Privacy concerns, Apple and Samsung's non-compliance: Why Centre withdrew mandatory pre-installation of Sanchar Saathi

AFter monumental backlash from privateness advocates, cybersecurity experts and the oppositeness, the Centre proclaimed it would be withdrawing the mandatory for the pre-installation of Sanchar Saathi. In a statement issued on Wednesday, the Ministry of Communications stated it has decided to recall its mandate due to the app's “increasing acceptance”.The Sanchar Saathi portal was launched by the Modi government in May 2023. With this portal, citizens will be able to check mobile connections linked to their IDs, report fraud, scams and trace lost phones.The mobile application for the Sanchar Saathi was launched earlier this year as part of the government's efforts to combat cybercrime.Why did the Centre scrap the mandate?As part of its effort to tackle rising cybercrime cases in India, the Indian government called on smartphone companies to mandatorily pre-install the apps on all new smartphones, sparking a row.Under this mandate, users would not be allowed to disable, restrict or uninstall the application. This move sparked massive backlash as many moved to call it an infringement on a citizen's fundamental right to privacy.The original order for this mandate was issued on November 28. As reported by HT earlier, the directive stated that the app be installed in a way that users could not remove or disable it, as stated in the original directive.Also Read | Safety is an excuse, the target is privacy: Congress on Sanchar Saathi appWhile the government says that the order to pre-install this application was withdrawn due it's "increasing popularity," people close to the matter have said otherwise.Speaking to HT, sources close to the matter, the Department of Telecommunications was under "too much pressure" from the industry to recall the order.“Once they conceded that the app can be removed by the user, it became obvious that anyone intending to commit fraud would simply delete it. They also did not anticipate such strong pushback, similar to the criticism they faced with the AI advisory in March 2024,” the source told HT.The sources further added that the Centre had informally consulted with legal firms while working on the mandate, where they were told the directive would not stand up constitutionally.Furthermore, citing sources, Reuters reported that smartphone giants Apple and Samsung had also refused to comply with the government order to pre-install Sanchar Saathi. Centre defends Sanchar SaathiFollowing the widespread backlash, the government defended the app and stated that Sanchar Saathi could be deleted from a phone if the user wished to do so.However, new concerns emerged, such as whether this app would be used for a "snooping tool" for the government.Responding to these allegations, communications minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said in the Lok Sabha that the application does not access personal data of the user and it will "not be possible" for the app to be used for "snooping"."Snooping is neither possible nor will happen with the Sanchar Saathi app," said Scindia during the question hour.