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Rohit Kumar

NEW DELHI, Dec 3: The government on Wednesday rolled back an order mandating pre-installation of the state-owned “Sanchar Saathi” cybersecurity app on all smartphones sold in the country, just days after the order sparked widespread criticism from digital rights groups and opposition parties accusing the government of “snooping.”

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) had on November 28 issued a directive requiring phone manufacturers to pre-install the cybersecurity app on all devices from March 2026 onwards, citing concerns over handsets with duplicate or spoofed IMEI numbers posing threats to telecom security.

However, facing intense pushback over privacy and surveillance concerns, the Government announced it would no longer enforce the mandatory pre-installation requirement.

In a press release, the government attributed the policy reversal to the app’s “increasing acceptance” among users. Officials said the Sanchar Saathi app witnessed a dramatic surge in adoption following the initial announcement, with 6 lakh new registrations recorded in a single day — a tenfold increase in uptake. “The number of users who have voluntarily downloaded the app (over six lakh in 24 hours and 1.4 crore users overall) has been increasing rapidly,” official sources said. The mandate to pre-install “was meant to accelerate this process. Given Sanchar Saathi’s increasing acceptance, Government has decided not to make the pre-installation mandatory for mobile manufacturers,” the release stated.

The app, launched in 2023 as a portal for citizens to report suspicious phone calls and cyber fraud, currently has 1.4 crore users who collectively report approximately 2,000 fraud incidents daily. But the mandatory pre-installation order had drawn sharp criticism from digital rights advocates and opposition parties, who raised concerns about potential government surveillance and infringement on user choice.

The government defended the app in its statement, insisting it is “secure and purely meant to help citizens from bad actors in the cyber world” with no other function beyond user protection. Officials emphasized that users could uninstall the app at any time.

The withdrawal came after the communications minister Jyotiraditya Scindia told the Lok Sabha earlier in the day that the government was open to amending its directive if people flag genuine issues. The original directive issued five days ago required all phone makers to have every new device in India with Sanchar Saathi pre-installed. The language of the directive suggested that users could not remove or disable it. This raised immediate concerns among privacy experts and civil society groups.

The government clarified that the app could be deleted from the phone if a user wanted. But concerns persisted that the app could become a government “snooping” tool. As criticism mounted, Scindia told Lok Sabha that Sanchar Saathi does not access personal data and cannot be used for snooping, and insisted that the directive was meant only to simplify access to the app’s fraud-prevention tools.

Department of telecommunication (DoT) secretary Neeraj Mittal said the reason behind ending the mandate is that the app has become popular, so there was no reason to make it mandatory. “Just in one day, 600,000 citizens have registered for downloading the app, which is a 10x increase in its uptake. This is an affirmation of faith by citizens on this app for protecting themselves, provided to them by the government,” said the press release.

The real reason for the roll back, however, was different. Sources said the DoT had come under “too much pressure” from the industry and the public outrage that followed. “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,” said the sources. The DoT officials also had informally checked with legal firms about whether the directive would stand up constitutionally, and were told it would not.

An industry executive also claimed that the uproar in Parliament in the ongoing winter session and public outrage caused the mandate to be recalled. The original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) were still waiting for a formal recall of the directive.

Demanding withdrawal of the mandate, the Opposition Congress on Wednesday accused the government of trying to create a surveillance state. “Safety is an excuse, the target is privacy,” Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera said.

Calling the move a deliberate attempt at surveillance, he argued it would give authorities access to citizens’ data. “A copy of everything, two spies will get it from you. What Pegasus was to the VIPs of this country, Sanchar Saathi is to the common man.”

In a statement, digital rights advocacy group Internet Freedom Foundation called it “a welcome development,” but added that the full text of the legal order, along with any revised directions under the Cyber ​​Security Rules, 2024, is still awaited. “For now, we should treat this as cautious optimism, not closure, until the formal legal direction is published and independently confirmed,” said the statement.