"This is Pegasus plus plus," wrote Congress MP Karti Chidambaram. "Big Brother will take over our phone and pretty much
our entire private lives." The reason? A direction by the Centre to smartphone makers to mandatorily pre-install the
Sanchar Saathi app, a state-developed cybersecurity app, on their devices. And for phones already in the market, the
government has asked the companies to install the app via software update. Users will not be allowed to delete or modify
Karti might be hyperbolic in his statement, but the sentiment was widely shared on X, particularly among the opposition
figures and privacy activists. Pegasus, a specialised spyware that could record almost everything on a phone, became a
One user wrote, "Government is now officially spying on people? Pegasus?" Another quipped, "Will save taxpayers a lot of
money. Pegasus is like $10k a pop and funds Zionist terror. This is true Swadeshi surveillance in Viksit Bharat."
Beyond the word' Pegasus, the government's move has drawn strong reactions. Priyanka Chaturvedi, a Rajya Sabha MP,
wrote, "Sanchar Saathi mobile application mandate to every mobile phone manufacturer as a permanent mobile feature by
the GoI is nothing but another BIG BOSS surveillance moment."
CPI(M) MP John Brittas also took potshots at the Centre. "Next step obviously: ankle monitors, collars & brain implants
for 1.4 billion people. Only then will the government finally know what we really think and do," he quipped.
Political analyst Tehseen Poonawalla called the mandate a blatant assault on privacy and freedom. "By forcing it
pre-installed on every new phone, not allowing us to uninstall the app, all under the guise of 'safety', the government
will potentially have the power to spy on our calls, texts and location. This is surveillance at its worst," he tweeted.
IS SANCHAR SAATHI THE NEW PEGASUS?
So, what is this all brouhaha about? It is about the Sanchar Saathi app that must now be installed on all smartphones in
India. The government says that the move is "needed to safeguard the citizens from buying the non-genuine handsets".
And to do that, the government wants phone companies to "ensure that the pre-installed Sanchar Saathi application is
readily visible and accessible to the end users at the time of first use or device setup and that its functionalities
are not disabled or restricted."
In other words, not only does the app need to be on all phones, but it also cannot be deleted, disabled or modified by
users. Does this mean the app could surveil and monitor phone users as Pegasus does?
Yes and no. Pegasus is specialised software purpose-built to spy on a targeted phone. The Sanchar Saathi app is more of
a general app. But the privacy concerns around the government move are valid. And this is more so when you look at the
wide permissions that the Sanchar Saathi app demands when it is installed.
Despite its limited functionality, the app demands a lot of data and access to a lot of components. This includes access
to the camera, the ability to monitor calls and messages, the ability to monitor network state and hence the ability to
pinpoint the position of the device. Now, all of this is possibly needed by the app to function as a "phone finder" tool
that it is. But it is also the kind of dual functionality that effectively makes it a privacy nightmare for a user.