India Orders a Tracking App to Be Installed in All Smartphones

India’s government sent a notice to private companies last week giving them 90 days to ensure that a government app was “preinstalled on all mobile handsets manufactured or imported for use in India.”

The order said the requirement was meant “to identify and report acts that may endanger telecom cybersecurity.” On Tuesday, the government explained that the app, Sanchar Saathi, was intended to prevent crime, including the theft and smuggling of phones and the call-center fraud that wreaks havoc within India and abroad.

Reuters had already reported the order’s existence on Monday night, and copies were circulated online. Many people in India were in uproar, as were the political parties opposed to the tech-focused and strong-armed government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.