Sanchar Saathi App row: Can you delete it? Centre's big clarification after opposition's 'snooping' charge

NEW DELHI: The Centre on Tuesday clarified that the Sanchar Saathi App could be deleted by the user from their mobile phones, adding that the government's job was only to "introduce this app to everyone". The clarification came after a massive political row erupted over the government's dictum to makers to pre-install the app in mobile handsets.

The opposition had flagged serious privacy concerns over the move, likening it to "Pegasus" and calling it a "snooping app."




Also read: Massive political row over Centre's Sanchar Saathi App on mobiles dictum, controversy explained

"If you don't want Sanchar Sathi, you can delete it. It is optional... It is our duty to introduce this app to everyone. Keeping it in their devices or not, is upto the user" ANI quoted Union minister for communications Jyotiraditya Scindia saying.

A day before, the department of telecommunications (DoT) pre-install the Sanchar Saathi app on devices sold in India, calling it a move towards "strengthening cybersecurity and curbing IMEI misuse."



The move drew strong reactions from the opposition leaders with Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi calling it a "dictatorship" move.

"It is a snooping app. It's ridiculous. Citizens have the right to privacy. Everyone must have the right to privacy to send messages to family, friends, without the government looking at everything... They are turning this country into a dictatorship in every form," she said.

Also read: Government orders handset makers to preload its Sanchar Saathi app

Meanwhile, Shashi Tharoor had said that "these apps can be useful provided they are voluntary."

"I have not studied the issue in full detail, but common sense tells me that these apps can be useful provided they are voluntary. Everybody who needs them should be able to download them. Making anything compulsory in a democracy is troubling. But I need to look a little more into what the logic is of the government. In fact, the government should explain all this to the public instead of just passing an order that the media reports. I think we need to have a discussion where the government explains what their thinking is," he said.

Sanchar Saathi App is a "citizen centric initiative of DoT to empower mobile subscribers, strengthen their security and increase awareness about citizen centric initiatives."
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