The Centre on Tuesday said users would be able to uninstall state-run cybersecurity app Sanchar Saathi from mobiles, but the clarification failed to placate experts and Opposition leaders who cited a government missive to smartphone makers to ensure it could not be “disabled or restricted”.

The app, launched in January, can be used to block lost/ stolen mobiles, check the number of mobile connections issued in your name, verify the genuineness of a handset and report incoming international calls from Indian numbers.

Union communications minister Jyotiraditya Scindia on Tuesday sought to address growing privacy concerns over the department of telecom’s (DoT) November 28 order directing smartphone makers to pre-install the app on all new devices.

“This is a completely voluntary and democratic system — users may choose to activate the app and avail its benefits, or if they do not wish to, they can easily delete it from their phone at any time,” he told reporters outside Parliament.

Citing the DoT order, digital watchdog Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF) said in a statement: “The stated objective of curbing IMEI fraud and improving telecom security is, on its face, a legitimate state aim. But the means chosen are disproportionate, legally fragile, and structurally hostile to user privacy and autonomy…. In plain terms, this converts every smartphone sold in India into a vessel for state-mandated software that the user cannot meaningfully refuse, control, or remove.”

The NGO added: “Viewed through the lens of the Supreme Court’s judgment in K.S. Puttaswamy (2017) that reaffirmed the fundamental right to privacy, this structure cannot pass the proportionality test…. Even if we assume legality and necessity for the limited purpose of checking the genuineness of devices, the order clearly stumbles on proportionality. The government’s own ecosystem already offers less intrusive means to verify IMEI numbers and detect fake handsets such as the Sanchar Saathi web portal, SMS-based KYM (Know Your Mobile) services, and USSD codes all allow a user to perform this task without a permanent app baked into the firmware.”

The IFF said it would fight this direction till it was rescinded.

The group countered Scindia’s defence of the app. “This clarification is incorrect. The direction clearly states in Paragraph 7(b) which states that Sanchar Sathi cannot be, ‘disabled or restricted’,” the IFF posted on X.

The group said it would use the RTI to obtain a certified copy of the directive.

Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi alleged that Sanchar Saathi was a “snooping app”, and “Citizens have the right to privacy… It’s not just snooping on the telephone. They’re turning this country into a dictatorship in every form. Parliament isn’t functioning because the government is refusing to discuss anything. There’s a need for cybersecurity, but that doesn’t mean it gives you an excuse to go into every citizen’s phone,” she told reporters outside Parliament.

This Sanchar Saathi circular dovetails with another DoT directive to online communications platforms such as WhatsApp, Telegram and Signal to implement SIM binding to ensure that their services are continuously linked to the SIM cards used to register them. Web-based chat sessions will be logged out every six hours — a move that several entrepreneurs claimed would disrupt their workflow as they need to be constantly logged in to WhatsApp on desktops.

CPM MP John Brittas wrote to Scindia saying: “While I take note of your good self’s clarification today that users may delete the Sanchar Saathi application at their discretion, I submit that true optionality cannot coexist with compulsory preinstallation. If the application is genuinely voluntary in character, there exists no justification whatsoever for forcibly embedding it into every new device at the point of manufacture.”

The SIM-binding order, combined with the “pre-installed surveillance-oriented application ecosystem, points towards the emergence of a permanent, real-time traceability grid over everyday civilian communication”, Brittas wrote.

“In the hands of powerful platforms — and in a jurisdiction with broad data-access powers for government agencies — this will generate a rich stream of metadata regarding who is connected, on what SIM, and from which device, at any given moment. Over time, this can be turned into a detailed map of citizens’ social graphs and mobility patterns, even without reading message content,” he added.

AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal and Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aditya Thackeray both called the missive “dictatorial”.

Apple has reportedly refused to comply with the order. Social media users had a field day with jibes at the Centre.

Bengaluru-based Internet personality Ramesh Srivats posted on X: “Hey, be fair. Sanchar Saathi is just equalizing things, ok. If we can listen to the PM’s mann ki baat, why can’t he listen to our mann ki baat?”

Tech watcher Nikhil Pahwa pointed out that the joke was on citizens. “A govt application can also be used to implant files on your device. Has happened before, in the Bhima Koregaon case where docs were allegedly put on laptops & used to frame conspiracy. Won’t happen to everyone, of course. But it could, where it matters. #SancharSaathi,” he posted on X.