By Blessing Nweke
India’s telecoms ministry has ordered smartphone manufacturers to pre-install a government-run cybersecurity app on all new devices, sparking concerns about data privacy and user consent in one of the world’s largest mobile phone markets.
According to a directive issued Monday, the Ministry of Communications instructed manufacturers to install the Sanchar Saathi app on every new smartphone within 90 days and to prevent users from deleting it. The order also requires companies to add the app to older devices through a software update, effectively making the mandate universal across India’s estimated 1.2 billion smartphone users.
The ministry described Sanchar Saathi as essential to “curbing misuse of telecom resources for cyber frauds and ensuring telecom cyber security.” The app, launched in January, allows users to block or track lost phones and detect fraudulent mobile connections. Government data says it has been downloaded more than 5 million times and helped recover over 700,000 lost devices.
But digital rights advocates warn the new mandate undermines consumer autonomy. “This is the beginning. It is government testing the waters,” said Nikhil Pahwa, founder of the tech policy 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?”
Amid backlash, Telecom Minister Jyotiraditya M. Scindia on Tuesday described Sanchar Saathi as a “voluntary and democratic system,” insisting users can activate or delete it at will. He did not address Monday’s order requiring manufacturers to ensure the app’s functionalities cannot be disabled.
The directive may meet resistance from smartphone makers including Apple, whose policies prohibit pre-installing third-party apps, even those developed by governments.
India’s move follows similar actions abroad. In Russia, authorities recently mandated the MAX messaging app on all smartphones—an app critics say doubles as a surveillance tool.
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