India’s telecoms ministry has privately asked smartphone makers to preload all new devices with a state-owned cyber security app that cannot be deleted, a government order showed
Ah yes the Telecom minister of the BJP is notorious for creating some draconian bills that would put China to Shame.
Like the "Broadcast Bill 2.0*
At some point, it will be easier to just not have a phone.
And here I was considering petitioning for an open source UPI app.
Turns out, the Government is just another company now.Apple’s iOS powered an estimated 4.5% of 735 million smartphones in India by mid-2025, with the rest using Android, Counterpoint Research says.
will be interesting to see if Apple tells them to pound sand.
Like they did in China?
“Cannot be deleted”
sure. Based on ALL the youtube vids from India of unlocking phones or bypassing FRPs, etc I imagine it won’t be long before you start seeing videos from India on how to easily bypass this.
I mean some of those FRP videos are wild with the steps they go through to unlock an Android phone.
Reminder that the current regime in India is fascist, who jails people by calling them Urban Naxals & anti-nationals.
The app is mainly designed to help users block and track lost or stolen smartphones across all telecom networks, using a central registry. It also lets them identify, and disconnect, fraudulent mobile connections.
With more than 5 million downloads since its launch, the app has helped block more than 3.7 million stolen or lost mobile phones, while more than 30 million fraudulent connections have also been terminated.
The government says it helps prevent cyber threats and assists tracking and blocking of lost or stolen phones, helping police to trace devices, while keeping counterfeits out of the black market.
There has to be a way to do all of this without installing something on your phone that you didn’t ask for.
Isn’t it a little suspicious that nearly every one who downloaded it later had their phone stolen?
It does say lost or stolen. I usually keep my phone on vibrate so when I set it down on a wired place at my home, I often use Google’s find my phone feature to make it ring instead of looking around the house. They could be counting things like that.
Weird way to say “backdoor.”
Ah yes, cybersecurity.
Clearly Your Basic Everyday Recommendation, Something Every Citizen Understands Robustly Improves Twice Yearly
Cyber security
In sure it protects children too by scanning for “child pornography” too, right?
Well I mean if you have a picture of yourself and your kids, or just of your kids, or your kids playing with their friends (other kids) that counts as highly suspicious since you have a lot of kid pics meaning you probably have child porn somewhere or maybe you are using them to train a LORA for an AI ‘art’ generator to make porn of those kids…
I’m going to stop there. But ANYTHING CAN BE TWISTED AGAINST YOU! I MEAN ANYTHING! I had that happen to me many times in my life.
app that cannot be deleted
Someone never heard of ADB…
Android Debug Bridge? Please tell me I got it right!
I wonder if this would make Apple pull out of India. It’d be awkward, with all the manufacturing they moved there.
I feel like they’d be happy installing yet another spying app, if that means getting to keep millions of data providers.
Honestly that would be a good thing
