Sanchar Saathi only flags user-reported spam calls, Govt reiterates amid growing privacy concerns

“Safety is an excuse, the target is privacy,” said Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera during a press conference in New Delhi, alleging that the move amounted to a systematic breach of privacy by the Union government.

Meanwhile, the central government has decided not to make the Sanchar Saathi application pre-installation mandatory for mobile manufacturers.

Before the government’s decision, the Congress, earlier in the day, alleged that the government had ordered that “on every Indian smartphone… this app called Sanchar Saathi will be pre-loaded. It cannot be hidden, it cannot be deleted”.