Mint Explainer | Is Sanchar Saathi India's anti-fraud shield or a surveillance overreach?
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. The department of telecommunications (DoT), on 28 November, issued notifications to mobile phone brands, asking them to pre-install the Centre’s cybersecurity app, Sanchar Saathi, on devices, without an option to disable it.
The move triggered pushback from various quarters, bringing to the fore a key question: Can this application meaningfully crack down on digital scams in India? Mint explains Launched in May 2023, Sanchar Saathi, developed and maintained by DoT, is a platform that allows users to voluntarily report loss or theft of mobile phones and duplication of SIM cards. In March last year, the ministry of communications expanded its usage through ‘Chakshu’, a platform to report fraud and spam callers, with law enforcement and telcos using it to blacklist callers and devices.
On 28 November, the DoT issued notifications to phone brands, asking them to mandatorily pre-install Sanchar Saathi as an app on smartphones within 90 days. The DoT said that “mobile handsets bearing duplicate or spoofed IMEI pose serious endangerment to telecom cyber security".
IMEI or international mobile equipment identity is a unique 15-digit number that identifies each mobile device. The Centre claimed that Sanchar Saathi does not collect personal data, despite the application requesting permission to access user call logs and read SMS messages.
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