Indian government backs down after Apple rejects app pre-installation order

The Indian government backed down less than a week after sending a special order to smartphone manufacturers asking them to pre-load a state-backed app on all phones in the region. The reversal comes after industry sources said Reuters Which Apple planned to refuse to comply With the system.

Sathi Communications It is a security application run by the Indian Ministry of Telecommunications that includes features to track and block lost or stolen phones using their IMEI. Anyone can download it from the App Store or Google Play Store already, but the Indian government order would have required phone manufacturers to pre-load it on all phones in the region and prevent users from disabling it.

The Indian Ministry of Communications announced this decline In a statement on Wednesday, but still maintained that “Sanchhar Sathe is safe and only intended to help citizens from bad actors in the cyber world.”

The statement does not address the backlash and privacy concerns raised over the order making the app mandatory. Instead, she attributes the policy change to voluntary app downloads, saying, “Given the growing acceptance of Sanchar Saathi, the government has decided not to make pre-installation mandatory for mobile phone manufacturers.”

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.