ThePrint ThePrintUninterrupted: Govt rolls back Sanchar Saathi pre-installation mandate, but what are the issues that still remain
Dec 4, 2025
Nikhil Pahwa, founder and editor of MediaNama, delves into the government's recent decision to retract the mandatory installation of the Sanchar Saathi app on smartphones. He discusses the legal implications of forced app installations and highlights privacy concerns, such as the risks of background data collection and potential misuse. Pahwa emphasizes the need for user choice and warns about the coercive nature of SIM-binding. He also offers practical cyber-safety tips to navigate the evolving digital landscape.
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State Forcing Apps Violates Device Privacy
- Phones are private spaces and forcing apps onto them removes user choice and persists unwanted software on billions of devices.
- Persistent preinstalled apps create precedent for other ministries to occupy users' devices without consent.
App Permissions Create Real Surveillance Risks
- Sanchar Saathi had broad permissions including access to files, calls and messages and could be installed at OS level with elevated privileges.
- That level of access raises risks of planted files or background tracking that can be abused against journalists and politicians.
Data Aggregation Enables Large-Scale Profiling
- Collected device data can be stitched into 360-degree profiles and fed into larger surveillance systems like NatGrid.
- Government exemptions from data protection amplify risks because they permit data collection without oversight.