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India orders smartphone makers to preload state-owned cyber safety app

reuters.com

301–310 of 783 posts

Re: India orders smartphone makers to preload state-owned cyber safety app

#301

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's like people want to hand over scans of their passport and/or driving license to random businesses again and again, every time the need to prove who they are; and have their ID documents littered in Outlook mailboxes or company file shares with zero permissions. Or be forced to install yet another ID app from a private service that requires you have an iPhone or "compatible" Android. The debate about this in the…

> What really is the Government going to do with a digital ID service that they can't do already? In 20 years, the UK suffers a terrorist attack just before an election, and then elects a ultra right wing government on a platform of "remigrating foreigners." You're a British born citizen but your mom fled from Iran in the 80s and immigrated to the UK. If you don't have digital ID, and the government decides to "remig…

Being able to break the law is never a good thing. Immigration agencies can still fight whatever after people have been kicked out as has been decided. Government inefficiency should never be celebrated.

Re: India orders smartphone makers to preload state-owned cyber safety app

#302

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These are just excuses to convince yourself that what the US is doing is "not bad" but what India is doing is "terrible". Both are doing similar things. You have no idea what the US is doing; I have some inkling, and it is terrible. At least India is publicly disclosing what this app does, and that the phone has this app. Do you have any idea what the US does? Hint: that big data center in Utah, what is it for? Anoth…

Did you mean to reply to someone else? No one is claiming the US government is doing less terrible things than the Indian government.

greycol is

Re: India orders smartphone makers to preload state-owned cyber safety app

#303

Indian government is big on pronouncements. It will be a garbage app that most likely will not work, considering the historical incompetence of the Indian government's expertise in all things tech. I am pretty certain Apple and Samsung will pay off someone in the government.

You are confounding intent with the implementation.It might be a garbage app to start with, but there is no opt out for the users. Given the payoff and endless iterations resources will be thrown at it and it would eventually get better.

Re: India orders smartphone makers to preload state-owned cyber safety app

#304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been using it since it came out. It does its job. I was getting 5-6 scam calls per day, now down to maybe 1 in a month. It's just a wrapper around their website (for now). I think this app is harmless but I don't think it should be forced onto anyone.

Can you uninstall it? That's the litmus test.

At the moment, yes, as I installed it myself off the App Store.

That's what the ruckus is: the govt wants to push it everywhere mandatorily.

Right now it's harmless: it's just a way to report scammers and lost handsets.

But who knows what they'll shovel into it tomorrow.

Re: India orders smartphone makers to preload state-owned cyber safety app

#305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mate, this isn't even remotely "nationalist". This stuff is being pushed across the world. Digital ID? The only people really desperate for it are our rulers.

How so? In Sweden we have digital ID and it's great! Super practical and I struggle to think of how it would be used to spy on citizens, given that it has the same legal protections as banks have regarding your account transactions etc. Like sure you could in theory see every document I've ever signed if you have a warrant for BankID servers, but you could probably glean most of that if you had a warrant for the bank…

Yeah that’s a nightmare for privacy if someone decides to use it against you.

Re: India orders smartphone makers to preload state-owned cyber safety app

#306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is this demonstrating governments are irrelevant? It seems like it is demonstrating their continued power. Steelmanning the argument, perhaps you see this as a demonstration that corporate power has gotten so large the government is being forced to react. I might believe that, but I can’t get from there to irrelevance.

Governments in their current form .

Why you think so, pls elaborate. In the current form governments all over the world are increasingly having massive power over what citizens can do, don't and increasing it by degrees day after day.

Re: India orders smartphone makers to preload state-owned cyber safety app

#307

I'm shocked by people and state using the crutch of cyber crime or scams to push a totalitarian solution to a problem that is better solved by improved education and targeted campaigns against common security pitfalls. I abhor any decision that robs even a grain of my individual freedom.

As a non-Indian, the amount of scams and other external negative impacts coming from the country are extremely disproportionate, so if this evens things out a bit, I'm for it.

Re: India orders smartphone makers to preload state-owned cyber safety app

#308

Indian government is big on pronouncements. It will be a garbage app that most likely will not work, considering the historical incompetence of the Indian government's expertise in all things tech. I am pretty certain Apple and Samsung will pay off someone in the government.

I don't think the government is going to treat it like a local district website. IRCTC, UPI, e-Filing portal seem to be working fine for the most part, so pretty sure they can make this work eventually.

Re: India orders smartphone makers to preload state-owned cyber safety app

#310
post #296

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How so? In Sweden we have digital ID and it's great! Super practical and I struggle to think of how it would be used to spy on citizens, given that it has the same legal protections as banks have regarding your account transactions etc. Like sure you could in theory see every document I've ever signed if you have a warrant for BankID servers, but you could probably glean most of that if you had a warrant for the bank…

[flagged]

Probably the same amount ISI spends on anti-Modi propaganda peddlers.
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