New Delhi | Sanchar Saathi app-related matters have been discussed with all mobile phone players, except Apple, in a working group, Minister of State for Communications Chandra Sekhar Pemmasani said on Tuesday.
The minister told PTI that the Sanchar Saathi app is like any other app, which can be activated and deleted by consumers, and it is meant to ease reporting of online fraud and trace lost mobile phones, among others.
Pemmasani said Sanchar Saathi crowdsourced data helps in preventing financial fraud, and therefore, it was considered that allowing the app on almost all mobile phones would make the information a lot more accurate, and fraud can be handled much more quickly.
"A working group was formed and all the original equipment manufacturers were asked to raise their concerns. Apple is the only company, as far as I know, that did not participate in that working group, but all others participated," Pemmasani said.
According to industry sources, Apple will discuss the order on the Sanchar Saathi app installation and work out a middle path with them.
The company may not be able to implement the order in the current form.
Earlier, Apple had resisted supporting functions of the pesky call and SMS reporting of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) DND app. After years of deliberation, it has started supporting the Trai DND app with some restrictions.
Pemmasani said the Sanchar Saathi app will get access to only the phone number and SMS reported by the user as fraud or spam.
"When you click on the app to report fraud or spam, it will ask for the number from which you received the call. Then it gets reported. Nothing else will be reported. If there is an SMS message, then it will ask for the number from which the SMS was received. Other than this information, no other information will be recorded or reported," Pemmasani said.
The minister said that last year, 50 lakh people were impacted because of the cyber fraud, Rs 23,000 crore was lost, and the government has received numerous complaints that they have been defrauded.
"They lost their mobile numbers, mobile phones. And sometimes we get too many complaints, saying that multiple phones have been registered in their name without their knowledge. Therefore, we did this. The Sanchar Saathi app is available not only in English and Hindi, but all vernacular languages. Currently, 1.4 crore people have already installed this mobile app and 21 crore people visit the Sanchar Saathi website. So, this has been going on for one and a half years," Pemmasani said.
He said the entire app works through crowdsourcing.
Already 1.4 crore people have downloaded it, and the website gets 21 crore hits, the minister said.
New Delhi | CPI(M) leaders on Tuesday raised concern over the 'Sanchar Saathi' application, which the smartphone makers have been asked to mandatorily pre-install on their devices, and called it a violation of the fundamental right to privacy, and an excuse for "mass surveillance."
CPI(M) Lok Sabha MP V Sivadasan, in a statement, condemned the directive and said the move is a direct violation of the fundamental right to privacy, a right upheld by the Supreme Court of India.
"The justification provided, cybersecurity and tracking lost or stolen phones, is merely a pretext for mass surveillance. Forcing every citizen to carry government-installed, undeletable software amounts to state intrusion into private lives," Sivadasan said.
"This is a disturbing attempt to normalise surveillance and weaken democratic freedoms under the guise of security. Security cannot be used to trample constitutional rights. Citizens must have control over their own devices, and any monitoring tool should be voluntary, transparent, and strictly regulated," he said.
CPI(M) Rajya Sabha leader John Brittas wrote to Union communications minister Jyotiraditya Scindia and said compulsory pre-installation of the app, even if deletion is later permitted, undermines the very principle of informed consent and transforms the mobile phone into a potential instrument of continuous digital supervision.
"Government's clarification today that Sanchar Saathi is 'optional' is an eye-wash. True optionality can’t coexist with compulsory factory pre-installation," Brittas said in a post on X.
"For millions of users with limited digital literacy, a pre-loaded app is permanent by default. There are also widespread fears that data collection may begin the moment it's pre-loaded and continue even after deletion," he said.
He pointed out that the apprehension deepens when this measure is viewed alongside the government's another recent direction on continuous SIM-to-device binding for messaging applications such as WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal, Snapchat, etc., warning that together these measures could lead to the creation of a permanent, real-time digital traceability grid over civilian communication, mapping our social lives and mobility in unprecedented detail.
"Add this with Govt's another recent directive for SIM-to-device binding for WhatsApp/Telegram/Signal/Snapchat - and we're staring at a real-time civilian traceability grid mapping our social lives and mobility in unprecedented detail," he said.
According to the November 28 directive of the Department of Telecommunications, the messaging platforms will have to ensure that services work only if an active SIM is in the user's device. Also, any web version of the app must automatically log users out at least once every six hours. The players providing app-based communication services in India will have to comply within 90 days from the date of issue of the directive.
Citing the Supreme Court's landmark judgment in Justice K S Puttaswamy vs Union of India, he reminded the Government that the right to privacy is intrinsic to life and personal liberty under Article 21.
Brittas also recalled the 2023 iPhone warning message episode in which several elected representatives, journalists and constitutional authorities received security warnings from Apple regarding possible state-sponsored hacking attempts.
He said, despite raising this issue in Parliament and seeking only the status and findings of the investigation reportedly referred to CERT-In, his questions were repeatedly disallowed on the ground that the matter was "secret in nature."
"To this day, to my knowledge, Parliament remains uninformed whether the probe was ever completed or what its findings were. When even Parliament is denied access to post facto findings in a matter that strikes at the heart of fundamental rights, it becomes exceedingly difficult for citizens to repose trust in assurances that new digital controls will not be misused," he said.
The Department of Telecom has directed manufacturers and importers of mobile handsets to ensure that its fraud-reporting app Sanchar Saathi is pre-installed in all new devices within 90 days.
According to the direction dated November 28, all mobile phones that will be manufactured in India or imported after 90 days from the date of issuing of the order will need to have the app. Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia on Tuesday said the app can be deleted by users.
