![\"Shiv](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1x1_spacer.png\" "\\"Shiv")
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\n Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Priyanka Chaturvedi. File
\n | Photo Credit: PTI\n <\/p>\n
The government\u2019s mandate on Monday (December 1, 2025) for smartphone makers<\/a> to pre-install the Sanchar Saathi app<\/a> sparked backlash from the Opposition and from digital rights activists. Congress leader K.C. Venugopal called the directions \u201cbeyond constitutional,\u201d characterising the app as a \u201cdystopian tool to monitor every Indian\u201d. <\/p>\n Rajya Sabha MP Priyanka Chaturvedi from the Shiv Sena (UBT) said that \u201cSanchar Saathi mobile application mandate to every mobile phone manufacturer as a permanent mobile feature by the GoI is nothing but another BIG BOSS surveillance moment.\u201d<\/p>\n Sanchar Saathi is an app that the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) launched initially as a website in 2023 to allow users to flag fraudulent phone calls. The app also integrates other tools the DoT has launched in the past, such as a feature to check the \u201cgenuineness\u201d of the International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number assigned to a device, and to block a stolen phone by barring telecom operators from working on a blacklisted IMEI.<\/p>\n Mandating the app to be installed, as the DoT did in an order to phone makers on Monday (December 1, 2025), would likely mean that users wouldn\u2019t be able to uninstall it, as is the case for private apps pre-installed on many smartphone brands\u2019 devices. The DoT did not officially announce the move until after news reports came out describing the move.\u00a0<\/p>\n Some worried about the potential for a pre-installed app like this to be used as a carrier for malware and spyware. Anand Venkatanarayanan, co-founder of DeepStrat, a policy and cybersecurity consultancy, said on X that a \u201cRegulator as a Malware operator is quite a thing in India,\u201d as \u201c[o]nce you get root in OS layer by a govt app, an Over the air update is all it takes to \u201cget more permissions\u201d.\u201d Root access refers to privileged access in an operating system, which pre-installed apps usually have; such access allows apps to add to what they have access to without prompting users to accept additional permissions.<\/p>\n