India Won't Require Apple to Preinstall Government ID App on iPhones

[MacRumors]

India will not require smartphone makers like Apple and Samsung to preload devices with a state-owned biometric identification app, reports Reuters.

The Unique Identification Authority of India asked the IT ministry to start talks with Apple and other tech companies about the possibility of mandatory preinstallation of the Aadhaar identity app, but the IT ministry told Reuters today that it reviewed the proposal and is "not in favor" of mandating the app's preinstallation.

Aadhaar is a 12-digit identity number that residents of India can apply for, and it has been issued to more than 1.34 billion residents. The number is linked to an individual's image, fingerprints, and iris scans, and it serves as proof of residence. It is used for government benefits, banking, taxes, mobile connections, and more.

The Identification Authority said that the IT ministry consulted with "stakeholders from the electronics industry" before deciding not to proceed with the proposal to preload Aadhaar. India's government has asked smartphone makers to preinstall state-owned apps on devices six times over the last two years, according to Reuters. Smartphone makers like Apple have thwarted all requests.

Late last year, India's Department of Communications gave smartphone companies 90 days to start preinstalling the Sanchar Saathi government app on all new devices sold in the country. Sanchar Saathi is a government app that lets users block stolen devices, report fraudulent calls, and verify second-hand phones. Apple told government officials that it would not comply with the requirement because of privacy and security concerns, and the government dropped the issue.

Apple told India the same thing about the Aadhaar app, informing the IT ministry that it had safety and security concerns about preloading apps.

Article Link: India Won't Require Apple to Preinstall Government ID App on iPhones

 

[SirROM]

Good! I see the value in having an app like that to easily access identity and govt services, but if it's that valuable, people will more than likely download it on their own, but can choose not to just as easily. Way to stand firm Apple!

 

[JonneyGee]

It’s frustrating and annoying when governments try to come up with their own way to do things rather than playing nice with tech companies’ existing solutions. I don’t understand the full purpose of these apps from the brief description here, but why not just work with Apple to make the ID compatible with Wallet?

 

[iSmoggie]

I imagine Apple’s leverage stems from its current use of India as a major manufacturing hub and the government wouldn’t want to disrupt that.

 

[Elwe]

It’s frustrating and annoying when governments try to come up with their own way to do things rather than playing nice with tech companies’ existing solutions. I don’t understand the full purpose of these apps from the brief description here, but why not just work with Apple to make the ID compatible with Wallet?

There are multiple reasons, but none would likely be convincing to you as an end user; or as someone who is skeptical of government power.

 

[t0rqx]

Good! I see the value in having an app like that to easily access identity and govt services, but if it's that valuable, people will more than likely download it on their own, but can choose not to just as easily. Way to stand firm Apple!

Are you even aware of the pre-built in NSA backdoors in iPhones?

 

[jz0309]

Are you even aware of the pre-built in NSA backdoors in iPhones?

proof of that please

 

[surferfb]

Are you even aware of the pre-built in NSA backdoors in iPhones?

There is zero credible public evidence of a deliberate NSA-installed backdoor in iPhones. Apple has repeatedly and publicly fought law enforcement demands to build one, most famously the 2016 San Bernardino case.

I’m not denying the US government has significant signals intelligence capabilities against iPhones through vulnerabilities and the legal system, but there is no evidence of secret Apple-installed “prebuilt backdoors”.

 

[t0rqx]

There is zero credible public evidence of a deliberate NSA-installed backdoor in iPhones. Apple has repeatedly and publicly fought law enforcement demands to build one, most famously the 2016 San Bernardino case.

I’m not denying the US government has significant signals intelligence capabilities against iPhones through vulnerabilities and the legal system, but there is no evidence of secret Apple-installed “prebuilt backdoors”.

Some sophisticated vulnerabilities (some even discovered by experts) have not been closed for years. These are intentionally unpatches for the NSA. The whole court thing is a hoax marketing stunt to fool the masses so Apple is able to maintain these “backdoors” while claiming its here for privacy.

Every American Tech company has backdoors. Remember Snowden?

 

[63W]

Apple should start making simple flip phones that has no apps and a simple GUI.

 

[DocMultimedia]

proof of that please

Having no proof IS the proof. 🤣

 

[Skyuser]

Some sophisticated vulnerabilities (some even discovered by experts) have not been closed for years. These are intentionally unpatches for the NSA. The whole court thing is a hoax marketing stunt to fool the masses so Apple is able to maintain these “backdoors” while claiming its here for privacy.

Every American Tech company has backdoors. Remember Snowden?

Again, proof of that please. Could you name one of your "intentionally unpatched vulnerabilities"? To add more against your claim, why does Apple pour so much resources into fixing vulnerabilities, if they are keeping backdoors to governments intentionally?

