New Delhi, Dec 2: Sanchar Saathi app-related matters have been discussed with all mobile phone players, except Apple, in a working group, Minister of State for Communications Chandra Sekhar Pemmasani said on Tuesday.
The minister told PTI that the Sanchar Saathi app is like any other app, which can be activated and deleted by consumers, and it is meant to ease reporting of online fraud and trace lost mobile phones, among others.
Pemmasani said Sanchar Saathi crowdsourced data helps in preventing financial fraud, and therefore, it was considered that allowing the app on almost all mobile phones would make the information a lot more accurate, and fraud can be handled much more quickly.
“A working group was formed and all the original equipment manufacturers were asked to raise their concerns. Apple is the only company, as far as I know, that did not participate in that working group, but all others participated,” Pemmasani said.
According to industry sources, Apple will discuss the order on the Sanchar Saathi app installation and work out a middle path with them.
The company may not be able to implement the order in the current form.
Earlier, Apple had resisted supporting functions of the pesky call and SMS reporting of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) DND app. After years of deliberation, it has started supporting the Trai DND app with some restrictions.
Pemmasani said the Sanchar Saathi app will get access to only the phone number and SMS reported by the user as fraud or spam.
“When you click on the app to report fraud or spam, it will ask for the number from which you received the call. Then it gets reported. Nothing else will be reported. If there is an SMS message, then it will ask for the number from which the SMS was received. Other than this information, no other information will be recorded or reported,” Pemmasani said.
The minister said that last year, 50 lakh people were impacted because of the cyber fraud, Rs 23,000 crore was lost, and the government has received numerous complaints that they have been defrauded.
“They lost their mobile numbers, mobile phones. And sometimes we get too many complaints, saying that multiple phones have been registered in their name without their knowledge. Therefore, we did this. The Sanchar Saathi app is available not only in English and Hindi, but all vernacular languages. Currently, 1.4 crore people have already installed this mobile app and 21 crore people visit the Sanchar Saathi website. So, this has been going on for one and a half years,” Pemmasani said.
He said the entire app works through crowdsourcing.
Already 1.4 crore people have downloaded it, and the website gets 21 crore hits, the minister said. (PTI)
