India has opened a debate that mixes technology, politics, and privacy… and we assure you that everyone is going to have an opinion about this. And it is that the Government has decided that all smartphones in the country will have to carry a preinstalled state app that cannot be deleted, and we are not talking about it coming installed on new devices, even if you have an iPhone from 2011 or the very Pro Max 17, you will have to have this application installed.
The application is called Sanchar Saathi and, according to the Government, it is designed to reduce theft, fraud, and phone scams, they say to protect users. Sure? A mandatory app, integrated by obligation in our devices… Oh, how strange it sounds to some!
A mandatory app?
That is right, as they say, to protect citizens, but India is a rather big country (the biggest, in fact) where millions of devices could suddenly be under a system of permanent tracking.
And here enters the debate with Apple, which has been selling itself for years as the champion of privacy, encryption, and local control of data, because if it decides to accept the imposition of the Indian government, it will contradict its discourse, right?
What is Sanchar Saathi
Sanchar Saathi is, officially, an app for public safety, it can block stolen phones, verify IMEIs, detect fraud, and activate alerts in suspicious processes.
In a country with a gigantic market of second hand, cloned, or unregistered phones, it sounds quite reasonable, but the problem is not how it works but how it is introduced in the devices: in a mandatory way. Indian users will not be able to delete it and that fact will allow you to be tracked under the pretext of “protection”.
Digital security… or control of the State?
Of course that is the debate many are trying to avoid, by linking the application to all phones, there are proposals to link encrypted services with the real identity of the user, in other words, that the government will be able to track you whenever it wants. Without privacy. “Structural surveillance” they have called it, but is that legal? Or rather, is it moral?
Apple between its discourse and its business
India is a great market for any company, but for Apple more. Millions of iPhones are manufactured and sold there, but for them it is complicated, they sell that their phones are the most secure and encrypted in the world, and now?
And, even so, we have already seen precedents, in China, iCloud went to servers controlled by state partners and VPN apps disappeared from the store… Now they have a dilemma, give in so as not to lose the market or stand firm and risk losing everything?
Apps vs. Power
The discussion is who rules in the digital space, the State, the user, or the big companies.
The Indian government argues that this protects people against crimes, but clearly they are giving themselves the key to the perfect surveillance mode.
And, it is not only happening in India, in Europe there are more and more regulations, more of the same in China and in our country, platforms are being pressured quite a lot… They are other forms of control, and apparently our mobile phones have become the main piece of power, and if they control them, they control us.
And now, what?
The Government has not yet published the formal order, but has confirmed that manufacturers will have 90 days to apply it in their phones.
India is creating the first large scale case of a mandatory and non uninstallable state app in all smartphones of a country, and it is a rather complicated precedent. If it works, other governments will want to copy the model, and if Apple agrees, the message sent to the world will be that not even they are immune to the power of the State.
But beyond what may happen to the companies… why is nobody thinking about the privacy of users?