Industry sources tell Reuters that Apple plans to tell India’s government that they don’t comply with requests like this due to privacy and security concerns. However, Apple won’t go to court or “take a public stand” over the order. At the time of writing, iPhones make up just nine percent of India’s smartphone market, behind Vivo, Oppo, and Samsung, which were also directed to preload the state-backed app on their devices.
The app in question, Sanchar Saathi or “Communication Partner,” can be used to track and block lost or stolen phones using their IMEI. It’s currently available in the App Store and Google Play Store, but the Indian government’s order would make the app mandatory on all new phones sold in the region, require phone manufacturers to push it to existing phones through a software update, and prevent users from disabling the app.
The order was privately issued to phone manufacturers on November 28th, and is facing pushback over concerns Sanchar Saathi could be used for surveillance or tracking outside of its stated anti-theft purposes. India’s Minister of Communications Jyotiraditya Scindia commented on Tuesday that “the app is completely optional. If you want to delete it, you can.” However, that directly contradicts the government order’s reported directions to prevent users from disabling Sanchar Saathi.
