Government proposal to preload Aadhaar app on phones faced pushback

Tech giants Apple and Samsung oppose the Indian government's proposal to preload the Aadhaar app on smartphones due to security concerns.

The government privately proposed in January that firms like Apple, Samsung and Google consider ‌pre-installing its biometric identification app Aadhaar on phones, a move opposed by a group representing ​the smartphone giants, industry letters show.

The tussle over preloading state-run apps has become a ⁠recurring flashpoint between Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government and tech firms, with the Aadhaar request one of six that IT industry body Manufacturers’ Association for Information Technology (MAIT) has pushed back against, according to the letters.

Aadhaar is a unique 12-digit identity number tied to an individual’s fingerprints ‌and iris scans, held by nearly 1.34 billion residents. It is widely used for verification purposes in banking and telecom services, as well as for faster airport entry. While the government maintains that ‌the system is safe and secure, it has faced persistent criticism from privacy advocates, including for data ‌leaks ⁠where personal details of hundreds of millions of holders surfaced on the dark web.

According to an internal email sent by MAIT on January 13, the government’s Aadhaar body UIDAI asked the IT Ministry in January to engage Google, Apple, and leading smartphone manufacturers to explore pre-installing the new version of its Aadhaar app.

The request, while not ​an outright order, drew opposition from companies concerned ‌that pre-installations raise production costs and risks creating functional issues for users, according to the MAIT documents.

Apple and Samsung, in particular, both had concerns with the proposal due to questions over safety and security, two industry sources said. The companies did not respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.