"India revokes order to preload smartphones with state-owned security app", 3 Dec 2025

Tech companies including Apple and Google made it clear they would not comply due to privacy concerns.

India’s government has backtracked on an order for all smartphones to be pre-installed with a state-owned security app after a mass outcry over privacy concerns and refusal by technology companies to comply. The department of telecommunications confirmed it had revoked its previous order for all technology companies to mandatorily install the government’s Sanchar Saathi cybersecurity app on to every smartphone in India within 90 days. Political outcry erupted over the order and several tech companies, including Apple and Google, made it clear they would not comply due to privacy concerns. In a statement on Wednesday afternoon, the government confirmed it had “decided not to make the pre-installation mandatory for mobile manufacturers”. It emphasised that the app, which allows users to block and track lost or stolen mobile phones and report fraudulent calls, was “secure and purely meant to help citizens” against “bad actors”. The initial order, given quietly to tech companies last week, landed the government in hot water after internet privacy groups and the political opposition raised concerns that the app could be used as a mass surveillance tool. Apple and Google anonymously briefed the media that tech companies would be pushing back against the order as the move raised privacy concerns for their operating systems and violated internal policies. Outcry erupted in parliament on Wednesday, with opposition MPs accusing the government, led by the prime minister, Narendra Modi, of violating citizens’ basic right to privacy. ..The decision by the government to revoke the order was celebrated by groups advocating for online rights and privacy. In a statement, the internet freedom foundation said: “For now, we should treat this as cautious optimism, not closure, until the formal legal direction is published and independently confirmed.”