While India tried to force citizens to install the “official app” called Sanchar Saanchi onto their devices, the country is realizing that privacy concerns were always central to the upheaval. Late in 2025, the Indian government issued an order to ensure that every new phone sold in the country had a state-owned cybersecurity application loaded onto the device. Political backlash resulted from this order, and now it is clear that such experiments went wrong.
Understanding the Sanchar Saanchi official application
As per the directive issued by India’s Department of Telecommunications, smartphone manufacturers, including Samsung and Apple, had to install the application, Sanchar Saanchi, within 90 days. Furthermore, this app could not be disabled or restricted, and the idea was to push this application through software updates to the phones already in use. With this order, companies had to send through compliance reports within 120 days.
The reason why the Indian government was in favor of this app was to identify or report acts that would harm cybersecurity. Another reason put forward for the promotion of this app was to help citizens deal with thieves. The application enabled the blocking and tracking of stolen mobile phones, too. Despite the security factor that contributed to advocating the app, critics pointed out the severity of making this app compulsory. Critics even felt that the app created an opportunity for mass surveillance, even though the application’s purpose seemed all too humble.
What did companies like Apple and Samsung feel about the order?
Much of the political backlash came from companies like Apple, Google, and several others. These companies were rather vocal about their privacy concerns. The lack of willingness to comply from the tech giants is what caused India to revoke its order to make the preinstallation of the application mandatory for large tech companies.
The Indian government further faced some heat when internet privacy groups and political opposition groups raised their opinions regarding the application. The government, headed by President Narendra Modi, was accused of violating citizens’ right to privacy.
The initial decision taken by India to promote the installation of the app is rather similar to previous decisions taken by the Russian government. The application that Russia wanted citizens to download was called Max, and many citizens in the country also believed it would be a maximal surveillance tool.
Main criticisms of the application advocated by the government
As had been stated by the Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF) in India, the government was exercising control over citizens’ personal devices. Many organizations shared their opinion that Sanchar Sanchi was mainly meant for “snooping purposes” and was another way for the government to take away autonomy from citizens.
Eventually, an experiment that was suggested to help citizens overcome crime became a controversy. The feelings stirred up were very similar to the controversy in 2020, where the government required employees in the public and private sectors to make use of the COVID-19 tracing app.
It is yet to be seen what controversy the first humans coming to life will bring when the cyber twins are identical in appearance to humans.
The government decides to revoke the mandate
In December, the government shared that feedback received would be used to amend the order. The order was revoked, even though the application was still discussed as an app to prevent cybercrimes. Policy groups celebrated the decision by the government to revoke the mandate.
Disastrous results would have occurred if the government had pursued the mandate and forced tech companies to install the application on new devices against their wishes. Still, advocacy groups suggest that this decision by the government should approach the revoked order with caution until the government publishes the legal withdrawal.
India’s order did not fail because of technical difficulties with the app, but because public trust and privacy were violated in the government’s decision. The response to India’s app was not favorable; however, the new technology coming in 2026 will live in your phone, and this seems far more favorable.
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