“SAFETY”: India tells smartphone makers to put state-run cyber safety app on new devices.

India has ordered all new smartphones to come pre-loaded with a state-run cybersecurity app, sparking privacy and surveillance concerns.

Under the order – passed last week but made public on Monday – smartphone makers have 90 days to ensure all new devices come with the government’s Sanchar Saathi app, whose “functionalities cannot be disabled or restricted”.

It says this is necessary to help citizens verify the authenticity of a handset and report the suspected misuse of telecom resources.

The move – which comes in one of the world’s largest phone markets, with more than 1.2 billion mobile users – has been criticised by cyber experts, who say it breaches citizens’ right to privacy.

Under the app’s privacy policy, it can make and manage phone calls, send messages, access call and message logs, photos and files as well as the phone’s camera.

“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,” advocacy group Internet Freedom Foundation said in a statement.

That’s bad enough, but then there’s this:

Amid the growing criticism, India’s Minister of Communications Jyotiradtiya Scindia has clarified that mobile phone users will have the option to delete this app if they don’t want to use it.

“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 wrote on X.

The minister did not, however, clarify how this would be done if the app’s functions cannot be disabled or restricted.

Simple: He’s lying.

Will Delhi’s mandate crater the market for new phones, or will they figure out how to force the tracking app on existing phones, too?