India Backs Down After Apple Refuses Order to Preinstall Security App on all Phones

­In an unexpected PR victory for the electronic fruit empire, Apple has aligned itself with privacy advocates and refused an Indian order to preinstall a “security” app on all phones and prevent users from disabling it. And India’s government has backed down.

On November 28, India issued an order to Apple, Samsung, Xiaomi, Vivo, Oppo, OnePlus and other smartphone companies requiring them to preinstall the Sanchar Saathi security app (operated by India’s Department of Telecommunications) with no option to remove it.

Sanchar Saathi reportedly allows users (and presumably others) to track and block lost or stolen phones using their IMEI, amongst other functionality. And almost immediately, privacy advocates raised concerns over potential surveillance, though the government was unwavering, saying that “The app is secure and purely meant to help citizens from bad actors in the cyber world.”

India’s Ministry of Communications even said that “There is no other function other than protecting the users in the app and they can remove the app whenever they want,” despite the fact that the government specifically ordered that users not be able to remove the app.

And while Sanchar Saathi is still available in multiple app stores (including Apple’s), the Cupertino giant has refused to preinstall the app on all new phones, and amazingly enough, India’s government blinked.

That said, India hasn’t exactly admitted fault, but they have said the equivalent of “I’ll do it because I want to do it, not because you told me to do so.”

The Ministry of Communications pointed to all the voluntary app downloads and said that “Given Sanchar Saathi’s increasing acceptance, Government has decided not to make the pre- installation mandatory for mobile manufacturers.”

So you see – they’re sticking to their guns, and it’s no longer necessary to enforce the Sanchar Saathi app installation. It has nothing to do with Apple’s intransigence....

While Apple was the only one that publicly refused the install, Samsung was reportedly considering it.