India mandates pre-installation of government cyber safety app on all smartphones

NEW DELHI: India’s telecoms ministry has directed smartphone manufacturers to pre-install a government-run cybersecurity app on all new devices, according to a government order, raising concerns about data privacy and user consent in one of the world’s largest handset markets.

The Ministry of Communications’ order, issued on Monday, instructed smartphone makers to pre-install the government’s Sanchar Saathi app on all new devices within 90 days and to prevent users from uninstalling it. The order also requires manufacturers to push the app to older models via a software update, extending the mandate beyond phones already on the market.

The ministry said the app, which is available to India’s 1.2 billion smartphone users, is essential in “curbing misuse of telecom resources for cyber frauds and ensuring telecom cybersecurity.” Privacy advocates, however, say the order risks eroding user privacy and consent.

“This is the beginning. It is government testing the waters,” said Nikhil Pahwa, a digital policy expert and founder of the tech site MediaNama. “Once a government app is forcibly pre-installed on our devices, what’s to stop them from pushing future apps that could be used for surveillance?”

The Sanchar Saathi app, released in January, was designed to let users block and track lost or stolen phones and to identify and shut down fraudulent mobile connections. Since its launch, it has drawn more than 5 million downloads and helped recover more than 700,000 lost devices, according to government data.

Pahwa said the main concern is that the app’s role could eventually expand, giving authorities greater ability to “access device status.” He added that the order effectively removes user consent as a choice.

“Phones are our personal spaces. We have a choice to have what we want on them. Here, the government is taking away that choice,” he said.

The order is expected to face resistance from smartphone companies such as US-based Apple, whose internal policies prohibit pre-installing third-party apps on its devices, including those developed by governments.

The move comes as several governments take similar steps. In Russia, authorities have recently promoted the MAX messaging service, which must be pre-installed on all smartphones; critics say the platform functions as a surveillance tool and note that MAX states it will provide user data to officials upon request.

By RSS/AP