India’s Government Rolls Back Invasive Cell Phone Tracking Mandate 48 Hours After Issuing It

from the noped-out-of-existence dept

The government of India — especially under Prime Minister Narendra Modi — has never been shy about wanting to know what every one of its billion-plus citizens are up to at any given time.

Not only does the government apparently have access to pretty much every bit of internet traffic generated by its citizens, it has also taken steps to ensure those seeking to avoid this pervasive surveillance won’t be allowed to opt out via VPNs or other options that might make their web surfing a bit less visible.

Modi’s government has also made it clear it doesn’t like American companies that undercut its surveillance efforts by notifying residents that their smartphones may have been compromised by state actors.

Everything went a step further last week. The government of India ordered smartphone providers to preemptively compromise devices sold to the country’s citizens.

India’s government sent a notice to private companies last week giving them 90 days to ensure that a government app was “preinstalled on all mobile handsets manufactured or imported for use in India.”

The order said the requirement was meant “to identify and report acts that may endanger telecom cybersecurity.” On Tuesday, the government explained that the app, Sanchar Saathi, was intended to prevent crime, including the theft and smuggling of phones and the call-center fraud that wreaks havoc within India and abroad.

Yeah, that’s fucked up. The government reiterated — even as it slowly walked backwards — that this was just a thing that anyone who didn’t want to be surveilled could easily avoid.

By Tuesday afternoon, the government appeared to be backpedaling. Jyotiraditya Scindia, the minister of communications, said that while “this app exists to protect them from fraud and theft,” it was also “completely optional.”

“If you don’t wish to register, you shouldn’t register and can remove it at any time,” he told reporters outside the Parliament building.

That assertion doesn’t appear to be supported by the facts. According to analysts, the order contained wording that suggested phone providers were expected to ensure the functionality of the government-mandated spyware was “not disabled.”

Not that it matters much at the moment. Less than two days after becoming the subject of international headlines (apparently debuting first at Reuters), the Modi government is scrambling to make this all go away as quickly as possible:

India’s government revoked an order on Wednesday that had directed smartphone makers such as Apple and Samsung to install a state-developed and owned security app on all new devices. The move came after two days of criticism from opposition politicians and privacy organizations that the “Sanchar Saathi” app was an effort to snoop on citizens through their phones.  

“Government has decided not to make the pre-installation mandatory for mobile manufacturers,” India’s Ministry of Communications said in a statement Wednesday afternoon. 

That’s better. Much better. But it still leaves manufacturers with the option of pre-loading this snitchware app voluntarily, which might be an option some take to score a few points with what is presumably a “regime for life” government headed by a relatively charismatic autocrat.

And while the government is currently getting bashed for attempting to slide this past the populace, it continues to insist it’s the public that’s wrong about this:

While the order for it to be installed universally was revoked, the government continued defending the app on Wednesday, saying the intent had been to “provide access to cybersecurity to all citizens,” and insisting that it was “secure and purely meant to help citizens.” 

While the app does allow users to make use of the tracking software to locate lost or stolen phones and/or defend against scammers using fraudulent numbers or online accounts, it was obvious from the secretive rollout that any benefits enjoyed by citizens were just the unavoidable byproduct of an app clearly meant to give the government expanding surveillance capabilities. It’s the sugar-coating on the poison pill. And all the government has to say in defense of its failed ratfuckery is that a rounding error (“2.6 million lost or stolen phones“) in a nation with 1.5 billion cell phones (that would be 0.17% of all phones) outweighs whatever evil it planned to do if it had been able to make this mandate stick.

Filed Under: authoritarian bullshit, india, mass surveillance, narendra modi, national security, sanchar saathi