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# How India's Unremovable App Mandate Failed Within Days
- URL: https://techlore.tech/india-backs-down-from-forced-phone-app/
- Published: 2025-12-04T09:41:47.000Z
- Updated: 2026-04-07T23:19:34.000Z
- Description: Techlore Surveillance Report: Weekly News for Your Digital Freedom
- Author: Henry Fisher
- Tags: Surveillance Report

This week's Surveillance Report covers India’s attempt to mandate a potentially invasive app on everyone’s phone, Chat Control updates in the EU with concerns still evolving, half of US states now being age verified, more AI Slop, butt to cloud encryption, and more!

*Correction: One of you caught my mistake! The poopinator device is $600 \*with\* a monthly subscription. Sorry about that!*

**⏱️ TIMESTAMPS**  
00:00 Welcome to Surveillance Report  
00:41 Highlight: India's Invasive App  
08:28 Some Quick Announcements  
09:50 Chat Control Updates  
14:19 USA Age Verification  
19:44 Our Sponsor: Easy Opt Outs!  
21:04 AI Slop Continues  
25:48 Butt To Cloud (B2C)  
32:38 Defense Bulletin

📰

Listen to the weekly podcast on [Apple Podcasts](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/techlore-surveillance-report/id1507714387), [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/show/5rxm041iDXxe0rINwO5G0c), or any [RSS app](https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/65e15188b8456c00169f4864). You can also watch Surveillance Report on [YouTube](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3KeV6Ui%5F4CZemCIsHUIuEtugAmUxAYHS) or [Techlore.TV](https://techlore.tv/w/p/twkcDETcDauUXuaGNJnhZG)

#### Episode Sources

****Highlight**

- <https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/boards-policy-regulation/india-orders-mobile-phones-preloaded-with-government-app-ensure-cyber-safety-2025-12-01/>
- <https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/1pc234k/a%5Fcompulsory%5Fmandated%5Fapp%5Finstalled%5Fon%5Fevery/>
- <https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/boards-policy-regulation/apple-resist-india-order-preload-state-run-app-political-outcry-builds-2025-12-02/>
- <https://techcrunch.com/2025/12/03/after-intense-backlash-india-pulls-mandate-to-pre-install-government-app-on-smartphones/>
- <https://tuta.com/blog/sanchar-saathi-max-surveillance-apps-india-russia>

****Chat Control Isn’t Over**

- <https://www.patrick-breyer.de/en/reality-check-eu-council-chat-control-vote-is-not-a-retreat-but-a-green-light-for-indiscriminate-mass-surveillance-and-the-end-of-right-to-communicate-anonymously/>
- <https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/12/after-years-controversy-eus-chat-control-nears-its-final-hurdle-what-know>

****Half of the US is Age Verified**

- <https://www.techradar.com/vpn/vpn-privacy-security/missouri-to-enforce-mandatory-age-verification-in-three-days>
- [https://assets.freespeechcoalition.com/documents/MO AV Rule.pdf](https://assets.freespeechcoalition.com/documents/MO%20AV%20Rule.pdf)
- <https://techlore.tech/vpn>
- <https://action.freespeechcoalition.com/age-verification-resources/state-avs-laws/>

****AI Slop**

- <https://arstechnica.com/ai/2025/12/microsoft-slashes-ai-sales-growth-targets-as-customers-resist-unproven-agents/>
- <https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/artificial-intelligence/leak-confirms-openai-is-preparing-ads-on-chatgpt-for-public-roll-out/>

****Butt to Cloud Encryption**

- <https://varlogsimon.leaflet.pub/3m6zrw6k2bs2p>
- <https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/08/zoom-to-pay-85m-for-lying-about-encryption-and-sending-data-to-facebook-and-google/>

****The Defense Bulletin**

- <https://arstechnica.com/security/2025/12/admins-and-defenders-gird-themselves-against-maximum-severity-server-vulnerability/>
- <https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/marquis-data-breach-impacts-over-74-us-banks-credit-unions/>
- <https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/critical-flaw-in-wordpress-add-on-for-elementor-exploited-in-attacks/>
- <https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/french-diy-retail-giant-leroy-merlin-discloses-a-data-breach/>
- <https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/freedom-mobile-discloses-data-breach-exposing-customer-data/>
- <https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/university-of-phoenix-discloses-data-breach-after-oracle-hack/>
- <https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/university-of-pennsylvania-confirms-data-theft-after-oracle-ebs-hack/>
- <https://techcrunch.com/2025/12/02/a-data-breach-at-analytics-giant-mixpanel-leaves-a-lot-of-open-questions/>
- <https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/smarttube-youtube-app-for-android-tv-breached-to-push-malicious-update/>
- <https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/retail-giant-coupang-suffers-data-breach-impacting-337-million-people/>
- <https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/shadypanda-browser-extensions-amass-43m-installs-in-malicious-campaign/>
- <https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/japanese-beer-giant-asahi-says-data-breach-hit-15-million-people/>
- <https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/public-gitlab-repositories-exposed-more-than-17-000-secrets/>
- <https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/french-football-federation-fff-discloses-data-breach-after-cyberattack/>
- <https://www.404media.co/someone-is-trying-to-hack-people-through-apple-podcasts/>
- <https://getsession.org/blog/session-protocol-v2>
- <https://techcentral.co.za/affinity-for-linux-canvas-next-big-move-could-reshape-the-desktop-software-market/274861/>
- <https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/google-expands-android-scam-protection-feature-to-chase-cash-app-in-us/>
- <https://brave.com/blog/leo-skills/>
- <https://blog.torproject.org/staying-ahead-of-censors-2025/>
- <https://blog.torproject.org/arti%5F1%5F8%5F0%5Freleased/>
- <https://blog.torproject.org/future-of-tor-browser-alpha/>
- <https://blog.torproject.org/community-day-state-of-the-onion-2025/>
- <https://adguard.com/en/blog/apple-url-filter-system-wide-filtering-api.html>
- <https://blog.mozilla.org/en/firefox/bbo-data-war-digital-game/>
- <https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/google-fixes-two-android-zero-days-exploited-in-attacks-107-flaws/>
- <https://discuss.techlore.tech/t/great-news-thunderbird-for-ios-is-coming-soon-github-repo-already-there/16074>
- <https://www.wired.com/story/digital-opsec-for-teens/>
- <https://www.ivpn.net/blog/v2ray-obfuscation-available-all-ivpn-platforms/>
- <https://9to5linux.com/linux-kernel-6-18-officially-released-could-be-the-next-lts-kernel-series>
- <https://www.phoronix.com/news/Steam-Linux-November-2025>