The Centre's directive to mobile phone manufacturers, asking them to pre-install the Sanchar Saathi app on every handset made or imported in India, has triggered privacy concerns. The opposition has accused the government of bringing state surveillance and stressed that privacy is a fundamental right in India. The Department of Telecommunications, under the Jyotiraditya Scindia-led Ministry of Communications, has showcased the Sanchar Saathi initiative as a move to curb fraud, block spam calls, recover lost phones, and ensure cybersecurity.
Between the claims and allegations, hundreds of millions of mobile phone users are wondering what this app will change for them. NDTV spoke to experts to get some clarity on the concerns
What Is Sanchar Saathi
A digital safety initiative of the Centre, Sanchar Saathi provides multiple citizen-centric services through a mobile app and its web portal. These services include Chakshu, which helps phone users report suspected cyber fraud. "Such proactive reporting of suspected fraud communication helps (the) Department of Telecommunications in (the) prevention of misuse of telecom resources for cyber-crime, financial frauds etc," the Sanchar Sathi website says. Chakshu can also be used to report commercial spam calls.
According to the Sanchar Saathi website, Chakshu also enables people to report malicious web links and fraudulent communications. These include phishing links and device cloning attempts and other malware delivered through SMS, RCS, iMessage and social media platforms like WhatsApp and Telegram.
Downloads And App Permissions
According to the Sanchar Saathi website, the app has clocked over 1 crore downloads on Android phones and over 10 lakh on iOS-supported Apple phones.
A big question is what permissions the app asks for after you download it. According to information provided in the Google Play Store, the app will seek permissions to use the phone camera to take pictures and videos and it can read the call log. The app can also send and read text messages, including MMS. It can also access your shared storage and read, modify or delete its contents.
If the government's directive is implemented, new phones will come pre-installed with this app. For old phones, software updates may be used to push this app. The Google Play Store info also mentions that the app does not collect any user data or share any data with third parties.
The Goal, And The Toolkit
The government's rationale behind making this app mandatory is to check cyber fraud. According to a Union Home Ministry reply in Parliament, cyber criminals stole Rs 22,845 crore in 2024, a 206 per cent jump from 2023. In most cases, counterfeit phones with cloned IMEI numbers are used for such criminal activities.
Sanchar Sathi flags fake IMEIs and prevents their activation on Indian networks. Chakshu, built into the Sanchar Sathi app, also enables citizens to block and report spam calls and malicious web links delivered through SMS and social media platforms such as WhatsApp and Telegram, or encountered during internet browsing.
A much-touted feature of the Sanchar Sathi app is its capability to track lost and stolen phones. The app facilitates blocking of such phones across networks so that they cannot be used in India. And if someone tries to use a blocked phone, cops tracking the device can get a lead. It also enables a citizen to check the number of connections in his/her name.
How Effective Is Sanchar Saathi
According to the Sanchar Saathi website, the app has been used to block over 42 lakh lost or stolen phones and trace over 26 lakh of these phones. Over 7 lakh phones were recovered through the app, the website's data says, adding that the recovery percentage is over 27 per cent.
Communications Minister Scindia has earlier praised the Sanchar Saathi app and said it has done a "yeoman service" in recovering lakhs of lost phones. Speaking to the media in Parliament amid the row, Scindia said the Sanchar Sathi app can be deleted too. "If you don't want to use Sanchar Sathi, you delete it. It is not mandatory. Don't register if you don't want to use it. But not every person knows there is an app to protect him/her from fraud," he said, accusing the Opposition of raising baseless concerns.
Reviews on Google Play Store show many users praise Sanchar Saathi, but another section has flagged usability issues and criticised the absence of a logout option.
Opposition Flags Privacy Concerns
The Centre's direction to phonemakers has drawn a sharp response from the Opposition. Senior Congress leader KC Venugopal has said the move is "beyond unconstitutional". "Big Brother cannot watch us. The Right to Privacy is an intrinsic part of the fundamental right to life and liberty, enshrined in Article 21 of the Constitution," he said on X. "A pre-loaded government app that cannot be uninstalled is a dystopian tool to monitor every Indian. It is a means to watch over every movement, interaction and decision of each citizen. We reject this Direction and demand an immediate rollback," he has said.
Priyanka Chaturvedi, Rajya Sabha MP from Shiv Sena (UBT), said the move is nothing but "another BIG BOSS surveillance moment". "Such shady ways to get into individual phones will be protested and opposed & if the IT Ministry thinks that instead of creating robust redressal systems it will create surveillance systems then it should be ready for a pushback," she said.
What Experts Say On Pros
Cybersecurity expert Rakshit Tandon said Sanchar Saathi has been effective in tracking and blocking lost/stolen phones. "If someone receives a digital arrest call or any fake call, there is a facility called Chakshu on which you can immediately report it," he added.
On the government's directive to phonemakers to pre-install this app, Tandon said it was "an important step to curb the rising cyber frauds." He said mandatory pre-installation would reduce friction for users who currently have to download and open the app, potentially leading to a significant reduction in mobile theft and banking fraud.
On privacy concerns, Tandon said the app's current version declares on Google Play Store that no data is collected. He dismissed fears of unauthorised surveillance at this stage.
Experts On Privacy Concerns
Tandon stressed the need for more caution once the app becomes pre-installed. "Proper testing of the app and its servers is necessary so that no bad actor can exploit or misuse it."
Khushbu Jain, a cyber law expert, admitted that "individual choice" is reduced when the app comes pre-installed. "The goal here is collective security and fraud prevention, and it will only work if almost everyone is covered. The Digital Personal Data Protection Act allows the State to process data without consent for defined public interest and state function purposes, so long as it follows principles like necessity, proportionality, purpose limitation, security and accountability," she said.
Jain said Sanchar Saathi should be seen "less as a tool for surveillance and more as digital infrastructure like a compulsory seatbelt or a checkpost that is legitimate as long as it is used only for clearly defined public interest goals". "It is subject to legal and institutional oversight, so it cannot quietly turn into mass, unchecked monitoring," she warned.
Nikhil Pahwa, founder of MediaNama, has strongly criticised the government's mandate, calling it an "unprecedented invasion of privacy that turns a lost-phone tracker into a potential government surveillance tool".
Speaking to NDTV, he warned that once the State gains irreversible access to the operating system layer, it opens the door to further forced apps - digital IDs, VPN blockers, or message-monitoring tools-without public consultation or accountability, especially since the government has exempted itself from key provisions of the new Data Protection Law. He likened this to authoritarian practices in Russia.
