India revokes order for pre-installation of security app
After much criticism, the government in New Delhi is withdrawing a provision for the pre-installation of a non-deletable cybersecurity app on smartphones.
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The Indian government on Wednesday revoked a controversial order that would have required smartphone manufacturers to pre-install a government cybersecurity app on all new devices, which users could not delete. Previously, politicians, data protection advocates, and tech corporations had expressed concerns about potential surveillance. This was reported by the Reuters news agency on Wednesday.
Late last week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government had confidentially informed smartphone manufacturers that they had to implement the provision within 90 days. It justified the mandatory pre-installation of the Sanchar Saathi app with the fight against the increase in cybercrime. "The government has decided not to make pre-installation mandatory for mobile manufacturers," the Indian Ministry of Communications now retracted in a press release on Wednesday.
Previously, opposition parties, data protection advocates, and parts of the press had sharply criticized the regulation. Tech corporations such as Apple and Samsung, according to Reuters had no intention of implementing the directive.
Much Backlash
The fact that the app was not supposed to be deleteable, in particular, caused criticism. High-ranking opposition politician Randeep Singh Surjewala of the Congress party demanded in a statement to parliament that the government must clarify its legal authority for "mandating a non-uninstallable app" and expressed data protection concerns. "The serious, grave, and real fear is also that such a forcibly installed app could have a backdoor, thereby putting users' data and privacy at absolute risk."
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Critics say the move is reminiscent of Russia. The Russian government ordered at the end of August that the state-sponsored Messenger MAX must be pre-installed on all smartphones and tablets sold from September onwards. Indian government politicians, meanwhile, declared the Sanchar Saathi app to be secure; they claimed it was solely for tracking stolen smartphones and blocking them to prevent misuse.
On Wednesday, the government then announced that it had abandoned its plan. The app would have gained popularity even without the mandatory measure; alone since Tuesday, it had been downloaded 600,000 times.
(akn)
