Sanchar Saathi could secure telecom networks but its success should be determined by its appeal as an app

Soon after its order on keeping chat apps linked to phone SIM cards even for web access to such messaging platforms, India’s Department of Telecommunications (DoT) issued a fresh directive aimed at tightening network security further. This one is likely to ruffle even more feathers.DoT has asked smartphone makers to pre-install a government-run cybersecurity app called Sanchar Saathi on all new devices. This app must be placed prominently to catch attention the first time a phone is used.

Despatched handsets would have to be loaded through remote updates of software. One wouldn’t have flinched had it not been for the order’s mandatory nature. Manufacturers seem taken by surprise and left staring at an awkward burden.

If phones already in use are also targeted for compulsory installation, the app could acquire all-India reach.Since the app’s backbone is a central device registry, this may serve the purpose of ensuring that every phone—identified by its unique IMEI number—is held by its rightful owner, thus reducing the scope for telecom misuse, especially via fake IMEIs. Coercion, however, arouses suspicion, which is reason enough for a rethink. To be sure, telecom minister Jyotiraditya Scindia has said that it would be possible to offload Sanchar Saathi.

This is a choice everyone must have. Asking people to opt out if they don’t want it, instead of opting in if they do, may be consistent with ‘nudge theory’ to promote adoption. But it does little to allay fears of the app’s very activation resulting in privacy exposure, given that India’s personal data protection regime is yet to take effect, although the government has carved out escape hatches for itself from this law, and the app asks for access to a bewildering range