New Delhi : This is Pegasus plus plus,” wrote Congress MP Karti Chidambaram. “Big Brother will take over our phone and pretty much our entire private lives.” The reason? A direction by the Centre to smartphone makers to mandatorily pre-install the Sanchar Saathi app, a state-developed cybersecurity app, on their devices. Users will not be allowed to delete or modify the app.
Karti might be hyperbolic in his statement, but the sentiment was widely shared on X, particularly among the opposition figures and privacy activists. Pegasus, a specialised spyware that could record almost everything on a phone, became a top trend on X. One user wrote, “Government is now officially spying on people? Pegasus?” Beyond the word’ Pegasus, the government’s move has drawn strong reactions. Priyanka Chaturvedi, a Rajya Sabha MP, wrote, “Sanchar Saathi mobile application mandate to every mobile phone manufacturer as a permanent mobile feature by the GoI is nothing but another BIG BOSS surveillance moment.”
Political analyst Tehseen Poonawalla called the mandate a blatant assault on privacy and freedom. “By forcing it pre-installed on every new phone, not allowing us to uninstall the app, all under the guise of ‘safety’, the government will potentially have the power to spy on our calls, texts and location. This is surveillance at its worst,” he tweeted. And to do that, the government wants phone companies to “ensure that the pre-installed Sanchar Saathi application is readily visible and accessible to the end users at the time of first use or device setup and that its functionalities are not disabled or restricted.”
Yes and no. Pegasus is specialised software purpose-built to spy on a targeted phone. The Sanchar Saathi app is more of a general app. But the privacy concerns around the government move are valid. And this is more so when you look at the wide permissions that the Sanchar Saathi app demands when it is installed. Despite its limited functionality, the app demands a lot of data and access to a lot of components.
Rea Also : Congress MP Renuka Chowdhury Brings Dog To Parliament, Sparks Row