be granted a special “system assistant” status with an expanded set of privileges. The initiative has already split the industry into two camps — from supporters of equal conditions for all players to those who see in it a threat to security and to the logistics of device supply.

What will change in the preinstallation rules

According to the text of the document under finalization, AI assistants will receive three main rights that ordinary applications do not have. The first is automatic background updating without any direct action by the user. The second is the right to send push notifications. The third, and most significant, is non-removability, by analogy with the RuStore app store, which is already established as a system component. In effect, this turns the AI voice assistant from an “app that can be deleted” into an infrastructure element of the operating system of a smartphone imported into Russia.

Yandex’s position: equal conditions and audience growth

Yandex publicly supports the direction of the initiative, citing the multiple growth in the audience of the “Alisa AI” service and insisting that all market players should receive equal conditions. The company also refutes concerns about the assistant’s access to personal data: according to Yandex, “Alisa” does not have full access to the data of Russian users or to banking applications. Thus, the tech giant acts simultaneously as a beneficiary of the new rules and as a defender of the thesis that expanded privileges do not mean “end-to-end” access to user data.

RATEK’s criticism: security, leaks, and logistics

The Association of Trading Companies and Manufacturers of Household and Computer Appliances (RATEK) has taken the exact opposite position and demanded that the draft decree be suspended. The association’s argumentation rests on three points. First, in RATEK’s view, mandatory end-to-end access to the operating system and the non-removability of the software contradict the security architecture of closed mobile systems. Second, the association points to data leak risks. Third, in RATEK’s assessment, the initiative is technically difficult to implement without increasing the cost and complexity of device supply chains, which in the end may affect the price and the timing of devices reaching the market.

Contradictory data

In the public domain there is a clear mismatch in assessments of the level of the assistant’s access to data. On the one hand, RATEK explicitly speaks of “mandatory end-to-end access to the OS” and links it to information leak risks. On the other hand, Yandex publicly refutes the existence of full access for “Alisa” to the personal data of Russian users and to banking applications, while some publications note that the assistant “wanted to peek into a banking application” — that is, the talk is of declared integration ambitions, not of actual full access. While the project is still being finalized, these two versions coexist without a final technical regulation that could resolve the contradiction. An additional contradiction lies in the very assessment of the initiative: for Yandex it is a step toward equal conditions, for RATEK it is a threat to security and logistics.

What happens next

The document has not yet been adopted: the Ministry of Digital Development continues to refine it together with industry participants, and RATEK’s position on suspending the project means that the final version of the decree may change significantly under the pressure of arguments about security and feasibility. For consumers, the key question is whether the user will retain the right to delete the preinstalled AI assistant or whether it will become as “untouchable” as RuStore. The answer will depend on whether it is possible to reconcile the regulator’s requirements, the interests of the technology companies, and the architectural constraints of closed mobile operating systems.