Apple has reportedly rejected an order from the Indian government to preload a mandatory, state-backed cybersecurity app, citing major privacy and security concerns.
Sources indicate Apple’s planned internal response emphasizes their long-standing policy against mandatory government preloads. Notably, the tech giant plans to resist the order privately, avoiding a public stand or legal action.
The app at the center of the dispute, Sanchar Saathi (“Communication Partner”), is designed to track lost or stolen phones via their IMEI. Crucially, the government order mandates that the app be preloaded on all new devices, pushed to existing phones, and explicitly prevents users from disabling it.
The private order, issued on November 28th, is already facing pushback over potential surveillance concerns. This conflict was heightened when India’s Minister of Communications, Jyotiraditya Scindia, publicly claimed the app is “completely optional. If you want to delete it, you can”—a statement that directly contradicts the reported terms preventing user disabling. (For context, iPhones currently hold only about nine percent of India’s smartphone market).
