{"id":881738,"date":"2025-12-30T01:23:35","date_gmt":"2025-12-30T07:23:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/12\/30\/india-requires-government-cyber-safety-app-on-all-smartphones\/"},"modified":"2025-12-30T01:23:35","modified_gmt":"2025-12-30T07:23:35","slug":"india-requires-government-cyber-safety-app-on-all-smartphones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/12\/30\/india-requires-government-cyber-safety-app-on-all-smartphones\/","title":{"rendered":"India requires government cyber safety app on all smartphones"},"content":{"rendered":"<div xmlns:xlink=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/1999\/xlink\">\n<div>\n<p>\n                <bsp-timestamp data-timestamp=\"1764669239000\" data-recent-thresholdinhours=\"1\"><br \/>\n                    <template data-date-tpl>Updated [hour]:[minute] [AMPM] [timezone], [monthFull] [day], [year]<\/template><br \/>\n                    <span data-date>\u00a0<\/span><br \/>\n                <\/bsp-timestamp>\n            <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>    <bsp-page-actions><\/p>\n<p>    <\/bsp-page-actions><\/p><\/div>\n<div>\n<p>NEW DELHI (AP) \u2014 India\u2019s 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 of data privacy and user consent in one of the largest handset markets in the world.<\/p>\n<p>The Ministry of Communications\u2019 order issued Monday asked smartphone makers to pre-install the government\u2019s \u201cSanchar Saathi\u201d app on all new devices within 90 days and to prevent users from deleting it. The order also requires manufacturers to push the app onto older models through a software update, extending the mandate beyond phones available in the market.<\/p>\n<p>The ministry said the app, which is available to India\u2019s 1.2 billion smartphone users, was essential in \u201ccurbing misuse of telecom resources for cyber frauds and ensuring telecom cyber security.\u201d But privacy advocates say the order marks an effort to erode user privacy and consent.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is the beginning. It is government testing the waters,\u201d said Nikhil Pahwa, a digital policy expert and founder of the tech site MediaNama. \u201cOnce a government app is forcibly pre-installed on our devices, what\u2019s to stop them from pushing future apps that could be used for surveillance?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Amid growing criticism, India\u2019s telecom minister, Jyotiraditya M. Scindia, on Tuesday called the app a \u201cvoluntary and democratic system\u201d and said users can choose to activate it and \u201ceasily delete it from their phone at any time.\u201d<\/p>\n<div data-module-tracksubscribe data-gtm-topic=\"No Value\" data-align-center>\n<p>Stay up to date with the news and the best of AP by following our WhatsApp channel.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.whatsapp.com\/channel\/0029Va7Tv2j59PwNEyqGCi1y\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\n            <span>Follow on<\/span><br \/>\n            <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/dims.apnews.com\/dims4\/default\/f50b139\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/131x31+0+0\/resize\/131x31!\/quality\/90\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.apnews.com%2F8c%2Fe0%2F2615e5984b5ebb8b89fd3ade6941%2Fwhatsapp-logo.png\" alt=\"WhatsApp\"><br \/>\n        <\/a>\n    <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Scindia did not clarify Monday\u2019s directive instructing smartphone manufacturers to ensure the app\u2019s \u201cfunctionalities are not disabled or restricted.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The \u201cSanchar Saathi\u201d app, which was 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.<\/p>\n<p>Pahwa said the main concern is that the app\u2019s role could eventually expand, giving authorities greater ability to \u201caccess device status.\u201d He said the order also removes user consent as a choice.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPhones are our personal spaces. We have a choice to have what we want on them. Here the government is taking away that choice,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>The order is also expected to face resistance from smartphone companies like U.S.-based Apple, whose internal policies prohibit preinstalling third-party apps on its devices, including those developed by governments.<\/p>\n<p>It also comes as several governments take similar steps. <\/p>\n<p>In <span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/russia-internet-outage-cellphone-apps-crackdown-7db0c44772b70c08890009508db5ec94\">Russia<\/a><\/span>, 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, noting that MAX openly states it will provide user data to officials upon request.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/india-sanchar-app-privacy-cyber-b2564204c6eda0c620e9c293d94f9839\" class=\"button purchase\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Updated [hour]:[minute] [AMPM] [timezone], [monthFull] [day], [year] \u00a0 NEW DELHI (AP) \u2014 India\u2019s 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 of data privacy and user consent in one of the largest handset markets in the world. The Ministry of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":881739,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[126,33817],"tags":[6053,18473],"class_list":{"0":"post-881738","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-india","8":"category-requires","9":"tag-india","10":"tag-requires"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/881738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=881738"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/881738\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/881739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=881738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=881738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=881738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}