New Delhi : Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia on Tuesday clarified that activating the Sanchar Saathi app was entirely optional and not mandatory after the Centre’s directive raised privacy concerns and fears of state surveillance. If you want, you can activate it; if you don’t, then don’t activate it… If you don’t want Sanchar Sathi, you can delete it. It’s not mandatory. It is optional,” Scindia said amid a massive uproar over the Centre’s directions to phone manufacturers to pre-install the app.
Scindia emphasised that the motive behind the direction was only to ensure wider access to a tool designed to curb cyber fraud. The minister’s clarification comes a day after the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) ordered all smartphone manufacturers to pre-install Sanchar Saathi on new mobile devices. Devices already being used will receive the app through a software update.
The move comes just days after report surfaced that the government also wants SIM Binding to be done in WhatsApp in other messaging apps. The two moves are controversial because irrespective of what the government says they also seem to opening a window into a personal device like phone through which the government can monitor their usage. So what is going on and what exactly is the Sanchar Saathi app? We explain.
The press note by the government, issued late night on Monday, makes it clear: The government wants Sanchar Saathi app on all phones in India. No ifs and buts. Here is what it tells phone companies: “Ensure that the Sanchar Saathi mobile application is pre-installed on all mobile handsets manufactured or imported for use in India. 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.”
In other words not only the app needs to be installed, it must also stay installed and active. The government says that this needs to be done within 90 days, that is three months, and compliance report needs to be submitted by companies like Apple, Samsung, Vivo etc within 120 days.
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