 

[surferfb]

Some sophisticated vulnerabilities (some even discovered by experts) have not been closed for years. These are intentionally unpatches for the NSA.

Can you name a few? And could you explain how you know they’re deliberately unpatched at the NSA’s request, rather than being incredibly difficult to patch, or so unlikely to be exploited they’re not worth patching?

The whole court thing is a hoax marketing stunt to fool the masses so Apple is able to maintain these “backdoors” while claiming its here for privacy.

This requires believing that Apple, the FBI, multiple federal judges, congressional testimony under oath, and maybe even the third-party vendor that sold the FBI the exploit they eventually used were all coordinating a theatrical production. And everyone has kept quiet about it for a decade now across multiple administrations.

Every American Tech company has backdoors. Remember Snowden?

The Snowden leaks didn’t say Apple put backdoors in at the NSA’s request, and in fact it’s the opposite: the specific iPhone exploit mentioned in the files required physical access to the phone (it did list remote access as a “future goal”). Seems odd they’d go through all the trouble of intercepting the iPhone shipments of their targets (not to mention writing down in classified documents never expected to be public that they hoped to be able to remotely exploit in the future) if Apple was just letting them in. Also seems weird they wouldn’t have mentioned “Apple is helping us” in the classified documents never expected to be made public, especially considering everything else that leaked.

 

[jz0309]

Having no proof IS the proof. 🤣

No, it's pure BS, nothing more, nothing less

 

[svish]

Good to hear about this. Let the users decide and install if they want it.

 

[TheOldChevy]

It’s frustrating and annoying when governments try to come up with their own way to do things rather than playing nice with tech companies’ existing solutions. I don’t understand the full purpose of these apps from the brief description here, but why not just work with Apple to make the ID compatible with Wallet?

There are a few things that I prefer controlled by my government than by private companies. ID is one.

 

[krithikb007]

This is pretty funny.

First, Reuters gives a story saying the Govt has privately asked! -> "India orders smartphone makers to preload state-owned cyber safety app"

Now, after a few months, again citing sources, they created a new story saying the Govt will not move forward.

These days, creating a narrative has been very easy for some of these news sites. Half of these stories will be based on sources who are a mystery & these stories will be picked up by another 100 news agencies.

 

[lepetitnicolas]

I applaud governments who are looking into making access to government benefits, banking, taxes, mobile connections, etc. easier for citizens BUT for God sake don't turn that into a mass surveillance tool !!

Now don't ask me how to make everything easier and more convenient for everyone without creating a mass surveillance tool at the same time I don't know, I don't even know if it is possible. I just hope governments have smarter people than me who can work on that and find a solution which will be the perfect balance : easier access to everything for citizens and freedom. Unfortunately I'm pretty sure it's a utopia.

 

[Mac Fly (film)]

Just use a VPN because they are obviously not controlled by any governments /s 😂

Gruber never forgave Bloomberg for their 2018 story about those chips installed in servers. I believe the reason Bloomberg reporters never retracted the story is because it was true. And what about Oracle databases, guess who funded them, and guess who their founder "worked" for prior to founding them. Nothing to see here folks—the front door is open.

 

[CarAnalogy]

Some sophisticated vulnerabilities (some even discovered by experts) have not been closed for years. These are intentionally unpatches for the NSA. The whole court thing is a hoax marketing stunt to fool the masses so Apple is able to maintain these “backdoors” while claiming its here for privacy.

Every American Tech company has backdoors. Remember Snowden?

Right, but the Snowden incident showed us that they don't actually need purposeful software bugs to do their job.

They do things like send in technicians under false records to install things like optical splitters to siphon off unencrypted information at the source.

Separately, the NSA has security analysts that guaranteed have software exploits they have discovered and are sitting on. This was shown recently with the Coruna toolkit. Apple did patch those bugs but the NSA discovered them and used them for their own gain in the mean time.

 

[ThomasJL]

Apple does pre-install some software that was tailor-made for specific governments such as those in China and Japan. That software may not cause any privacy or security concerns though.

 

[bobinator]

No, it's pure BS, nothing more, nothing less

I disagree. And absolute statements like this, make it hard to take you seriously

 

[DailySlow]

Interesting. "Residents" of India can install the app. Also I see "benefits", "banking", and "taxes" as working with the app...but not citizenship? or voting? It's a one-legged, hobbled surveillance app. Very unprofessional. No Wonder Apple said nope.

 

[TraceyS/FL]

Interesting. "Residents" of India can install the app. Also I see "benefits", "banking", and "taxes" as working with the app...but not citizenship? or voting? It's a one-legged, hobbled surveillance app. Very unprofessional. No Wonder Apple said nope.

Some of that is handled at the local/state level instead of at the federal level. We get a lot of India IDs in my job, and I wish we took Aadhaar, but we only accept PAN (a taxpayer card), Drivers licenses and voter IDs.