India will not need manufacturers of smartphones such as Samsung and Apple to pre-install a biometric identification system owned by the government for their devices. The IT ministry was asked by the Unique Identification Authority of India to start discussions with tech companies in India about the potential mandatory preinstalled identity app called Aadhaar.

Aadhar is an identity number with 12 digits for Indian residents that they can apply for. This has been issued to about 1.34 billion residents in India, linked to the image of the individuals who are with verifications such as iris scans and fingerprints.

The Indian Department of Communications gave tech companies about 90 days for the preinstallation of the app last year. Apple is one company that told the officials that it will not abide by this prerequisite due to security and privacy concerns; the government has not pressed the issue further. The same thing was said about the Aadhaar app.