Recently, Reuters reported that the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), a statutory body under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), had suggested in January that smartphone manufacturers be required to pre-install the Aadhaar app on their devices. However, the Indian government has now decided to abandon this proposal due to concerns over security and costs expressed by the smartphone industry.
The Aadhaar app contains crucial information such as a 12-digit unique identification number, date of birth, residential address, and biometric data including fingerprints and iris scans. To date, UIDAI has issued over 1.44 billion Aadhaar numbers, which play a vital role in verification processes across banking, telecommunications, and other service sectors.
The Indian IT ministry consulted industry stakeholders and concluded that it does not support the mandatory pre-installation of the Aadhaar app on smartphones, though the ministry did not provide specific reasons for this decision.
Smartphone manufacturers had raised significant security and privacy issues regarding the pre-loading of the Aadhaar app, especially in light of previous incidents involving security breaches and data leaks associated with UIDAI and the Indian government.
Additionally, requiring the Aadhaar app to be pre-loaded on smartphones would increase production costs for manufacturers, as they would have to maintain separate production lines for devices intended for the Indian market and for those aimed at international markets.
Reuters noted that this was not the first such request from the Indian government, as it marked the sixth instance in two years where the government sought to enforce the installation of state-owned applications on mobile devices.
In December, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) had requested manufacturers to preload its cyber safety app, Sanchar Saathi, on all new devices sold in India and also to push the app through software updates to previously sold devices. Following widespread criticism, the Indian government rescinded this order swiftly.
A senior Indian official, speaking anonymously to Reuters, mentioned that the IT ministry is reluctant to pre-install apps “unless deemed absolutely necessary.”
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