- Sanchar Saathi App:It is a citizen-centric platform designed by the DoT to strengthen mobile security and help users protect themselves from rising cyber fraud.
- Key Features: It lets users track, block, and trace lost or stolen phones through IMEI services and also verify all mobile connections in their name, reporting any suspicious or forged KYC entries.
- The Chakshu feature enables reporting of fraud calls, SMS, WhatsApp messages, and digital arrest scams.
- It verifies the genuineness of mobile handsets, helping prevent counterfeit devices in the market.
- The app allows reporting of international spoofed calls disguised as +91 numbers.
- Impact: Since launch, the app has blocked over 42 lakh stolen/lost devices, and helped trace 26 lakh phones, with 7.23 lakh returned.
- Privacy and User Control: The app is voluntary, works only with user consent, and can be activated or deleted at any time.
- It promotes Jan Bhagidari by involving citizens in reporting and verification, and adheres to the IT Act 2000 and Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023, collecting minimal data and sharing it only when legally required.
- Concerns: The mandate for pre-installation is being assessed against the KS Puttaswamy (2017) judgment, which upheld the right to privacy and laid down the three-fold test (legality, necessity, and proportionality) for any state action that intrudes on personal privacy.
- Experts warn that pre-installed apps usually remain because users rarely delete them, raising the risk of passive surveillance and function creep. Their default presence also undermines informed consent.
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) introduced two initiatives, Chakshu and the Digital Intelligence Platform (DIP), to combat spam and fraud calls through the Sanchar Saathi portal.
- Chakshu (meaning eyes) is accessible at sancharsaathi.gov.in/sfc, facilitating citizens to report suspicious communications.
- The platform allows users to report various types of fraud, including those related to bank accounts, payment wallets, SIM cards, gas and electricity connections, KYC updates, impersonation, and sextortion.
- The primary objective of Chakshu is to enable proactive reporting of suspicious activities, contributing to the prevention and mitigation of telecom-related fraud and spam calls.
- Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is working on developing an app for the Chakshu platform, further streamlining the reporting process for users.
- The DIP is a secure and integrated platform created by the DoT for curbing the misuse of telecom resources and data through intelligence sharing and information exchange among the stakeholders covering a wide spectrum of telecom service providers, law enforcement agencies (LEAs), banks and financial institutions.
- It would be a non-public data-sharing resource for “Telecom Service Providers (TSPs), LEAs, banks and financial institutions, social media platforms, identity document issuing authorities etc.