last month, reuters It is reported that the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) – a statutory authority under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) of the Government of India – had privately proposed in January that Smartphone manufacturers will have to pre-install their Aadhaar app On their devices. Now, reuters The Indian government has dropped the proposal after security and cost concerns were raised by smartphone brands, the report said.
The Aadhaar app contains the Aadhaar card details of an Indian resident, including the 12-digit unique identification number, date of birth, residential address, and is linked to the individual’s fingerprints and iris scan. UIDAI has More than 1.44 billion Aadhaar numbers have been generated for Indian residents so farAnd they are widely used for verification purposes in banking, telecommunication and other services.
India’s IT Ministry consulted with electronics industry stakeholders and rejected UIDAI’s proposal to make pre-installation of the Aadhaar app mandatory on smartphones. Without giving reasons, the ministry said it was “not in favor of mandating pre-installation of the Aadhaar app on smartphones”.
Smartphone manufacturers have raised safety and security concerns about this proposal to pre-load the Aadhaar app, as there have been several standoffs between the UIDAI and the Government of India in the past over security breaches and data leaks.
Additionally, preloading the Aadhaar app on smartphones will increase production costs for phone manufacturers, as they will need to run separate manufacturing lines for India and the markets to which they export their smartphones.
reuters The report said the request for pre-installation of the Aadhaar app was the sixth time in two years that the Indian government has sought pre-installation of state-owned apps on mobile phones.
Last December, the Indian government’s Department of Telecommunications (DoT) privately asked smartphone makers to pre-load all new devices sold in India with its cybersecurity app, Sanchar Sathi. The same order also asked phone makers to push the app through software updates for devices already sold in India. After strong criticism and backlash, the Indian government withdrew the order within a few days.
A senior Indian official said reutersSpeaking on condition of anonymity, the IT ministry is not in favor of pre-installing apps “unless it is considered absolutely necessary.”
