Apar Gupta, founder of the Internet Freedom Foundation, a digital advocacy group based in New Delhi, welcomed the government’s decision to drop the Aadhaar pre-installation proposal (File) | Photo credit: REUTERS
India’s government has decided not to go ahead with a proposal to require Apple, Samsung and others to pre-install the biometric identification app Aadhaar on phones, a state body said on Friday, a move that was opposed by the smartphone giants.
Reuters reported last month that the UIDAI, the state body that runs Aadhaar, had in January asked the IT ministry to tie up with Apple, Google and other leading smartphone makers to consider mandatory pre-installation of the Aadhaar app. A unique 12-digit identification number linked to an individual’s fingerprints and iris scans, Aadhaar is held by nearly 1.34 billion people and is widely used for authentication purposes in banking and telecom services, as well as for faster airport entry.
Published – 18 Apr 2026 12:23 IST
