India Drops Proposal to Mandate Pre-Installation of Aadhaar App on Smartphones After Industry Opposition
The Indian government has decided to abandon a proposal requiring phone manufacturers like Apple and Samsung to pre-install the country's biometric identity application, Aadhaar. The suggestion faced strong opposition from smartphone giants.
The Unique Identification Authority of India, which operates Aadhaar, said in a statement on Friday that the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology does not support mandating the pre-installation of the Aadhaar app on smartphones after reviewing the proposal. The authority stated that the ministry consulted with stakeholders in the electronics industry before making its decision.
The proposal had required smartphone manufacturers to pre-install the Aadhaar app on new devices sold in India. The app, launched in January this year, allows users to change, update personal information, and manage family profiles online.
Smartphone manufacturers raised several concerns when they received the pre-installation proposal, including device security, compatibility, and increased production costs due to the need to run different production lines for the Indian and export markets. Apple and Samsung, in particular, expressed concerns about security and safeguards.
Industry communication records show this was the sixth attempt by the Indian government in two years to require government apps to be pre-installed on phones, and all six attempts have been met with industry opposition. Last December, the Indian government faced criticism for requiring smartphone manufacturers to pre-install a telecom security app and was forced to withdraw the decision within days.
The proposal comes as India is trying to attract companies like Apple to expand their role as a global smartphone hub. A senior Indian official said the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology does not support the pre-installation of any application unless it is deemed absolutely necessary.
Despite the Indian government’s insistence that Aadhaar is secure and reliable, the app has faced ongoing criticism from privacy advocates, including incidents involving personal data leaks.
A founder of a digital advocacy organization in New Delhi welcomed the government’s decision to drop the pre-installation proposal and said other such proposals should also be rejected as they lack a legislative basis and have no public policy objective. He said he hopes this is a welcome practice of regulatory restraint that recognizes that citizens carrying phones is an extension of their autonomy, not a container for government directives.