Name: India drops mandatory anti-theft app after privacy concerns
Uploaded: 2025-12-04T08:01:57.388Z
Duration: 1 min 54 s
Description: India withdraws a directive requiring all smartphones to carry an anti-theft app amid growing privacy and surveillance concerns.

India withdraws a directive requiring all smartphones to carry an anti-theft app amid growing privacy and surveillance concerns.

New Delhi

Indian authorities initially mandated that all phone manufacturers pre-install a government-developed anti-theft app, Sancha Sati, on devices. The app was promoted as a tool to track and block stolen handsets, but faced criticism from political opponents and privacy advocates who argued it would undermine citizens' privacy and increase government surveillance.

Despite claims from officials that the app would not be used for spying, concerns persisted among privacy lawyers and cybersecurity experts about potential vulnerabilities and misuse. Following the backlash, the government reversed its decision, though it has not clarified future requirements for global phone manufacturers.

India drops mandatory anti-theft app after privacy concerns

Last month, Indian authorities instructed all phone manufacturers to pre-install a government app called Sancha Sati, or Telecom Companion. Officials said the app has already tracked and blocked millions of stolen handsets. But alongside the recent introduction of new digital rules for the country's 1.4 billion people, political opponents say this will further weaken privacy rights of citizens and instead grant the government greater surveillance power. All of you must have a right to privacy, to send your own messages to family and friends without the government looking at everything. It's not just one thing. It's not just snooping on the telephones. It's overall, they are turning this country into a dictatorship. The government denies it will use the app to spy on citizens. But its pre-installation still worries privacy lawyer Vrinda Bandari. We should just question the larger point of why are we being required to pre-install something. If you believe the app is so important, let the citizens decide whether they want to install it. Have an opt-in system. Some cyber security experts argue the app is helpful to combat criminals. But others like Karan Saini say a single application cannot stop all cyber fraud. And its access to so much of a phone's data could create new vulnerabilities. A future update could be malicious, could upload data from the user's phone and they would have already granted the permissions beforehand when the application itself wasn't malicious. Some Indian phone makers had already supported the government requirement to install the app, hoping to reduce cyber fraud and data breaches. But Apple and other major manufacturers have so far refused to comment on their plans for the app. And though the government's now reversed course, it's provided no update about new requirements for such global cell phone giants. Bill and Mark's Al Jazeera.

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